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Tornado Silver Time - Now with 100% more REPU and 20b
Picked up the car march 26, 2010
Photos from the PO
My plans are pretty basic for this. It's my first car
Background:
I picked it up in WV for 1200$ after the P/O gave up on trying to fix it. The car had been in a small front end collision and only had 77k on it! PO Spent $3000 on a rebuild and couldn't figure out why it would randomly die. Drove 7 hours down to look at the car. Doesn't die as he explained. We exchange title/money and I drive away. We go two miles down the road - stop to get 2 cycle oil for safety reasons and come back out and it wouldn't start.
Stopping for 2 cycle
So we drive 4 hours back to where we stayed for the night, and head back down the next day. Car fires right up... and we top off at a gas station and head back up north. We make it back to the family we stayed with no problem. Car doesn't stall or anything. I was quite proud making it back driving stick for the first time without stalling. I let it idle outside so we can run inside for our bags to head home. As I walk out to the car, it dies...and now it wont start again. We let it sit for 3 hours and pray it will start up - and it does! We head out again and 30 minutes down the road something comes off from under the car. I heard a banging sound right under me thinking somethings gonna take my legs off. We pull over and i look under and see a loose cable. we're in the middle of bumblef*** WV so I tell my girlfriend to rev the car while i use string to tie thing thing up from hitting the ground. Then it dies again.... Turns out the car had low compression and thats why it wouldnt restart.
It was now 8 at night, we had another 3 hours to get home with classes the next day and a dead car half an hour away from family. We had a tow truck take it back to the grandparents and we headed home to come back down next weekend - with a trailer.
When we came back it started up and we pop it up on the trailer and head home. Now it's time to get it off the trailer. Try to start it up - nothing. Turns over but wont start. We roll it off and up into the driveway and try the basics - de-flood, add oil to the housings , check spark plugs....still nothing. How did this car drive 4 hours straight and now it wont even start up?! Then we checked the basics. Spar-OUCH yes we have spark. No air blockages..FUEL! We pop a fuel line and crank. Nothing. We pop open the back, pull out the fuel pump and try it connected to the battery. still nothing. Slap in a new pump and it fired right up. Ever since then it has never given me problems minus needing to use a fuel cut off switch.
Finally home!
After a wash and wax
This morning after a little snow, yes it saw quite a few snow storms and trips to the mountain.
My Plans:
This is my only car so its my daily and I cant afford more than a weekend of downtime so there wont be any complete tear downs or engine swaps..On the other hand, I will be doing my best to keep it clean - stock - and upgrade with what I can afford and see as a fun project. These are my goals
RTEK 2.1 ECU upgrade
Tokico Illuminas/KYB AGX + lowering springs
Complete my 3 gauge din cluster setup (water temp - oil press - future boost gauge?)
Nice set of 16x8 rims
Do something about the underbody for winter driving
Sound deaden the rear(loud resonance)
Since I've owned it I've done:
Fuel pump!
Complete new exhaust - RB header - bonez high flow cat - RB catback
NEW working radio + new speakers all around.
New air filter setup
Aftermarket water temp gauge
Put way too many miles on it...
Shortly after, I found another solid deal for about the same price.
Last edited by driftxsequence; 07-16-20 at 08:17 AM.
March 26, 2011 - Making the sloppy cougar a little less sloppy
So yesterday I got my new stock bumper put on. Found a local giving away a bumper and got it painted for cheap when my car got hit so the paint was already mixed.
Here is the old bumper....
got the bumper off...5 out of the 6 studs were rusted. had to weld some new ones on. glad i didnt try this at home
Last edited by driftxsequence; 07-15-20 at 12:29 PM.
Last night I added some Frost King Insulation (cheap noise reduction and insulation from Home Depot)
I covered the back trunk area along with the vertical spare tire space. I got rid of the annoying exhaust drone considerably but I need to cover more. Also plan on getting some dynamat like material to cover vertical locations since they seem to be the most susceptible to making vibrations.
My speakers dont have to be turned up nearly as much and once summer comes around we will see how well it is insulated. Last summer it would get up to around 110 in the car when I walked out to it at lunch time (with the sun roof open BTW). Hopefully this will bring temps down a bit and not work the A/C so hard. Maybe I'll tint the rear hatch to bring temps down also.
April 1st , April fools! i wish this was a joke...
Driving to West Virginia from Delaware for my girlfriend's grandfathers 80th birthday party. Her 626 has had a CEL for a little while and figured it would be best to take my car(lol...) I had about 200 miles left before my normal oil change so I ran home and changed my oil before we left.
I go to pick up my girlfriend and we get about half way through the trip and my car started to sound a little funny. The exhaust didnt sound as crisp. Not sure how to describe it but it was definitely different.
A little later my ankle started to hurt so I ask my GF to drive. We pull over and she hops in the seat, wait for traffic to clear and she starts going. smooth in first....smooth into second...get into third and the car started shaking like crazy. We pull over and she puts it into neutral and it wouldnt hold an idle.
"oh **** wtf do we do...half way there, and half way home"
I call up my rotary mechanic and he confirms it popped a seal, said it was drivable and I cant do anymore damage than whats already been done.
Due to having it floored more often it ate through gas a little faster, and made some wicked back fires due to all the unburned fuel from the blown rotor going right into the exhaust. So we get to our destination. Call everyone we talked to - let em know we made it, try to find people to pick me up. No one was really available or wanted to so I figured I was going to have to try and make it back. At this point I figured if it broke on the way back, I would be closer to home than if someone picked it up from where we were at. Fast forward 4 1/2 hours and we made it home. Pulled in the drive way and shut it off. The motor had one final voyage it will make and that will be a 20 minute drive south to the shop where it will be rebuilt.
Last edited by driftxsequence; 07-15-20 at 12:33 PM.
No pictures, but I got a cheapy o2 sensor. My diagnostic LED I added showed that my O2 sensor was causing my car to act funny when it was warming up. Went out and bought a replacement 20$ sensor and the code went away
Oh, and Happy Easter!
Last edited by driftxsequence; 07-15-20 at 12:41 PM.
waiting on 5 lug. spent 2 1/2 hours going up to a junkyard for 5 lug hubs and my gps took me to the wrong one, by the time i found the other one they denied me entrance because it was so late in the day.. i'll have to head back up soon to grab the hubs so i can put these new wheels on
also ordered KYB AGX's, just waiting to order some eibach progressive springs
Last edited by driftxsequence; 07-15-20 at 12:43 PM.
Well after finding those nice rims I had to go get a 5 lug swap
I called a few days prior and the guy had told me 60$ a hub, so I was kind of afraid I was going to be spending all of my cash... but when I went to finish and pay he goes OK, 20$ a hub and 15$ a caliper, 70$ please. Oh! and since they were taking pictures of people in the yard, I got a 5$ discount for allowing them to do that too.
So...I got all of this for $65 :bigeek::bigeek::bigeek::bigeek:
Now, I'm waiting to get a set of rears. I didnt have the right tools to get the shaft out of the hub for the rears, and whoever tried to remove the brake calipers before me snapped the bolts into the hubs so they were basically trashed Once I get some springs and rear hubs my car will be going under one hefty transformation!
oh, and my other package came in too....
Last edited by driftxsequence; 07-15-20 at 12:46 PM.
I got tired of waiting so I decided to swap my shocks and springs. My old shocks were toast. The rears were horrible and the fronts seemed smooth but with no rebound and very little pressure compared to the new units.
The new units are KYB AGX shocks and Eibach pro-kit progressive style springs. The ride is very comfortable and the car feels so much better around bumps and through the turns. I am excited to get my bushings done to really bring out the potential of this car.
Last edited by driftxsequence; 07-15-20 at 12:47 PM.
Has s5 LIM due to s5 midplate. The 5th and 6th port actuators are only opening up about half way since its electrically activated with some vacuum pump thing....its silly and I need to fix it. I wasnt allowed to take the actuators off while it was on the dyno to see what it would do with them open
I plan on getting the rtek 2.1 for this in the future to see if I can get close to 200. that would make me happy.
Last edited by driftxsequence; 07-15-20 at 12:49 PM.
It's been a long time since I've updated this last but there is good news!
Turbo parts are coming in. Picked up a bunch of parts for $250. The turbo has minimal shaft play - but I want to rebuild it since I already have it out. I still need a bunch of parts and hope I can get them all with my tax return.
Parts I have:
Turbo +oil/water lines
Exhaust Manifold
BOX
Intake Manifolds
TB
Intercooler
Fuel Rails
I've been looking into it...I've changed my mind and I plan on building a Megasquirt in the very near future. In the end I save some money since I dont have to search for an AFM, pressure sensor etc - PLUS I get many more features out of it! I'm a little worried about rewiring the car since this is my first car and I've never done more than slap on replacement parts. Fingers crossed.
Last edited by driftxsequence; 07-15-20 at 12:50 PM.
Last week I ordered my Megasquirt II and set off on building it. It took roughly 10 hours to finish, mostly because I went slow to make sure I did not mess up. I did put one diode in backwards - but caught my mistake before burning it out. I was relieved to fire up the Megastim along the way and find out that everything was working according to plan.
Last edited by driftxsequence; 07-15-20 at 12:51 PM.
And that takes us to the present date. I have acquired 85% of my Turbo swap items. I'll be picking up a down pipe this weekend and getting my turbo rebuilt soon also.
Last edited by driftxsequence; 07-15-20 at 12:52 PM.
Picked up a T2 hood, the guy i bought it from claimed all RX7s came with fiberglass hoods, no steel or aluminum...
The hood was pretty chipped up so I decided to plastidip it until I get it paint matched.
I got a box from racing beat a few weeks ago
I am now making sure I have all the little things before I take it down to a friends shop and start the overhaul.
I have the turbo rebuilt and hybridized(custom milled housing with 60-1 wheel, t3 hot side)
intake manifolds,(s4 t2)
downpipe(racingbeat)
ecu and wiring harness(megasquirt)
wideband(innovate)
boost controller(controlled by megasquirt)
boost gauge(prosport)
relays,fuses,fuseblock,misc wire
I know i need some weatherpack connectors, some hose clamps for the intake piping, a filer and pipe for the turbo inlet, and a few other tiny things.
Last edited by driftxsequence; 07-15-20 at 01:30 PM.
M Pizle, this is the base model, not GXL I agree it is nice to see another K8 out there! I am hoping to get some of those sweet Mazdaspeed sport seats. Like these:
Sharingan, This is a S4 rotating assembly with an S5 center plate due to having one on hand when it blew last summer. Current engine has a little under 8k miles on it. The engine builder didn't realize this until putting the LIM on and saw that the gaskets werent lining up. I currently have an S5 LIM with an S4 UIM on the rebuilt engine. Aaron Cake recommended the metal gasket over the paper filter which is the other reason why i went this route.
A box from racing beat is always a good thing
Maybe I missed it, but what are you doing for rails if you are going to use those physically tiny subaru injectors?
beefhole The subaru injectors fit the stock fuel rails. They will be my primaries with 1000cc secondaries.
I'm curious of what o rings I need since the other side doesnt have any (or a pintle cap) Can anyone give me info??
Here is a picture of all my accumulated parts minus the boost controller. It was in a different box when the picture was taken. Am I missing anything? For obvious reasons the turbo, intake and exhaust manifold, intercooler and blow off valve are not pictured. Is there a difference in the NA and T2 throttle body?
03-29-12, 10:00 AM
I agree it is nice to see another K8 out there! I am hoping to get some of those sweet Mazdaspeed sport seats. Like these: 
