DD - congrats!

Cookboy - That looks Gorgeous! Does it have the modified throttle plates? Would love to see a closeup of that.

This weekend - went to a local rotorhead meetup / bbq, got to meet a guy with a new-to-him 88 vert. had a great time!

After we got home, I hooked up the power steering. WOW i just fell in love with my car all over again. Its SO nice! Handles so nimble below 45 now, even with stock suspension. I can't believe I was so stupid as to take it off on my last car, and so glad I had the sense to hook it back up on this one Now to get the AC hooked back up and i"ll have a fully functioning car.

Waiting for next paycheck and will be upgrading to 3" exhaust. Think i'm leaning towards Magnaflow. The 'vert at the meetup had almost the exact setup I'm looking at - Sounds so smooth! Love the sound of Magnaflows on the rotary.

 

On Saturday I worked on fixing broken plastic bits. Here are some pictures. All these parts are from the GSL-EV. The previous owner was not kind but did keep all the broken bits.

I probably won't use the Mazda badge unless the front buffs out really well since these are still available and the pins are gone from when it was removed for a respray before I owned it.

The top part of the steering surround had a broken screw fitting. The camera really makes the turn signal placard look terrible. You cant see any of those cracks in the clear with normal lighting. You can see where I have sanded the surface of the plastic. This is necessary to give the glue something to bite onto. In the last photo of the top steering column surround the broken piece is balanced in place. It is ready to be glued.

The panel under the glove compartment is the next piece needing repair. The panel is split and there is a broken piece in the right that needs to go back into place. I lightly scuffed the broken surface in the crack and then worked the epoxy into the crack. I held the parts in place with masking tape and stretched electrical tape to provide tension while it cures. The outer face is after gluing and you can see the crack here much better than in person. It is nearly invisible with the naked eye. I think if I painted this it would be very difficult to see.

The other piece I repaired was the armrest on the center console. A common problem is the expanding foam used has turned to brittle powder over the years and if you press down on the top it will crush and the delaminate from the vinyl cover. I cleaned up some of the powder, scuffed the plastic and vinyl cover and filled the edge with thickened epoxy. Then I weighted that edge to hold it in place and it worked like a champ. No photo but it is back in the car. An extreme solution would be to remove the whole vinyl cover and then remold it with some expanding polyurethane foam in a mold to keep it all together.

 

On Sunday I worked on the GSL-SE. Some parts came in last week and I needed to wait for epoxy to cure for the next step on the previously mentioned parts. The parts I wanted to replace were the rear shocks. In keeping with the theme I got the OEM replacements. While I had the car up on jacks I decided to see if there was something wrong with the rear springs because the car leans left. The left rear is about an inch lower than the right and since I had already replace the front springs I thought I would pull the rear springs and inspect them. If the left is shorter than the right I will swap them and order rear springs. The rear shocks are easy to replace. The springs are quite a lot more trouble. At the moment I have the car up on jackstands with the left rear spring out but I have not got the right one off the car. Still fighting 28 year old bolts on that side. I can tell I need to replace a few of the bushings in the rear. The rubber is kind of turning crumbly. I will probably get this done tonight.

All this work at least kept my mind off of What happens in Vegas. Maybe next year. Neither of my cars is show worthy yet. Would people even want to see/drive a Magnetic Drive version of an FB? Its still rotary, just not Wankel type rotary. And it would have to be hauled as we don't have a charging infrastructure in place for long distance travel. Grats DD on the award!

 

I got 28mpg just like yesterday and the day before that.

If anyone tells you that vacuum advance isn't needed on a rotary, they's lyin'.

Remember by 33mpg 12A? I'm getting close to it again with the bridge port. The past few weeks have seen me screwing around with various timing and air/fuel ratio settings. Trailing ignition performance is absolutely critical when it comes to low-load economy. Heck, my car barely runs at idle if the trailing is disconnected, but you hardly notice if the leading isn't working.

 

There's always my PW relay writeup.
Just sayin'

 

The boss on the bottom of the center housing (and lack of an EGR valve) is proof that it's a GSL-SE engine. Those four holes were used for the motor mount on an HB Cosmo, which also used the GSL-SE's engine. FC engines do not have that boss, instead having the three bolts that go through the oil pan.

I'm using that boss to put a GSL-SE based engine on my FC subframe.

NOW. That just means that it's GSL-SE keg bits. The internals are still unknown. If it did in fact have an S4 front counterweight then it may have been rebuilt with an S4 rotating assembly. Can you look through the exhaust ports (which will not have diffusers, since only FC N/A had those) and verify that the apex seals are 2mm or 3mm?

 

I did get the right rear spring off the car tonight. The left spring is only about 1/4 inch shorter than the right one when resting. It may be very different when you put 600 lbs on it so I will swap them left to right and put it all back together hopefully tomorrow. The rear control link spacers are rusted solidly in place so it looks like I get to order some more stuff but I can get the car back together and see if the left lean is gone.

 

The 6 port in the brown car now has injector diffusers and an S4 NA LIM. Next step could be a set of high impedance injectors and a MegaSquirt.

 

You'll always have it, IIRC the FB tubs were welded together crooked.

 

Yes, I've heard back from the PO and he confirmed it's a GSL-SE engine. Internals should also be SE. The counterweight I may have been mistaken on...I thought the SE version didn't have the chamfered edge like the S4, but apparently it does. I'll have a look this eve in the exhaust ports (which do not have diffusers) and measure the seals. What threw me is that he had an S4 front cover, but that was because he ran the motor in an '86.

fm

 

Yesterday, I took my MR2 Illuminas to a machine shop to machine down the ends so the GC camber plates will fit. $30 out the door.

Last night, I removed the driver's side spindle (both are now off the car). I also replaced the tie rod boots with new OEM ones. The top nut won't come off either of the shock assemblies, so I borrowed an electric impact gun from a co-worker and will disassemble the shocks tonight.

I'm hoping that I'll have the new front shocks w/coilover sleeves and camber kit installed by the weekend. After that, I take on the GSL-SE rear end swap.

fm

 

not today, but over the last couple of weeks.... as time allowed.

https://www.rx7club.com/build-thread.../#post11474048

 

I posted up my SA archive material in the old-school magazine thread.
I haven't been able to do anything to my carb yet because I need to soda blast the whole thing. First no time and now there is a ton of moisture in the air due to the storms.

 

This is not the case with my other 85, the one I converted to electric. I got rid of half of the lean in the GSL-SE by replacing the front springs. The left spring was about half an inch shorter than the right one and the new left spring is taller than the new right spring. It would drag the front fender going over an expansion gap in the pavement (I exaggerate a only a little bit.) I guess I will find out tonight if swapping the rear springs makes a difference.

 

^^^ Id think it might!

Yesterday, I popped off the front wheels and tightened up some loose hardware that supports the front brake ducts and surrounding area. Then I washed her and went for the obligatory sunday cruise..



Then today the final piece arrived for my exhaust system. Mocked it up, and hooray, the stud size is correct! Planning to install in the next couple of days, as soon as I can get a heat shield fabricated..



I think my wheels arrive tomorrow!

rxtex

.

 

I once added a block off plate to the bottom center of an S4 intake to use it on a friend's GSL-SE autocross car. We didn't want to permanently modify the SE engine (Devcon, etc.) Worked OK: Manifold Modifications

 

Plastex is awesome for this sort of stuff. Rather than being a glue or adhesive, it's actually a solvent, and works like model cement, effectively welding the parts back together. The solvent works by itself with tightly-fitting bits like you've got there, but it also comes with powdered styrene to fill gaps and add reinforcement where needed. Good stuff. A bit pricey, but good.

 

Oh, that is *genius*! I'll definitely be doing this.

I was going to measure the apex seals in the SE keg to be sure they're SE internals, but I can't get my calipers in the exhaust port far enough to measure the seals. How do you all do this?

Progress on the SE front spindle swap last night...got the top nut off both shocks with an impact gun. Unfortunately, I don't have a spanner big enough to take the gland nut off. I'll be heading to the hardware store to day for a pipe wrench. I suspect I'll have to remove the rotor/hub/caliper off the spindles so I can immobilize the spindle to get that gland nut off. So close, yet so far.

fm

 

the left and right springs were actually different from the factory, i quote the good book, section 13 page three, where they hath given on to us a left spring that is 327mm long and a right spring that is 325mm long, let there be no checks that your body cant cash, replace with the new

 

out of curiosity, do you think that is for left hand drive only? or do you think that mazda switched them around for right hand drive markets?


on loosely related subject, when corner weighting my Rx7 a few weeks back the best I could achieve was a 53/47 left/right weight distribution with me in it, just for curiosty sake, I got out and went to the passenger side and sat down... suddenly the distribution was 50/50. I wouldnt be the least bit surprised to find that many little things in regards to placement relative to the driver, such as ; fuel tank and exhaust routing, watts linkage pivot mount, the minor offset of the radiator/oil cooler/engine all may have been done primarily with the RHD market in mind

 

Replaced t-stat and A/C belt, the last two old items on the car. Summertime's calling!

 

Tonight I measured the apex seals in the GSL-SE engine and confirmed they're 3mm. That puts that to bed.

Progress this evening on the GSL-SE/GC suspension install. The camber plates are in:



I got the gland nuts off the old spindles with a giant monkey wrench I picked up for this purpose. I had to chuck them up in my vise, put the wrench on the nut, then whack it with a 5 lb hammer. Several times. They're both off now. Then I looked in the little bag that came with my Illuminas. Gland nuts. Fabulous. I'm going to make myself feel better by assuming that MR2 gland nuts won't fit RX-7 spindles. But I'm probably wrong.

Anyway, got the shocks installed, capped off, the bump stops cut and installed, and the assembly...well...assembled. The whole lot will go on the car tomorrow night, wife willing.

I couldn't get the boots on because the Eibach springs were too small to allow for it.

fm

 

That could be coincidence. Do you have the stock exhaust? Is it an SA? When I
replaced the stock SA exhaust with the RE header and exhaust it removed a good
amount of weight from the passenger side. Also a binding watts linkage can cause
this as well.

 

I did replace both front springs with the OEM offerings from Mazdatrix for the GSL-SE. This did half correct the issue. The left front is now only 7/8" lower than the right. It was about twice that when I got the car. I just posted a query about this in the technical section, hopefully someone will have some idea of what to look at or try.

Thanks for the comment.

 

I think you might be onto something here - perhaps there's multiple factors at play:

My driver's seat is hella worn out - passengers is not. Because someone usually sits in drivers, not always in passenger. that much more load has worn it out. possibly the same for weight of the car biased towards drivers side, esp. with a driver in it, sagging the springs that much more? just a thought