First of all, I searched. A lot. And I continue to do so in all of my free time.

Now that we've got that out of the way, allow me to introduce my car.



Her name is Jane. I bought her for $500 from Texas World Speedway, where I work. She's in great condition, except for the motor. For that reason, I'm picking up a 13B-RE that I'm getting a great deal on from a friend:



The plan:

I'm going to pull out the 12A, clean up the engine bay, and install the 13B-RE. I'm going to modify the turbos to run non-sequentially, salvage the hacked-up wiring harness and retune with Megasquirt. Once that's done, basic brake and suspension work is going to be done, largely for safety's sake. From there, I'm buying a set of R-compound tires and going racing. Hopefully that will wind up being next summer. A tad ambitious, all things considered, but a good goal IMO.

The rationale:

This project is first and foremost a learning experience for me. I'm a huge gearhead, as I work full-time (over the summer) on Spec Miatas for TWS's driving school, and I'm an engineering student at Texas A&M planning on going into motorsports when I (eventually) graduate. I have never owned a rotary car before, or worked on one. As such, a lot of this is beyond me. But still close enough I'm confident I can learn.

The underlying theme for this build, right now, is intelligent spending. I've been playing this game long enough to know that, while you can't cut corners, if you're smart about part selection and do most (if not all) of the work yourself, you can do things for significantly cheaper than average. I'm on a GRM $2009 Challenge team as the powertrain guy, so I've gotten pretty good at it.

Once the 12A comes out, it's going to donate its body to science. I can read about rotary engines until I'm blue in the face, but the only way I'm going to learn is to take one apart. And what better candidate than an engine that can't make compression.


There are a lot of assumptions I'm making on the 13B, mainly on the condition of the housings, turbo seals, and apex seals. But that's the way it has to be, for now. I'm modifying for nonsequential turbo operation for simplicity (less points of potential failure) and so I can tune it with MS. I know a few guys who have had great success, and given the condition of the wiring harness on the motor (hacked in half at the flex plate), it's slightly cheaper.

I'm very much a DIY kinda guy, so none of this worries me. I'm actually very much looking forward to it. I've owned a Civic for several years that I use as both an autocross car and work truck, and the online community has been incredibly helpful and beneficial. From what I can tell, the RX7 community is no different.

I imagine this thread is going to rise and fall as I have money (and time) to work on the car. Some of you may remember a previous thread I made shortly after I bought the car to help with some planning options, and I've decided that what I described above is the route I'm taking. I'd like to consolidate my questions to one specific place, as there's lots of things I'd like an opinion on that searching can't quite answer.

 

Cool deal. I think you have a pretty good game plan. I just don't trust buying a JDM engine without tearing it apart, checking the internal hard seals, and rotor housings. Not trying to scare you, but I have seen what some "low milage" jdm engines look like inside.

 

I understand that, but it's such a good deal it's worth my time to buy it. It has what I presume is the Cosmo automatic, as well as a manual transmission from something else as well with it.

Even if it needs a rebuild, I'm still going to pick it up. Before I put it in the car, I'm going to throw a clutch assembly and starter on it and run a compression test.

 

A search for "Project Kramer". Some of the picture links are broken, but many are still good.

https://www.rx7club.com/search.php?searchid=7629189

 

Thanks for the tip, I'll look into that.

 

Can anyone help me identify the transmission I've got? I imagine the automatic on the right is a Cosmo unit, but I want to use the manual transmission there for obvious reasons. I apologize I don't have a better picture of it, but what is it? I'm guessing it's an FD transmission, but I don't know for sure.

I understand FC3S 13B transmissions can be used with a GSL-SE tailcone to keep stock mounts and shifter location, would the same apply if I've got an FD unit?

 

fd

 

Took some pictures of her today, not bad pictures for a cell phone IMO.





I'm taking tomorrow off to finish up her workbench:



I talked my boss into letting me have a corner of the shop to build a workbench in for this project, provided the bench stays here when I graduate and move on. Not a bad deal, considering the bench is made of 8 10x2x12s and 2" angle iron. Wouldn't want to move it anyways. It's all welded together.

My friend's meeting me at the shop at ten in the morning. We're going to finish up the bench, then pull the car into the shop and go to town. There may be some other cars on the lift, but I'm planning on having the motor ready to pull if not pulled by tomorrow night.

 

This is awesome man, don't think I've seen an FB with an RE before

 

There's been one, the Kramer project, but that's part of what makes me so excited about this project. It'll be kinda rare when she's all running. I'd like to keep this car for a long time, I've got some big plans for it. It's just getting it running is going to be difficult when I'm setting the bar so high.

 

that was my idea, 13b-RE in a FB, but I couldn't do it myself
:<


good luck, can't wait to see her goin`

 

Started off the day by making a workbench, here's Kyle grinding off a spot weld so we can get it square...



Finished Product:



And the only major injury of the day, an attack by the grinder when it caught and threw itself into my leg:





Then we took a little break to survey some of the scenery and wrecked cars strewn about the property. 1,000,000 internets to anyone that can identify some of those older British cars:

 

An old Miata carcass that hit a wall going fast a long time ago, and was stripped and unceremoniously dumped:



Believe me when I say you get the feeling someone was killed in this car:



Old ******:



Then we headed back to the shop and got to work. We pulled out the radiator:



Then, a few hours later, the engine was stripped down and ready to pull next time.



And by that time, I was done. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday, in my opinion. Didn't get a whole lot done to the car, but we made a workbench, which counts for something. Now we're ready to make some serious progress next time we've got a day to devote to it. I'm going to go make a frozen pizza and a strong drink.

 

There are quite a few FBs with Cosmo engines in them. A few of them even run . Check out my site: http://sites.google.com/site/elwoodsturbofb/

This wasn't a budget build, but much of the info should be useful.

 

DirectFreak was my inspiration for a Cosmo FB, so many years ago. I'm getting there.

My Build Thread

 

those british cars are diamlers?

anyone remember AJC13B?

 

^yep. Ran his exhaust under the rearend. Then sold his car.

 

That's arguably the most helpful single site I've found or been pointed to since I bought this car.

Thanks a bazillion, I'm reading it all right now. Answers a lot of questions for me.

 

Glad you found it useful.

BTW -- Texas World Speedway was the first road course I ever drove on. I worked the flags with a friend of mine at a Porsche club event and we got to drive during the lunch break for free. An IT RX-7 showed up, and all the Porsches saw was its ***.

They don't invite other marques anymore . . .

 

You'd be surprised at the things I see driving with the PCA guys. There's a new GT-R, of all things, that runs with them.

Granted, he's got that thing on track at about every HPDE and Open Track event he can, but still.

They still do the parade laps during lunch, it's tons of fun to hang back on the straights and haul *** through the corners. When were you here?

 

97?

 

It' under new management now, things are starting to change.

 

someone at work into the subaru SVX? You dont see many of those. They have unmistakable windows.

 

The previous owner of the facility had eyes larger than his stomach when it came to project cars.

 

Any plans for water/meth injection? That's next on my todo. I guess it should come after I install my ReSpeed coilovers...borrowed an impact wrench to finish it up!