lol thanks man, I've seen that modded cars make for a great life lesson. Short cuts take to long, cheaping out costs too much, and just when you think you've figured it out you realize you have much more you have to learn.

I never really documented my build, I have a handful of random pics during the process so I'll see if I can get them up. I'm leaving the country on thurs, so I'll try to get it up before then, if not then it'll be up in a few weeks.

 

my most regretted mods are mostly on my 82 which is now gone. i loved that car the most out of all of my fbs, but the chassis was just too far gone to save....

1. cutting the stock wiring harness to install a stereo system instead of running new leads and such...ended up clipping in to a switched 12v that shorted out any time i hit a bump and fried my stereo....

2 modded my header panel to have a scoop for extra air flow to the radiator when the car started overheating on me in town. fixed the problem, but looked a lot like a dodge neon srt 4 with that huge dorky scoop...if i did the mod again today, i would put some sort of a duct instead of a scoop. also would have put it just a little bit lower on the panel.

3. cut a hot lead for the ignition coils on the engine bay harness and soldered in an extension when i did the 2gdflis mod. should have used slip connectors to attatch my extension.

4. didnt have much money and wanted to try a cai setup, so i went to the hardware store and got 3" dryer vent tube...the high heat aluminum tape looking stuff..and some clamps. ground a gole in the engine bay and ran i tthrough to the passenger fender well. then attatched el cheapo autozone cone filter to the end. didnt do **** except get dirty really fast and get water soaked and clogged when it rained. should have waited to change the rad support with the respeed one and running steel pipies with a k&n filter.

5. ground out the speaker holes in the rear to fit a 6x8 speaker. they overpowered almost every other speaker in the car and seemed to have a tinny sound to them...i could have gotten a better sound and balance just by spending more for a speaker with the same size as the stock ones, but a higher output.

 

buying a carb and intake for $1100 that was supposed to be boost prepped... boosted it and had nothing but nightmares since.. leaking from everywhere, buying jest constantly to tune... blah...

 

selling them...that's what i regret most, probably always will.

 

Paying for a sterling carb. MIGHT have been a good mod but I doubt I'll ever find out.

 

Explain please....

 

Done at the track. No expenses spared. I used 80 mph and a concrete wall. It didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.

 

As bad as drivers on the roads here are, this ^ makes me more afraid to take mine to the track.

 

Never got the carb. He even came back on the forum and said he'd make good on this kind of stuff, I'm not the only one, but he still doesn't answer emails and no carb. The mods get pissed when you write this stuff though.

 

Oh I see, I havent been on in a long long time so I was not aware of these issues

 

Even the setups I've tried that didn't work out so well (e.g. the blow-through DCOE) have been valuable learning experiences, so I guess I don't regret anything.

About to try to get a set of sequential twins working with my MegaSquirt. Time will tell if that will become a regretted mod.

 

Well, you gotta admit it is a very unique mod.

 

Whoa!! Where'd u get that front lip/spoiler/airdam whatchamacallit?!?! Im in LOVE!!!

 

Tis just a flesh wound
it'll buff out

jk but you could have a shop pull the strut tower back into place and tube the front

 

My most regretful mod is parking the rx7 under the pine tree and the ice storm modified my fender and roof with branches.

 

Two words. Weber Sidedraft. I could never get the damn thing tuned right, ended up spending a TON of money for a carb setup that refused to work!!! stripped out a nikki and mech secondaries. Now I have a car I can actually drive!

 

Oh, don't worry, the one that I got to play with never ran right at all. A stock carb that sat on my shelf for several years ran infinitely better. So you didn't miss much...

 

Cutting a circular hole in my firewall thru to the air vent above the bonnet, for intake air.

 

+1

 

Thanks, that is at least somehwat reassuring. So, maybe get me a nikki and try rebuilding it. So far I've got my Dellorto running good except in left corners and I'm pretty much giving up on it. Actually having an autocross car run in the corners would sure be nice. It's kinda like having a drag car that won't run under hard acceleration.

 

That's interesting. Back when i was n00b on the forums, everyone was praising the Sterling carb as the SINGLE modification any TRUE rotary expert would do to their car, everything else was rice. Well, ok sure RB Holley or a nice Dellorto setup, but those are for racing only


Agreed! I've done many things that I will not repeat - however no regrets as it taught me everything I currently know about cars / rotaries. Regardless here's the list:

1) Putting a ricer muffler 2.5" straight-through on the back of a Racing-Beat dual long primary system, on otherwise stock 12a. Lost my low-end torque and sounded awesome, if it were only 30dB quieter..... although I will admit i quite enjoyed setting off car alarms by driving by them at low throttle.

2) Breaking my OMP and having to run pre-mix fuel. Expensive and PITA.

3) Weber blow-through. 10 mpg when not laying into it. Fast as hell tho. Lesson learned: EFI is the way to go. (Actually a total exaggeration. It totally got 14mpg)

4) Throwing the largest sound system I could possibly fit in the car. I have since graduated from "bigger is better" to "better is better" audio hi-fi-ness. What taught me this lesson was a 6", 60watt RMS subwoofer that I bought for my home hi-fi setup, that is louder, clearer, and more precise than anything I've ever seen in the car stereo world. Sure it won't make a ladie's breasts flop around like a flag in the wind as do the competition speaker setups, but it sounds WAY clean.

Honestly, the lessons I've learned through it all boils down to one thing: Understand the wholistic system, how each part works together to create a balanced operation. I'm much less about highest benchmarks these days, and far more into overall automotive experience. Smooth power band over peak HP. Clear speakers over loud speakers. Now, this is just me and my experience, my preference. Nothing against those who feel otherwise.