bored so i'm starting a build thread...with lots of pictures...
11-05-10, 10:14 PM
#1
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bored so i'm starting a build thread...with lots of pictures...
so it's a lazy friday night. it's too late to start doing anything, but much to early to head to bed, so i figure i'll share my bordem with you guys. Back story: Bought the car about 1.5 years ago from a crazy puerto rican who claimed that the engine was just rebuilt and streetported by BDC. First thing i noticed when looking at the car was the fact that the engine shook like a SOB, though nothing of it at the time and just though it needed new motor mounts. Car had a few mods including a hybrid BNR stage 2 turbo, and a 3" RB full exhaust. pics of the car when i first got it:
So first thing i did was replace the darn turbo with a stock S5 turbo, since the BNR really didn't have any supporting mods to keep it reliable. So fast forward to about 6 months ago. I started working on my buddies FD again and got the "mod bug" and decided to have some fun with my car. Installed a front greddy FMIC, a microtech LT8s, upgraded to fuel system with a walbro and 720cc secondaries, installed an HKS EVC3 and some sweet HKS gauges, and drove down to KDR where Dave was waiting to get a good road tune on the ECU.
Dave starts it up and the first words out of his mouth were, "we need to do a compression test"....crap, that's never good. And it wasn't. Turns out i bought a car with a bum motor. had 110+psi on all three faces of the front rotor and this is the rear:
The car ran like a champ, and i never would have guessed the motor was blown, but seeing is believing. I'm also inclined to believe the motor was blown when it had the hybrid turbo before I bought the car, thus the shakey motor. So I took the 2.5 hour drive of shame home, thinking about all the money i would get to spend fixing it. That weekend the motor came out and the rebuild began. I'm glad i decided to do it now any way as one of the coolant seals was going to give out any any moment any ways. It also looked like a monkey put the motor together, it had mismatched apex seals (mazda stock and Atkins), and none of the coolant seals were installed in the correct orientation.
So first thing i did was replace the darn turbo with a stock S5 turbo, since the BNR really didn't have any supporting mods to keep it reliable. So fast forward to about 6 months ago. I started working on my buddies FD again and got the "mod bug" and decided to have some fun with my car. Installed a front greddy FMIC, a microtech LT8s, upgraded to fuel system with a walbro and 720cc secondaries, installed an HKS EVC3 and some sweet HKS gauges, and drove down to KDR where Dave was waiting to get a good road tune on the ECU.
Dave starts it up and the first words out of his mouth were, "we need to do a compression test"....crap, that's never good. And it wasn't. Turns out i bought a car with a bum motor. had 110+psi on all three faces of the front rotor and this is the rear:
The car ran like a champ, and i never would have guessed the motor was blown, but seeing is believing. I'm also inclined to believe the motor was blown when it had the hybrid turbo before I bought the car, thus the shakey motor. So I took the 2.5 hour drive of shame home, thinking about all the money i would get to spend fixing it. That weekend the motor came out and the rebuild began. I'm glad i decided to do it now any way as one of the coolant seals was going to give out any any moment any ways. It also looked like a monkey put the motor together, it had mismatched apex seals (mazda stock and Atkins), and none of the coolant seals were installed in the correct orientation.
11-05-10, 10:14 PM
#2
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So i cracked open my wallet and let all the dust bunnies out. I ended up replacing both rotor housings (not that i really needed to, but i figured i might as well while it's apart), the intermediate housing, and the eshaft. A special shout out to Japan2LA for getting me some sweet low mileage parts for a decent price. the engine had indeed been ported so that means i needed to report the intermediate housing as well as the rotor housings, so out came the dremel! I started by masking off the area to get ported. I always see people with marks from where the bit jumps and gets the housing face, so i figured i'd stop that from happening. Why no one else does this I have no idea...Any who, I've gotten one side done so far...
Going to do the other side tomorrow as well as the rotor housings.
more to come in a bit...I've got lots more to add...
Going to do the other side tomorrow as well as the rotor housings.
more to come in a bit...I've got lots more to add...
11-05-10, 11:52 PM
#4
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well the intermediate plate above i did, these are the only pictures I have of the original ports. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he lied to me about that too. although the porting on the original housings looks fairly well done.
11-07-10, 07:59 PM
#5
Senior Member
welcome to the world of buying a rx7 from a rican... my wastegate was actuated by exhaust recirculation, i had a 70-1 turbo with stock engine management. ect ect... lol
ive been through the whole car fixing other peoples messes, but i have learned a ton and had a fun time building everything.
GL with the build !
edit: anyone still make that gauge pod?
ive been through the whole car fixing other peoples messes, but i have learned a ton and had a fun time building everything.
GL with the build !
edit: anyone still make that gauge pod?
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11-08-10, 09:34 AM
#8
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bikeboy23332, I got the gauge pod from this place. they only have a carbon fiber one listed, but if you email them they'll make you a fiberglass one for significantly cheaper
http://www.shop.retro-spec.net/categ...?categoryId=11
_Mac_, thanks it's fairly clean, but needs a bit of work here and there. doesn't help that I'm a little OCD about things being clean, lol.
beefcake, you going to love this thread then. I broke one of the stupid plastic fuel injector diffuser spacers in the intermediate housing getting it out so i'll be machining some new aluminum ones
That's just the tip of the cool stuff i have planned for this car.
http://www.shop.retro-spec.net/categ...?categoryId=11
_Mac_, thanks it's fairly clean, but needs a bit of work here and there. doesn't help that I'm a little OCD about things being clean, lol.
beefcake, you going to love this thread then. I broke one of the stupid plastic fuel injector diffuser spacers in the intermediate housing getting it out so i'll be machining some new aluminum ones
That's just the tip of the cool stuff i have planned for this car.
11-08-10, 09:37 AM
#9
pushing s##t up hill
but either way i love watching stuff people build themselves instead of just buying it , wish i could but im no where near crafty enough , im all hammers an screwdrivers
11-08-10, 07:32 PM
#11
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so got a bit more done tonight. I finished the other primary port as well as started on the first exhaust port. nothing to extreme, I pretty much just went to the edges of the sleeve. Only thing I'm wondering about is if i need a larger chamfer on the trailing edge. time to bunker down and do a bit of research.
porting it's finished quite yet. still need to smooth it out and polish everything, but the overall shape is done.
from the back compared to the stock port:
porting it's finished quite yet. still need to smooth it out and polish everything, but the overall shape is done.
from the back compared to the stock port:
11-11-10, 08:57 PM
#14
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thanks guys.
rxspeed7, i'm horrible with road names, so maybe...lol.
got a bit more work done...out with the crappy old plastic, in with the new shiny aluminum.
aslo got my oil control orings in yesterday, and the rest of the porting is done. I should be good to put it back together this weekend.
rxspeed7, i'm horrible with road names, so maybe...lol.
got a bit more work done...out with the crappy old plastic, in with the new shiny aluminum.
aslo got my oil control orings in yesterday, and the rest of the porting is done. I should be good to put it back together this weekend.
11-19-10, 09:30 AM
#19
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I already have a set of brackets sitting around, all I would need to do would be order the lights. But I have a lot of other things I need to do first...like install my S5 bumpers and trim i just got for it.
11-19-10, 08:25 PM
#20
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finally got the last thing holding me back from starting her up...my throttle body. when i removed it, it was an absolute train wreck so i decided to do the TB mod and clean it up a bit. upon trying to remove one of the screws that holds the primary throttle plate in the screw stripped out, and i ended up having to drill the bugger out. This of course took the threads with it, so I ended up welding the shaft and re-tapping the threads. came out ok...
11-21-10, 08:13 PM
#23
It's Alive! Sorry about your nuts dude! 
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