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Buildup Thread, 87 GXL (many pictures)

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Old Oct 20, 2008 | 09:42 PM
  #26  
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Thanks everyone, that means a lot to me. Especially you, El Nene 7.

Davidon, I'm done with the rotor lol, but thanks for the tip.

So I got home tonight, and the guy that operates that press at work called in sick, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Even then, I've given up on the rotor. If that doesn't work, I'll buy another. It's not worth the trouble it's causing. I've probably already damaged it from all the sledging.

-- I can't find my camera, so no pics tonight, BUT I have great news.

I got my new engine to water pump gasket, water pump to pump cover gasket, thermostat gasket, brand new OEM thermostat, AND my TPS Adjustment lights (It comes in a slick little box with huge bright LED's on it and everything. A quality product indeed.)

I ordered a new exterior driver's side door handle (mine was broken). It'll be shipped tomorrow.

My water pump assembly and radiator necks/hoses should be here within 3-5 more days, so this weekend I have the S5 radiator install and new water pump going on

At that point in time, I'll fill up the system, check for leaks, and run the engine for about 30 minutes.

I'm more than positive my fan clutch is worn out, so idk how well that's gunna work out. After reading up on it I think my cooling issues may have started as a combination of a water pump bearing going out, the birds nest of a radiator/AC core, and me taking off the engine undertray.

I kept the undertray, I'll put it back on after all this and see if it helps. Although I'm positive the pump and new radiator are probably going to be the biggest helpers.

Cross your fingers, everyone. I vow that if this engine lasts until the spring, I'll have a FULL rebuild writeup, from the perspective of someone with no mechanical knowledge at all. I have no experience in these things, I'm just good at reading.

That and I memorized the S4 and S5 FSM.

Oh, and there's a possibility of me finding a low mileage, pre-ported S5 engine and swapping it in. I hear a good route is swapping all the "smart" parts to S4 parts to use the same electronics, and then go standalone. or boost the **** It all depends on what I find then. I'll make sure to detail what it takes to get that S5 radiator in there.

EDIT ---------------------
Sad news, last night I made the impulse buy (those KYB AGX's) and now I realize that I spent all this months food money on those. now I have to make a measly $90 last for 4 weeks of TV dinners

I guess it's a good thing I already ordered all my parts

and I get paid in two weeks. um. My next purchase shall be all new vacuum hoses and intake gaskets and heater hoses and radiator hoses and possibly electrical lines. I'll get new, cleaned injectors, or just send mine out. I want to clean up the car, but asthetics aren't as important to me as performance and reliability.

I want to get a new exhaust, but I do like how it sounds now. I just need to fix the exhaust leak. I'm due for another oil change. and a coolant system pressure check. That should cover it for october/november.

Oh, and the suspension install!

Last edited by jmkogut; Oct 20, 2008 at 10:08 PM.
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Old Oct 20, 2008 | 10:34 PM
  #27  
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Originally Posted by jmkogut
Sad news, last night I made the impulse buy (those KYB AGX's) and now I realize that I spent all this months food money on those. now I have to make a measly $90 last for 4 weeks of TV dinners


You have now become a true RX-7 fanatic.
Without this portion of it, it doesn't work. haha.
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Old Oct 20, 2008 | 10:40 PM
  #28  
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lol yeah it's real funny. Banquet FOR THE LOSS. I really enjoy my Chinese takeout

Oh well. I'll update everyone with how much WEIGHT I LOSE DUE TO MALNOURISHMENT as well.

Originally Posted by Rotaryrocket FC
You have now become a true RX-7 fanatic.
Without this portion of it, it doesn't work. haha.
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Old Oct 21, 2008 | 12:08 PM
  #29  
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Alright, I started a thread on camber after a (fruitless) search.

You can read about it here: https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/lowering-car-wondering-about-potential-camber-issues-795181/

I have no experience with suspension, so I decided to just get multiple opinions. I was originally going to go with a rear single camber link, but I've decided after careful consideration to go individual links, front camber plates and get the **** aligned after that.



Wish me luck.

It looks like this is going to be super effin hard.
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Old Oct 22, 2008 | 12:05 AM
  #30  
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OMFG
WOOT
OMMFGOD

MY DAD'S 20-TON PRESS WORKED

THE ROTOR IS OFF THE HUB

AND WITHOUT DAMAGE

OBSERVE HERE:
\

DUDE I LOVE THAT GUY

Seriously though, I'm so stoked. My camera's battery died tonight though, and I lost the charger, so until I have a new charger shipped out, I'll have to disposable camera -> develop -> get on a CD -> upload here..

I'll be sure to borrow a camera for the weekend trip out to the dude with the parts I'll upload pics and woot I'm so happy!

I'll get that on and the bearing packed tomorrow night. erm.. cooling stuff will be on hopefully this weekend..

Sorry to repeat myself, I'm just excited to have this bitch on the road again, soon

Last edited by jmkogut; Oct 22, 2008 at 12:11 AM.
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Old Oct 22, 2008 | 12:55 AM
  #31  
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Just so I don't forget..

I've actually driven my car for less than 30 days that I've owned it, and I've already replaced brake rotors, brake pads, rebuild all brake calipers, SS brake lines, SS clutch line, clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing, pilot bearing, suspension springs, struts, stripped AAS, radiator, stripped AC/PS, new plugs, plug wires, coils, fuel filter and lines, oil filter, conical air filter, AFM, S5 tails, new seats (which reminds me, I still need mounts), thermostat, water pump, OMP seals, passenger interior door handle, and driver's side exterior door handle.

I've also replaced rear diff fluid, engine oil, transmission fluid, coolant (so many god damn times) and I'll post more when I remember.

Last edited by jmkogut; Oct 22, 2008 at 01:03 AM.
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Old Oct 22, 2008 | 11:53 AM
  #32  
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nice job hope your enjoying your car now.
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Old Oct 22, 2008 | 11:59 AM
  #33  
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I still have at least all weekend to get it back to road-worthy status. I have the engine bay torn down to a basically half-stripped status.
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Old Oct 24, 2008 | 12:37 AM
  #34  
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Alright peeps, I got my S5 radiator setup for my S4. It basically required a couple of things. (Pics later)

1) The Radiator Switch Connector hole that you thread the Radiator Switch Connector into, quite frankly, isn't there on the S5 Radiator. This switch is responsible for informing your car's magical insides of whether your coolant temperature is hot or not. If it's cold, then it does the 3000rpm warmup sequence. If not, apparently the cold start system just does 2000rpm. Needless to say, I disconnected it.

2) There's another opening, on the top driver's side of the S5 radiator that's not there on the S4 radiator. This is what the S5 uses for filling with coolant, and it replaces the aluminum filler neck with a plastic neck with no opening. It sounds confusing, check back later for pictures.

3) The S5 water pump lower extrusion is at an angle (about 5 degrees clockwise) of the S4 pump to clear the S5 electrical OMP. This isn't a problem, actually, but it changes how the lower radiator hose fits.


--

So in order to make this work, I had to use the S4 aluminum filler neck, plus a plastic radiator cap mount WITHOUT the overflow outlet (and a fixed rad cap), then the S4 lower radiator hose. I then connected the radiator overflow tube to the filler neck on the drivers side of the radiator, and uses a .9bar cap.

It's kindof the bastard son mix of an S5 and an S4 cooling setup, but it's cool. I like it.
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Old Oct 24, 2008 | 12:46 AM
  #35  
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Side note, this car is like sitting in a exhaust chamber if your on the passenger side, with the window down, and revs up sitting still.
Stupid exhaust leak. :P

Also pics are amazing.
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Old Oct 24, 2008 | 12:48 AM
  #36  
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mebbe you should pay to fix the exhaust leak instead of complaining about the fumes, EH?
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Old Oct 24, 2008 | 10:22 PM
  #37  
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Alright, I got a few shipments in.






Those are my struts.



Here's that water pump I got from Apex Auto Parts



and here's what I should have bought in the first place:



Here are all of my waterpumps. The way left one is the brand new, the middle is the one I bought from Apex auto parts, and the right one is the original. Note, the water pump from Apex auto parts came leaking. Go figure.







More comparison shots, just to be a douche.



Here's my S5 radiator


and the old S4 radiator




If you observe very closely, on the bottom left side of each radiator there's a hole for the Thermostat sensor switch, which controls the cold start assist mechanism. The S5 uses the ECU and a separate water temp sensor in the water pump housing so that's why the S5 radiator doesn't have this threaded hole. I simply unplugged the sensor.






Also, in order to use my S4 filler neck and this S5 filler neck, I had to get one of the thermostat pressure caps that don't pressurise, it's just fixed. then I had to get a thermostat cap mount that didn't have an overflow outlet, since the S5 radiator filler neck already has an overflow outlet.



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Old Oct 25, 2008 | 11:31 AM
  #38  
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Started the car this morning, ran it for a long time, it warmed up to operating temperature, no leaks (I RTV'd the **** out of everthing), no white smoke, it seems perfect. Oil Pressure was great, Temp was great, idle was around 1500 rpm, never lowered. (Although, it's been that high since I bought it, this weekend was supposed to be for fixing that and other issues. Also, on very, very little throttle, I could rev find, but half or WOT, it would bog out.


Long story short, https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...77#post8667677
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Old Oct 30, 2008 | 03:16 PM
  #39  
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I have all of the calipers on.

**** YEAH.

I have 3/4 of the SS lines on .

**** YEAH.

I have the cooling system worked out.

**** YEAH.

I got a pristine condition oil cooler.

**** YEAH.

All that's left is that one SS line and bleeding the brakes.
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Old Nov 1, 2008 | 12:01 PM
  #40  
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lol right on....I sorta wish I had done a thread for my car......lol
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Old Nov 1, 2008 | 01:17 PM
  #41  
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******* **** **** GOD DAMN CAR

The brake pedal won't keep pressure. The fronts grab but the rears DONT. We can hear air being pushed into the rear drivers side caliper lines.. it's so confusing.

I started the car and I can feel a vacuum from that line going into the power brake unit
I'm keeping dot3 in the reservoir, and I'm positive I need to rebuild my master and slave cylinders.

(Clutch slave makes a sqeaky noise so I'll do that while I'm at it)

I'm so tired of not being able to drive it. I miss my car. I was all excited about being able to finally drive it again this weekend but I get no brake pressure..

Last edited by jmkogut; Nov 1, 2008 at 01:26 PM.
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Old Nov 2, 2008 | 01:51 AM
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Damn man, Keep at the hard work. I cant wait to see the car up and running.. Hopefully it will run By december you should come up to seattle area for the NW Toy Run!!
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Old Nov 2, 2008 | 02:26 AM
  #43  
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What's that?
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Old Nov 2, 2008 | 07:33 AM
  #44  
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sweet buildup
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Old Nov 7, 2008 | 01:56 AM
  #45  
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Originally Posted by jmkogut
What's that?
heres the link to the thread

https://www.rx7club.com/nw-rx-7-forum-33/nw-toy-run-2008-a-790250/
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Old Nov 7, 2008 | 05:09 PM
  #46  
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nice project you have going here. keep it up.
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Old Nov 8, 2008 | 01:46 PM
  #47  
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it's easy to get discouraged but just keep at it and all the long weekends, busted knuckles, and frozen dinners will pay off.
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Old Nov 9, 2008 | 02:56 AM
  #48  
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I HAVE IT STARTED, AND RUNNING.

It's so amazing to drive her again. The brakes are VERY fail.. I need to burn this coating off, they're starting to get better, I just got everything put back together last night, and I've driven a lot of today.

OMG, Happy.

Next: Suspension. (I am not looking forward to that.)
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Old Nov 9, 2008 | 02:25 PM
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Great to hear man!

Suspension will make it go zoom around corners again lol
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Old Nov 9, 2008 | 02:32 PM
  #50  
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Originally Posted by Brink-of-Time
Great to hear man!

Suspension will make it go zoom around corners again lol
I'm going to be honest, I truly am scared when cornering at 115mph on this stock suspension. It doesn't feel really trustworthy, and I can't push it for fear of losing grip.

I'll update when I get the suspension on.

For today, I will solve my hunting idle, and bed my brakes.
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