I'm starting a build thread for my NA 87 RX-7. This last weekend my buddy and I did quite a bit of work on the car. Before this weekend, the modifications to the car were:
- Complete single 3-inch complete exhaust system (came with car)
- Headers (came with car)
- Upgraded springs, lowered (came with car)
- Front and rear strut bar (came with car)
- Convertible style rims (came with car)
- K&N air intake
- Rotary Shack short shift
- Razo Shift ****
- Back seat removed
- Platinum spark plugs
- New, larger (maybe 8 mm?) plug wires
- Replaced passenger door handle

Over the weekend we repaired the exhaust leak that had appeared since i bought the car, installed a carbon fiber hood, and removed the now obsolete washer fluid reservoir and tubing.


Prepping for stock hood removal:


No hood:


The replacement:


The exhaust was leaking at the header gasket, I forgot to take a pic but it looked bad. Replaced it with a real nice copper gasket that supposedly can take some abuse - for $10 I hope it does. While the exhaust was off ground down the welds, prepped and painted:


Vinny, the brains behind the operation:

All painted:


Hood installed finally! Had to do a lot of adjusting and still need to do more for perfect fit:


Me and ma baby:


That's it for now. Currently the plan is to stop dinkin around and get a tII 13b so I can start kickin some ***. This could be a while though. I have S5 tails on the way sometime soon hopefully so that will be the next mod, but after that probably won't do much until after the engine is in.
I'm welcoming any suggestions to improve my build so if anyone has anything let me know. Thanks for checking out my build thread.

 

where did ya get that hood from? i want one

 

Not digging the hood. Looks nice other than that though.

Turbo swap that thing!

 

Ha. Yeah I figured that there would be those who love the hood and those who hate it. It isn't traditional. It's a AIT BMagic Battle Hood. It's sweet, but honestly a little over the top. Part of me regets not getting the TII CF hood, but if I get some serious power under the hood I can represent. I got it on ebay for pretty cheap too considering it retails for up to 850-900. Turbo swap is on the way... if I can pull it off.

 

Nice build and lookin' nice. The hood is a bit excessive for what it is. How well does she drive?

 

You mean the hood or the car? Both are great I guess. Hood isn't quite on perfectly because we had to adjust the latch depth quite a bit and drill the bolt holes on the car brackets out farther to get the hood forward more. So she is currently a little high and back which you can probably tell from the pictures. So besides a little hood wobble when driving, it's real nice. The car itself handles pretty amazingly - it's lowered, stiffer springs, strut bars. I took it to 123 in 4th after the hood was installed.

 

I'm picking up an 87, same color Tuesday, can not wait.

 

do people ever talk **** to you for having a vented hood on an NA? i've seen some comments around, whatever man, vented hoods are sick and there's nothing wrong with having more fresh air hitting that intake manifold. i have a 91 coupe, thinking about a cf hood someday!

 

What size wheels you have on the vert bbs's? Doesnt look like the 60 series sidewall that normally comes on the car. Do you still have the cats or a way for the 6pi actuators to function?

 

I say build a monster n/a instead of opting for the turbo route. If and when u get around to paint, color match the hood. Makes for far cleaner look.

 

@Vangaurd-

Right on man. I swear 90% of the early gen 2's are saphire blue, but IMO it's perfect color for the car. My paint is bad tho, so it's gonna be black

@hashman626-

People giving me **** for the hood? Well, not to my face haha. Most of the people I know don't know what a hood scoop is for, so don't really need to worry about trash talk. I like the hood, and if I get a TT in there I will definitely not regret the purchase. But it's all about the fresh air on the mani!

@SpikeDerailed-

I know very little about wheels, Vince has tried to explain it. From what he's told me they are 15's, I'm not sure about the width and height and what not, but I'll take a look later and see if I can find the markings. Not sure what 60 series sidewalls are? You got pics? These rims came with the car when I bought it. As for the exhaust, no cats. Headers come off the block and right into straight through 3-inch to the muffler. 6pi actuators?

@theflatlander-

Monster N/A eh? I wasn't aware you could really do such a thing with a rotary. Thing is I REALLY want the low end acceleration. I'll rape most people on top end, but getting there can be a real bitch. I will color match the hood.

Update: Thanks for all the comments. I've got my s5 tails, in the process of tinting now hope it turns out. Going for third coat of VHT....now.

 

Yeah I like the color, I'd like to paint/tint, seeing as how the clear coat is fading bad on the roof, but have no clue how much paint would cost. I have some mods planned for it, can't wait. Also, not into the blue interior lol, but that's minor.

 

Same thing for me, pretty bad fading on the roof/sunroof. My hood was a little faded too before I swapped it out. Yeah, not a fan of the blue interior either. Racing seats in time, too bad about the dash though. What kind of mods are you thinking?

 

Initially, exhaust/intake and nardi wheel. I'm having a bitch of a time finding wheels for this car lol, doesn't look like 4x114.3 lug pattern is popular. I'm going to go with Racing Beat's exhaust, just not sure what config, and have no clue intake wise.

 

Sick man, better post it up once you start putting stuff on. I'll keep a look out for your thread. K&N intake seems to be pretty standard. I think if you want to do better you need to custom fab. I'm gonna do HKS dual 3-inch eventually. That's a long way off though.

 

Is the HKS one something you can buy or is it part purchase part fab?

 

any more pics of the m5?

 

These two are connected. There are two sleeves in your intake setup that work off of a small tube from your stock exhaust. Yours are either

A: not working because they have no way of opening.

or

B: not even in there and that's causing you to have poor low end power.

Search for the 6port induction info. I'm sure there are 500 threads talking about it.

 

I believe the lug pattern is the same as 4x4.5

Dual 4 lug pattern wheels should mount up. Those are pretty easy to find.

 

Haha. I could get you some if you really want. It would take away from my car however.


Yeah, I'm pretty sure that I have read about this, if we're talking about the same things were talking about 2 valves that open sometime for some reason. Anywho, that's not my problem. My car rips, it's just not as fast as, say, an m5? I need turbo's for that speed.
However, at some point in the life of my car I would like to discover what components remain of the original archaic exhaust system that these cars came with stock. I'm thinking it would be difficult to figure out though since I was not the one who took the system off.



On the thread: I got my tail's tinted and installed. I've got pics and some hard learned lessons to share with fellow enthusiasts interested in doing extreme mods like tinting and installing s5 tail lights in their s4's in order to gain 15 rwhp. This mod is a real bitch, and tinting these lights is no walk in the park. I'll post later. Tonight I am tired. And also my tint is uneven, so I am brooding and don't want to talk about it.

 

Sorry, forgot to respond to this one. Prettry sure it's all bolt on, haven't looked too in depth though. Definitely would be a nice system though and it's advertised as "silent" which is something me and all my neighbors wished my car was.

 

5lug swap will fix all ur wheel choice problems. And Rxsexy7, full bridgeport with itbs will sing a far better song than any 13bt ;P. As for low end, a turbo build would suit that better with stock or mild porting.

 

Hey man, quit hitting on my sister. Yeah, that sounds sweet. You think a full bridgeport sings better than a 13bt with port? Plus, I would upgrade to a larger single turbo pretty quick once I got the engine in. I really need to do some homework on this though... Also, isn't a bridgeport almost unbearably loud? Also, will the same itbs fit on any 13b-re? tt or na, s4 or s5? cause if they do, that is one upgrade i might do before i swap any engine in or out.

 

Yo man, I saw your stereo install question and found this thread as a result. Just out of curiosity, how is the Bmagic hood working out for you? I've been thinking about a vented hood to dump the excessive heat from my 20B-REW's twin turbos and would like to hear some first-hand experience about it. No one seems to have a review about their products yet

Also, your lug pattern is 5x114.3mm, also known as 5x4.5" Every vert is a 5-lug car from the factory. The only 4-lug FCs are the S4 Base and SE model that came with the phonedial rims.

 

Well, for me it just pretty much looks really sweet If you are looking to dump excess heat tho, i would say it oughta do the job pretty well. My engine is NA so I can't really say, but the hoodscoop on top is friggin massive and the side vents that I believe are designed to sit directly above stock TII turbos would also take some of that heat off. It also weighs less than 15 pounds i think so all in all a really good product IMO.

NO MORE TALK ABOUT WHEELS ON THIS PAGE PLEASE!!! Hopefully Akagis has clarified this issue. This is my build thread not a lug pattern discussion, though it should probably be stickied for it.