Jmichael3391

Hey, i'm new to the club so please take it easy on me

So i'm pretty new to the rotary and rx7 game and i've just purchased my first rx7, a 1990 FC Turbo II. Here's the catch, it's a shell. Now it has everything but the engine and the trans. The driveshaft, differential, engine harness, and ecu is all there. Now i've been a mechanic for about 5 years now and i rarely ever have the opporotunity to work on these rotary engines but i have done alot of research in them and feel confident rebuilding one myself. I have sourced a j spec S5 TII engine and trans and i am planning on buying it and putting it into the FC i have right now but as i am picking up halfway through someone else's job, it is going to be very difficult for me to kind of have the right foundation on where to start. I was wondering if any FC TII owners were willing to help me with some close up pictures under their hood so i have a good idea where things route and stuff like that. Even a few tips would be awesome. I appreciate all the help in advance. I'll get pictures up once it's running. Thanks!

lduley

iTrader: (1)

This may be a tough request as there were few s5 turbos made, and the ones that are out there are either sitting in a junkyard, or are no longer OEM. Your best bet is to look at the FSM (foxed.ca) and figure it the best you can

You MAY get lucky googling also, but if the harness is still there, once you learn what sensor plugs are what, the harness will probably lay right back out quite well. Your vacuum lines will be your biggest nightmare, but the FSM shows where those go

Jmichael3391

thanks, really appreciate that. Any help is a big help. I'm really betting on things to just fall into place as i go but nothing ever goes as planned when dealing with this kind of thing.

TonyD89

iTrader: (10)

General consensus is J-specs can be iffy and that you may need to rebuild it anyways. Maybe you're one of the lucky ones.

insightful

things with any FC pretty much never fall into place.

youre dealing with a 30 year old car, the engine harnesses alone bake into oblivion at 100k miles or so as it is, finding a good one is a task in itself. then there's the n370 ECU, which is another extremely rare item.

the jspec harness and ECU won't work either.


at this point you are better off considering standalone options instead of spending $500 on an ECU and harness in poor shape. if you get a chopped Jspec harness you can use the pigtails with any flying lead standalone.

Jmichael3391

thanks for the info. I have the orginal ecu and the original harness(in very good condition, car has been in storage for 5 years) in the turbo II but was planning to switch to a standalone ecu regardless. The ecu and harness coming with the j spec was just going to be set aside and i was going to use what came with the car itself.

Jmichael3391

i was planning on doing a rebuild regardless. From what i learned on these engines is that it'll take more than faith to buy a used one and just drop it in lol.

Jmichael3391

i forgot to ask in my post earlier.. i should be able to use the factory usdm ecu in the car with a jspec motor with no problems until i upgrade to a standalone right? Thanks in advance.

Red95FD

iTrader: (3)

There are a couple of guys on here with stock FCs. You find pics of their cars and PM them for pics. I'm sure they will help. One guy has a nice red S5 with about 60k miles maybe. It's very clean and stock. Matter of fact I think he has a nice pic of the engine bay.

lduley

iTrader: (1)

Yes, the only thing thats different is the fuel lines are backwards on the jspec engines

insightful

pictures of an engine bay are pretty worthless, most of the stuff you need pictures of is under the intake and how to route those items, the FSM doesn't give a good idea of how to assemble the jigsaw puzzle in order so that it fits correctly. however you're lucky that it isn't an FD3S, the FC you can technically smash it all in there with little knowledge, the FD controls need to be done perfectly or it won't fit and it becomes easy to break things.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

yes. the US spec and Japanese spec engines are basically the same. the Japanese engine doesn't have AWS, an Air Supply Valve and it has a smaller air pump. the Core engine is exactly the same.

the Japanese ECU will also work, it needs 1 wire repinned. the Harness can be used too, its actually longer, but it needs to route a bit differently, and it needs the underdash plug to be repinned.

all of the manuals are here, Foxed.ca - Mazda RX-7 Manuals and they are pretty good, the Japanese one even tells you how to orient the hose clamps