EProdRx7

Great site with a ton of info. I am sorting through now but thought it might be easier to get some general ideas first.
I just bought a 87 stock turbo II with 130+ miles on it. The price was a could not refuse one so I didn't! I am looking to build a confortable weekend fun car that I can also drive to the train station daily. Goals are +\-300 hp but it has to be dead reliable. This is most important as my garage time is devoted to my race car. BTW I race a FC in SCCA E production. I plan on doing some mild porting and doing my own exhaust. I would like to reach the goal and then just drive it. I know this is a strange concept to some but the alterior motive is to creat a machine that mimicks the race car so that I can stay sharp for race weekends. I do not want to spend hours and hours working on this car. Any ideas?

vaughnc

EProdRx7,

Hey welcome. Reaching 300rwhp isn't too hard with the turbo rx-7. You shoul be able to achive that number without excessive boost levels. Going with a mild engine porting should'nt affect lower end torque too much and allow you to take advantage of 8-12PSI of boost.

You might want to forget porting at first and just concentrate on larger fuel injectors, fuel system upgrades, FMIC (front mount intercooler) etc.. Porting basically shift your powerband up in all gears from what I've heard.

I'm assuming you'll be investing in an aftermarket ECU (Haltech) vs. devices to fool the OEM system to give you more performance. 300RWHP/380FWHP is where you want to consider gagues and aftmarket monitoring and tuning systems seriously.

You should check some other owner's setups in the 2nd gen archive and in current posts to a good feel for different setups.

Are you planning to strip the car or just add springs/shocks, performance upgrades, ect.. to the OEM setup?

EProdRx7

Thanks for the advice.

I'm a road racer, not like on the street, but on a circuit like Lime Rock here in Connecticut. My daily driver now is a Dodge 2500 pickup so when I go to the track it always seems to take the first couple of laps to get used to the car again. I thought that if I could have a street car that was close to the race car it might help me get over that.

I don't want to spend a ton of cash either. I have a lot of expireance with the die grinder and build my own motors for the race car so a basic street port is no big deal for me. I would rather stay away from Haltech and such. I have it on the racer and tuning it was very expensive and time consuming. It is not nearly as easy as they make it seem.

I also recently bought a crappy 86 as a parts car and it came with some good shocks springs, and bars. I will be changing them over soon.

No drag racing in the future. Like I said I'm a road racer. I'll use it for instructing at school events and scaring students

Evil Aviator

I don't think that you will manage to dyno any more than 230bhp with the stock ECU and turbo. Hehehe, I would imagine that this would closely mimic your EP car, so I guess you will be happy anyway. Like Vaughnc said, you should upgrade the fuel first, because that's the first thing that you will run out of, and you will definitely need an FCD. The next problem that you will have will be boost creep from the small stock wastegate. I wouldn't run any more than 25psi absolute on the Series 4 turbo if you want it to stay in one piece.

You may want to try posting in the single-turbo forum to see if anybody thinks that it would be possible to make 300hp reliably without an aftermarket turbo or ECU. They are all pretty much drag racers, but they have some good tricks and ideas, and I'm sure that you can sift out the good road racing info.

live4boost

iTrader: (2)

come on now my car dynoed 230+ with the stock catback ecu and turbo. Now I think it is a little past that with the midpipe and catback. Upgrade the turbo and intercooler and nearing 300

Kurgan

Get an upgraded turbo - $700 (I think Knight turbo sells this...)
Used FCON - $300
APEXi AFC - $250
Exhaust - $200 (do a single exit with one muffler on the passenger side)
Cone intake - $50
Fuel pump $230
port your wastegate
Boost gauge, afr gauge

This is not the best way to do it... but this should is the cheapest way. If you want 300 horspower to the wheels reliably, you will need an ECU, but that is big money and even more time. THis setup should get you 300-330 to the wheels... I've seen it before. Some of the prices up there are estimates, but I think they are pretty close. The FCON will be the only hard part to come buy...

my 2 cents

Evil Aviator

So if everything was stock, where did the extra 80hp come from?

Anyway, you may want to tell your secrets to this guy, because he only got 230hp on his street-ported engine WITH a Haltech, although he just posted in the Single Turbo forum that he eventually made it up to 245hp.
http://www.realride.com/tech.html

tims

I really should update that tech article or post a new one. At the time of writing that is exactly what the car was doing 230-240hp at 8psi of boost at the wheels without any correction/fudge factors. We eventually found we had a serious problem with the not stock intercooler and had to go back to the stock one. we also raised the boost to 10 psi and I would say the car was then approaching 275 hp realisticly. If we corrected for all temps and stuff we could get the dyno to spit out 300hp. that same car now has a 13b peripheral port motor with the same Haltech and a 55mm TWM throttle bodies. We are going to dyno it soon so I'll let you know what kind of real HP it makes. I am hoping for it to be close to 300hp at the wheels.

EProdRx7

Ok guys you've given me some good ideas but I have to believe that 300hp is easier then that. I got 200 from a streetported 90 13B. Yes this was an all out race motor with a non streetable exhaust, but it was using the stock injection with a speedsorce ECU. Yes stock injectors! manifold is ported and TB is polished with the choke butterflies removed, small pullies, Mazda motorsport header and more timing then I would use on the street. at 9300 rpm this motor made 199.8hp at the wheels. Thats more then a 50+hp increase over stock. I have to believe that the same port job on a turbo would give me 240 alone! What do you think?

live4boost

iTrader: (2)

I never said my car was all stock. There is quite a list If your interested here you go minus the exhaust. The 230 was from the guy I bought it from so he could have been stretching the truth, but I think he was fairly close. and also where did the number 80 come from? I thought 4series was around 180(not exactly sure) so that would only be around 50. Don't be so negative every one isn't a liar.

Evil Aviator

It would actually be an 89hp increase if you go by the 15% drivetrain loss rule of thumb:

271fwhp (yours) - 182fwhp (stock) = 89hp difference
271fwhp * 15% = 41hp loss
271fwhp - 40hp = 230rwhp (dyno)

I should have known better than to reply to a HP thread on this forum.

Josepi

My 91 TII only suffers from a 12-13% drivetrain loss! All stock and it showed 177.2 on the dyno...maybe it was those new plugs

live4boost

iTrader: (2)

Oh I bow down to you all mighty one. I never claimed to know it all, nor did I ever specify rwhp. That is just what the previous owner told me. Maybe hayes lied to him, or just told him the fwhp to make him feel good. With the street port, dp, mp, catback, tid mod, intake, light flywheel, safc properly tuned. and running 10-12 psi of boost, I think that I will make up for some of the 80 hp(I know I won't have 80 over stock)

Maybe the guy was saying the he wanted 300 fwhp. He never said, but don't act like people in the 2nd gen forum don't know ****. I bet you didn't come on here knowing all that you do now.