Exactly.
Roll pins are tough little bastards, the only way to remove is with the proper sized drift.

 

Yes, the top portion of the transmission does get a bit of fluid. The proper amount is listed in the FSM. I know that it isn't much, just enough to provide some lubrication.

 

yes, the shifter gets oil. fill it up till it barely covers bushings and you are good.

 

And while you're filling, make sure to get a good lungful of that sweet, tasty gear oil.

I figure that gear oil is what dinosaur farts used to smell like.
I might have read that on the internets.

 

lol my wife will like that joke as she is complaining about the garage smelling like gear oil as i have the trans pulled apart.

a dinosaur crop-dusted my garage.

 

Busy couple of days...

first off, if anyone replaced there oil pressure sending unit (the sensor that sends the signal to the gauge cluster) and broke/ damaged the wire connector like i did, i found these connectors at pep-boys that click right on to the ****.





they work great,

now, tomorrow i am pulling out the turbo and porting the wastegate, lots of pics to come,

mail man brought me this today;


gauge pods for the a-pillar, getting a boost and voltage gauge.




with the "flash to pass" system of the rx-7 i decided to not go with HID headlights. I had enough problems with a high beam HID setup. the balasters take a beating with the repeating on/off of the high beams, not to include the bulbs taking 10 sec to heat up to the proper brightness.

Honda does not use high beams on there S2000 for the same reason. So I decided to use my favorite bulbs that I finally found a supplier after 7 years of looking.

Naxos plasma bulbs. I ironically had them on my first rx-7 many many years ago. Always got the thumbs up on how they looked.



still waiting on the h4 headlight lenses to come in as I am going through a nightmare purchase of them through a new supplier. sent me the wrong ones 2 times!

well ill post more tomorrow when the turbo is out.

 

Turbo is out, ported, and installed again.

Found the turbo to iron flange bolts kinda almost loose. i know i torqued them to spec when i installed it because i remember how much of a pain in the *** it was. its tight now!


my porting job. it burned up my cheap 9 dollar chicago-punmatic air die-grinder. it was on its last leg. got a nice one from lowes for $30 includes porting attachments in a nice case too.



before pics (progress)





as for the flapper, i couldent get a good weld on the washers. I instead took my cut off wheel and cut the old flapper compleatly off and used 2 washers with a nut and bolt holding it on. I have a nice tight flapper and lightly welded the nut on the bolt securing the thing so it never comes loose.

I then reinstalled the turbo, then transmission, trans shifter feeling is like brand new, huge difference with the new bushings and springs!

i blead the cluch line after installing the bracket i forgot to put back in after i installed the SS clutch line.

Tomorrow i am going to put the intercooler back on then install the exhaust and fire her up for the first time this winter, bleed coolant, check trans for noise, check new radiator and whole car for leaks.

later on I have headlighs and gauges and a radio to install/

this spring is going to rock!

 

hopefully the washers hold up. they tend to not hold up to the heat. if they dont, next time use an old exhaust valve from a piston engine. if that time comes and you cant find one let me know. I have a few laying around from when I did mine i could ship you

 

this is one of the greatest builds I have seen in a long time.

Everyone builds race cars - but this is pure joy. Bringing it close to stock

 

thanks, working at a honda dealer i used to have a few valves laying around. however i just cleaned out my toolbox a few months ago and tossed them.

I followed this site;

http://www.aaroncake.net/RX-7/s4wastegate.htm

i used really thick steel washers, so hopefully they will hold up, i can see aluminum ones melting away.

 

got the exhaust on and fired her up to find ;

-exhaust leak inbetween turbo and iron manifold
-fuel leak at hose clamp, (fixed right away!)
-trans noise still there, im guessing its got to be the other main bearing in the trans that requires total trans teardown. im gonna let it ride as it goes away when the clutch is pressed in and with the radio on you cant hear it. im just really anel about noises. I plan on just keeping a eye out for a good deal on a tii trans.
-racing beat rev2 exhaust... left tip sits lower then the right. ive read about it before i purchased it but im gonna try and make it better by loosing up the exhaust and twisting them to adjust the tips.

 

Could be the Pilot Release Bearing. I know I had the same sound some time ago and it ended up being that.

 

I have done that twice on my system only to find that a week or so later the left side is drooping again.
I bowed to the inevitable, left it alone and now consider it a "charming eccentricity".

 

I tweaked it with a floor jack holding the left muffler to the right position. then tightened all the bolts.

went to pep-boys and got a smaller exhaust rubber donut and got it to sit right where I want it.

Thinking more on the noise from the trans.... the thing that is throwing me off is that there was not a lof of metal shavings in the trans. normally when bearings go bad you can get chuncks of bearing material.

the throwout bearing and pilot bearing are new from when i put the new motor in last summer.

If it gets louder or i feel like attacking it i think it may be the original clutch springs. the springs can get loose and vibrate. so it may make sense if when i press the clutch pedal the springs stop making noise.

some pics...

 

Man really great build going on, happy to see an S4 turbo get some real love, one ill have to lay mine down and do a complete restoration

ive read the entire thread and i was wondering I before putting that fresh motor did you ever paint or freshen up all that rush in the engine bay?

 

yes under the leaky abs unit i sanded it down and resprayed it.

 

all is well as i took her for a spin around the block today. transmission shifter feels 100% better, great tone from the exhaust and huge bump in power.

passenger mirror came in today so the exterror is just about done (just need some tint and to buff out the pin stripes.

installed the voltage and boost/vac gauge. cheap ebay ****, boost gauge is calibrated wrong. new one on its way. may just get the autometers.

quick walk around and rev up

 

about that trans noise.... I think your first guess is the right one. My trans is the loudest noise in the car while cruising and always has been. I dropped the trans and replaced every bushing/seal/bearing accessable w/o cracking the case and the noice got marginally less pronounced.

Seems the only cure is an actually tranny rebuild ........or a T56

 

Your 7 is looking great! Your build is smiliar to mine in that I didn't mod the crap out of it just to go fast but moded just enough to drive reliably. Great work.


I still think you'll boost creep! Keep an eye on how much boost your running. I bet on a cold day pulling in 3rd or 4th you'll def hit boost cut. Do you have a FCD or rtek? You'll know when you hit fuel cut when during boosting all of a sudden you'll be thrown forward to kiss the steering wheel.

If you worried about your boost guage not being accurate then I would recomend the autometer boost guage. It's what I'm running and works well.

 

i have rtek 1.5, love it too. no boost cut, runs richer, and secondary injectors come on at 3500 instead of 3800 no 3000 rpm cold start

 

wow been a few months! I recently brought the 7 out of storage. I pulled off the faiding/crappy pinstripes to find out they where outlined in some kind of paint. Most of it came off but up close you can see where it was. It lookes better with the pinstripping off though!

I had her waxed/buffed and clay bared. I picked up a greddy profec B for really cheap. (boost controller) I had one on my old 300zx and loved it. Its wired in now but all the settings are off as i can hit 8psi on a cold day.

some oddball fixes ive done lately;
-greddy profec b boost controller
-installed new lock harness for drivers door so alarm and keyhole bulb work again
-made racing beat rev2 exhaust tips straight (heated up some brackets and molded her even.
-installed new low coolant sensor on top of radiator as the old one broke. then the damn buzzer started going off again a week later even with the wire grounded! found a open in the harness and had to replace that wire.


things that bug me lately;

-trans bearing still slighty noisy... goes away when clutch pedal pushed in. I plan on installing a upgraded clutch with new pilot bearing and throwout bearing. If it dosent go away ill just pull the trans and send it to get rebuilt. It started making the noise when i put in the new motor, so im pretty sure its the clutch springs or one of the bearings.

-Rattle or very small exhaust leak from the turbo area. once again started when I ported the wastegate! i torqued all the bolts so ive either have a leaky gasket or cracked iron, ill know more when i send the turbo out soon for a BNR upgrade.

-Cold days I have a creeking when turning the steering wheel from the front end. either lower ball joints or strut top bearings. left rear strut leaking and noisy over bumps. a suspension upgrade is needed soon

Other than that she runs and drives like a new car. Every other light or feature works like new.

Im kind of bord with keeping her stock so im planning a BNR stage 4 / front mount / injectors /rtek 2.0+

 

***All cleaned up, buffed clay-bard and pinstripes removed**

This week I--

-Installed a new transmission. (well rebuilt) mow i have no more noisy bearing noise and i have no grinding. The shifter is solid too. love it.

-Installed a blitz blow off valve. my wife cracks me up as she immitates the noise all the time.

- all i have left is the exhaust noise by the turbo, so i just got the pineapple racing manifold to turbo gasket today im going to try and install it tomorrow. wish me luck as i know its a pain in the ***.

 

I havent heard anything good about the pineapple racing gaskets. Everything I've read from people who use them on turbo cars, says they burn up and leak pretty frequently.

Car looks great though!

 

one beautiful car. I just wish you left the tails s4

 

The car looks great. Again, my hats off to you for some awesome work on your car.