I figured I'd make an actual thread about this, just in case i move my web site or something.

anyway, here goes: i got this 10AE in late 2004. it was my daily driver and track car.
throughout 2005 i took it to about 12 events. last event i went to in january this year, i sprung some sort of bullshit vacuum leak. i think my upper-to-lower intake manifold went out. i lost about 30% of my gas mileage and ran out of gas (my gas gauge never worked so i'd been just going off the trip meter mileage.

i had just gotten nice new job so i bought a 98 camry v6 for daily. thus all the pieces were in place for a major project: motivation, experience, money, garage, and daily driver

I pulled the gar into my friend's garage and we started taking it apart. i sold the motor & tranny to my other friend.



Next we took remaining parts of the interior out (the car was half stripped already)



After that, we did some seam welding. We did the whole engine bay and front of the interior. We had done the rear a few months earlier.



Next was the cage. It's an 8 point with some X braces.







The sunroof needed to be deleted.


And stock fenders prepped for widebody.

 

I moved into my own house with my own garage, so we moved the car there, where I finished the rest of the body work, like deleting the gas filler door and doing some test painting



Then the engine came.


So I took it apart to make sure everthing was cool.


I found aftermarket high-lift aluminum rockers, chromoly pushrods, and titanium valve springs and retainers.


I got a new cam, distributor, and headers, as well as all the normal maintenance stuff.





Then It was time to finish painting it and put the suspension back together



So we could tow it to my friend's new shop, SDP in santa clara.


Once at the shop, we dropped the motor in.




And fabbed up some motor mounts.



And that's how it is as of today.

 

Nice work.

 

Nice writeup there...i LOVE the color!

 

Yeah, beautiful work. I especially like the cage. This thread will probably be moved to the other engines section, though.

 

the engine is just one part of this project though...
i could make another thread with more detail on the engine install.

but thanks for the comments guys, i'm hoping this will only take a little while longer to finish.

 

Thats awsome! I was wondering what would be going in, until I saw that nice V8. Usually I dont like doing V8's in FC's but yours is looking very well done

 

nice cage, i dont understand why you would do that to a 10th anniversary rx7 but ill give you props for the fab work

 

^^I agree. What you have done to that 10AE is Sacrilege.... but i must give props where they are due. Nice work man. What are your plans for the car?

 

when i got the car, it already had s5 bumpers and moulding and slight crash damage to one front corner, beat-to-hell seats, S5 turbo, agx shocks and eibach spring, and rb turboback exhaust. i definately wouldn't have done it to a good condition stock 10AE.

i'm going to be taking the car to hpde's and drift events (if there are any this upcoming year...). if the car proves to be competitive, then who knows where it'll take me.

 

agreed on the 10AE comments but Good job on the swap and doing everything right.

 

from one 10th AE owner to another.
i love it, people need to get over the 10th AE thing.
it was just a shitty cosmetic package.

 

Nice work. I say you can cut up any car you want as long as you do it clean. BTW Did Luke ever get his car back together after he seized it? You should post this up on TorqueCentral too.

 

very nice work dude. looks like a lot work put into it, but im sure its going to come out amazing when its done.
mad props

 

this is awesome, nice build!!!

 

when did he seize it? i only know about two crashes. no motor problems.

 

real nice, keep us updated

 

will do. next piece is wiring, then building the fuel system, i think...

 

excellent work!
love the wider fender setup and the motor is gonna scream, hells yeah.

so what are you going to run for wheels/tires and more pics of the suspension, etc!

woot!

 

here's a pic i forgot to post.



i polished up the arms and got the full energy suspension bushing kit.
i also got racing beat DTSS eliminators and MMR diff and rear subframe bushings. pics of those are somewhere...not uploaded at the moment.

i already had tein super drifts on the car when i started the build, so those didn't really get involved in the build process.

as for wheels, i'm not sure what i'm going to run yet, but it's going to be pretty big. i think i can fit 18 x 12 in the rear.

 

18x12!!! damn, why so big? Thing will sit like a monster truck in the rear if you run a thick tire. Id think 15 or 16 would be better, but its your project not mine.

 

Im sure he will go with a really low profile tire possibly streched. 15 or 16s seem to small for me. If i was doing what hes doing id go 18s or 17s for sure. Plus he has the tq to spin em now anyways.

Drewl: Is your name andrew? I dont think i met you yet but i know your on the NCDA forums too. I went to a few NCDA events at altamont in the FD but stopped once it took a **** on me. Never got to see your FC in action before you started your project what made you want to go w/ the domestic engine?

 

no worries, the tire won't be more than stock overall diameter.

and it's gotta be 17" minimum, for less sidewall flex.

maybe if it was a drag car i'd run 15's

 

oh its not a drag car? i guess i missed something on page 1. well thn thats ok i suppose, i thought maybe you were going to run 18's with drag radials or slicks

 

hmm i guess i never said what the car was for.

maybe i thought the stickers and my sig would give it away