I will be logging my journey of bring this 87' base model back to life from what I believe to be a fuel pulsation damper failure related fire.





Plans:
Get the motor running, assuming the seals have not ceased.

• Change all of the fluids, pack the bearings, brakes, replace all of the suspension bushings, etc.
• Teach my self paint/body work, and repaint the car.
• Use the car as a back up DD/ weekend car. Maybe even the occasional Auto-X?
• silicone vacuum lines

The car is all original (aside from the fire damage), and is in very good shape. I can't decide if I should keep it original? Will an original base model be sought after 20 years from now? What do you guys think?

If I decide not to keep it original, I would like to build a nice rounded N/A, with an emphasis on reliability and budget over speed. I'm more interested in setting up the suspension/brakes and having lower gearing than trying to make more power for now.

• Emissions removal
• OMP block off, etc.
• 5-lug conversion with TII brakes
• Vert wheels with some nicer tires?
• LSD rear-end with a lower r/p ratio: Didn't GTU's come with 4.27s?
• Miata 6-speed: good or bad?
• Used Intake
• Used steet-RB exhaust/headers
• Totiko Illuminas and Eibach springs from my TII
• sway bars?
• Rear steer eliminator
• strut tower braces, a-arm brace.
• EMS?

Eventually, I imagine the motor will go, assuming it already hasn't. I would like to attempt my first rebuild. Again, a focus on reliability over power.

• S5 N/A rotors
• Oil port/passage mods
• quality seals
• street port
• etc.

Or maybe just do a simple stock rebuild with quality components for my first rebuild?





Preface:
Although I am not new to FC's, its been a while since I've worked on one (or driven one). I purchased my first FC, an 87 TII, back in 2004 as my first vehicle. Some of you may remember it/me. I was young, had a nice job, and no other financial responsibilities... So I built it up fast, some good decisions, some bad...




Well after DD the TII for 3 years, dumping every dollar I had made/saved into her, I needed something that I "wouldn't tinker with" for college. So motor problems came up, and instead of fixing her I purchased a Jeep. The Jeep very soon became my new toy, as it related my love of the out doors, automobiles, and geology (Which I am currently pursuing a degree in). The Jeep began to draw as much money from my bank account as the RX-7 once did, but it has taken me to some amazing places.

From this stock Jeep that had been wrecked:



To a decently capable machine:






Meanwhile the once love of my life, the blue TII, sat in my parents garage for the past 3 years. -Expect to see updates on this car soon.

Well as I transfer colleges, my roommate-to-be acquired the red base model RX-7 seen above. He drove it three days before it caught on fire. He later decided to join the Air Force instead of going to school with me, and decided he was no longer interested in the FC. So I offered to purchase it from him for $250. Being the nice guy that he is, he said I can have it for free.

It sits behind a shop near my parents house for a year until I find a place to keep it. After DDing the Jeep for nearly 4 years, I realized that I miss the spirited drives, and speed induced adrenaline I adored so much in high school. So with the motivation of a friend, we decided that it was time to bring this old gal back to life.

So it's been long enough that I am nearly a newb all over again. Especially since all of the fun stuff like OMP removal, silicone vacuum lines, and rats nest removal had already been performed on my original RX-7 when I bought her. Any insight in these areas would be greatly appreciated.

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Enough B.S./Irrelevant back ground stuff:

This is the car, as she sat for two years behind the shop. I had only seen her once before.


The body was in amazingly good shape, no rust to be found. Aside from the faded paint, with small cracking on the hood, there is only one dent on the entire car.


I'm on pretty good terms with the shop owner who had been keeping the FC. He originally had taken a look to see if he could fix it for my friend, but determined he didn't have the time/knowledge/resources to fix her. When I picked up the car, he had already removed the TB/UIM and a couple of Vacuum lines.





The interior is nearly perfect, just one crack in the center pannel, and a few small tears in the driver sear.


Damage Assessment:

• Most vacuum lines: toasted
• Engine Wiring harness: toasted
• Primary and secondaries rails/injectors:toasted
• Heaters hoses: toasted
• Window wiper motor: toasted
• Window spray nozzle: toasted
• O2 sensor: wire melted
• A few random chassis harness connectors melted
• clutch line: toasted
• Charcoal canister: toasted
• Various hoses: air pump, heater, fuel, emissions, etc. Damaged.
• A few random plastic hoses that were not melted, broke on removal.
• oil injectors at the block

 

So far I have already acquired a "new":

• UIM
• LIM
• TB with all of the sensors
• Primary fuel rail
• secondary fuel rail
• two injectors (need two more)
• good conditioned pulsation damper
• a good engine wiring harness

I just ordered all of the gaskets from Karack as part of his group buy, and will be picking up the injector o-rings as well.

I will order the silicone vacuum lines when I figure out the best place to order them from, along with what lengths to order.

Length of vacuum lines needed?:

FC3S Pro says:" To replace all of the vacuum hoses under the engine, you need approximately: 30 feet of 4mm (~3/16"), 10 feet of 6mm (~1/4"), 2 feet of 10mm (~3/8") - upper intake manifold to brake booster."

Mazdatrix says 13ft. of 3.5mm and 6.0mm of 6ft.

As far as lengths needed, I'm going to assume I should go with the FC3S pro measurements?

 

looks fun... gogo banjo bolt.

 

Love seeing these cars brought back from the dead, great build!

I've always wanted a wrangler, so expensive though...

 

Nice, from your past experience, you probably dont need much help from the forums. Good luck.

I too want a wrangler

 

Looks like a fun project. If I were in your shoes, I would get everything back to stock. It's nice to have a drivable, worry free RX-7. Something I miss dearly.

 

Thanks guys

Update #1.
A storage unit is not the ideal place to work on a car, but it will do for now. My faithful assistant, Scout, was on hand to... Well hes not much help.


Went ahead and swapped out the engine harnesses, as many of you know accessing the ECU can be a real pain.


Removed the LIM and remaining fuel rail, hoses, lines, etc. The 6 port actuators and LIM were surprisingly hard to remove?


Figured out why the clutch had no pressure:


Some burnt stuff:


The injectors, do yall think the two on the left are re-usable?



My long time buddy Mitch came out to help me, you can see his STi in the background. He has been a big help, and has really pushed me to get this thing going.


Any idea what this was/goes to? I found it in the hatch.


Went ahead and put in a new O2 sensor.

We also pulled the plugs and funneled some 10W-30 into the motor and turned it over by hand. Judging by the sound it still has some compression in each housing. Any hints and tips to help break loose possibly ceased seals?

Thanks guys

 

Seals in 13B's are pretty hard to carbon seize, unlik ethe older engines. If it were me I would have pulled the plugs, used a squirty bottle with ATF to put a couple of squirts on each rotor face. Just squirt a bit in, turn, squirt a bit more in, turn a bit, repeat. let that sit for maybe a day, then turn it over by hand a few times before cranking it over on the starter. If the seals had a little carboned up this will loosen them right up.

I would not re-use the injectors unless you have them tested, as good ones are not hard to find for reasonable cost.

 

Wow, that thing looks great (besides the engine bay ).

Looks like the plug for the windshield wipers, the half with the clip thing mounts onto the wiper motor itself.

 

I'm not entirely sure RX-7s at all will become collectible. It's hard to tell. Some people think the day of "collector" cars are gone. That may be the case, but there is no telling. That being said, even if RX-7s do become sought after cars in stock condition 20 years from now, the base is not likely to be the most sought after. If I was an RX-7 collector 20 years from now after cars in stock form, I'd want clean Turbo IIs, a GTUs, 10th Anniversary edition, etc.

Good luck with the build. The car is in clean shape, so it'll be nice once running again.

 

I'm kind of with you on that, but I was thinking the emissions and omp block off might actually help reliability? Besides, it would save me allot of work on getting all of that stuff to work again anyways.

I will have to give the ATF treatment a shot when I get her closer to being able to run. Good point on the injectors.

Thank you sir!

I think that there is a chance the RX-7s, Supras, Evos, etc., might one day become my generations collector cars. I know that if I had the money, I would be willing to pay a pretty penny for an original low mileage FD.

I do agree that if they do become collectors, this model would not be the most sought after. So maybe I won't feel to bad to make a couple of small changes.

 

This looks like a fun project. I have the exact same car: red '87 base. Funny, I'm also an Aggie and bought it at Fred Brown Mazda the day I graduated. I keep it bone-stock so maybe I can help as a reference.

Do you still think the fire originated at the primary rail? Hows the compression? If it were mine I'd try to keep it stock for plug and play parts from salvage cars. There's a lot of salvageable hardware out there for now. As I'm sure you know, Texas exempts cars over 25 years old from emissions testing so that may have some bearing on your decision too.

 

Never ever use atf if you don't plan to rebuild the engine immediately!!

 

Ditto, it can eat up the seals. You can use marine fogging oil, motor oil, or 2-stroke oil. Inject a couple of teaspoons into each spark plug hole--that'll build up compression and help start it up as well as lubricate the internals.

 

nice pics !

hmm wow, that fire really chewed a lot of stuff ... hmm even I got a S5 and the PD is not as bad as S4 I should really consider getting a new one with the rebuild ... fire is not fun.

 

It's great that you are finding the old love you had for this car. With that said you should just buy a brand new PD, I wouldn't risk another fire with a used piece.

 

This scares me a bit, my pulsation dampener has a few hairline cracks in it, and rub marks from the omp rod...


breckboarder55- imo you should do a few mods to make it more enjoyable to drive.

 

Small world! How many miles have you put on her? Gig em'

Noted

On Saturday I hand turned with 10W-30, figured I would do this a couple of times and ATF right before I actually attempted to start her.

Thank you sir! I agree, I couldn't imagine loosing something I have put so much time and money into.

I'm already forgetting what my other vehicle is called. I'm thinking about buying a new one, but the one I picked up looks perfect... I don't think I want to risk it.

I'm leaning more and more towards doing some light mods, but only after I replace the suspension bushings, repack the bearings, etc. I will be cheap with this car, the TII is more likely to see my money. That, and I am probably going to put some money away for a potential rebuild before I do anything serious.

I'll probably swap over the eibach springs and Tokico Illuminas I had on my TII. I have an old set of Yokohama ES100's in something like a 205/16r that have been sitting in my parents garage for 4 years, I might find some light/used 16"s to put them on. Then eliminate rear steer, strut and a-arm braces, try to find an LSD, etc.


Engine wise I'm pretty sure I'll:

• I'll give the pineapple 6-port sleeves a shot
• TB mod
• OMP elimination
• eliminate the emissions.

I'm kind of a hippie (by College Station standards anyways), so I'm contemplating leaving the cat on, or going with a high flow if I get an aftermarket exhaust.

That's a lot of maybe and probablys...

Thank you for the support and kind words guys n' gals!

 

the atf will eat the rubber seals internally. just dont put it in there man. chevron with techron and premixing will get rid of all that in no time.

 

Pretty sure the ATF will not eat the rubber seals in the combustion chamber unless you literally soak it and let it sit for weeks. It will loosen carbon deposits on apex seals. Have used this technique for 12A's many times with great success.

Also, techron may work, but you will definitely have better luck using ATF, Marvel Mystery Oil, or even kerosene to loosen carbon and varnish before starting an engine thats sat or been gummed up.

 

This makes me want to go banjo bolt, also i love your dog!

 

Partial Update:

• I've gone ahead and ordered a SS clutch line from Corksport.
  
• My gasket kit, egr gasket, fuel injector seals, and the other two injectors I need should be here late next week. (Thanks again Karack!)
  
• I found that the two oil injectors for the block are damaged, so I am pretty set on going premix/OMP elimination. Unless someone can give me a reason not to, I will be ordering this kit: http://banzai-racing.com/store/FC_oi...imination.html
  
• I'm still trying to figure out what all emissions/egr/ACV/Air pump stuff I can remove. This will save me the hassle of trying to find new hoses for the air pump, egr, etc. I have been searching/reading rats-nests removal threads for hours (Instead of working ) My understanding is that the 6-ports on S4's are exhaust actuated, so I could actually remove the air pump, egr, acv, with no negative side effects? (Any hints, tips or links on this would be much appreciated ) Most of the rats nest and emissions threads I came across are S5 or turbo specific.
  
• The "vacuum spider" was in poor condition and had a few cracks/breaks. I'm having a hard time figuring out what systems these lines are used in?
  
• I want to order these 6-port sleeves from Pineapple, but I am waiting to figure out if I am going to want the EGR and ACV BOPs as well. http://www.pineappleracing.com/exter...cessories.aspx
  
• Aside from that stuff, I still need to order my vacuum hoses, my heaters hoses (I assume Mazdatrix is the only place that really has these?), source a wiper motor, and a windshield spray bottle.

Enough negative feedback that I think I will only use ATF as a last ditch effort, thanks.

I do have some MMO on hand, I will give that a shot as well.

Thanks! He's a damn good dog.

 

Found some very helpful links:

Emissions removal for S4 NA's: http://www.rotaryresurrection.com/2n...s_removal.html

FPD to banjo-bolt conversion: http://www.rotaryresurrection.com/2n..._dampener.html

Electric 6-port actuation: http://www.rotaryresurrection.com/2n...elec6port.html

 

Does anybody use teflon tape on their clutch lines?