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Hello everybody. So i've jumped right into it and started the rebuild for my turbo II. I have absolutely no experience with these motors, or putting any motor back in a car. So I was wondering what parts I would be able to keep out when putting the motor back in the car. I would like to make it as easy as possible, and also clear up the engine bay as well.
I have done a little research but have not found too many things I can keep out. Maybe you guys can list some things that others may not know they can delete from the engine bay. Thanks!!
Keeping things as is would be the the most likely route to go because time after time when someone thinks they are making it easier on themselves by removing this or that they invariably end up with a troubled car.
Go to Rotary Resurrection home of the budget rebuild. this spells out a lot of what you can remove from the engine. With that said if this is going to be a street driven car and not a track only car. I agree with Satch best to keep it as stock as possible and save yourself the headache.
If you go to the dark side forum there's a nice write up on chassis harness tuck . I followed that back when I did mine . . It all depends on how you want the car to be built and look . Even A stock setup can be cleaned up and Hidden . Just got to know wiring and how it works in general. Of course I'm rocking a haltech now and custom
Made harness that I made . But when I did have the s4 rtek for 332 s4 ecu I still was able to delete and rewire to show no wires
"Cleaning up the engine bay" and "deleting things" are not necessarily the same thing.
In fact, it's quite possible to radically alter the bay while retaining all of the stock stuff, it's simply a matter of will and effort.
Mainly, you need to understand the systems and how they function and the best way to do that is get it working as stock as possible. Then you can start chipping away at the mountain.
The main "problem" with the stock bay is that Mazda didn't particularly care about looks and they had to leave room/make provision for options and combinations that your particular car may not have.
It can be reorganized to look better without getting rid of anything.
always start by putting everything back together how it was supposed to be, once you get that right then you can start removing things one by one.
i constantly had people bringing in cars running like dog poop, and they were a mess of poorly executed deletions. when you start removing clusters of things it becomes rather difficult to know where you went wrong. when you have everything working right, then you remove one or only a few things at a time to see if you are making progress or making matters worse. the turbo cars can be almost completely stripped, however when you strip a turbo engine you also are working on dozens of potential boost leaks.
Last edited by RotaryEvolution; Jul 7, 2016 at 09:11 PM.
Anything that you can take out of the engine bay is there to serve function. With the exception of one item: the cold start assist reservoir. If that is still present, remove it and cap the nipple on the manifold it was plumbed into.
about 75% of the parts on the turbo engine are for emissions, the other 25% are there to help maintain idle quality.
the turbo engines can live fine without any of it, including the idle control devices if you can live with a slightly high idle once the engine is warm.
on the non turbo cars though, the emissions controls are tied to the auxiliary port system which is actually a power control device. stripping an n/a unthoughtfully will reduce overall power output.
this is what i got rid of from under the hood of my 88 turbo II
its 85lbs of stuff i did not need.
no ac, no ps, no air pump, and no emissions.
Rotary Resurrection is great lots of info, i used them to figure it all out.
but everyone is right, don't just go in and start taking stuff off. do your homework so you know what you are doing and how to do it right
If you enjoy sitting in your car for 10 minutes while it warms up then Ya..take the idle controls out!
I pulled stuff off the S5 Turbo engine and that thing was quirky when cold..
I was glad I have a good sound system so I'd just stuff something in the deck and "funk out" while it did its thing.
*(MC Hammer pants can hold a 250 piece socket set..and nobody will notice~!)
I can judge a person's age by what they remove from the engine bay.
As one grows up, one begins to appreciate a car that idles on its own, doesn't reek of fuel, has at least the OPTION to provide cool air into the cabin (mainly for passenger sake, or those hot days when one is expected to show up not looking like they just ran a marathon), etc.
And with age comes the understanding that 200lbs of stuff makes jack all difference in a street car.
Oh and in that pile I'm fairly sure I see the cold start thermowax as well. Unless the car is running a standalone, removal is pointless and stupid.
Removing A/C and P/S on a street car that is never tracked is just asinine.... The older I get, the more I want a luxurious car that can move, rather than a bucket of steel that is quick.
With the manual rack, the only time lack of power steering is noticed is with larger tires in a parking lot, stationary or at very low speeds. The thing about A/C is that there are some people I won't take in the RX-7 (mine never had A/C) because I know they wouldn't appreciate showing up at the destination soaked in sweat. And it's been a hot summer here.
If you enjoy sitting in your car for 10 minutes while it warms up then Ya..take the idle controls out!
A contrarian viewpoint:
I have deleted the secondary throttle plates, the entire thermowax assembly (including linkage and water lines) and the AWS solenoid/hoses and find that warm weather warmup is hardly different than before...certainly not the extended nightmare you describe. Maybe a minute or so before idle stabilizes. But, I hear you say,Wait until winter and yes, I expect cold starts to be a bit crankier then but...we had a weird cold front this week and overnight temps dropped to the low forties and starting was no big deal (I was somewhat surprised).
So yeah, cold starting is impacted by those deletions but not to the extent you assert.
(With the recent addition of the lightweight flywheel, I found bumping the idle to @850 made shifting/decel smoother but that is down to engine dynamics, not the throttle body mods. I had previously been running the stock flywheel with the stripped throttle body and she idles fine at the factory 750rpm.
It's also worth noting that long before I deleted the thermowax- in fact, I spent quite a bit of time going through and adjusting that whole monkeycluster- I had removed the secondary throttle plates/shaft and could feel absolutely no effects whatsoever. There was no noticeable improvement, but no ill side effects, either.)
Originally Posted by Aaron Cake
I can judge a person's age by what they remove from the engine bay.
A contrarian viewpoint:
I have deleted the secondary throttle plates, the entire thermowax assembly (including linkage and water lines) and the AWS solenoid/hoses and find that warm weather warmup is hardly different than before...certainly not the extended nightmare you describe. Maybe a minute or so before idle stabilizes. But, I hear you say,Wait until winter and yes, I expect cold starts to be a bit crankier then but...we had a weird cold front this week and overnight temps dropped to the low forties and starting was no big deal (I was somewhat surprised).
So yeah, cold starting is impacted by those deletions but not to the extent you assert.
(With the recent addition of the lightweight flywheel, I found bumping the idle to @850 made shifting/decel smoother but that is down to engine dynamics, not the throttle body mods. I had previously been running the stock flywheel with the stripped throttle body and she idles fine at the factory 750rpm.
It's also worth noting that long before I deleted the thermowax- in fact, I spent quite a bit of time going through and adjusting that whole monkeycluster- I had removed the secondary throttle plates/shaft and could feel absolutely no effects whatsoever. There was no noticeable improvement, but no ill side effects, either.)
In Aaron's world, I'm twelve.
yeah 10 mins my ***, i would go for a BAC if i had A/c or if i still had it i wouldnt remove it... but i am not going chasing one down.. it takes 20 seconds of holding the throttle open to get it to idle at 700rpm in 10 degree winter. warm idle is 850.
POWERSTEERING IS FOR CHICKS. no pS on my FCs ever. infact i removed the fuse on my rx8 after it's powersteering quit b/c of the common eps code. i enjoy the feel of driving the rx8 without powersteering way more then with. its a big difference.. i only race to work from home and to home form work, but i usually come in first place.
i wouldn't mind having a/c back sometimes tho.
Last edited by lastphaseofthis; Aug 28, 2016 at 08:43 AM.
