OK, for starters my car is completely stock, but that will change here in a minute. I'm upgrading my clutch as the original one is toast after 90K miles. I'm looking for advice as far as what is convenient to tackle while I've got the flywheel off and the tranny out of the car.

I already took advantage of the fact that I hat to pull the cat in order to drop the tranny as an opportunity to get the pre-cat out of the car and replace it with a downpipe. I started on that last night and damn is that a bitch. I got one stud out, 3 to go. Wish me luck.

I'm changing the spark plugs (wires look fine) and the air filter (why not since I had to pull the air box anyways to get to the precat).

Once the flywheel is off I plan on replacing the rear main seal (I know it's leaking by the puddle of oil at the engine/tranny interaface), and retourquing the rear housing bolts.

I'm also planning on tackling the vacuum hose job while my car is down (what can I say I'm a glutton for punishment) as I've read that there are a couple hoses that are easier to reach from the rear with the flywheel off.

Anything else that I'm overlooking? I'd really hate to miss an opportunity to get to something while it's convenient.

Thanks.

 

If you are doing the hoses, make sure and replace your FPD. You may also want to send your injectors out to RC Engineering to get cleaned and balanced. Might as well change the fuel filter, diff, and tranny fluid while you're doing all the other maintenance too.

 

Oh yeah, thanks, I'd almost forgotten about the FPD. Add it to the list.

Tranny fluid is taken care of as I drained it to make it a little easier to work with when lowering it. it was old and nasty anyways and needed changing.

Fuel filter is going to have to wait until next month. I want to relocate it to the engine bay. Besides, I've already pulled the starter and disconnected the battery, so I'd have to reconnect the battery to short the fuel pump and evacuate the lines. I'm too lazy for that.

I'll probably hold off on injectors too. I'm planning to rebuild this summer anyways, so that would be the logical time to tackle that.

Thanks for the suggestions though.

 

If I read your post correctly, you said stock motor @90K with a pre-cat?? And it lasted this long? You are one definitely one of the rare ones.
Honestly, if you have the time and dough, rebuild the engine while all the parts (rotor housing) are still within spec. It is cheaper to do it now before anything catastrophic brings the engine down (water seal, apex seal etc.), by then you would have damaged other things such as the rotors, housing or even turbos.
That's just me, I rather be safe than sorry.

 

pilot bearing....dang, I can't remember what else I replaced while I was in there. If you don't get a new flywheel you need to get the stock one resurfaced....ummmmm........

 

Fix syncros if needed. Light flywheel is fun

 

Get a K&N air filter. You will need a new pilot and throw out bearing. Also a pilot bearing seal. This would be a good time to get a light flywheel.

Also a good time to mod the stock air box:

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...hreadid=121491

 

Dude I would hold off on the vac lines if you are gonig to do a rebuild this summer. It is a 1000x easier to do it with your engine out of the car.

 

This is a good time to put in a stainless steel reinforced clutch hose if you are putting in a heavier pressure plate.

www.k2rd.com sells one.

 

clutch slave cylinder, Master clutch cylinder, braided clutch hose, throw out bearing and fork.

 

glad to see someone said fork. mine went right through the bellhousing because it got weak. long story. for the $75 and the money it will save you in dammage if it lets go... its worth it.

 

is it really that brittle??
looked pretty beefy last time i was in there....

 

thats ALOT of stuff that couldve been done. too bad I didnt do it.

 

Dave at KD Rotary said to never cut the stock flywheel. If its out of spec replace it but never cut it. It was news to me but who would know better?

 

what? the forks? the pieces remaining from mine looked like a metal equivelance of partice board. you know what i am talking about, that crappy wood...

 

You know I'm in a similar situation. My car was 100% stock except a week ago I put in a downpipe. Now my clutch is starting to slip. I however will pull the engine instead so I can replace the stock vacuum lines. Are there any special additional things I should do while the engine is out(intake gaskets maybe). I want to do the job right?

 

Well when doing the rear main there is a O-Ring in the stationary gear that needs to be replaced. This is the main reason that they leak. The rear main tends to get soaked in oil and ook like it is leaking but in fact it is the o-ring in the gear. IMO I still would replace it all so it does not have to be done again.


-Mancho

 

I would not pull the engine just to do the vac lines, but if the engine is coming out anyway in a few months I would just wait to do them then.

 

If your planning a rebuild this summer then I wouldn't do anything, I mean I wouldn't replace the plugs, vacuum hoses, nothing.

Putting the fuel filter in the engine bay is a bad idea. It isn't that hard to get to in the stock location. It's not like the engine bay needs more stuff in it.

You don't need to evacuate the fuel lines with the fuel pump. Who told you that?

Jeff

 

I doubt if Dave said the stock flywheel couldn't be resurfaced. He probably meant do not try and "lighten" the stock flywheel by machining off significant material.

Mazda remans come with resurfaced flywheels and so did a motor that I picked up from Pineapple Racing on Tuesday.

But what to they know.

Jeff

 

Maybe I'm just confused about the filter change. I thought you were supposed to jumper the onboard diagnostics and run the engine until it stalled to get the fuel pump to push fuel out of the lines so that it wouldn't dump gas all over you while you were under the car. I understand that gasoline in the armpit is quite unpleasant


As for relocating the filter, I've heard its a real pain in the *** to change, but I haven't tried to replace it yet.


So far things have gone OK. I've hit a small snag with the pre-cat removal on the upper rear bolt. It won't break loose and the nut feels stripped like someone was in there before trying to get it off. I've got two of the other three studs out, and the nut off of one. I gave up last night and tried to stuff a PB BLast-soaked rag on the bolt that won't break loose. If I can't get it out I'm not sure what I'll do. I can't see it, so I can't cut the sides of the stud to make them flat and twist it out. Hopefully the PB Blast will do its job.

 

That same nut would not come off for me. I pushed so hard that I eventually rounded the edges on the it. I put the whole thing back together and drove it to M2 (with an exhaust leak). $200 later, I had an installed downpipe. They had to cut off the nut. Not my fault, it was stripped, and there was no way to get it off. I hope you have better luck than I did.

Adam

 

You just pull the fuel pump relay and run the engine until it dies 15 secs and it will shut off. This relieves the fuel pressure so you don't get as big a gush of fuel it will still leak out of the filter (and go in your armpit) when you are trying to get it off. Just have a fire extinguisher close by just in case. It's a pain but not terrible.

 

That's what I'm fearing. I can't see the bolt and can barely get a wrench on it. The thing that pisses me off is that as I was dissassembling things to drop the tranny there are several things that were done half ***. One of the exhaust studs was half drilled out. Someone tried to take the cat off and gave up halfway. 5 minutes with my propane torch and I had everything loose. When I did the oil pan repair this last summer half of the bolts in the pan were rounded off and there was sealant everywhere around the edges. Now, this bolt on the pre-cat. Why???

I was planning on rebuilding some time this summer anyways, so I may have to pull everything and wait until I have the extra $$$ for rebuild and porting.

No big deal I guess. My car has been on blocks for about 3 weeks already, and I'm itching to drive it. I just wanted to get a new clutch in so I could enjoy driving it for a few months before I rebuilt. I guess I may miss out on that.

 

The filter is hard to change, not impossible. Figure that you only really have to change it once every 30K miles or so you really don't have to mess with it very often (my 93 R1 has 61K miles).

If the car hasn't been running for a while you won't really have any fuel pressure to worry about. Pulling that relay is HARD. There will still be fuel in lines, just no pressure if you do it the "right" way. Loosen the gas cap (whoosh), this keep any pressure in the tank from pushing out fuel while the lines are off.

Do the fuel filter while the trans is out. It'll give you a little room with the diff hanging down.

Jeff