eyecandy

iTrader: (19)

I am purchasing a 1993 Base model chassis, with NO engine, transmission, ecu or wiring harness. I had orginally though of returning to stock with reliablty mods, because power gains is not what I am looking for. I going to use it for track use and I want to beable to harness the power while flirting with its handling limits. So in short, I am looking for more reliability than gaining more than power.

I then beagn to think of a few of the mods:
Intake, Downpipe, HF Cat, Cat-back, Boost controller, Turbo timer, Big Radiator.
I had also thought of switching to Non-Seq for less back pressure and heat. With those mods would I need to run a programable ECu like a PFC or Haltech?

Bascially I am looking for advice on what you think is the best way to return it to a running state, where it will be reliable while making about the same power or with really no more than say 300 HP. And at what point in the mods do I need to worry about adding a programable ECU?

I am starting with a clean slate, so how do you think I should begin?

Snook

iTrader: (12)

i think you should look for a used motor and have it rebuilt or maybe find a stock used one out of a wrecked car with low miles or one that was already rebuilt by a good shop. If you don't have an engine core a reman engine from mazda will cost 3000. If you wanted to go the reman route (which is iffy sometimes) then you should find a totally trashed motor to use as a core because then the price is 2000 for a reman. Also a lot of engine importers sell low mileage engines with transmissions harness and ecu all together for cheap prices. I think you could get all those parts for about 4k or less no problem.

With those mods you mentioned you should probably have an ecu but you could get away with running the stock ecu as long as you were able to control boost to 10psi or less. The stock ecu wont run great on non seq but it can do it. I would minus the high flow cat and leave the stock one until you get a pfc. That is the best computer right now for the money it's great. That's pretty much it.

eyecandy

iTrader: (19)

I was orgianlly planning on getting a JDM or one from a wrecked car, because it would probably cost to much and take to long to piece everything together myself.

I am just not sure if it would be better to just find a motorest with no ecu or harness and run the Haltech or PFC from the get go.

Why should I leave the stock main cat until I get a programable ECU? A side question about the PFC and Haltech, are they both capable of running all the factory equipment in the car? Like A/C, emissions, pumps, etc..

Snook

iTrader: (12)

Yes it would be very costly to buy all of the parts separte that you are missing and a pain to get it all on the engine and working. A complete motor would be ideal.

Usually engines come with the wiring harnesses still attatched and the ecu may or may not be included.
If you get a pfc you will need the stock wiring harness. The pfc is a stock ecu but you can edit every field and save it.
The haltech can't run the a/c or the oil metering pump so you will have to use premix at every fillup (not a big deal I do it any way on top of the omp working). It uses an entirely different wiring harness that someone needs to wire for your car. Some people have issues with a/c and the pfc but it's rare. If you remove emissions the pfc will not throw codes like the stock ecu.

You should leave the stock cat in place for a little restriction because you will be flowing too much exhaust gas and you will not be able to hold the boost to 10psi on the stock ecu. Anything past that will blow the motor. Now if you get a computer then go for it and maybe even a midpipe. Either way port out the stock wastegate on the turbos while they are off of the car. That will help with boost control.

good luck
-Snook

Jason93RX7R1

Personally, I would seriously consider installing an LS1 in the shell. It would be considerably cheaper, and also would meet your required needs much better.

eyecandy

iTrader: (19)

Thanks for the help!

Any recomendations on where to buy the motorset from? They way it looks now, if it comes with the ecu I will stick with that, if it does not I will just spend the little extra for the PFC.

If I go with the PFC do I still need a Boost Contoller or does the PFC handle well enough?

You are joking about the LS1, right?

rynberg

eyecandy, if you are building a pretty much track only car that requires a minimum of fuss to set-up, I would install the mods you listed with a PFC.

With a PFC+datalogit, you will be able to set the car up more reliably (lower fan turn on temps, etc). Non-sequential will give you a flatter (but smaller) power-band than the sequential set-up.

With those mods, your PFC will require minimal tuning to run great. The PFC runs the oil metering pump and does so-so with the A/C (usually for most people, the A/C won't work on setting 3 or it will work sporadically). The PFC can also control boost, although a separate electronic boost controller works better.

If you are road racing the car, you will also NEED a better intercooler.

eyecandy

iTrader: (19)

Why would I need a better intercooler?

If later down the road I decide to go single turbo can I still use the PFC?

Mahjik

iTrader: (1)

eyecandy,

If you are looking to road race the car, here's what I would look into:

Intake - M2 or other cold intake (or stock airbox mod). Really, since in road racing you are always moving so an open air intake isn't going to be a problem. However, you said you want to make it more reliable so that's why I suggest a cold air intake).

Downpipe - This should be done on these cars no matter what. Just a good mod to remove some of the heat from the engine bay while adding some power.

HF Cat - Good safe mod. You'll get increased flow without uncontrollable boost.

Cat-back - Any aftermarket catback will be fine. Just get what "looks" the best to you.

Boost controller - Good mod. I've heard from more than one person that after installing a boost controller such as the Profect B, boost response was much better. It's also a good thing to have since road racing already heats up the car you might want to run lower boost on warmer days.

Radiator - If you are going to be road racing, a Koyo radiator would probably work really well. Since it's quite a bit larger than stock, if you can open up the front a little more (something like the Shark Mod or an aftermarket front end) you'll get tons of cooling.

Upgraded IC - The benefits of an upgraded IC are:

1. Better turbo response
2. Better pressure drop which means your turbos aren't working as hard to produce the same amount of boost.

Suspension - Tokico or some other adjustable strut. It's been suggested to me to not use the infinite adjustable struts (like Koni's) for road racing as it makes it more difficult to setup the car unless you keep a log of your all changes. Also, you might look into some stiffer springs.

As far as the ECU, yes, it would be a good idea to run an upgraded ECU. You don't necessarily need a programmable one like the Haltech or PFC, any of the reprogrammed ECU's like Pettit/M2/GForce will do since you really aren't looking for max power.

Nice things to have:

Big brake kit - As you get faster, you'll want to stop better. A big brake kit may be something to look into after you have gotten some seat time.

Brake ducts - I'm looking into this as well. I'm probably going to do a home made brake duct myself. N-Tech isn't making anymore of their kits and right now I don't want to spend the money for the Crooked Willow ducts. As long as you have some race pads, you shouldn't have any brake fade but if you do, ducts will help.

Dual Oil Coolers - If you can find parts from a wrecked/parted out R1/R2, dual oil coolers will definitely help. You can also upgrade to just a larger single cooler if you can't locate the R1/R2 stuff. IMO, it's too much of a pain to add an extra cooler unless you can get everything from an R model, so just upgrade the single in that case.

Last suggestions:

I would also vote against the non-sequential mod for road racing. You'll have to shift more with it depending on the track layout.

Hope that helps, good luck!

eyecandy

iTrader: (19)

Well hot damn! Thanks for all the advice, Mahjik!!! Do you do any type of road racing?

So going Non-seq does not really help the heat/exhaust ecsape the engine better, its more in the exhaust flow after the turbos?

eyecandy

iTrader: (19)

I was looking at your mods, how do you like your Blitz SMIC? I was thinking of that or PFS's...

Jason93RX7R1

No, while I still have a rotary in mine, I have been researching the LS1/T56 swap and it really has some serious value. It would be considerably cheaper, potentially more reliable, and will give you 300+ to the wheels without further modification.

Kiflin

I'm also doing a chassis buildup for my next fd. If you want any help or anything on a weekend or simply want to talk on the phone about parts or anything, pm me and I'll get ahold of you asap.

I have a lot of friends who can get you a lot of parts for dirt cheap, including jdm parts. So if you need any help, ask anytime.

ghiaracer

If this is a track car, Get a tec2 oe 3 or an autronic so you can run a "racing harness" (light weight, bare bones) With these, you have DFU ingnition, so you can rip ALL of the stock stuff off (more weight shed). This leads to the next point. Since you dont need anything stock, really, you can buy a rebuilt bare motor, then get a aftermarket small single turbo kit(more weight savings, plus less heat, more reliablity), Dwonpipe, and a add a little fuel system upgrades. You then have a much lighter car, and more reliable as well.

Mahjik

iTrader: (1)

Yes, I do road racing. Just finished an event this passed weekend with the local Porsche club. I'm still a n00b with seat time, but I'm enjoying every minute of it.

As far as non-seq, it might help a little but I doubt it will help that much. The best thing is a vented hood. One of the local guys who does as many track events as he can (he's an instructor) swears by vented hoods for the track. He has a Scoot hood (not what I would pick, but I have a Mazdaspeed hood sitting in my garage) and never has any temp problems.

On the track that's close to me, I know I can get away with coming out of some corners in 3rd because of where boost comes on in sequential. Where as the delayed boost of non-seq, I would definitely need to downshift to 2nd to maintain any kind of power. Non-seq IMO benefits the drag race more than road race.

I like the Blitz a lot. At the time, I wanted something that fit the stock location without making me look for a different intake. The PFS SMIC is nice, but it seems you'll need to be careful on the intake selection to go with it as there isn't a whole lot of room next to it.

I have thought of changing to the PFS SMIC next year. Not sure if I will yet or not. Looking at the pics of the PFS, it looks like I'll have to alter my HKS intake mounting locations for it.

eyecandy

iTrader: (19)

I am really not THAT serious into road racing, more just for a weekend warrior, I would like to have one strictly setup for that but it just comes down to the money problems...

I had thought about putting a different motor in the car, but then it just comes down to the balance of the car, anything else but a SR20 or another 4 cylinder would just throw it off to much.

Well bascially I need to really find now is a the engine, tranny, ecu and wiring harness so I can begin! Any suggestions?

Again, Thanks for all the help! It really helped me make up my mind on the mods that I am going to do.

Mahjik

iTrader: (1)

That's going to be the tricky part. As suggested earlier, if you can find a wrecked or parted out FD, that would be your best bet.

You can get a reman for a hair over $2000. However, there is a $1000 core fee. So if you can get a damaged core for less than $1000, you'll save a few bucks. For remans, talk to Ray at Malloy Mazda:

Malloy Mazda
1-888-533-3400
Talk to Ray Crowe

As for transmissions, you might talk to KDR:

http://www.kdrotary.com/

It's not going to be a cheap project if you can't locate some used/broken down engines and transmissions.

Maybe these guys can help you out: http://www.mazdarecycling.com/

Keep us updated on your progress!