So, as the title states, this past weekend I got my FD back from Dave @ KDR. Let me just say that I was very impressed with his work, and the car has been running fantastically since I got it back. It wasn't pleasant paying the repair bill, but that's another story.

Initially we were just going to do new coolant seals, a street port, and replace the 5th gear synchro. However, after getting the motor apart, it turns out atkins installed some junk rotor housings and irons. So, luckily I was able to find some barely used rotor housings on ebay, and bought 3 irons from Japan2LA. Then, it turned out they used the incorrect bearings for the e-shaft, so I needed a new e-shaft and main bearings. Of course Dave checked the tolerance of all other seals (corners/apex/side seals/springs), and all was ok. He said Atkins does tend to use great Apex seals. He also said he'd never seen another set of turbos that were in as good of shape as mine (stock twins), other than new ones. Car now has all new coolant hoses, vacuum hoses, new 5th gear synchro, new rotor housings/iron housings, and new OPSU. Just wanted to say thanks again to Japan2LA for the irons, and thanks to Dave for the great work. I've put 500 miles on it just taking the rpms up to 4500 - 500, but staying under half throttle. Going to change the oil tonight and put in some Castrol 20w-50. Car is pulling around 18 inHg in vacuum right now, and cold starts/hot starts are no problem. Amazing how easily the car starts without gallons of coolant in the combustion chamber. Anyway, I guess I'm just glad to have the car back, and I wanted to state how happy I am with Dave's work. When I was searching for peoples' feedback on KDR I wasn't able to find much. Hopefully if someone is looking for such a thread in the future they'll find this one.

 

Glad to hear (read) it. Enjoy the car!

 

Unless KDR said differently, I'd probably recommend a 30 weight oil while you finish breaking it in. Especially given how cold it is out by your right now.

 

Thanks for the comments guys! Also, thanks for the heads up Gracer...Dave recommended running 10w-30 for 500 miles (which is what's in there right now), then changing to my oil of choice. He said that Castrol GTX 20w-50 (what I was running before) would be fine.

 

Not necessarily trying to sway your oil choice, but here's a thread where we were discussing that not too long ago:

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/motul-recommends-different-oils-different-market-fds-705177/

 

Thanks, I'll definitely check it out.