Curious about using the FFE idler pulley with the RaceOnly kit. Shortly after I purchased my set of pulleys, I saw Omar had posted a picture with one of his customers using one as well. I asked him about that (since one of the main draws to the RO kit is not needing one), and he said the customer just wanted it for piece of mind, and he reiterated it was not necessary. I haven't put my kit on yet, because I keep going back and forth on whether or not I also want the idler pulley for that piece of mind. So, I'd be very curious on your thoughts on the subject.

 

Raceonly has tested and proven their crank-alternator-water pump pulley setup on multiple 9,000rpm+ competition cars and countless street cars with no issues or belt slippage or cavitation. Their water pump pulley is also larger to slow down the speed to reduce cavitation and increase belt contact area. If you run their full setup I wouldn't worry, however if you have the FFE idler and have the room, it definitely wouldn't hurt anything and will allow for more flexibility of playing with alternator pulley sizes.

I had to remove the FFE idler because I had to clock the turbo in a way that interferes with it. If I want to test or need to go down on the alternator pulley size, I will lose contact area on the water pump and will have to monitor that carefully. Hopefully I won't need to.

 

I wish Raceonly made a stock sized but single belt thickness main pulley for those that want to get rid of the shitty rusty oem pully half and don't have AC or PS.

 

The next installment is live!

Project FD RX7 Restomod: Part 23 – Heatshield Products HP StickyShield

Rotaries produce a ton of heat. We keep cabin temperatures down by covering our transmission tunnel with Sticky™ Shield from Heatshield Products.

Thermal management is a major challenge for rotary powered cars due to the substantial amount of exhaust gasses and temperatures that they produce. Not only is it difficult to keep the engine itself cool, but managing the exhaust heat from the engine to the tail-pipe without burning down the car, melting electronics, or heat soaking the cabin is not always easy and turbocharging makes this even more difficult.

In this article we discuss:

-The benefits of thermal insulation
-Heatshield Products HP StickyShield
-Analysis of the factory heat shielding
-Installation of Stickyshield on the firewall, transmission tunnel, factory heat shielding, and rear muffler heat shielding


https://motoiq.com/project-fd-rx7-re...-stickyshield/







Enjoy and stay tuned!

 

Is that red wire a battery relocation? I'm sure there are reasons but I ran mine inside the car. Looks risky there to me.

 

Coincidentally, I did the same thing on my RX8 race car back in July


I did it on my Spec Miata back in 2010 and did a partial application on the FD after seeing the results in the Miata. DEI Floor and Tunnel shield installed on the underside of the transmission tunnel makes a very nice difference in decreased cabin temps.

 

It is. There are 4 anchors that hold the battery cable up to the top of the trans tunnel. There will never be a time where the driveshaft contacts the battery cable unless there's a catastrophic driveshaft failure, in which case there are bigger issues. Even if that were to happen, there's a circuit breaker at the battery they will trip and prevent any issues.

Battery cable routing has been done like this on countless racecars for decades.

 

The next installment is live!

Project FD RX7 Restomod: Part 24 – Engine and Transmission Install

After 2 years, we finally install our built 13B REW engine and Nissan CD009 transmission with the Fisch Racing Tech transmission adapter system.

This has been a long time coming and we were excited to finally install the engine and transmission back into our FD RX-7 for the first time in 2 years. The journey down this engine build rabbit hole started in Part-10, where our car suffered a minor engine fire from the improper use of heater hose as fuel line by the shop who installed the car’s new crate engine. This was a major turning point that threw off the entire build plan and staged upgrades that we intended to individually test as we slowly upgraded the FD.


In this article we discuss:

-Fisch Racing Tech transmission adapter system
-Fisch Racing Tech transmission mount
-RX8 2.0 KW starter motor
-Modifying the transmission tunnel for the SerialNINE short shifter
-Driveshaft Shop Aluminum Driveshaft


https://motoiq.com/project-fd-rx7-re...ssion-install/




Enjoy and stay tuned!

 

This is the content I have been waiting for. I forgot what the car actually looked like.
I had no idea it was easier to pull/install the engine this way...

 

I didn't see the sway bar mounts in the previous posts. Did you consider other aftermarket mounts or are the same bomb ones the best?

 

Nice update!

Can you share how you plan to or already have managed to the address the speedo? Assuming you are tapping into the ABS wheel speed sensor via unit like Dakota digital universal interface.

 

I went with the Sakebomb mounts that was covered in Part-21:

https://motoiq.com/project-fd-rx7-re...hane-bushings/

Thank you. I will be covering that in a future article. I have not found a solid answer if the Dakota box can take the ABS signal and use it for wheel speed while retaining the ABS system. It appears that most who do this in the FD, Supra, etc... do not have ABS and I've read a few posts that says the Dakota box will disrupt the ABS signal and not allow ABS to function.

I will be using the Dakota box and mounting a standalone hall effect sensor on the transmission with a tone ring on the driveshaft, so I can retain ABS.

 

The next installment is live!

Project FD RX7 Restomod: Part 25 – JP3 Motorsports RX8 A/C Upgrade

We upgrade the stock FD RX-7’s subpar A/C system with JP3 Motorsport’s A/C line kit that adapts the newer, more efficient, and more effective RX-8 A/C compressor and condenser to the notoriously hot FD RX-7. JP3’s A/C system regularly outputs lower than 40*F air from the vents and we were eager to get this installed.


In this article we discuss:

-The various JP3 Motorsports A/C kits for: RHD, LHD, DENSO, MANA, R12, R134, HKS V-Mount, GREDDY V-Mount.
-RX8 A/C compressor vs FD RX-7.
-JP3 RX8 A/C compressor adapter bracket install.
-Rebuilding A/C Evaporator box.
-Installing JP3 Motorsports A/C lines.
-RX8 A/C condenser vs FD RX-7.


https://motoiq.com/project-fd-rx7-re...8-a-c-upgrade/





Enjoy and stay tuned!

 

Which V-Mount kit did you go with? You made custom brackets to mount the RX-8 condenser to the radiator?

 

I was wondering if the car has ever run with this transmission installed.
I wanted to pick your brain on the clutch system you got from competition clutch. The part number you have shared in your post doesnt appear to be working on the competition clutch website but it is a more appealing option vs the 4-puck from Tilton.
What clutch basket pressure plate etc did you end up using ?

I have started collecting the parts to do the swap but i have not found any people to give any feedback on the clutch.

SerialNine appears to be one good shifter option but if i have to chop up the tunnel for the shifter to clear i would rather get an S1 shifter instead. I cant seem to find information on people who have done it on the FD...

Thanks

 

I designed a custom radiator that is ~33% larger than anything that is currently offered. I had brackets made to mount the RX8 condenser to the radiator. I also fabricated a custom intercooler. Those will be covered in an upcoming article.

The car has not been driven yet ..but soon! The wiring harness is done and I just need to fab up the charge pipes and radiator lines and it will be up and running, and I can evaluate the clutch.

You can call comp clutch with that part number to get the clutch. Their website is a bit behind.

Depending on your timing, SerialNINE is suppose to be making a new shifter that is further rearward, which would not requirenajunclearancinf of the tunnel. That may be the best solution because their shift mechanism does feel great. There wasn't that much clearancing needed to make the current shifter work, and the shift bolt covers the slightly larger opening.
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I was inspired by the article about suspension bushings to order some Black Series urethane bushings and get my steering shaft bushing welded solid (I think everyone does this here).

The steering feel has always been a bit vague on my car. The rack isn't quite sliding around, but the bushings are soft to the touch, and it almost looks like they're twisted.

The bushings are going to take two months to arrive, though...

 

What do you mean by "welded solid"?

I'm a bit skeptical on the effectiveness of the S1 sequential shifter and it's long term effects on the synchros.

I just saw that Sikky released a shifter for the CD009. I'm not sure where the positioning of the lever is or if it's further back than the SerialNINE.

 

There’s a 30-year-old rubber isolation bushing in the intermediate shaft. Standard operating procedure in JDM land is to weld the whole thing together for better steering feel. They don’t make new ones.

For LHD cards, Sikky makes a metal bushing, but the design of RHD shafts is totally different.

 

Surely a urethane pour kit or even some adhoc "fibreglass" with a two part glue would be better than welding?

 

Seems to be two topics, one post talking about rack mounts(?).

If that's the shaft between the column and the rack, the only rubber bits there, are the accordion boots covering the universal joints....and possibly the seals on the needle bearings. Mightn't be even that much, half of the boots I see are burnt off from singles with inadequate heat protection, or twins with missing heat shields.

What I think might be more likely to be welded, is the upper universal, it's pinned to a hollow tube which frequently ovalizes around the pin (sticky tyres or parking manoevres over time) and causes lost motion at the steering wheel. Although there's welding on one of the unis that I recall - possibly by friction - most pros would probably advise, what's a likely forged steel component in the steering being zapped, is not a great idea.
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I promise you, there is in fact a rubber bushing in the intermediate shaft of every FD…. Here is the part you weld: https://minkara.carview.co.jp/smart/...3db5743c46f5e8

 

Yup, Sikky makes a solid replacement, and I believe there was once a Mazdaspeed version of it as well.

https://www.sikky.com/product/rx7-st...Ct9idMN4WLOpqK

 

I have 3 of them in my hands now, unless there's some almighty abberation, or I'm blind, none of them have a rubber bushing in that area.

The mod they've done there is in relation to slop from the pin wear in the uni I expect (there is a video on this site showing typical result about 10 years ago). Again, not a fan of welds on forgings by some unknown!

Looking at LHD parts depiction, doesn't look all that different, can't see a "rag" joint. Nothing to do with some sort of engine swap they've performed as LS3 keeps popping up during the video? Assuming I'm correct - for a moment :-) on one not present on a RHD, mazdaspeed making something solely for LHD would seem a long shot.

 

It's pictured in the instructions available at the link above.