FDcurt

iTrader: (4)

I have been on the forum for a while and wanted to thank all the people that made this car possible. I started my RX-7 obsession with a stock 94 60,000 mile car. The lady that owned it before me took great car of the car.



I got to drive the car for 142 miles. I drove it from Phoniex to Tucson and the turbo let go. The wheel came off and the motor ate it. This is when the car when back to Phoniex and went to a great shop called Arizona Rotary Rockets. It got a complete rebuild along with a single turbo upgrade and lots of other goodies. The shop was for the most part great. Did a good job on the motor and a ok job with communication. I was in Korea for the build so it was hard to get a hold of glen sometimes but all in all i will be going back to there shop for more work again.

Build pics









I made 340 at 12 lbs and 419 at 17.6 lbs. The car drove great and was amazing. I drove it to Las Vegas where i currently live and got about 7K miles on the motor before it let go. AZRR and I had no idea what went wrong. We came to the conclusion that do to the under-drive pulleys the water pump slipped enough to cause heat damage. I got the motor rebuilt in Las Vegas in a shop called Area-77. I also decided to put new injectors, v-mount, ceramic coat everything, and clean up the motor. I also repainted the rims. They got cleaner on them and caused the finish to haze over.








I would like to thanks Glen from AZRR for getting the car back on the road and all the work he put into it. I would also like to thank Ken at Shine Auto. He has given me great deals on all the products i have bought from him. He has supplied rear roof spoiler, FEED hood, bumper, kevlar canards, side skirts, and also a pro diffuser. I am getting the FEED front fenders (on the way now) and also down the road rear FEED fenders. Then the body will be done.

AutoRND is supping me some new wheels. 19X10 and 19X11 Forgestar F14

Glen at AZRR will be doing my fuel system, and also running duel garrett T04S turbos. I am hoping for around 500 hp without stressing the turbos. Depending on the fuel system I will try and hit 600 but we will see.

KKMpunkrock2011

iTrader: (5)

couple comments, what turbo is on there now? that's what I'm shooting for power wise
UD pulley slippage=overheat, and that's why there are idler pulleys to replace the stock air pump, dan chadwick has a good one for single turbo cars.
what wheels are those?
what kind of port-work do you have done?

FDcurt

iTrader: (4)

1. I have a single Garrett T04S with a T3 hotside. Car starts getting boost at 1700 rpm and full boost right under 3K. Great street turbo and love it.

After the motor went I got an idler pulley kit from chadwick.

I have AME Circlar Spec R 18X8.5 and 18X9.5 I just want something with a crazy concave spokes.

rx927

iTrader: (3)

Nice build. Love the body.


Question/Concern
The second engine let go by a coolant seal? or did it throw a seal?

If it wasnt coolant seal that under driven water pump slippage one sounds new....

FDcurt

iTrader: (4)

It was a coolant seal i think...?

KKMpunkrock2011

iTrader: (5)

a ton of white smoke at either startup or all the time?

FDcurt

iTrader: (4)

Overheated bad. I would cruise with the heat on in vegas weather in the summer and my temp would hit 215-220 before i would have to pull over and let it cool down. Killed my turbo doing this. Oil temps were at 240-260. But after the rebuild the car runs fine.

KKMpunkrock2011

iTrader: (5)

did you lose compression or what? How did you know you needed a rebuild? Just cuz it overheated doesn't mean you need a rebuild, it usually accompanies it at one point, but not always. Overheating does sound like a coolant or oil seal tho, but once again, that's accompanied by a ton of smoke.

turbodrx7

iTrader: (43)

If this was your conclusion to what lead to the motor failure, then why didnt you do anything to fix it with your new setup? It looks to be the same pulley set up that you had before?

Also, did you check your fan relays? I had an issue years ago with a fan relay and my fans would only come on low speed.

-Austin

Finster

iTrader: (1)

yeah, everyone is just curious as to what part failed from all that overheating you are talking about... and what can you do differently on the follow-up engine if you dont have those answers...

really nice car though
19 inch rims? you aren't Austrailian are you?

FDcurt

iTrader: (4)

I never had tons of smoke. The shop that rebuilt the car took it for 2 days and gave it back to me. Told me they have no idea what was wrong with it, didnt even know if a rebuild would fix the problem.

This is a list of things i changed after i had the heating problem to combat it

chadwich idler pulley kit
New duel Setrab oil coolers
Flushed the coolant system and made sure no air was trapped.

Still had a problem with the temps. After the rebuild temps went down. I havent had a problem scene. The shop said it was a slight tare in the coolant seal. Everyone told me not to worrie about the temps because of the heat in vegas but I am a very cautious person and went with a rebuild.

After the rebuild I took everything to get ceramic coated to reduce the heat(LIM UIM downpipe, hotside, and manifold)
I also went with a v-mount kit.

No im not Australian, I just like a full wheel well.

I will list a full build list later.

KKMpunkrock2011

iTrader: (5)

so the only reason you got a rebuild was it was getting really hot in the engine bay? weird and unconventional, but it seemed to work for ya. You must have fairly deep pockets to not try and find another solution first. Should've added the idler pulley before, it's possible that and the flush made the difference.

I too appreciate a full wheel well, and I've noticed that some cars for whatever reason, look better with a 19" rim, but my personal FD looks great with a somewhat small (by today's standards) 17" rim.

turbodrx7

iTrader: (43)

You might want to consider running Evans NPG also. It offers far superior protection over 50/50 coolant/water and you dont even have to use it in a pressurized system. Maybe something to look into since your out in the desert.

-Austin

FDcurt

iTrader: (4)

I installed the idler pulley and also the coolant flush and replaced the t-stat and had no effect on the heat the motor was producing. On the power FC my temps were real high. Cant really remember. But i know that my oil temp was reading 240-260 and water temp was at 215-220. This is dangerously high correct? For normal running i.e under little to no boost.