T-SMASH

Hi to all. I have been reading about maintenance for my rotary more than I have been posting. The reason being is that, well, I want to learn more about the car since I'm a DO-IT-YOURSELF guy.

I recommend to all the ROOKS like me to do this and not give up until you find an answer to your questions. At the end of the day you will be proud of yourself for all the hard work and positive results like GOING FASTER THANKS TO YOURSELF!. TRUST.

Here is the story. I bought my 95' 7 months ago not knowing much about it just because I always wanted one. Following the advice from the guys at this forum, I started doing maintenance from the back of the car with the fuel filter being my first job. What a job!

Now I'm working my way around the engine and the way the turbos work. The colored vacuum hose diagrams posted through the forum and a FD friend, helped me find out that I didn't have a BOV and the Charge Relieve Valve was installed acting as a BOV.

It made me realize that My turbos needed attention cause I don't know what kind of set up the previous owner had since I bought the fd as a repo in CA. I removed the intake manifold and a bunch of vacuum hoses were not installed. Using the diagrams, bought silicone hoses and completed several connections.

Now you tell me. I installed a SSBOV from HKS, bought it cheap from a friend, and cancelled the Factory one. I'm making now 10 to 12 boost but occasionally, after shifting gears, the boost pressure drops to only 6 psi. If i let go the gas pedal recover some boost, But not quite the response I want. Today an orange civic turbo blew my doors open!. I'm hurt.....

I have installed a 3" pipes all the way to the muffler, no cat. Since I'm testing out the car, I have no air filters installed neither. My car is registered in Florida. I have a Full tune up. I haven't touched the turbos yet, but I will if its necessary.

I have read about " reliability mods" as well. No worries there. I like to be as thrifty as I can when it comes to budget for now and those mods will work for me. But I want the car running well at any time.

I'm still working on the "rats nest" but I was wondering: since I dont have to worry about emissions, Would going "simplified vacuum hoses" the better choice or making it non-sequential turbos ? remember my car is stock. I know, i went long on this but I wanted to stimulate the forum to get familiar with my work and get a hand on this. Thanks for your input. Bring the Questions please, I'll be ready.

JOE

ILoveJDM

iTrader: (7)

no bov on mine either! on purpose!

XLR8

iTrader: (52)

Well you are definitely doing the right thing by researching. But you need to STOP if you are still using the factory ECU!!

Reliability mods are a great place to start. A Power FC is VERY important at this point. You ARE exceeding or at the edge of the stock ECU. FD's have a very limited range of modification with the factory tune & fuel system. You are running a 3" exhaust with no main cat. With this, you are opening a bag of worms. The fact that you still have the factory intake box is probably the only thing keeping your boost down. As you open the intake and exhaust you will generate more boost. As you create more boost the factory ECU doesn't know what to do with it. You will run lean, and you will pop your engine. Your 12psi is VERY close to that limit.

Even after you have purchased a PFC, the stock wastegates will have a hard time controlling boost with a full 3" exhaust & open intake pipes. With this, the stock twins do not fair well in the 15p-17psi range and you will see big spikes. You will kill them quickly & still possibly run lean. Porting the wastegates is the only answer at that point. However, your air stock box should help limit this.

Buy a Power FC
Simplify vacuum lines
Remove emissions not needed
Clean & fix all small things while you're in there

On that note. NEVER run without the air filter on a street car....ever

XLR8

iTrader: (52)

I will add....

You got beat in a drag race by a turbo Civic. SO WHAT! There are many very well built Civic's out there. 300whp isn't hard to achieve at all with a Honda DOHC Honda engine. In fact, B18B's can handle it safely with absolutely no internal modification. So that 300whp 2300lb Civic hatchback turns into a pretty mean machine. People highly underestimate the ability of small hatches. There is this competition called WRC that has been pasteurizing amazing race cars for years from little **** box's we see on the road every day.

However, you have an FD. A car that was built for road racing and for it's time period and very much still today is one of the best handling cars available. A Japanese icon of what a sports car is. If your pride is hurt because someone pumped some power into a little car & beat you to the next light then you may want to rethink why you own an Rx7.

So don't get flustered and start aimlessly trying "mods" to make more power. FD's are touchy man. You HAVE to be methodical in how you upgrade otherwise you will be buying a new engine, turbo's and other things.

If your research isn't giving the answers you need, then PM me. I am always willing to help.

GL OP

XLR8

iTrader: (52)

And what is up with 191 people looking at this thread & not telling the OP he is playing with fire?!?

F&*#ing ridiculous!!

KKMpunkrock2011

iTrader: (5)

I agree with xlr8 about losing to the turbo civic. I did too when I first bought my FD almost 3 years ago, its no big deal, before long you'll be blowing past him.

The charge relief valve is in fact a BOV, that's its function, if you look in the tech diagrams its labeled CRV (BOV). The stock twins actually have 2 BOVs, one for the primary turbo and one for the secondary, but its no big deal.

XLR8 is right on everything else as far as I see. Get out and enjoy your car, and that VCU victory that ruined my bracket.

zeroG

iTrader: (28)

To add to this, the CRV is practically another BOV, but it works the opposite way. The ECU controls the CRV to vent boost from the secondary turbo below 4500rpm. Then after 4500rpm, the ECU closes the CRV.

T-SMASH

I'm listening, Thanks xlr8, KKM, zeroG. I'm smashing the piggy bank and see how much I find in there. Methodical is the word!!!! I'm studying those diagrams almost everyday. This is a good chance to do things right from the beginning. I'll keep you all posted and will PM for parts if necessary.

XLR8

iTrader: (52)

Excellent. There are also some great sites out there that show the proper progression on how to modify an FD. Check them out, and again, feel free to PM. The first link is one of my favorites for new owners!

http://www.turborx7.com/recomend.htm

http://www.fd3s.net/

http://reganrotaryracing.tripod.com/exprienc.htm

KKMpunkrock2011

iTrader: (5)

I agree, turborx7 was a great resource for me as well when I first bought mine.

Cgotto6

iTrader: (8)

Im sure you already have heard, but if not really check out the Faq sticky on the top of this section of the forum. I use it all the time to search rather than searching the whole 3rd gen section.