Sorry, no real updates.

At the beginning of this month, I suffered a herniate disc in my lower back. For over a week, I couldn't even walk. I had my first of three "shots in the back" this week to help heal it up.

If the pain medication helps out any, I'm hoping to get back to the project this weekend. Basically, it's waiting for me to seal up the front cover and the oil pan. I had unfortunately mounted the front iron on the wrong spot of the engine mount when I started assembling so it's blocking the side bolts of the front cover. I'm going to hoist the engine this weekend to reposition it and then I'll be all set again.

 

Sorry to hear about your back. I'm sure you're anxious to get back on your feet and finish your project.

 

Just an update:

1. I'm waiting on one of the coolant hardlines for the turbos (banjo bolts and washers)

2. Washers for the OMP lines on the injector side

3. A few gaskets for the turbo oil return lines

Ray from Malloy is going to get those overnighted to have them here tomorrow (Friday).

I have a few connectors on the wiring harness that I need to replace (which after getting a friends car up and running hopefully this weekend with a new harness, I'll have his old one to use).

If everything goes right, I'll be able to try and start the engine next weekend. If it starts and is fine, I'll still have a few things to do to "drive" the car. But, I should be able to start it and verify I have enough compression for it to run.

 

Ouch, sorry to hear about the back. I hear those shots dont feel all that great either. Glad to see the motor is coming along without too many problems.

 

A shot of the engine waiting for the turbos to go on (when the coolant hardpipe arrives).

Yes, I will say that I hope to NEVER have to go through that again.

 

Sorry for the lack of updates, as there hasn't been much to post.

Some people thought I wouldn't care much about putting it back together with the M3 in the garage. But, that hasn't been the reason it hasn't been a priority. It's been difficult to get excited about working on a project that:

a) the engine rebuild may or may not work
b) building a car to do something I might not be able to do for a while

For A, it's not like I'm going to take it apart and verify I did everything right. It's basically time to sh*t or get off the pot. So, I'll just have to fire it up and see if it works. If not, I'll have to deal with it at that time.

For B, my back still bothers me a lot. Even as I type this, I have some pain and discomfort just sitting in a chair. There's not much motivation to work on a track car when you might not be able to actually drive it on the track for some time.

However, I have been doing little things, mostly painting parts and cleaning up other parts. Aside from cleaning/painting, the engine is waiting for me to deal with the wiring harness. I have a few broken connectors that I need to take care of and some broken wires to repair. A friend dropped by about a week ago with a Miata fuel harness for me to snag a few injector connectors from...

I have another local friend who is an contracting engineer. He knows a lot different machine shops who do small custom jobs. So, what does that mean? I'm looking to have oil hard lines created to retain the stock banjo bolts, but have an AN fitting on the end to hook up my Mocal oil cooler and t-stat. I'll update everyone when I get around to getting having that done as to how it turns out and how much it cost me to have it done.

Other than that, I'll be doing the wiring harness this weekend.

I've decided that I will be using Evans coolant after I see that the rebuild is going to work. I'm not going to waste money to fill up the car with it only to find out I jacked something up and the engine needs to be torn down.

 

I must have missed something, and didn't find it on this page?? whats up with the engine?

how come you can't cut the oil hard line connectors off...and get some AN compression fittings?

 

It's just still sitting on the stand right now, waiting for me to finish putting on the rest of the components. I wanted to wait tunil the wiring harness was finished. I know I didn't have to before dropping the engine in the car, but it's just easier to deal with the connections outside the car.

After talking with my friend (the engineer), he brought up several points why it was not a good idea (especially since I track the car). Not to say you can't do it. It's going to be more expensive to have the lines made, but it's going to be a much better solution.

 

no no no..."may or may not work"

why wouldn't the rebuild work?

 

how about the AN weld on fittings?? any good? What could some problems be? I'm looking for a better cooler set-up and would like to hear your friend's thoughts.

 

motor is looking good!

 

I'm no expert. I think back to many things I may not have measured properly, misaligned when installing, installed the wrong direction. There are any number of things I could have done wrong (which I thought I was doing right at that time).

 

My buddy didn't like the idea of welding or cutting to resuse the stock lines. He didn't think there would be enough meat for that "feel good" feeling. He felt it would be a concern on a car that will be seeing more aggressive driving than just running around town.

I tend to take his advice as he has a lot more experience than I do with these types of things. Not necessarily just building cars, but he engineers parts for many companies (from auto parts to vacuum cleaner parts). He used to own an FD many years ago so he does have experience with these cars.

 

Unfortunately, it's just a garage ornament at the moment:

http://mahjik.homestead.com/files/Ho.../Garage_02.jpg
http://mahjik.homestead.com/files/Ho.../Garage_03.jpg

I'm more looking forward to it being in the car to clean up the garage at this point, rather than to be driving it.

We'll see. Like I said. I'm no pro at building motors. It was my first "own" rotary motor (as I have assisted on a few others). So, I'd like it to work, but my confidence has been going down the longer it sits on the stand.

I don't dread having to take it apart again if there is a problem. I dread something shredding itself and having to source some good condition housings and/or rotors.

 

Work bench with the harness (actually 2 of them) and rats nest...

 

ship your engine to Ernst at RX-7 World, here in the carolinas, or Mr. Kevin Landers...both guys know rotaries extremely well...I would never try to assemble an engine (except a two stroke) without someone like that looking over my shoulder, at least the first time

you can learn from mistakes, but that gets expensive

 

Well, the engine is built now. If/when it self-destructs upon trying to start it, I'll try to evaluate what happened. If it's a simple seal getting pinched or something like that, I'll do the repair myself. If it tears itself apart and I can't tell what I did or didn't do to cause the problem, then I will be shipping it to someone. But, I'll at least try.

I've helped on the assembly part with other engines, this was just the first to do the whole process myself. My two worry spots are:

1. The oil control ring springs. Did I put them in the right directions
2. The oil pump. I had a damn of a time with the key staying in place.

I did have some issues with the oil pan bolts/studs. I had a few that stripped and needed to helicoil them. I think some sealant got into the threads as it was pretty messy getting the oil pan baffle, the oil pan itself and then the oil pan brace all installed. Then I had the problem of Gotham not shipping me the correct bolts for the engine mounts (since they need to be longer with the brace installed).

I think those problems coupled with manifold studs breaking just pushed me over the edge for a while; making me not wanting to work on anything else.

Some local friends (like my engineer buddy) have asked to take the car to their shop and finish up the install and all the custom work left. It's a nice jesture, but this project is a little more than me just "getting it back on the road". It will take me longer as I don't have the time to dedicate to working on the car all the time, but it's a project that I would like to see to the end myself (if I don't run out of talent).

 

Mahjik, I understand completely where you are coming from.

I too know how difficult it is to get motivated on ANYTHING if you aren't feeling well. In the past I'd had some health issues to where the LAST thing that was on my mind was working on a car! And when the situation is such that you don't HAVE to have the car running....it makes it even harder to get going.

I truly hope that your engine fires up and runs like a fine watch. You have put a lot of time and money into it, you DESERVE to have it run trouble-free.

Good luck, my friend.

 

Mahjik---

I just bought a brand new (almost 800 dollars :/ ) ECM wiring harness from Malloy, and cut almost half of it off (all emissions/sequential stuff). If you need or want new plugs for your solenoids or anything, I have them. I will be pulling my old harness out of the car here soon too, but the plugs on it arent in that great of condition.

 

HAHAHA!! now you are just paranoid...I had the same feelings when I put my first engine together...and I'm still beating on it with 18psi, 12k miles later!!!

 

I know how you feel bro. I built my engine last May, and still have'nt started it. I only get to work on the car once in a while cause of work, but I'm sooooooooo paranoid I did something wrong. I've spent alot of money so far including "Brand New FD Housings" and if something goes wrong I'll probably end up in torque central.....J/K

My boss goes away on Feb 22nd, so I should try and start her that weekend. I'll post here and let you know what happened


https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...hlight=rebuild

 

Thanks and good luck with your project too. This may sound strange, but I did get inspired to at least get back to getting some things done when seeing your thread about painting the radiator fans and shroud. I went ahead and got mine painted when we had that nice weather about a week ago as well as a few other parts.

Thanks! I think I have everything I need. The injector connector was the main one I needed which I now have. The others which are broken and ones I don't have are the EGR and airpump. I don't plan on using either of those.

Thanks again, it's nice to know there are people out there willing to help.

Well I would say half paranoid and half realist. The day the engine went together, you couldn't have told me it wasn't going to work. Now that it's been so long, I'm starting to have more doubts. But, I do realize that I am human. So it's not out of the question that I did make a mistake or get some directions backwards.


Thanks luiml73. Good luck with your project. If you can, video the first start (i.e. the smoke screen).

 

Got started today with the oil lines but had a problem with the measurements. However, here is what is going to happen when measurments are done properly:

Two new lines will be created to replace the two lines coming from the engine. The fittings will come from Parker . It will be expensive and pointless to recreate the hardline from the oil filter pedestal so that line will be run as rubber, very similar to the short stock line. It will be a little different as I'll need that line to bend a little so I'm picking something a little more flexible for the hose than the type used on the stock short oil line. That brings down the temperature rating a tad, still in good tolerance but I'll use an insulation sleeve on the long hose when it's done.

Total cost for the two lines will run about $70 (basically all the price is in the fittings and a little extra for the shop to make the hose). It will be 18mm banjo running the line down to a AN-6 or 8 (depending on the hose) to AN-10 conversion fitting. One line will be a little under a foot, the other will be around 2 ft. For just starting the engine, I bought a connector to loop the lines back to one another. If all is well when/if the engine starts, I'll run the SS lines to the t-stat and oil cooler.

 

A shot of the test lines. Only one side was crimped on each line. I'll show the real lines next week when they get made up.

 

Mahjik, i had EXACTLY the same problem with the key of the oil pump. it took me an hour to get it on - because i tried to force it, and made a ridge in the key. I had to file it a little so it all went together smoothly and fit nice, but i know exactly what you mean about little niggles of paranoid about stuff youve done - im sure youve seen my build and i feel exactly the same!

dont worry about it bro, keep on truckin. The sooner you get it done, the sooner youll be blasting it around again :oP