Out with the .806, in with the .719 .

 

The RX-8 diff cover is a nice upgrade. Really like your car, it's so nice. Do you still have the Spirit R tach you had in one of your other cars?

Vince

 

So you're switching to the US-spec 5th gear?

 

Thanks! Whether the cover makes much difference, I'm not sure, but it certainly look cool . Yeah I still have the new SR tach in my spares pile . I've got an SR cluster to fit to this car when it's back on the ground. I do like the silver gauge faces, they look more modern than the off-white/cream faces I think.

Yeah the .719 was in the US and euro cars, I think the Aus ones too. As I've switched to a 4.44 rear end, the .719 5th reduces my cruise rpm at 70mph from 3364 down to 3001. Which is actually 105rpm lower than than if I still had the 4.1 rear end and the .806 5th, so a bit more economy on cruise .

 

Always fancied running the short 5th and the 3.90 rear....

 

Why would you want that? that would make the car accelerate slower in 1st-4th and shorten 5th . Unless I guess if you are making a lot of power and are after longer gears .

Finished off painting the underside today. All the cavities have been done. All that's left painting wise is to underseal the arches and the strip inside of the sill that's inline with the front wheels to give it all a bit of extra protection. I need to remember to pop in to the platers next week and get all the bolts done, don't want to be putting her back together with non shiny bolts .

 

Thats very nice interior, just wondering is that original Spirit R steering wheel or a retrimmed one

 

Thanks! I've got some interior updates to post soon . The wheel currently in the car is a retrimmed wheel as the SR wheel doesn't match the rest of the SR leather. The SR handbrake lever, handbrake gaiter, shift **** and gear gaiter is a grey leather, the SR steering wheel is black leather. Now if you're anything like me that would wind you up not matching . So I sold on the SR wheel I had and got a normal Nardi retrimmed in a leather to match the other SR parts I have fitted. I also went for a wider european diamond stitch on the wheel because I think it looks more classy .

 

This look rather good, as I am in 2 minds whether to retrim or not, if retrim i want to match the original black but your grey color is looking very nice also. The dilemma i have is because i have a Spirit R so i want it look exactly same as original. Where did u get it retrimmmed if you don't mind me asking. My SR is currently in HK and will be back to UK soon

 

Coilovers arrived today. Just need to find the time to put her all back together now .

 

Got most of my bolts back today, so can crack on with the re-assembly .

Cosmo on the quality control inspection (Yes my cat is called Cosmo...........):



Now just to remember what goes where .

 

nuts and bolts looks great. Who did the work?

 

A friend of mine who owns a local plating company. These parts are finished in coloured zinc for a bit of extra protection against the weather and salt over here. I'm getting some other bits done in chrome but they're not ready yet.

Easiest FD fuel filter swap ever with nothing bolted to the underside of the car .





Got the sub frame, diff and drive shafts bolted up last night after work, I'll take some better pictures in the light later. The subframe needs a clean as it's really dusty from me spraying body panels in the same barn as it was stored. The brown stuff you can see is cavity wax .

 

Here are some pics I forgot to upload a while back. All the heat shielding going back in the tunnel after paint. All the fixings for non load bearing items are now stainless.







Gearbox is now back in. I swapped in a RZ speed sensor and a new 2kw starter from Jeff.





Better pic of the rear end:



Seats back in with new covers. The backs have been wet sanded and polished up while the covers were off . They still need a little steaming and work to get them fitted perfectly, but they're nearly there.

 

Thanks Gordon . The build has picked up pace as I have all the parts I need to finish the car with the exception of the wheels nuts now .

Should get it ready for wheels this weekend all being well. Then it's onto the Type X and I can hopefully just enjoy driving this one around for a while .

Got the fuel tank, ARB's, new ARB bushes, new exhaust hangers, backbox shield and a few small bits back in tonight. This is turning into a daily update .

 

Missing rear end pic from above:



Got the front suspension in and torqued up last night, just brakes, arch liners and wheels to go up front now.
All the suspension arms have new oem dust boots on the joints and super pro bushes pressed in.





PPF and prop are also back in, but I haven't taken any pics yet.

 

Those seats are abosolutely beautiful. great update

 

So fresh and so clean. I need to install my ohlins soon.

 

Cheers guys! Got the rear suspension in after work today.







I didn't clean up the rear hubs, now they kinda let it down, might try and give them a scrub in situ. They do have new bearings and disc shields, though.

Picked up my wheel nuts from the platers, now finished in chrome .

 

Haven't updated this one for a while. The diff I crown and pinion swapped had an issue with the pinion bearings. It was assembled as per the FSM, the resulting pre-load after adding the seal was near the upper end of spec. This lead to pinion bearing failure so I had to split it down and swap these out with new bearings and another new pinion oil seal. Interesting fact of the day, Mazda changed the manual companion flange and pinion oil seal in May 1995 and the parts are not interchangeable! Make sure you order the right bits when buying your pinion oil seal.

The cars had a good service, swapped out the black box again and replaced all the vac hoses again as I've found a really good supplier for nice thick walled silicone that's near impossible to kink, cheap, too! . As I've now got a lot of black boxes. I'm swapping the one fitted to the car out yearly, giving them all a good service and check over with the mityvac & silicone lube. I'm also now running mini oil filters in my vac lines to try and avoid any gunk from the intake clogging the solenoids up.





I replaced all the hoses in the bay with new ones from Mazda while they're still available, the old ones, for the most part, were fine, but doing this should hopefully mean I'm good for at least 10 years. Also replaced the airbox lid with a new one, ensuring all the hose connections had silicone lube on them, it can be a right pain to get those hoses off otherwise!

The car passed it's MOT (Yearly safety and emissions testing in the UK) fine, even sailed through emissions which was a shock .




Took the car to Japfest at Silverstone last Sunday, my first show with this car. I was a bit nervous at the first real test of all the new running gear being a 5-hour trip, but luckily all went fine and the car ran great. She doesn't half look better on the Ohlins! They're set to the recommended starting height, probably lower than I would have chosen myself, but nothing rubs and it's more compliant than the OEM Showa suspension it had standard, quite surprised!
Loving the US 5th gear too, there is a big jump from 4th to 5th now, much better on cruise. It's been a while since I last drove the car, but I'm pretty sure it feels noticeably quicker accelerating with the 4.44 rear end too, so I'm happy with that .
As I changed my speed sensor to an RZ speed sensor my speedo is only out a touch being calibrated for a 4.3 diff rather than the 4.44 fitted, but it is out, so I'll have to pull the cluster and adjust that a little.







I cant take the credit for these pics, these are just some that surfaced online after the show. Met a lot of cool FD owners, it's a real nice community in the UK, looking forward to the next one .

 

Very nice.

Next big plans?

 

For this car? Engine and turbo rebuild, basically refresh everything under the bonnet, plating all metal parts so it's like new. It doesn't really need it as the turbos are good and compression is high 6's-early 7's, but it's all that's left on the list . Still got a few minor bits to do like revisit the front end panel gaps, fit the rear bins I have etc, but minor tinkering really.

I do have another FD to restore, so will be cracking on with that very soon. I've been stockpiling parts and have all I need to get that one done, just need to throw some time at it.

Fitted spacers to the FD after work today, nothing crazy, just 15mm bolt-on hubcentric ones. I think it looks a lot better and should make the offset of the wheels effectively like +35, rather than the +50 the Sr rims are standard.







Going to swap out the thermostat and coolant this weekend. Also, need to temporarily mount this extinguisher until Sakebomb's group buy gets underway.





We're much more limited in our extinguisher options in the UK. Halon etc isn't available due to how it damages the Ozone layer. So I've gone with powder, yes it'll make a mess and damage rubber, plastic etc. But if it saves the car I can live with that .

 

Do they have Halotron I available there? That is the ozone friendly replacement for Halon.

Your car looks great man! The work you've put in really shows.

Vince

 

Looks great. Could you square the setup and only run spacers in the back? Probably not cost effective with SR rims, but I was hoping with RS or RZ wheels.

 

Thanks Vince! From what I've read Halotron is banned within the EU, so might not be an option here.

Yeah If I could find another SR set I could. I don't really need it, though, as I'm running a max of 300 fly HP.