10 years later and falling in love all over again
11-28-11, 08:25 PM
#1
10 years later and falling in love all over again
So many places I could start, but I will start by introducing myself and giving some back ground info for those who are unfamiliar with me.
I drove my first FD my senior year of high school(2000) when my best friend bought one after getting t-boned in his sweet 1988 z24 cavalier convertible
Neither of us knew a thing about the car(hard to believe to the Fast and Furious generation) other than it was sexy as hell and the dealership was asking $14k for the car. It was a montego blue/tan car with 122k miles at the time, fresh engine and turbos. Drove it one night through down town Nashville and on interstate 65 on the way home. One race against a 94+ mustang GT and I was hooked. Sold my S-10 with gangsta 20s, bought a beater truck and started saving my money. About 1 1/2 year later I finally had the money and found a local fd.
I bought my first fd in June of 2002, Silver/Black Auto
with 46k miles and fresh rebuild from Rotary Performance. Sold that car for a $3k profit about 4 months later then realized I might have stumbled on to something. 
Before selling that car I met Jeremy Blackwell the owner of SpeedForSale.com and at the time didnt realize how that would change my life. Now, nearly 10 years and 100+ FDs later, here I am. Falling in love with a FD all over again.
My son was born in March of this year and I knew I needed to slow down in the rotary business as it was no longer my full time occupation and just no longer had time to keep up with all the work. I was able to finish up most of the customer's engines that were waiting before he was born and got down to just 2 fds. One being a black/black 93 base I had planned to keep for myself and the other being a 93 montego/tan with 47k miles I intended to rebuild, repaint and resell. Well, I got the black/black car mostly "built" and ended up selling it to a local friend. By this point the montego/tan car was already up and running and I even listed it for sale here on the forum. Long story short I ended up keep the 47k mile car.
So here we start the build thread. I purchased this car from a friend of mine who had owned it the last 3-4 years and driven it less than 50 miles. He had a problem with the car running excessively rich at idle and never could diagnose it. The previous owner before him also had issues with the car not running correct and decided to let his kids put about 25 dings in each side of the car in the garage with their bicycle/tricycle handle bars
.
At the time I performed all the work to the car I had the intention of fixing it just to resell it. I got the car for a great price so I wanted to do things right, and still make a couple dollars.
New paint job courtesy of a shop in Knoxville, TN. Small shop and cant remember the name off the top of my head. The work is phenomenal. Price was a little less than $2500.00 and it came out looking close to a show car paint job. Extremely satisfied the work, which is a relief after all the bad paint work I have dealt with over the years.
Im going to stop here and post some pics of the paint. First pic is for my boyfriend Goodfella(Rich)
I drove my first FD my senior year of high school(2000) when my best friend bought one after getting t-boned in his sweet 1988 z24 cavalier convertible
Neither of us knew a thing about the car(hard to believe to the Fast and Furious generation) other than it was sexy as hell and the dealership was asking $14k for the car. It was a montego blue/tan car with 122k miles at the time, fresh engine and turbos. Drove it one night through down town Nashville and on interstate 65 on the way home. One race against a 94+ mustang GT and I was hooked. Sold my S-10 with gangsta 20s, bought a beater truck and started saving my money. About 1 1/2 year later I finally had the money and found a local fd.I bought my first fd in June of 2002, Silver/Black Auto
with 46k miles and fresh rebuild from Rotary Performance. Sold that car for a $3k profit about 4 months later then realized I might have stumbled on to something. Before selling that car I met Jeremy Blackwell the owner of SpeedForSale.com and at the time didnt realize how that would change my life. Now, nearly 10 years and 100+ FDs later, here I am. Falling in love with a FD all over again.My son was born in March of this year and I knew I needed to slow down in the rotary business as it was no longer my full time occupation and just no longer had time to keep up with all the work. I was able to finish up most of the customer's engines that were waiting before he was born and got down to just 2 fds. One being a black/black 93 base I had planned to keep for myself and the other being a 93 montego/tan with 47k miles I intended to rebuild, repaint and resell. Well, I got the black/black car mostly "built" and ended up selling it to a local friend. By this point the montego/tan car was already up and running and I even listed it for sale here on the forum. Long story short I ended up keep the 47k mile car.
So here we start the build thread. I purchased this car from a friend of mine who had owned it the last 3-4 years and driven it less than 50 miles. He had a problem with the car running excessively rich at idle and never could diagnose it. The previous owner before him also had issues with the car not running correct and decided to let his kids put about 25 dings in each side of the car in the garage with their bicycle/tricycle handle bars
.At the time I performed all the work to the car I had the intention of fixing it just to resell it. I got the car for a great price so I wanted to do things right, and still make a couple dollars.
New paint job courtesy of a shop in Knoxville, TN. Small shop and cant remember the name off the top of my head. The work is phenomenal. Price was a little less than $2500.00 and it came out looking close to a show car paint job. Extremely satisfied the work, which is a relief after all the bad paint work I have dealt with over the years.
Im going to stop here and post some pics of the paint. First pic is for my boyfriend Goodfella(Rich)
11-28-11, 08:40 PM
#2
The reason the car smoked excessively at idle and never ran correctly was for a couple reasons.
1. There was no fuel rail insulators beneath the primary fuel rail, that will pretty much cause the problem.
2. One of the side seals were cracked. Really only discovered this as I decided to tear down the engine to install ALS seals, etc.
While the car was being painted I rebuild the engine with the following:
2 piece ALS Apex Seals, New Apex seal springs, new side seal springs, new corner seal inserts, new inner and outer coolant seals, new oil control ring springs, new viton oil control o-rings, new front and rear main seals, rebuilt factory oil pump, New rotor bearings, New Atkins thermal pellet, new front bolt o-ring, new Mazda Speed Metal Front Cover Gasket, New Tension Bolt O-rings, and new dowel pin o-rings.
Purchased the following from Ray Crowe at Malloy Mazda:
1. New Wiring Harness from ECU to Engine
2. New upper and lower radiator hoses
3. New upper and lower turbo coolant hoses
4. New Primary and secondary fuel rail insulators
5. New Fuel Pulasation Dampner
6. New FC Thermoswitch
7. New Clutch Slave Cylinder
8. New Driver side lower window seal along with new clips
While the engine was out I had Kevin Landers of Rotaryresurrection.com powder coat the UIM, Water Pump Housing, Water Filler Neck, Y-Pipe, Alternator, Alt Pulley, Alt Bracket and AC/PS mounting bracket.
Purchased a nearly new Spec Stage 2 clutch and had the factory flywheel resurfaced.
Vacuum hose job was performed and resulted in an almost flawlessly working sequential setup
Pics of engine bay as engine was first installed. Currently a little different and some big changes around the corner.
1. There was no fuel rail insulators beneath the primary fuel rail, that will pretty much cause the problem.
2. One of the side seals were cracked. Really only discovered this as I decided to tear down the engine to install ALS seals, etc.
While the car was being painted I rebuild the engine with the following:
2 piece ALS Apex Seals, New Apex seal springs, new side seal springs, new corner seal inserts, new inner and outer coolant seals, new oil control ring springs, new viton oil control o-rings, new front and rear main seals, rebuilt factory oil pump, New rotor bearings, New Atkins thermal pellet, new front bolt o-ring, new Mazda Speed Metal Front Cover Gasket, New Tension Bolt O-rings, and new dowel pin o-rings.
Purchased the following from Ray Crowe at Malloy Mazda:
1. New Wiring Harness from ECU to Engine
2. New upper and lower radiator hoses
3. New upper and lower turbo coolant hoses
4. New Primary and secondary fuel rail insulators
5. New Fuel Pulasation Dampner
6. New FC Thermoswitch
7. New Clutch Slave Cylinder
8. New Driver side lower window seal along with new clips
While the engine was out I had Kevin Landers of Rotaryresurrection.com powder coat the UIM, Water Pump Housing, Water Filler Neck, Y-Pipe, Alternator, Alt Pulley, Alt Bracket and AC/PS mounting bracket.
Purchased a nearly new Spec Stage 2 clutch and had the factory flywheel resurfaced.
Vacuum hose job was performed and resulted in an almost flawlessly working sequential setup
Pics of engine bay as engine was first installed. Currently a little different and some big changes around the corner.
11-28-11, 08:52 PM
#4
The above pics showed the form I had planned to sell the car in. Once I sold my other fd I had planned to keep and realized I would be keeping this car, things started to change.
The car already had a Greddy SP catback, resonated midpipe and HKS downpipe. As always I wanted more power.
1. Installed Pettit Unlimited ECU
2. Installed factory intake box with K&N filter for factory look
3. Installed AEM water/meth kit using rear winshield washer tank for hidden install.
4. Installed Mazdaspeed Short Shifter.
After about 400 miles on the new engine I changed the oil and started boosting the car. Been running 15-16psi on the Pettit ECU and stock fuel Gotta love ALS seals and water injection (Though I feel the ALS seals would be fine on there own assuming detonation did not dent the rotors to point of pinching the seals). While 15-16psi on the stock sequential twins is fun I was still having occasional slow transition to the secondary turbo, mostly in first gear. I ordered new solenoids from Ray at Malloy but havent installed yet and doesnt look like I plan to any longer.
I fought with myself back and forth to go BNR stage 3 sequential or just run a small Billet single turbo. I eventually decided to go single. I already have everything I need minus the turbo so just decided to go that route.
The car already had a Greddy SP catback, resonated midpipe and HKS downpipe. As always I wanted more power.
1. Installed Pettit Unlimited ECU
2. Installed factory intake box with K&N filter for factory look
3. Installed AEM water/meth kit using rear winshield washer tank for hidden install.
4. Installed Mazdaspeed Short Shifter.
After about 400 miles on the new engine I changed the oil and started boosting the car. Been running 15-16psi on the Pettit ECU and stock fuel
Gotta love ALS seals and water injection (Though I feel the ALS seals would be fine on there own assuming detonation did not dent the rotors to point of pinching the seals). While 15-16psi on the stock sequential twins is fun I was still having occasional slow transition to the secondary turbo, mostly in first gear. I ordered new solenoids from Ray at Malloy but havent installed yet and doesnt look like I plan to any longer.I fought with myself back and forth to go BNR stage 3 sequential or just run a small Billet single turbo. I eventually decided to go single. I already have everything I need minus the turbo so just decided to go that route.
11-28-11, 09:08 PM
#5
So this is where we are at now:
I want a 400rwhp FD that is not super laggy, is still nice and quiet on the street with 800 rpm idle, working AC/PS and is capable of a couple track days per year even in extreme heat.
I plan to pull the engine in the coming weeks(need to fix oil pan leak that recently developed) and remove the stock twins in favor of a 62mm billet setup.
Parts I have recently purchased(some installed some not):
1. Pettit Coolcharge III SMIC with HKS BOV(Thanks to The Goat)
2. HKS Cast manifold, 50mm Wastegate and downpipe
3. Tokico Struts with H&R springs
4. Aluminum Door Sills(Thanks Herblenny)
5. RX8 Shift ****(Thanks Herblenny)
6. 99 spec Tailights
7. Defi Boost Gauge with Pettit Steering Column Pod(very disappointed with pod fitment).
8. Mazda Speed Short Shifter
9 Slotted Rotors
10. EBC Brake Pads
11. Steel Braided Brake lines
12. MazdaComp ALuminum Radiator
13. HKS Twin Power
14. Charlies7 coil pack relocation
15. 17x8 SSR integral A2s with New 245/40s and 18x9 SSR A2s with 275/35/18s
16. Tein Hood Dampners
17. Supra Fuel Pump
18. Data loggit
Parts I still need to purchase:
1. 1300cc injectors
2. PFC and Commander
3. Have 140 amp alt upgrade courtesy of IRP
4. New Leading coil pack and coil pack harness
5. Turbo(still undecided on exactly what route I want to take)
6. Aftermarket dual oil cooler kit(probalby wait until Allrotor93 has a smoking deal for me)
7. Rotary Extreme Mini Battery kit with tie down.
8. Banzai oil pan brace
9. Feed rear street diffuser(this will probably complete the exterior of the car)
10. Wideband
11. Boost controller
I know there is other stuff but my brain is going numb.
I will continue to update the thread with pics along the way. I travel a lot for my job so sometimes it will be slow, others there will be lots of progress. I dont want the car down for long so hopefully the swap will be completed by the new year. Or at least up and running again.
I want a 400rwhp FD that is not super laggy, is still nice and quiet on the street with 800 rpm idle, working AC/PS and is capable of a couple track days per year even in extreme heat.
I plan to pull the engine in the coming weeks(need to fix oil pan leak that recently developed) and remove the stock twins in favor of a 62mm billet setup.
Parts I have recently purchased(some installed some not):
1. Pettit Coolcharge III SMIC with HKS BOV(Thanks to The Goat)
2. HKS Cast manifold, 50mm Wastegate and downpipe
3. Tokico Struts with H&R springs
4. Aluminum Door Sills(Thanks Herblenny)
5. RX8 Shift ****(Thanks Herblenny)
6. 99 spec Tailights
7. Defi Boost Gauge with Pettit Steering Column Pod(very disappointed with pod fitment).
8. Mazda Speed Short Shifter
9 Slotted Rotors
10. EBC Brake Pads
11. Steel Braided Brake lines
12. MazdaComp ALuminum Radiator
13. HKS Twin Power
14. Charlies7 coil pack relocation
15. 17x8 SSR integral A2s with New 245/40s and 18x9 SSR A2s with 275/35/18s
16. Tein Hood Dampners
17. Supra Fuel Pump
18. Data loggit
Parts I still need to purchase:
1. 1300cc injectors
2. PFC and Commander
3. Have 140 amp alt upgrade courtesy of IRP
4. New Leading coil pack and coil pack harness
5. Turbo(still undecided on exactly what route I want to take)
6. Aftermarket dual oil cooler kit(probalby wait until Allrotor93 has a smoking deal for me)
7. Rotary Extreme Mini Battery kit with tie down.
8. Banzai oil pan brace
9. Feed rear street diffuser(this will probably complete the exterior of the car)
10. Wideband
11. Boost controller
I know there is other stuff but my brain is going numb.
I will continue to update the thread with pics along the way. I travel a lot for my job so sometimes it will be slow, others there will be lots of progress. I dont want the car down for long so hopefully the swap will be completed by the new year. Or at least up and running again.
11-29-11, 08:49 PM
#6
RX-7 Bad Ass
iTrader: (55)
Damn David, paint on that car looks GREAT. Solid project there!
Dale
Dale
11-29-11, 09:15 PM
#7
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11-30-11, 02:12 PM
#14
Its good to see the names of the guys who have posted in this thread. Its not often anymore that I am the "newbie" in a thread on this forum. Same names I remembering reading posts from when I joined this forum.
Im going to try to snap some current pics of the car before I tear it down for the next 5-6 weeks and get those posted.
Picked up a PFC and Mazdaspeed Power Plant Frame this morning as well. No real need for the Mazdaspeed PPF but I havent even seen one in years and figured it was a nice piece to throw on the car.
Leaning towards the Precision 62/66 Billet Turbo and need to make up my mind and get it ordered in the coming week. Journal bearing, with likely the .81 housing.
Try to get more pics as soon as I can. I know thats what everyone wants to see in the build threads.
Im going to try to snap some current pics of the car before I tear it down for the next 5-6 weeks and get those posted.
Picked up a PFC and Mazdaspeed Power Plant Frame this morning as well. No real need for the Mazdaspeed PPF but I havent even seen one in years and figured it was a nice piece to throw on the car.
Leaning towards the Precision 62/66 Billet Turbo and need to make up my mind and get it ordered in the coming week. Journal bearing, with likely the .81 housing.
Try to get more pics as soon as I can. I know thats what everyone wants to see in the build threads.
12-04-11, 09:48 PM
#21
A couple pics before I started the tear down.
Pulled the engine tonight and removed most of the accessories. Due to travel plans for work and the holidays it likely wont be running again by the end of the year. Shooting for sometime in mid January but hopefully sooner.
Pulled the engine tonight and removed most of the accessories. Due to travel plans for work and the holidays it likely wont be running again by the end of the year. Shooting for sometime in mid January but hopefully sooner.
