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I’ll ask and make sure but I think he’s just adjusting the stock ECU bracket by drilling a hole so the PFC can plug straight into it and sit in the stock spot the stock ECU does.
Boy, hate to update like this but previous new shop I had it at had 0 progress over a year. Did some personal digging and decided it was highly irresponsible of me to keep my car at this shop any longer, and I showed up unannounced and took a final look at the lack of progress and demanded I take my car and all my parts and take it to a very very reputable shop in the area - P@lm Tree Rotary that builds engines and does other rotary work for the community. Cut my losses after irresponsibly paying 2100$ for just removing the engine (more about this later). Personally contacted the shop on my own and was very happy with what I saw, my biggest regret is I didn't bring my shop directly here earlier. Stand up guy and was happy to help with the situation I was in. First thing he did so far was go through my engine, and since it wasn't rotating assembly was not moving at all. Long story short, owner of the new shop I have my car at thought the engine was blown, but after I called him he said in this condition the car would never have ran and we isolated this being an irresponsible removal of the engine causing the rotating assembly to not move. There was no play on the engine and no movement on the rotating assembly and the cause was irresponsible removal of the engine which damaged/cracked the crush bearings and other parts that he ended up replacing. He saw new pins attempting to fix the mistake by the previous shop so it must have happened in the previous shop. Current shop fixed the issue by replacing the parts and lo and behold - the engine is good (so far). Was fully prepared to try to source a new Mazda engine, just glad it didn't come to that yet.
He's going to replace the oil pan since it was completely smashed and clean some of the debris inside the engine and use an endoscope to check the seals and clearances. The engine is completely stock port, but it looks good. He's already pressure tested it a day after I got it there which is great. Waited a year and couldn't even get a confirmation of any of this.
Edit- Also saw a lot of carbon buildup most likely oil leaking from the previous pair of turbos. I think axillary injection and the new 99 spec twins will help resolve this problem (hopefully).
Did the old shop try and lift the engine out by the pulley, or something? Hard to mess up engine removal, don't think I've seen that before.
Yeah and the oil pan was completely smashed lol
He was surprised too and isolated the variables. Previous shop used a crane/pulley to lift the engine out. He explained it over the phone but don't recall the exact details.
Originally Posted by Redbul
There is a lot of delays at shops these days.
But how long is it reasonable to wait?
Yep, combined with getting repeatedly ghosted for months on end with 0 communication nd progress. There's definitely a limit lol. We live and learn and move forward though haha
It looks like it is scarred from rotating with a misaligned shim.
This can also happen when you swap the front oil thermal pellet to the solid thermal pellet and the alignment of the shim is off.
1. Did you have a solid thermal pellet or the factory one.
2. When was the last time the front main bolt was removed to allow the shim to shift and then the bolt put back in.
3. What I think - I thought you said there was an oil leak on the front cover and they did a shitty job on the rtv seal. Maybe the old owner took out the front bolt to take off the front cover to fix the leak and that is when the shim was offset. It was put back together and ran causing the scaring. It could have happened then.?????
Something happened somewhere, but glad you found it !!!!!
check this out, first 2.5 minutes explains what most likely happened to you car bro -
New oil pan
Oil pan seal
Oil pan bolts
Front stationary gear w/ bearing
Thrust washer
Front cover gasket
Front cover o-ring and nylon washer
Front main seal
M6-1.0 SS set screw and tap
Two steel motor mount brackets
OMP block-off plate kit
Media blast front cover
Labor to remove/install
Perfect compression, looks like a brand new mazda block, perfect water seals, oem seals it seems. Only thing is there’s some carbon buildup on the rotors, the premix and water meth injection should fix it up. Rotors are also in good condition. Main surprise is the seals aren’t rotary aviation like the seller said but looks like OEM Mazda which I preferred. Pretty much a factory engine and I’m happy about that. Will be on the stand until it’s back in the car soon now. Looks so clean, crazy how taking your car to an actual shop gets work done very quickly and done at a professional level. Very happy so far.
I see , hopefully I won't need it and don't get a leak here on out. I will just enjoy it how it is for now, as it will mostly just be stock with reliability mods and a dyno tune. I'm also pretty confident the seals I'm running are RA 2mm super seals which are iffy on the rotor housings in the long but we will see. Not a problem I have to worry about for now I guess.
I can see his point, mine doesn’t have a brace for as long as I have own it, and there’s no leaks. But it is a cheap mod for just in case, I wouldn’t mind adding one if my motor is out.
I can see his point, mine doesn’t have a brace for as long as I have own it, and there’s no leaks. But it is a cheap mod for just in case, I wouldn’t mind adding one if my motor is out.
Agreed, just make sure you get the one from Banzai that has the grooves etched for the ribs on the back of the pan mating face.
A full flat face brace will put pressure on the ribs instead of putting pressure on the mating face.
Turned out there was some front core support damage and a little bit of frame damage. Shop had connects and recommended doing it the right way. Long story short, hauled the car to LA to a shop to get the frame pulled to Mazda spec. Will be like nothing happened and also managed to get all brand new parts for the front end. Will be functionally like brand new up to Mazda spec, and it’s a clean title car so it’s worth doing (not like I’m going to sell it either)
Disappointed the seller from the forum outright lied about there being no frame damage. Once you removed the fenders it was very apparent, and since he owned the car for this amount of time, and rebuilt the engine on his own, he definitely knew. I’m not going to press it as I don’t really care to deal with that. What I do know is once the car is done, it’ll look brand new, has potential to be “show car” but most importantly it’ll be structurally sound like a new FD and it’ll be a car I’ll be proud to own.
The shop is going to be using the same welds (stitch welds) Mazda uses and will be painting the entire car. One side is already straightened, but they're doing it slowly, and are doing it right to ensure the frame is completely straight. They’re doing dentless repairs on all the small dings to ensure it’s a high quality job, rather than using bondo or filler that will look bad once painted. Going with the OEM FD VR.
My biggest step now is trying to find a way to contact BNR and get a pair of cartridge drop ins for my 99 spec twins. I am also debating trying to go sequential or just going non sequential BNR’s. Shop says if porting is done right it’s very responsive and much easier to deal with, and less expensive. Was leaning towards sequential but may consider non sequential.
Your parts are worth more staying sequential. parts are getting harder to come by and you already have everything to complete the car for smog if the worst case scenario happens.
Non-Seq is a budget single turbo set-up for simplicity and affordability.
Based on the rarity of these cars it's better to keep the stock parts and do what appears to be one of the better matched single turbo upgrades for the car which is the
BorgWarner EFR 8374 IWG
lol
If it is in your budget thats really the way to go over non-seg. This turbo will also hold it's value and have better reliability and tune-ability.
I think you already got the Greddy vm kit and some fuel upgrades so your set there.
For me, there really is 2 options.
1. BNR's in seq mode - more fun and responsive, lots of up keep.
2. 8374, almost as responsive as the twins and looks like one of the best single turbos for the RX7.
But of course, weigh all your options, collect a lot of data on pro's and con's, and then you can make a decision you wont regret.
I love my BNR stage ones, they feel amazing even on a hurt motor.
But the street racer 90's kid in me will always want that classic late 90's JDM look, and I love HKS so thats why I went that route.
There are sooooo many fast cars now so just build it for you, and what ever makes you happy when you open the hood.
Thanks bro. I am going to research and look this up. If I can go 8374, I may do that or stick with the twins for now until they die. Decisions, decisions, decisions. In data collection mode right now as you said, and will make a decision soon. Yeah I have the V-Mount, FFE 1700 cc secondaries and 550 primaries.
The good thing is the community is also great when you know where to look, there's a ton of support and that helps with ownership. Especially with the initial hurdle, just gets easier here on out lol
Turned out there was some front core support damage and a little bit of frame damage. Shop had connects and recommended doing it the right way. Long story short, hauled the car to LA to a shop to get the frame pulled to Mazda spec. Will be like nothing happened and also managed to get all brand new parts for the front end. Will be functionally like brand new up to Mazda spec, and it’s a clean title car so it’s worth doing (not like I’m going to sell it either)
Disappointed the seller from the forum outright lied about there being no frame damage. Once you removed the fenders it was very apparent, and since he owned the car for this amount of time, and rebuilt the engine on his own, he definitely knew. I’m not going to press it as I don’t really care to deal with that. What I do know is once the car is done, it’ll look brand new, has potential to be “show car” but most importantly it’ll be structurally sound like a new FD and it’ll be a car I’ll be proud to own.
The shop is going to be using the same welds (stitch welds) Mazda uses and will be painting the entire car. One side is already straightened, but they're doing it slowly, and are doing it right to ensure the frame is completely straight. They’re doing dentless repairs on all the small dings to ensure it’s a high quality job, rather than using bondo or filler that will look bad once painted. Going with the OEM FD VR.
My biggest step now is trying to find a way to contact BNR and get a pair of cartridge drop ins for my 99 spec twins. I am also debating trying to go sequential or just going non sequential BNR’s. Shop says if porting is done right it’s very responsive and much easier to deal with, and less expensive. Was leaning towards sequential but may consider non sequential.
She is very close to being done now. 🥲
Putting the FD back together should be the quickest part now.
