When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I have decided to do a blog on my recently acquired 94 R2. It is a California car with 108,000 miles, is in great condition, no rust, no apparent damage. Engine was rebuilt by a previous seller. He was a flip[per who acquired this car with a bad engine and needing paint.
I was with my buddy when he purchased the car from this gentleman and he seemed pretty experienced with these cars and had a much modified RHD FD also. this car was totally stock at that time. My buddy had drilled and slotted rotors, pads, ss brake lines, diff mounts, Fortune 500 coil overs, a very cool set of Volk wheels and Toyo Proxxes and a new fuel filter, Vee mount Koyo rad and fans and intercooler with a fan, bottom plate, M2 down pipe, Racing Beat cat back, Greddy intake and air cleaners, Miata battery in the passenger side cubby. I don't know what was done to the motor but it does not leak, or overheat, seems to make normal power and after I removed and blocked off all of the unneeded crap on the intake, viton check valves and adjusted the TPS, it runs and drives very well.
The engine moves around a bit so I thought it might have a broken mount.
My goal with this build is to step it up a bit with the addition of several common parts that I have seen but have not seen many comments on how effective they were.
commented on.
Denso Supra pump and a fuel tank baffle from Garage Alpha, high flow cat from RX7 Store, Diff brace, trans mounts and street motor mounts from Banzai Racing and and Xcessive Aluminun oil pan.
Attempted to attach photos but that function has just failed.
Last edited by david93fdr1; 07-15-20 at 05:03 PM.
Reason: Add photos
Nice, I have a red r2 aswell..
angine moves a bit, if the mounts are good just get a engine damper.
I will keep checking you progress.. comgrats on the car.
I am not able to download photos, it is a problem with my phone. The driver side motor mount was completely separated from the bracket but that is OK Banzai sent me a steel bracket with the new mounts. I also have ordered a engine brace that attaches to the back of the intake, passenger side and goes over to the right side inner fender but that is coming from China so may be a while.
I have installed the fuel tank baffle and the new Denso pump, both pretty straight forward. The baffle fits onto the top of the plastic tray, in the bottom of the tank. It is help in place by 4 steel bands that wrap around the bottom of the tray and go thru 6 slots on the top of the baffle, the baffle creates a top for the tray and should help fuel slosh when the level is low..
I have the diff brace and rear trans mount installed but not tightened down until I am finished with the motor mounts.
It is necessary to drop the front K member in order to install the Xcessive oil pan as it is larger than the original so I took every thing loose on the passenger side and basically lowered it down with a jack but left it on the car. The engine is held up by my custom 2x4 engine support.
I ran into a problem with my down pipe and have ordered 2 more studs and nuts from Mazda, they will be here next Monday.and then I will be able to put it all back together.
I have some concerns about the diff brace and the motor mounts causing vibration, will have to wait on that.
I will try and fix my camera issues.
I have finished with all of these projects including the ABS delete, which I did reusing the stock brake lines except for 2 lines with bubble fittings purchased at AutoZone to modify for the brake bias adjuster for the rear brakes. I think the total cost to do this was about $50 and it did not take too long.
The car benefited tremendously from the new Banzai Street motor mounts, trans mount and the diff mount. I also added the extra strut brace to the top of the motor running over to the r/h side of the engine compartment. This brace would not fit with the ABS in place but I was removing that anyway.
Thw Xcessive oil pan is a very nice piece and does not leak, but no longer has the oil level sensor. The high flow cat from RX7s is great looking, 20 lbs lighter and obviously freer flowing and the car is definitely louder but not too bad. While it was apart I lubed the front sway bar bushings and changed the clutch master cylinder, a very easy job on these cars. The car is a lot tighter and more responsive now that the engine is not flopping around, makes a little more power (maybe just noise). Downside is the metal to metal contact of the diff brace seemed to transmit more road noise and vibration so I have removed it and am going to make some isolators for it and reinstall.
I have not noticed a difference with the new fuel pump and fuel tank baffle but have not really pushed the car.
I cannot transfer pics from my phone to my PC so I can't update with photos but will keep trying to fix that.
Next up will be removing the AST, Fc fan sensor and new thermostat, Sakebomb coils, better fuel injectors and SS oil filler tube. At some point I may update to a better ECU but have to research that a little more. One thing about this car is it is from CA, has no rust, no crash damage and all the removed parts are in great shape and were working fine. When I see what some of the cars people are working with are like I feel pretty fortunate to have this one.
Lots of great info on this forum and everybody is very helpful.
Dave
Another update on the build, this car apparently had the wrong thermostat housing and required an AST to act as the filler so I decided that was unsightly and ordered another housing and a Banzai billet cap piece to eliminate the AST (which I now have for sale). At the same time I am replacing the fan temp sensor with one from an FC and rewiring my fan relays.. When I removed the thermostat housing I found that the thermostat had been installed backwards! This car has been running for about 3 years and I drove it home 700 miles when I bought it! The gauge, of course, has never moved above half way, the coolant has been recirculating thru the engine for all of this time with very little going thru the radiator. .I always suspected that the thermostat was possibly stuck open because of a slow warm up, the only indication the that there was a problem was sometimes after you parked it you could here some burbling in the cooling system. The engine seems to be completely fine after all of this, probably because neither the guy I bought it from or myself never really caned the thing. I wanted to finish the mods and check it all out before thrashing it too hard and now I am glad I waited.
Dave
Further update on my build. I think that I have done about everything you can do as far as bolton's go and the car was running better but still did some annoying things, bucking some times, erratic idle (occasionally and some hesitation or lack of response.
I knew I was beyond the limit of the stock ECU but did not have the funds to get a new Apexi yet and I do not like to by those kinds of electronics used. But as luck would have it Philip Fung called me from Miami about some parts I had for sale and I was telling him about my car, he mentioned that he had a new Apexi with an LED controller! I asked him to bring it up. Philip drove up we worked a deal on all of my old parts and the Apexi and a 9 lb aluminum flywheel (which came with a new steel clutch facing and hardware) and he installed the Apexi on my car. The only adjustment I made to it was the air bleed for the idle, I did not remove any wires from the harness, all of that related stuff was removed from my engine already. We drove the car around and it runs great, just like a real car! It looks like the base tune in the Apexi is for similar addons to my set up and after I put it thru the learning process, 10 minutes at idle with everything off, 10 minutes with the rear defroster on and 10 minutes with the AC on, the idle was perfect and the engine is so much happier.
The Apexi is a true plug and play and really transforms the car.
Very little to do to it now.
I am debating installing some heat exchangers in the hood, or getting a different vented hood and when the trans is out for the new clutch and flywheel I will put some heat shielding in the trans tunnel but that will be down the road a while.
Thought I would add some pics of the ABS delete.
I like this way of doing it, utilizes mostly factory parts, loos Ok, was not very expensive.
Needed items:
Rear disc brake brake bias adjuster from Summit, 10mm bubble flare about $45.00.
10mm x 1.00 brass t-adapter from Ebay, about$26.00.
1 3/16" brake line with 10mm bubble flare (European) to cut and fit between the Brake M/C and the brake bias adjuster and one to go from the adjuster to the brake line fitting on the firewall for the rear brakes.
You will need to be able to double flare the end that goes to the M/C and the rear brake line, use the Mazda fittings there.
The T-fitting is used to connect the 2 front brake lines to the M/C and you can use one of the factory long lines to connect to the factory line for the r-side caliper and the drivers side brake line will attach directly to the t-fitting.
You can use one of the old lines to connect the t-fitting to the rear port on the M/C and the front port of M/C connects to the IN side of the brake bias adjuster.
Bleed the brakes and have at it, you will have much better control of your braking.
I also added the the Sakebomb M/C brace which will help modulation of the brakes.
I think my total cost was $80.00 (not including the M/C brace) and about 2 hours of work.
Dave
07-15-20, 04:57 PM
94 FD R2 build
