Getting bored while waiting for parts to arrive so decided to polish the MAZDA on front callipers.
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Nothing really major going on but replaced front rotors and pads. then decided I needed to paint the rotor hats black as the silver on the new ones was loud and the rears were rusty
A nice satin black expoxy seems to be holding up ok.
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Been a while
lots of stuff going on. I went to put a new sump on to fix an oil leak only to find a grub screw from the oil pump in the old sump.
So engine out.
New oil pump, new rear seal and front cover seal, new vac and water hoses, new thermostat housing,water pump and turbo tank. Put in a new engine harness as well as a solenoid box. Did a full OMP delete. Also got hold of an Odula big throttle body.
new plugs and changed gearbox and diff oils and finally put the power FC in.
Got a few hoses wrong on the solenoid box but sorted it in the end.
Been a journey

 

 

 

Damn, son.

 

I know right, Rotary life.
I think between hoses , new bolts and parts in general there was like 200 odd items I ordered.
But I learnt so much in the process. The next best thing to driving it.
There is just something next level to doing work yourself. In saying that I did everything bar the oil pump as I didnt have an engine stand

 

Hi, just found your build and curious about the black box simplifications you are doing.
Do you remember which components you removed/ plan on removing?
I'm hoping to install a new fuel rail and need to clean up that area a bit.

 

Hey Mate,
You mean the solenoid box for the turbo's ?

 

Well long story short, the motor is back out. Found that the original oil leak wasn't the sump but actually the oring on the stat gear.
then when we looked at the bearing on the stat gear it had a reasonable amount of wear which wasn't out of line for 130,000km.
So it seemed criminal to not pull the engine and rebuild.
Two new housings were purchased, OEM seal and oring kit, all new seals springs, bearings. Rotating assembly will be sent out and balanced. Rotors will be clearanced and a few other things hear and there. Ports will be tickled a little but nothing substantial.
while engine was out I thought I would rebuild the twins.
Rotary owners luck kicks in and it so happens the Chra was chewed out somewhat where the bearings sat.
SOOOOOOO, some time ago i bought a bundle of parts off a guy who had gone single turbo. In that bundle was a 265hp twin. I thought i might be able to maybe salvage the chra or at least make a hybrid or something. Anything was onthe table at this pojnt as i couldn't afford a new set of twins and didnt want to go single.
Anyhooo, I pulled the 265 down and I could see things were not right. It seems that someone had been in and modified the thing with 63mm comp wheels and 51mm exhaust.
so the rotating assembly was left alone other that a good clean. Some new fittings and gaskets ordered for the rest, a run through with some taps to clean all the threads and I have a nice set of twins to play with.
So now just waiting on engine build.

 

Takes some courage to fiddle with the twins.

I actually have 23 sets of used twins * with some delusion to some day make something of them, but the fear of cracked manifolds is my reason for procrastination.

(*I wake up some mornings and find them on my doorstep. Some times there is a note attached "worked when removed".)

 

It's such an interesting set up when you get in amongst it. I replaced the turbo solenoid box and dealing with the vacuum lines was fun.

23 sets of twin would possibly be some sort of world record I'm sure.

My 280hp set that came off the car had a couple of small cracks but very usable.
The modified 265hp set has no cracks at all so that leads me to believe they have not been on for an extended period.

 

The set on my car now came of a 1992 Automatic with only 70,000 km on it. Clean as a whistle. I have no idea what the manifold looks like now, 50,000 km after installation.

I took my best 265 and 280 hp examples to the local turbo specialist and he said I was out of luck regarding refurbishing them.

Rule of thumb around here is if the gaskets still cover the cracks, you are probably OK.

 

Here is a 280 hp turbo recently removed from a friends car. Likely the turbo had 150,000 km on it. Friend has been regularly doing about 10 track days a year. He said he had no known issues with it up to and including when he had it swapped out. Marks were put on by the tuner shop upon removal. Nevertheless I declined to add it to my collection. The crack actually extends about 1 cm into the opening.

 

BTW. I am stull waiting for a submission from anywhere in Australia, here:

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...1170590/page2/

 

I totally missed all of the 7's day stuff this year. I was on track to have car back on the road but unfortunately it only last like 200km before engine was back out and 7's day was no where even close.
There is usually some stuff going on in Sydney

 

I seen a could of very low KM units in Japan and was tempted to jump on one of those.
I have seen some terrible cracks in manifolds, your friend with 150K on it is far from the worst I have seen. There was some places that were welding them up and machining them flat. Im not sure how well or long that would hold up and the thought of manifold chunks flying off is scary. The turbo I am going to use now was the one I was going to buy the kit to upgrade which gives you 4 larger wheels and two SP spec actuators and was about 1500 bucks