diesel dakota

well I think I'll put together a build thread. I probably got enough pictures to keep it somewhat interesting.
I wanted to get started on some forms of racing that involved more than just a straight line. I wanted to buy a sporty car so that I could give it a try through some track days and stuff rather than just jump into something competitive and get my *** kicked. Any ways I ended up finding a 1993 FD Rx7, maybe 7/10 on the body, quite a few little dings and dents, the engine ran but burnt a bit of oil(more than it should at least). But I'm not afraid of a project so I picked it up for what I thought was a pretty good deal. 3000$



Started pulling it apart and pulling the engine earlier this summer.





The project got pushed to the side for most of the summer as I ended working on my truck alot more than I wanted.
In September I got to pulling the engine apart.

diesel dakota

And at the end of September I disassembled the engine
The iron's





Some serious carbon build up on the rotors





And the housings

diesel dakota

and the engine in pieces


here's the pictures from cleaning
still needs some more cleaning but starting too look alot better






mostly just cleaned the crap off the outside at this point



and two months later with next to no work on the car finally got back at it.
finished cleaning the engine, assembling the rotors and painting the engine in one weekend.
Started by moving all the parts and parts washer from the unheated barn into the heated shop.


Prepping the rotors. Side seals ruffed into place on the front rotor



Then both rotors


Then grinding the side seals clearances to 0.002-0.003

diesel dakota

oil control rings installed in the front rotor


Then both rotors


all seals lubed up and apex seals and springs set in place on the front rotor. basically ready to drop into the engine


Then both rotors


Front iron painted, that's alot of taping for very little painting.



stopping point for that day, front housing taped off and ready for paint the next day


got the front housing painted


centre iron painted


rear iron taped up and ready for paint


front iron with the tape removed


And a preview of what it could look like once finished.

diesel dakota

Weekend Later I started assembly of the engine.

Parts laid out




First housing on and rotor dropped in


Few less parts in the pile


E shaft dropped in


Top housing on and rotor dropped in




Even fewer parts left on the table


last iron on

diesel dakota

Starting to run out of engine parts


oil pump on


front cover on and water pump studs in



Oil pan on


Water pump painted


water pump on and put on my longer term engine stand. I didn't like leaving the engine hanging off two bolts.

started my non sequential mods. These are the twins I picked up from a friend. The previous owner said the second turbo wasn't boosting. based off of the condition of the vacuum hoses the turbos likely weren't the problem but at least this way I know the turbo's work.

plugging the holes with some bolts just cause I'm lazy.



UIM cleaned off a bit

double throttle or whatever its called deleted as well as the thermo whatever.


starting to collect some stuff for when its put back together


This is where I stand now. I've been working on my friends FD building brackets and getting his car ready for a much more in depth V mount single turbo build.
I've been porting the wastegate but its a slow process with all my distractions

RENESISFD

iTrader: (13)

Did you put a Cummins 4bt in your dakota? Looks like B-series pistons and rods in some of your pics.

I am in the middle of a swap of a VE pumped 4BT into a ranger.

diesel dakota

Yes I swapped a 4bt into my dakota about 5 years ago now, and being the kid I was I pushed for power upgrades the whole time. the dakota project is gonna see a big change this coming year as I would like to reduce the power level to make it a good daily driver again.

three years ago I twin turbo'd the engine and did some simple fuel mods with my VE pump and the truck was pushing 45-50 psi of boost

this year it got an upgrade in the fuel department. it got some serious Pump mods. It now uses an airdog 2 as the lift pump and it runs 30psi of lift pressure. The fuel flow was so great that the pump shutoff solenoid had to be removed. The truck was making approximate 70+ psi of boost. I only have a 60psi gauge and it would fly past the 60 mark and hit the stop peg a ways past the 60 mark.

the problems with this setup is that there is wandering in the idle because of the fuel pump mods and it has to be shut down by hand. so I'm building a single turbo 4bt out of my spare block that I will swap in to make it a daily driver again. my current crazy 4bt will go in some other project, maybe a stripped regular cab Dakota or maybe even a rail. I've had a p pump timing cover and pump lieing around. I wanna see what the VE can do first though. I was also running a 150HP shot of nitrous and some water meth injection.
heres some older pictures of when the twin turbo engine first went in. I'm not very good at taking pictures of the dakota.




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I just got my spare block back It needed a repair sleeve as it dropped a valve. Its a really low mileage 4bt, I need to find a head and a ve timing case then I can start assembling the new engine.

Raiden20

iTrader: (3)

Nice build. Good luck man.

Grant M

That's not twin turbo that compound turbo! Which is even more crazy.

diesel dakota

Lots of people in the diesel world call compounds just twins cause it's easier and actual twins arn't all that common. I wonder what would happen if you fed 70 psi through a rotory

Grant M

It would either go bang or be awesome. Turbo selection would be hard though. How do you control boost on that? One wastegate on the first turbo?

diesel dakota

Yep the small turbo stays in the propper pressure ratio through an internal wastegate. The big turbo should be within its pressure ratio up to 100psi or so so it just goes as high as it can

Spoken

whoo! looks awesome man, that truck is badass too.

dolsen

nice work, looks clean