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Calvin Wan's Drift FD3S Period Correct Refresh By Rotary Extreme
Calvin Wan's Drift FD3S Period Correct Refresh By Rotary Extreme
C.Wan FD3S Refresh - The Intro
Calvin Wan is an OG professional track and drift driver, one of the earliest drivers to drive for Falken Tire back in the days. There was a time when C.Wan drove his personal FD RX7 for Falken Tire and the car was treated to several upgrades to be a true competitor. The cool thing about this time frame is it's before cars went bat **** crazy with tube frame chassis and fiberglass shells and nutty engine swaps with insane power. This time frame in Formula Drift required more skill since the drift cars were still street built and not shop built. C.Wan was sponsored by a few shops and Rotary Extreme was one of them. Rotary Extreme was founded in 2001 by Chuck and then closed in 2006. I bought Rotary Extreme in 2008 with the intent to bring it back to its former glory, but I could not. I am not Chuck and in the 2 years the business was closed many connections for things that were exclusive to Rotary Extreme were now available to others. I did however get the CNC shop connection and moved forward with improving the VM kits. Rotary Extreme FD VM kits are the result of honest track abuse and the frame and mounting brackets have been made to withstand chassis flex while preventing damage to the vm kit components and the top radiator support where the hood latch is. I am honored to support Calvin Wan and will do my best to keep the integrity of the Rotary Extreme brand name, I guess you guys can tell me how I'm doing on the latter.. lol.
C.Wan explained to me that when your car is in competition and something breaks, you have to fix it fast and you don't have time to sweat the small details. You need to make sure the car will function in a harsh environment and so something's will be done differently to be efficient with time between races/events. This is not to say whatever that was done is wrong, it's just to say that the situation and events called for decisions to be made at the specific time. During the process of tearing his car apart this explained many things that I found along the way. None of it was a hack job, it was all solid work, it was just done in the most efficient way possible to get the car back on the track for competition. My career is test engineering, and this is why I write long reports and try to be as objective as I can to understand all aspects of the event/situation. This is also why when I'm told this and that, I take that advice with great care and continue because I want to see it for myself how it works and fails. This way I have a deeper understanding of how it works so that I can have insight on my future projects. You have to witness failure to recognize a weak point in a system, it is harder to do that when you do what everyone tells you to do and not understanding the full spectrum why. So that is why I continue with failure, so that I can do my best to eliminate failure- does that make sense?
A jack of all trades - a master of none. We all have the potential to do great things and we just need to pay attention to get it done right. Don't be afraid to ask, don't be upset with silence, just focus. C.Wan has entrusted me with an honorable task. To do a time period correct refresh on his White FD3S that has been sitting for YEEAARRSSS !!!!! I know this car has a massive history in the drift scene so I better bring my A-Game.
Shall we start - Here is Calvin Wan's Drift FD3S Period Correct Refresh By Rotary Extreme
Enjoy the intro pics.
Calvin Wan’s Drift FD3S Period Correct Refresh By Rotary Extreme
C.Wan FD3S Refresh – Update 01
I received C.Wan’s FD in February 2022 with the intention of doing a motor swap and refreshing the engine bay. Plans changed and C.Wan was able to seal the deal on getting the whole car painted which meant the whole car needed to be stripped. That also meant that all modifications to the body needed to be done now to be ready for paint. Here is a quick tear down with notes taken along the way to help with the rebuild.
01 – Pics For Body Shop Estimate
02 – Before Pics
03 – AST
04 – Water Wastegate
05 – Boost Wastegate
06 – IC / Rad off
07 – Rad And Oil Cooler Fans
08 – Old PS Cooler
09 – Calibrate PFC Boost Gauge
10 – Misc Damage
11 – Parts Off Day 1
01 – Pics For Body Shop Estimate
Several pictures were taken of the outside and inside of the car so that C.Wan could work with the body shop on what needed to be done and the expected time frame to get it done in. It is a big job since the car has been stich welded and had a cage in it because everything needs to be stripped prepped and repainted. There are a few battle scars that need to be addressed as well.
02 – Before Pics
Some general before pics were taken to get an overview of the status and condition of the car. It is cool to see some rookie work I did with the VM kit and basic quick ducting I did before I developed the skills I have now. Everything held up, from the new vm kit brackets to the downpipe wrap, nothing fell apart or broke. Thank you C.Wan for giving me some OJT and teaching me some basics on certain things. This was the foundation I needed to move forward with Rotary Extreme.
03 – AST
C.Wan has an Apexi GT Reserve Tank performing AST duty. The engine, radiator, and overflow bottle all go to it. It is a really slick set-up and has worked flawlessly. Since the heater core is bypassed in this set-up, the port on the side of the engine and the front WP outlet are T’ed together and return over the engine and back to the reserve tank, this over the engine hosed will be rerouted around the engine. Based on the coolant flow in the engine the hot coolant goes out the back and feeds around to the Tee going into the cool coolant. The Big hose on the reserve tank goes to this Tee as well. So the water pump is sucking the hotter coolant through the larger hose on the bottom of the reserve tank, which is the path of least resistance, back into the cool side of the engine. This will out flow the smaller hose with the warmer coolant coming from the fill neck into the reserve tank. The coolant flowing through the radiator will also extract coolant from the reserve tank. I will mimic this set-up with a different reserve tank on my personal FD.
04 – Coolant Wastegate
Based on the coolant flow in the engine, the cool coolant that feeds the stock twins now feeds the Apexi wastegate. The cooling port closet to the lower boost port is fed from the coolant outlet to the twins. The cooling port furthest from the lower boost port goes back to the lower diagonal nipple which is the radiator return path to the engine.
05 – Boost Wastegate
Boost control for the Apexi wastegate is plumed into a few areas. Using the wires coming out of the Apexi AVCR solenoid as reference, the side without wires goes to the top of the Apexi GT wastegate diaphragm housing. The side with the wires is Tee'd into the line going between the bottom side of the Apexi GT diaphragm housing and the turbo side of the Intercooler.
06 – IC / Rad off
Pulled off the radiator and intercooler. The rad brackets are the updated brackets but I need to update the rear support brace that goes between the frame rails. The IC will have the pipes cut off and I will set a move aggressive angle, update the IC mounting to the floating style to get it off the front rad upper support and add new piping. We will also be going with a new koyo N-Flo. The new IC mounting prevents warping the endplate on the IC as well as preventing the upper rad support bar from tweak where the hood latch is bolted. This is a big issue with most VM kits and it causes the hood latch to rub against the hood lock bar, sometimes it even shifts the hood a little to one side when closed.
07 – Rad And Oil Cooler Fans
I discovered that the PFC is not controlling fan temps. The cooling for rad fans has been hard wired to the temp sensor near the filler cap. Even more interesting is that the oil cooler fans have been tapped into the cooling fan circuit. Now when the rad thermo switch turns on the rad fans, the oil cooler fans turn on as well. This is a cool, cost effective and simplified way to make a robust system for a race car. In racing your full on all the time so full-on cooling is needed. Since C.Wan is requesting that the car can be also daily driven now we are going to make some changes. I will convert the rad fans back to the PFC and install a new cooling system for the oil coolers with new fans and a PWM fan controller. This will allow optimal cooling for street and track.
08 – Old PS Cooler
The FD had a PS cooler from another car, forgot what he told me. C.Wan was having issues with steering pressure and I initially thought that the oil cooler style was causing some issue. During the tear down of the car I found that the PS lines going into the rack were loose and leaking, so yeah problem found. I will replace this with the PS cooler that comes with my VM kits that flows much better since it is tube style flow.
09 – Calibrate PFC Boost Gauge
I noticed the PFC commander was off at -25mmHg at sea level and the boost gauge showed 0. I used FC Tweak to fix this issue and confirmed the system worked. Now I can take everything apart and worry about this later when everything is back together.
10 – Misc Damage
Remember this is an actual drift/track car that has had the crap beat out of it. The poor Apexi shocks are leaking and will need rebuilds. The front right lower control arm was chewed up by the rim at some point, will be replaced. T-Bolt clamp bolts stripped, probably due to hurry up and get this car back out there - lol. Both oil coolers have the fins smashed in on the front side. Front brake lines pushed in for clearance, their ok - no leaking. The fun one was the rubber hose zip tied to the SS braided fuel line, I think we caught that one before it wore through.
11 – Parts Off Day 1
The first day of tear down I got the vm kit, wp housing assembly, turbo kit, and reserve tank off. Man, this car has been put through hell and it's still going. It's grimy, dirty, rough - but it's still a bad *** car that C.Wan was able to kick some butt in.
Enjoy the pics.
01 – Body Shop Estimate
Last edited by rotaryextreme; 05-24-23 at 11:58 PM.
I'm looking forward to seeing this one. There are definitely some parts that are now "vintage" there but they are also solid.
The amount of stuffed crammed at/around the turbo amazes me!
I'm looking forward to seeing this one. There are definitely some parts that are now "vintage" there but they are also solid.
The amount of stuffed crammed at/around the turbo amazes me!
The SS braided lines held up well. There is no leaking, and they are still flexible.
The fiberglass wrapped heatshield on the WG coolant is toasted and will be replaced, the coolant WG lines are PTFE Teflon braided lines.
The boost lines going to the WG are standard SS braided lines.
The Turbo Kit is an Apexi turbo kit. He has 2 turbos for different set-ups, currently I have the smaller turbo with faster response. Makes about 400whp at 1bar on a conservative tune.
It will be fun redoing this area to make it last another 20 years lol.
Last edited by rotaryextreme; 05-25-23 at 10:54 AM.
its great seeing a relic like this get some love and have the please of seeing it documented for us to follow along. Thanks
Thank you, It's really cool to see a race proven set-up that can be benefited from. C.Wan never had a cooling issue. I'll have to see who set this car up back in the day.
More cool updates to come. I have up to Update 9 to document and then the car went to the paint shop.
Calvin Wan’s Drift FD3S Period Correct Refresh By Rotary Extreme
C.Wan FD3S Refresh – Update 02
01 – Pull The Map
02 – Oil Coolers Out
03 – Parts Out Day 2
04 – Engine Ready To Pull
05 – More Battle Damage
01 – Pull The Map
C.Wan’s FD has a really nice tune on it. I was just about to pull the battery and engine harness out when I remembered at the last minute to grab the file for safe keeping. (no I will not share it…lol). I ran it through FC Tweak and now I have a polished version of the file as well to put back in.
02 – Oil Coolers Out
I sucked out the remaining of the PS fluid with my Harbor Freight fluid extractor, love this thing. Then I removed the twin oil coolers. The stock oil cooler worked fine since C.Wan had some pusher fans on them. The new set-up will include a PWM controller with low profile puller fans.
03 – Parts Out Day 2
Day 2 I was able to remove the Apexi Gauge Harness, the PPF, driveshaft, exhaust, and battery harness.
04 – Engine Ready To Pull
The engine and transmission are left and ready to be pulled. The engine harness and fuel lines disconnected at the FPR are ready to come out with the engine. I have the rear diff supported with a rachet strap and the transmission is supported with the transmission jack to reduce pivot overstress on the motor mounts.
05 – More Battle Damage
Upon further tear down inspection more fun stuff was found. Loose PS lines, transmission harness ripped from most sensors, loose/missing/stripped/galled bolts for the rear tunnel brace. I have never seen the thread pulled from the inside of a nut before. It’s as if the bolt was pulled straight out pulling the threads from the nut with it. One of the PPF nuts was different so we ordered a correct one. One of the captured nuts is missing on the body side so I will have to fix that when I cross that bridge. The tunnel heat shield is smashed from the PPF hitting it, probably during every clutch kick during drifting. The PPF was cracked, discovered later while inspecting parts.
Calvin Wan’s Drift FD3S Period Correct Refresh By Rotary Extreme
C.Wan FD3S Refresh – Update 03
01 – Dirty Engine Out
02 – Wheel Wells
03 – Body Harness, Apexi Boost
04 – Pop Up Light Woes
05 – Fuel Stuff
06 – Igniter And Power
07 – Clean And Store Harnesses
08 – Dirty Heat shields
09 – Engine Bay Cleaned
01 – Engine Out
The engine was pulled out with the trans on it and set on the holding dolly. The engine bay is a warzone. It probably has dirt from Dominican Republic in there. Time to start taking the rest of the parts out to clean the bay.
02 – Wheel Wells
The fenders and wheel wells were covered in tire marks and filled with shaved rubber. The rear pinch weld in the wheel well was folded in on both sides. Probably caused from larger tires hitting it. The upper rear pinch weld acted like a knife peeling an apple and shaved a few slices off the front tires as well.
03 – Body Harness
I documented the routing of the body harness, also where it goes to the dash harness. The Apexi boost gauge harness splices into this harness and had to be cut to pull the separate harness out. I bought some pigtails and will make it so you can mate/de-mate the Apexi harness so it does not have to be cut out anymore.
04 – I wanted to see the condition of the headlights and I found out the after-market xenon light kit had recessed spades on both connectors. I pulled the spades out lifted the tabs and re-installed them making sure they locked in place. The routing of the harness was also being smashed by one of the alignment feet when the lights popped up. I will get everything sorted out in due time. The left driver side headlight is busted so it you guys have for sale let me know.
05 – Fuel Lines
I screwed the feed and return fuel lines together that were disconnected from the FPR to keep debris out during cleaning and storage. I found some wires in that area that have been cut and tapped, looks like there was some corrosion between them. The fuel pump resistor was bypassed, or it was not hooked up. It may have been for race purposes. I know the fuel pump still get power through the
ignition circuit so I will update the fuel pump with its own dedicated power source and get the fuel resister working again for street driving.
06 – When removing the ignitor, it was discovered that there was a cut ground wire hanging from it. The battery disconnect was also pulled from the car for paint.
07 – The front and battery harness were grimy and caked with dirt and oil. I power washed most of it off and left the harnesses to dry out. Once dry I stored the harness in a tote for safe keeping.
08 – The passenger side tunnel heat shields are dirty and will need to be cleaned. More on that later.
09 – I pulled the sticky heat shield mats off the frame rails and firewall. I power washed the engine bay, wheel wells and trans tunnel. The burnt paint shows how hot it got it the turbo area, just insane. The fiberglass wrapped did its job, the harnesses and AN line are all fine that were in that area. The engine bay looks clean now, look at all that stitch welding!!!!
05-23-23, 08:40 PM
