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Ben, just got caught up in what you have been up to....I am super happy to read this and huge props to you tackling this major project. Thank you again for installing your VM on my FC back at Lucky7 when I couldn't be there!
Ben, just got caught up in what you have been up to....I am super happy to read this and huge props to you tackling this major project. Thank you again for installing your VM on my FC back at Lucky7 when I couldn't be there!
Hey whats going on. Doing the refresh on C.Wans car is a big honor considering the Historical aspect of the car and C.Wan in the drift culture. After I finish his car then I can get back to mine. For your VM kit, I did deliver it with instructions to Lucky7 but they did the install, I had to go to Disneyland with the wife..LOL. I'm glad it all worked out. I will start back up on C.Wan,s car mid December this year. Thanks again for reaching out!!!
Ahhhh really haha?! I can’t even blame you for that. Regardless, the VM system is still on mine and working flawlessly !!! Been to the track multiple times and can’t express how happy I am with the performance. Looking forward to more updates with C. Wan’s FD.
Ahhhh really haha?! I can’t even blame you for that. Regardless, the VM system is still on mine and working flawlessly !!! Been to the track multiple times and can’t express how happy I am with the performance. Looking forward to more updates with C. Wan’s FD.
Calvin Wan’s Drift FD3S Period Correct Refresh By Rotary Extreme
C.Wan FD3S Refresh – Update 14
I thought installing the front body harness that wraps around the engine bay would be easy. Well when you're trying to install it 2 years after you took it out, your searching for a lot of pictures on the web.
The first thing I did was wipe the engine bay and harness down with a wet rag. I inspected the harness for exposed and damaged wires, the wires where they go into the connectors, and any corrosion on the connector pins. The harness is in real good condition with only a few places needing to be re-wrapped.
I did notice one broken wire that ended up being for the airbag system. I will shrink wrap this end to prevent it from any unwanted voltages or noise interference. There is a thread on RX7Club that list all the harness and connectors for the FD3S and that is how I identified the missing connector. In one of the provided pictures the front harness is split into 4 blocks. Block "1" shows a harness split into 2 connectors, a single wire Orange connector and a multi-wire blue connector that both are called X-09. These are the connectors between Front & Air Bag.
Many of the harness retention clips were broken so the next best thing is zip-ties. The easiest way to install the front harness is to secure the front center section that goes under the front brace that the hood bracket rest on. If your clips are broken, you can secure the harness with zip-ties.
The left side of the harness had a large section of exposed wires where is crosses over the tire. I used some lacing tie to secure the harness bundle, wrapped it with electrical tape, and placed it in wire loom for protection. I secured the harness with zip-ties where it makes a 90 degree bend behind the frame where the headlight mounts and then routed the harness along the fender frame and secured it to the FEED brace where the harness passes through the firewall. There is a metal lip where the harness crosses over and I placed door guard on the metal lip and used aluminum tape to prevent the door guard from coming loose. I also had to remove a harness retention clip to re-route the smaller branch that goes into the engine bay near the firewall. The igniter connector can reach the igniter and the harness going to the master cylinder and map sensor clips in place where they are supposed to.
C.Wan gave me a set of FD3S carbon fiber fenders, I used the left side to make sure the harness routing clears. Unfortunately the right side fender warped during the cure process and cannot be mounted. The harness clears everywhere, even where the FEED brace is.
I routed the right side front harness and verified the branch of connectors that goes into the engine bay reached. The right side of the harness was covered with a heat shield to protect it from any radiant exhaust heat. The heat shield has seen better days but still works to protect the harness from abrasions, the wire loom was still in good condition as well and did not need any re-work.
The right rear tire was losing air and I found the valve stem nut loose. I hope that was the issue.
Last edited by rotaryextreme; Dec 30, 2024 at 10:59 AM.
Calvin Wan’s Drift FD3S Period Correct Refresh By Rotary Extreme
C.Wan FD3S Refresh – Update 15
I installed the rest of the factory interior harnesses that I took out for paint. C.Wan still has some remaining harness that we can install later. I also tried my best to remove some overspray from parts that were carelessly wrapped prior to being painted.
I wiped down the dash harness, inspected all connectors, and routed it in place. I mated the interface connectors between the instrument panel harness, the front harness, and the dash harness. For the door connector install, the red tab needs to be pulled out the allow the white tab to be pushed down when installing the body side door connector. I tilted it so that the top red tab side went in first then from the inside of the car I pushed the bottom for it to snap in place with the bottom tab. Then you want to push in the red top tab to push up the white tab to lock the connector in place. Now you can easily plug in the door harness side with the rubber grommet fully seated, make sure you hear a click and give it a small tug to make sure its locked in place.
02 - Over Sprayed Connector Pins
The pedal sensors for the brake and clutch were victims of overspray. I used a combination of exacto knives and wire brushes to get the pins clean. I sprayed some electrical cleaner to get all the dust out for good measure.
03 - Left Side Fuse Box
Keep in mind a lot of these pictures are in process. With the front/dash/instrument harnesses routed I felt it was safe to get started on the fuse box. Always make sure to clean the paint from the holes used for ground locations. I re-used a 6mm bolt that is cut with flat faces and is used for ground locations. The wire for the missing X-09 orange airbag connector has been safely covered to prevent any type of accidental short.
04 / 05 - Over Sprayed and Cleaned Signal / Wiper controls
The red power cut off switch, the signal and wiper stalks were covered in overspray. I thought to myself how in the hell am I going to get this off, then I went to my go to for everything for the past 20+ years - no joke. I have been using Scratch Out for everything with light scratches and polishing. I first discovered it when I was looking for something to clean up my sun dried head lamp housings. I used my thumbnail to scrape off most of the thick stuff on the Signal / Wiper controls. I was able to use a scuff pad for the red toggle switch handle. For the textured **** on the signal control, I used a plastic brush and brushed it like brushed teeth. I used electrical cleaner and cleaned the red toggle switch handle. I used scratch out for the Signal / Wiper controls, I probably spent an hour or so cleaning them up doing my best to avoid the white graphics marking.
06 - Left Firewall Corner
The primary role of C.Wan's car is to be a track car with the option to be able to drive it on the street. That leads us to the reason why the fuel pump resister is bypassed, this is to eliminate the low voltage / low speed operation of the fuel pump at idle and cruise. With 850 primaries and the fuel pump relay mod, the fuel resister wouldn't be useful for this application anyways. I took off the original shrink tubing and inspected the wires for corrosion, everything looked good and I reapplied heat shrink to protect to end and more important to prevent any accidently shorting from the crimped end. If for whatever reason in the future the fuel pump resister needs to be attached, I was able to go to the junkyard and get the connector ends to do it. I found a 1st gen RX8, apparently the coolant overflow in the front uses the same connector. I did look at the fans to snag them for an upgrade but they were the 2 wire fan motors. I put some new aluminum tape where the fuel pump resister would normally go under the brake booster. I cleaned the threads for where the igniter and cap are secured. The igniter grounds itself through the screws. Later I will make a separate ground wire from the battery to the igniter to make sure it has a proper ground. The Wilwood bias brake control was fun to un-coil. Somehow it got positioned inside out and I had to play twister until I got it to sit like before. No lines were harmed during the game. And of course, using all new hardware where possible.
07 - Cabin And Rear Harness
The rear harness and extension have also been routed. I will need to come up with a clean way to secure the harness from flopping around. The original race set-up was the radiator fans and oil cooler fans were wired together would come on at the same time. I know have a PWM controller for the oil cooler fans and the PFC will now control only the radiator fans, the cooling fan mod from mazda is connected as well.
i have an idea about the fan setup, not sure if its a good one, but i think its a way to keep the PFC in the loop
the stock FD setup uses the ECU, blower speed and the fan switch in the water pump to run the multi speed fans.
usually we just let the PFC do it, because we can set the fan temp. my idea is to use the Fan Switch, which would be in the water pump, to run the oil cooler fans.
so like the PFC sees fan speed 1, because it turns it on, and then fan speed two adds the oil cooler fans. (i forget which speed does what)
i was thinking since the fan switch in the water pump has a higher turn on point its fine as is, but maybe you put it in the oil cooler banjo bolt?
i mean, because you need the race car to idle perfectly?
i have an idea about the fan setup, not sure if its a good one, but i think its a way to keep the PFC in the loop
the stock FD setup uses the ECU, blower speed and the fan switch in the water pump to run the multi speed fans.
usually we just let the PFC do it, because we can set the fan temp. my idea is to use the Fan Switch, which would be in the water pump, to run the oil cooler fans.
so like the PFC sees fan speed 1, because it turns it on, and then fan speed two adds the oil cooler fans. (i forget which speed does what)
i was thinking since the fan switch in the water pump has a higher turn on point its fine as is, but maybe you put it in the oil cooler banjo bolt?
i mean, because you need the race car to idle perfectly?
Nice Idea.
Originally the coolant fans and oil fans were all wired together like that for simplicity.
The issue I want to prevent is over cooling for the oil coolers.
The temp probe for the oil coolers is in the 2nd cooler before it returns to the engine. I thought there would be a difference between the 2 coolers but it was only like 2 degrees per the temp gun.
This will also allow the oil cooler fans to stay on longer when the oil gets hot during events.
I was in a rush writing this - gotta go to church.
The ignitor and condenser (capacitor) use the chassis for ground, it might be wise to clean some of the paint from their mounting hole threads. The car looks great, I love the idea of bright white paint for the chassis and engine bay.
The ignitor and condenser (capacitor) use the chassis for ground, it might be wise to clean some of the paint from their mounting hole threads. The car looks great, I love the idea of bright white paint for the chassis and engine bay.
Yes sir. Post 140 , the pic right above the one you reference has the picture where I chase the threads with a wire brush. I'm going to have to chase all holes where grounds are.
Calvin Wan’s Drift FD3S Period Correct Refresh By Rotary Extreme
C.Wan FD3S Refresh – Update 16
Now the fun begins with refreshing old hoses and bolting things back up onto the car.
This is going to be a lot of fun - whoopie!!!!!
01 - Interior Harness Secured
02 - Left Headlight
03 - Right Headlight
04 - Garage Alpha Fuel Baffle Cover
05 - Fuel Pump
06 - Fuel Evap
The harness was original secured with tie mounts and double sided tape. I wanted to do the same thing so I made sure to get good quality double sided tape. I saw the walmart brand "hyper tough" and the double sided tape was so thin, I knew it would not be able to secure on anything other than a smooth surface. I went over to lowes and found some good stuff with the thicker foam type double sided tape. I started from the back of the trunk area where the harness is secured with the factory retainers and worked my way up on both sides towards the front making sure the harness hugged the body lines. I also secure the trunk/gas release cable with white zipties to hide it more. I also chased the threads for the 2 front harness grounds behind the rebar and installed them with new bolts.
02 - Left Headlight
Time for the headlights. The left side headlight was broken and the metal frame mounting points had been cut to make the headlight assembly work with bent bodywork in that area. Now that everything has been repaired my job was to combine parts from 2 left headlights into one. The good metal support bracket was bent where the head light motor attaches to it, and the other headlight upper housing assembly was missing some mounting hardware. I took everything apart and wiped it all clean. I bent the metal lower bracket with the good mounting holes into place (had to use a vice-damn thing is strong as hell) and used parts between the 2 upper fiberglass headlight brackets to make one good one. I still had 2 left side headlights with broken tabs, no problem because I just happen to have a pair of aftermarket headlights. The aftermarket headlights fit really nice and are made well. The alignment tabs fit snug and the bracket the spring goes into is really strong. The headlight assembly also bolted up nicely (with new hardware), even with the bracket modification for turning angle clearance. I routed the light harness and moved the light up and down to verify harness routing.
03 - Right Headlight
The right headlight was in good condition except the lower metal bracket has overspray on it. Once again I use the scratch out and some elbow grease to clean it up. I took everything apart to wipe it all clean then put it all back together with the new headlight and installed it with new hardware. The harness was routed and verified by moving the light up and down.
04 - Garage Alpha Fuel Baffle Cover
The Garage Alpha fuel tank reservoir cover helps keep fuel in the fuel pick up reservoir by greatly reducing the gas from sloshing out during drift and track events. Normally one would need to keep a minimum of 1/2 tank but with the GA cover you can go down to 1/4 tank and still be safe. I removed the gas lines and the evap lines so I could remove the fuel pump hanger. The fuel pump filter and the gas level mechanism looked good. The pump is really fat with a diaphragm of some sort on the top, C.Wan told me it was an R33 GTR pump. The gas was 12 years old in the tank and there was hardly any smell to it at all. The inside of the tank looked great also. I siphoned the remaining gas, about 5 gallons, and installed the GA cover. The GA cover has tabs that go through slots that are preformed on the stock fuel baffle outside walls. I hear there are some older RX-7's that do not have the slots on the walls and the GA cover comes with metal zip-ties so you can strap the cover to the top of the baffle. Luckily for me I had the slots and I just bent the tabs on the metal GA cover up after they went through the slots. The GA cover fits nicely - a definite must have.
05 - Fuel Pump
The fuel pump hose has to be at least 15 years old and the worm clamps really dug into it. I replaced the fuel line with some new fuel injection hose and put new fuel line specific clamps on. I went to install the fuel pump and the hanger would not line up. I found out because the R33 GTR pump is so fat, it is hitting the rubber underpart of the GA cover where it extends part the metal top panel. I used an exacto knife to cut out the interference and this time the fuel hanger lined right up.
06 - Fuel Evap
The fuel evap lines were also old with worm clamps. I replaced all the hoses and installed new fuel line specific clamps. The plastic T brake when I was tightening a clamp on it so off to ACE to get a brass T. I wonder if the gas vapor made it weaker. I will also re-install the evap system so the gas fumes don't stink up the garage while the car sits in the garage between events and shows.
Hope these little updates are fun, thanks for watching.
01 - Interior Harness Secured
Last edited by rotaryextreme; Jan 15, 2025 at 10:20 PM.
