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Nice work! Just wanted to mention that if you used that SAE 30R9 rated hose I see in the pictures for the fuel pump plumbing inside the tank, you might want to revisit that. SAE 30R9 hose is not rated for prolonged/continuous use submerged in fuel; it's fine to use everywhere else. What you do want to use for submerged, inside the tank applications is SAE 30R10 hose, which is rated for submerged fuel applications.
Nice work! Just wanted to mention that if you used that SAE 30R9 rated hose I see in the pictures for the fuel pump plumbing inside the tank, you might want to revisit that. SAE 30R9 hose is not rated for prolonged/continuous use submerged in fuel; it's fine to use everywhere else. What you do want to use for submerged, inside the tank applications is SAE 30R10 hose, which is rated for submerged fuel applications.
Thank you so much!!, I did not know that - my fault on not doing enough research. I also went through my build thread and I have the same hose for my pump, I'll have to change mine too.
30R10 ordered up. TY Pete_89T2
Thanks again to Dale Clark for reminding me about the fuel hose clamps a few years ago.
Last edited by rotaryextreme; Jan 16, 2025 at 09:36 AM.
Calvin Wan’s Drift FD3S Period Correct Refresh By Rotary Extreme
C.Wan FD3S Refresh – Update 17
Moving right along with C.Wan's car. I met up with Calvin over this past weekend and talked about when the car will be needed and the game plan to get it done by then. I found lots of duplicate items I acquired for the build and when it's done there will definitely be a garage sale. Let's get on with it.
01 - Fahren LED Headlights
02 - Headlights On
03 - Headlight Bezels
04 - Gas Door Repaired
05 - 2 Wire Transmission Sensor
06 - 4 Wire Transmission Sensor
07 - Fuel Pump J30R10 Hose
08 - Oil Cooler Brackets
09 - Oil Coolers
10 - Oil Cooler Fans
11 - Power Steering Bushing
01 - Fahren LED Headlights
LED headlights can be tricky because some are designed for projector lights and some are designed for reflector lights. Traditional lights bulbs and xenon lights with the gas radiate light in all directions, LED’s are more directional so it is important to get the ones designed for your headlights. I did a search for the best reflector LED headlights last year for my sprinter and ended up with some Fahren H7’s that were amazing. I did another search this year and again Fahren’s were at the top so I picked up some H4’s for C.Wans car. The lights come with a set of cloth gloves and are packages nicely. The LED lights themselves are built solid and have some weight to them. I like these lights because they have an internal fan that will allow the light to 100% fit under the pop-up light cover. There are other ones with external fans, extension plugs, and 2-piece retainers, but this model is the simplest and best fitting for the situation. The rubber boot wraps around the back of the light so the cool fan will vent into the headlight, that’s ok because there is a vent hole on the back of the headlight housing.
02 - Headlights On
I wanted to make sure the headlights worked so I plugged in the required interface connectors between the harness and hooked up my old AGM battery. I turned on the lights and WALAA!! These lights look great!! I did a quick alignment and the cut-off on the sides is pretty cool. These are RHD headlights so the cut-off is going towards the wrong direction and that can be seen on the floor, but it does not matter because this car is for track. The low and high beam also work great, I was surprised at how bright the high beams were. Once I get the car turned around, I’ll adjust the beam pattern against the garage door.
03 - Headlight Bezels
The left side headlight bezel was cracked and previously repaired with some glue on the back. I used some JB Plastic Weld to fill in the cracks and then taped it in place to hold it together for a few hours. I took off the tape, shaved down the excess weld material, and then used a black sharpie to color the small tan plastic. I did not take a close-up picture but with it laying on the table, it's not that noticeable anymore. The pop up lights look really nice with the bezel's installed.
04 - Gas Door Repaired
The gas door cable when pressed down would stay stuck and the gas door would not pop out, you had to try and open the gas door with your fingertips. To make sure the gas door was locked, you had to pull the cable back up and tap on the door to make sure it would not move. At first, I thought it was because the gas door bracket was broken and missing the spring, but I also noticed another problem and that was the locking pin was not sliding in and out. I reached my hand in to feel the mechanism and felt a loose spring, the whole thing felt weird. I pulled it out and realized what the problem was. CWan’s FD was hit near the gas door before, and I believe it was at that time the damaged occurred for the bracket and release mechanism. The release bracket was tweaked, and the back of the plastic pin had somehow found its way outside the retainer. I got the plastic pin and spring back in place and tweaked the bracket so the plastic pin slid freely on the pull lever. I re-installed the assembly and pushed down on the door release handle. There is still a little stickiness to the release cable, but the gas door pops out and secures nicely and everything works like it should.
05 - 2 Wire Transmission Sensor
I did not investigate which transmission switch does what, but there were 2 switches that the wire harness was pulled off of. A 2 wire and a 4 wire. For the 2 wire switch I had to cut away the top of the molding to get to the spades. I used a soldering iron to melt away the material around the spades. Then I drilled a hole through the side of the molding into the spade. On the harness side I stripped back the wire and wrapped solder around it that way when I heat up the solder there would be enough flux to ensure good solder flow on these crusty wires. I fed the wire through the hole, folded it back, and added more solder. I checked the switch with a meter and it worked. I used some Dowsil 3145 RTV to cover the back of the wires. I installed the switch and then pulled the wires in the orientation I wanted the RTV to dry in. There was another 2 wire switch on top that the insulation had cracked on so I coated that with a little Dowsil 3145 as well.
06 - 4 Wire Transmission Sensor
Dude, Bro's, Homie's.... This 4 wire transmission switch had me stressing out on how it was wired up. The wires had pulled off right at the back of the switch, I could barely make out where the blue and green wires go. At first I thought blue was one side of a signal and that green would be the other side, then I thought which blue went to which green???? I put paint markers for the blue and green wires on the metal part of the switch and it took me 30 minutes to remove all the molded material on the back of the switch to expose the 4 spades. Now that I had a solid contact on the switch spades I tested different scenarios and then I realized the 2 blue wires are one switch and the 2 green wires are the other switch, phew, thank goodness. Sorry I forgot to take a picture of the exposed spades. The spades already had holes with wire soldered to them so I heated them up, removed the old wire ends, and soldered the new wires on the switch. I used my go to wire for wire extensions, 4-wire trailer harness extensions...lol. I used green for green and used yellow for the blue. I made sure to install all the shrink tubing first and crimped the harness side of the wires. I used some silicone tape to wrap the 4 wire harness to keep it safe from the exhaust temps and where the silicone tape ended I wrapped it with super 33 electrical tape just to be safe.
07 - Fuel Pump J30R10 Hose
It was brought to my attention that I used J30R9 fuel injection hose for inside the fuel tank which is supposed to be J30R10 which is designed for submersible applications. I hope this will help someone not make the same mistake.
So...
J30R9 = Fuel injection hose external, wherever you want outside the tank.
J30R10 = Fuel injection hose designed for submersible applications.
I pulled CWans fuel pump out and swapped the J30R9 hose with the J30R10 submersible hose and put the fuel pump back in.
08 - Oil Cooler Brackets
I wanted to hang the oil coolers so I grabbed the oil cooler brackets to clean them up. Uh-Oh, the left side inside bracket was all mangled up. It was cracked at both walls of the bend, no longer 90 degrees and had a slight twist on the top part... kind of like this thing was ran over by an 18 wheeler. I bent it back into place, sanded the paint from the cracks, welded the cracked areas, and painted it satin black to match the other brackets. The right side brackets had some overspray from a previous paint job so I cleaned all that off too.
09 - Oil Coolers
The oil coolers went on nicely. I was happy that the outside oil cooler brackets did not interfere with the modified section for wheel turning clearance, it touches the wall but everything sits like it's supposed to.
10 - Oil Cooler Fans
The oil cooler fans are SPAL VA31-A101-46A and they fit nicely with the stock oil coolers. The fans have 3 attachment points and its best to put the widest holes at the top and the 2 closer holes at the edge of the cooler. This will allow the fan to clear the back bracket.
11 - Power Steering Bushing
I also installed some super pro power steering rack bushing. I didn't notice how much over spray was on the sub frame until I removed the power steering brackets. The main thing to watch out for is when your installing the bushing closest to the gearbox is to make sure the bushing lips sits behind the rib guides when installing the bracket.
01 - Fahren LED Headlights
Calvin Wan’s Drift FD3S Period Correct Refresh By Rotary Extreme
C.Wan FD3S Refresh – Update 18
A little bit of clean up here and there. Out with the old, in with the new.
In this update we repair some body retainer nuts, re-install original fuel lines, and clean clean clean.
01 – Rear Subframe Brace Body Nuts
02 – Old SS Braided Fuel Lines Out
03 – Bracket Rivets
04 – Fuel Lines
05 – Rear Subframe Brace On
06 – Emergency Power Disconnect
07 – Oil Cooler Pipe Brackets
08 – More Cleaning
09 – Rusty Tac Welds
01 – Rear Subframe Brace Body Nuts
I’m sure that over the years of changing drivetrain components and living in a competitive racing environment is what leads to parts being damaged, bolts being stripped, and welded anchor nuts disappearing like its freezing outside. The rear subframe to body braces were hurting at the attachment points near the tunnel. Both sides were missing the forward bolts, the right side retainer nuts were both cross threaded, and the left side had one retainer nut missing. Out of 4 nuts, only 1 was good – but having one good nut is better then having no nuts. I chased the threads on the right side, threw away the cross threaded bolt and found 3 replacement bolts from my hardware stash. The left side was a whole other story. Since this is considered a structural connection, I did not want to use a rivnut. Thankfully I have a little imagination and put my shade tree fabrication skills to work. Using the matching size hardware, I drilled a whole for the M8 bolt to pass through, screwed on the M8 nut on the other side and welded it to the flat bar. I drilled a hole on the underbody side of the mounting point and slid the flat bar in, measured where I needed to cut, and bent the flat bar so it would be flush with the body mount. I sanded the area with a flapper wheel and welded it in place. I had to stack beads between the bracket and the body since the different metals were heating at a different rate. Also being upside down, sparks flying on me and burning me sweater, flashlight in one hand and mig in the other created a real good time. I re-sanded the welds to make sure I had solid weld between the two metals. Lastly, I covered the bare metal with 3M underbody coating.
02 – Old SS Braided Fuel Lines Out
Due to the age of the SS Braided fuel lines and target horsepower, it was decided to put the stock lines back in. In the back the SS lines were zip tied around the rear brake line and gas tank plastic vapor line, thankfully the plastic vapor line is only scuffed so it’s still ok. The charcoal canister is still in place so that’s one less thing to put back in. Yes, it is a track car, but the car is still stored in doors within living courters so it’s important to catch those vapors – safety#1. All of the fuel line retainer brackets were cut to hold the SS lines, thankfully C.Wan had another complete fuel line assembly.
03 – Bracket Rivets
While I was installing the fuel lines I noticed rivets going through the floor right where the fuels will be. There are custom brackets installed to hold a foot board in the driver’s area, unfortunately the rivets for one of the brackets is right on top of the fuel lines. This was an easy fix, I drilled out the rivets and installed them from bottom to up – no more risk for metal-to-metal contact.
04 – Fuel Lines
Putting on the stock fuel lines was a little trickier than I thought. Eventually I got the back parts of the fuel lines behind the rear brake line, fixed the rivets going through the floor, and that allowed me to line up the rest of the brackets and plastic brake line covers to the mounting holes. I cleaned up the front of the plastic brake line cover and used new hardware where things can be seen. The last bracket in the rear was a combination of 2 bracket parts. The bracket positioned the line retainer where I needed it, but the retainer was cut for the SS lines. I used a 9mm socket to compress the plastic prongs to pull a spare line retainer off one new bracket and pressed it into the bracket with the spacer. This bracket holds the lines as they turn up towards the gas tank. I still need to install the top hardlines that cross over the rear subframe and the aeromotive fuel filter on a custom bracket on the back of the subframe for easy access.
05 – Rear Subframe Brace On
With the fuel lines now on, I put the rear subframe braces back on. I did not tighten all the bolts because I still need to put the drivetrain in. All holes line up, and all bolts screwed in smoothly. I probably will have to take the left side off again to attach the remaining fuel lines.
06 – Emergency Power Disconnect
Looking at some old photos I was able to re-attach the emergency power disconnect cable. The cable clamps are riveted in place and hold the cable nice and tight.
07 – Oil Cooler Pipe Brackets
I attached the oil cooler pipe brackets to the front frame rails – all that’s missing is the engine..lol.
08 – More Cleaning
The front subframe had so much overspray on it that it looked grey in the photos. I sprayed some brake cleaner on a blue shop towel and wiped the subframe clean. I scrubbed the tunnel with soap and water to prep it for the tunnel sticky backed heat shielding.
09 – Rusty Tac Welds
The car had been tack welded all over and most of it was repainted, the bottom of the car is a different story. Were the body was tacked and where the roll cage was welded to the floor made the under-coating peel off. This was left open to accumulate surface rust. I brushed all the dirt from these areas, put on my painter’s mask, hit it with some rust fix and allowed that to dry for 30 minutes. Last, I sprayed those areas with 3M underbody coating. Since I was upside down, the splatter from the 3M spray ended up on my face and hair. I spent a good 10 min in the shower pulling 3M splatter out of my hair. It was like pulling dry sap off of a paintbrush.
01 – Rear Subframe Brace Body Nuts
Last edited by rotaryextreme; Jan 28, 2025 at 12:33 AM.
Calvin Wan’s Drift FD3S Period Correct Refresh By Rotary Extreme
C.Wan FD3S Refresh – Update 19
I finally finished 2 main things I needed to do before putting the engine and transmission in. This was putting heat shield on the trans tunnel and taking care of the fuel lines. I want to give a special thanks to Jim T. (tomsn16) on the RX7 club for hard to get parts that has saved me many times. Also, RX7parts is a good go to as well. As expected, something always pops up when putting a track car back together due to its battle scars. Let's get started.
01 - DEI Transmission Tunnel
02 - DEI Turbo Side Frame Rail
03 - RX7.com 3 Inch Resonated Midpipe
04 - 99 Spec Turn Signals
05 - Hood Latch Refreshed
06 - Hood Latch Cable
07 - Hood Latch Mounted
08 - Fuel Purge Parts
09 - Rear Fuel Hardlines
10 - Aeromotive Fuel Filter
11 - Fuel Filter Bracket
12 - Fuel Filter Mounted
13 - Gas Tank Shield
01 - DEI Transmission Tunnel
C.Wan's RX7 is a full on dedicated track car and there are times when the trans tunnel gets so hot it becomes extremely uncomfortable to sit next to. I have used DEI floor and tunnel shield #50503 on my car and it works amazing. The backing adhesive is very tacky and holds solid as long as you clean the surface its sticking to. It is formable, but you will need to cut a slit if you want to bend it around corners. I used Aluminum ducting tape to hold down the heat shield edges and to fill in the gaps between shielding pieces. On C.Wan's car I brought the heat shield up further where his feet are and behind the factory exhaust shielding by the downpipe.
02 - DEI Turbo Side Frame Rail
The old gold reflect a cool shield taped to the frame next to the turbo had a lower heat rating of 800F and the paint was burned from the heat. This time we used the Aluminum reflect a cool with a heat rating of 2000F radiant heat. After the engine is set-up and everything is routed in that area I'll see where I need to add more heat shielding.
03 - RX7.com 3 Inch Resonated Midpipe
I got in touch with Ari and he was able to get me a 3 inch resonated midpipe while he is relocating his shop. I got a cat from Ari because the pipes bends maximize flow, also making 350whp/312tq at 14psi with BNR stage 1 twins through his cat made me a believer. I recommended this resonated midpipe to C.Wan because it has the best free flowing bends. I compared it next to my 2.75 inch resonated midpipe and my pipe looks like the flows hitting a wall compared to the one from Ari. I also got the hardware kit which comes with 2 new gaskets and hardware for both flanges. I wrapped the front of the midpipe and used some metal zip ties to hold the wrap in place.
04 - 99 Spec Turn Signals
Back in the day C.Wan had a busted 99 turn signal light so I got him a new set. I found some online made by Hyper Sport and the plastic lenses have a protruding circle where the lights are. I thought it was so cool and later on I tried to find a set for myself but I was unable to. I asked C.Wan if I got him a replacement set would he trade me - well now I have those cool to me 99 turn signal lights made by Hyper Sport.
05 - Hood Latch Refreshed
C.Wan's hood was held down by hood pins but he wants to use the hood latch now. The hood latch grease was like sap and very sticky. I took apart the hood latch and removed all the old grease from the pivot arms, cleaned up the springs, and hood latch switch. I used brake pad grease to re-grease it since its made for metal sliding on metal. I put it all together and put blue loctite on the threads exposed on the backside holding the hood latch switch down, I backed out the screws a little then screwed them back in to ensure a little loctite got on the threads from the back.
06 - Hood Latch Cable
Routing the hood latch was easy, securing the firewall grommet on the cable was a whole other story. Once again a battle scar got me and the sidewall was bend behind the door a little bit and creased right at the pass through for the hood latch cable. I had to take the cable out and tap that area flush with a small body hammer. With the grommet fully seated, I taped off the rubber grommets and sprayed some black paint to protect the bare metal from the elements. I routed the cable up to the front and then hopped in the car and bolted the hood latch pull handle in place.
07 - Hood Latch Mounted
The front bumper upper support cross bar depends heavily on the hood latch bracket to hold it in place from sagging. I had to pull the upper support bracket up 1/2 inch to get the top holes to line up. I tried to align the hood latch slot vertically but I will have to adjust it some more once I install the hood. I used a screwdriver to lock the hood latch and then pulled the latch release - works like new, I wonder why... lol. A lot of V-mount kits also attach to this bar with a big front L-bracket. When the engine moves it also tweaks this bar and thing slows start to shift. This is one reason why I came up with my new VM bracket set-up that eliminates brace distortion and provides more support for many VM configurations.
08 - Fuel Purge Parts
So, I'm a big fan of the purge relief system for the fuel tank. Reduces smell, prevents the charcoal canister from being saturated, and safety. I went down the rabbit hole of all the threads of this vs that and the number one reason to keep it is if you store your car in the garage, then keep the purge system. That last thing you want to do is sleep near gas vapors once your charcoal canister can no longer hold fuel vapors due to saturation. C.Wan's charcoal canister was almost twice as heavy as the replacement one and smelled like gas. I was also able to source the purge valve and the catch tank to complete the system.
09 - Rear Fuel Hardlines
Thank you Jim T. (tomsn16) on the RX7 club for getting me these rear fuel hard lines. I needed these hard lines to pass safely over the rear subframe. I spent several hours routing these damn things, putting all new fuel lines, and swapping out the old charcoal canister with the new one. I think the smartest thing I did was install pre-cut lines to make my life easier when feeding them to the top of the tank. After everything was hooked up at the tank I installed the fuel tank access cover with the intermediate fuel pump harness.
10 - Aeromotive Fuel Filter
The old fuel system uses a high flow fuel filter and that was requested to be retained. On the old set-up it sat near the fire wall where the hard fuel lines end. I opted to make a bracket and mount it at the rear subframe. There is a new fuel filter element that has been installed, I also found some 90 degree AN-6 to 5/16 barb so I could hook it up to the fuel injection lines.
11 - Fuel Filter Bracket
I found some aluminum flat bar and made a bracket from it. It was thick enough to tap threaded holes to hold the fuel filter clamps. I offset it higher to allow the diff better airflow.
12 - Fuel Filter Mounted
This is a common DIY for the fuel filter to be relocated because it's a pain in the A$$ to get to in its stock location. There are also many kits out there that do this like JP3 Motorsports. The fuel line comes from the fuel tank to the filter, then out the filter to the lines going to the front of the car. The Aeromotive fuel filter also has a fuel direction of flow so it was set-up the same way. I'm really happy how the bracket came out, I might just do this for my car as well.
13 - Gas Tank Shield
One last thing I noticed was a loose nut holding down the gas tank shield. I went to tighten it and checked the other side. The other side had the panels overlapped in reverse but there were also 2 nuts - it's a boy !!!!!!! There was a nut holding the bottom panel and another nut holding to top panel on the same stud. I took off both nuts but ended up having to pay for it due to Trump's EO. I overlapped the panels correctly and used 1 nut to hold it down.
Thanks again for the read. If all goes well hopefully I'll get the engine and tranny in next weekend.
