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Rebuilt engine with about 5k miles on it.
- 2mm Apex seals
- Street port
- Single turbo GReddy T78
- Fuel mods to safely support 450+ HP
- Apex'i PFC
- AVC-R
- GReddy Titanium catback
- GReddy FMIC
Future engine plans
Going to pull that engine and install a stock port engine that I have with 99 twins with full emissions, HKS twin power, downpipe, OEM Cat, Exhaust TBD.
I usually know how I want to mod my cars but wanted to get your thoughts.
Question
Should I powder-coat the LIM, y-pipe, water pump housing and PS bracket wrinkle black? I want a clean OEM look and wasn’t sure if this would devalue the car.
Or should I get some kind of heat coating on the LIM and UIM? If so, what and who do you recommend?
Do you think a new OEM oil pan is less likely to leak than a clean used pan?
Do you think the oil pan brace are worth the price?
Pics are the previous owner ad.
Will address interior and exterior in a later post.
Last edited by Johnny Kommavongsa; Aug 3, 2022 at 06:19 AM.
If you are contemplating powdercoating or thermal coating your LIM, you should have no problem buying an oil pan brace. They aren't that much and work great. When your used pan comes off, use a hammer and dolly to flatten any bent parts. I've reused one multiple times with success.
I think an oil pan brace is 100% worth the price. I had a leak on my oil pan that would not go away. I lifted the motor and resealed the pan but a small leak came back after some autocrossing and spirited driving on bumpy roads. On my new motor I installed a Banzai Racing oil pan brace and have not had any leak issues since.
You can make an old oil pan work but it's a hit or miss proposition. A new pan isn't much and you are much more likely to have no leaks with a new one.
As far as coating the manifolds, it depends on if you are wanting to dress things up or make it look as OEM new and fresh as possible. If you want it looking like stock and clean, you could maybe have them media blasted so they are super clean then sprayed with a matte clear or powder coated with a clear to seal the aluminum to keep it from oxidizing/showing fingerprints/looking dirty.
If you are contemplating powdercoating or thermal coating your LIM, you should have no problem buying an oil pan brace. They aren't that much and work great. When your used pan comes off, use a hammer and dolly to flatten any bent parts. I've reused one multiple times with success.
Thxs, we usually reuse also but haven't had as much luck sealing the pan. It always seems like it leaks a little.
Originally Posted by H_M
I think an oil pan brace is 100% worth the price. I had a leak on my oil pan that would not go away. I lifted the motor and resealed the pan but a small leak came back after some autocrossing and spirited driving on bumpy roads. On my new motor I installed a Banzai Racing oil pan brace and have not had any leak issues since.
Nice, exactly what I wanted to hear.
Originally Posted by DaleClark
FD party at Johnny's house!
Looks like a nice project!
You can make an old oil pan work but it's a hit or miss proposition. A new pan isn't much and you are much more likely to have no leaks with a new one.
As far as coating the manifolds, it depends on if you are wanting to dress things up or make it look as OEM new and fresh as possible. If you want it looking like stock and clean, you could maybe have them media blasted so they are super clean then sprayed with a matte clear or powder coated with a clear to seal the aluminum to keep it from oxidizing/showing fingerprints/looking dirty.
Dale
Ha, thxs. I agree a new pan isn't much relative to everything else on this car. I will probably order a new pan and brace. Still iffy on the powdercoating part. On a separate note, thanks for the help with the solenoids yesterday.
If it’s not stock you won’t devalue it by coating anything. Add value by upgrading that turbo to something from this decade. That’s a laggy old turbo. Don’t restore it to 1998 specs. Restore it to 2019 specs!
If you want to coat parts like brackets and other odds and ends and have it look OEM just use a gloss/semi gloss black powder. It will freshen up all the oxidized aluminum and rusty steel without looking too “aftermarket”
all the nuts and bolts also. The stock stuff is just zinc coated steel and the coating wears off. I replaced a lot of mine with titanium hardware but stainless is fine for most engine bay stuff. Just don’t use it on load bearing suspension components etc. use steel or titanium. Stainless isn’t strong enough and will sheer off.
Get yourself a Mazda Motorsports account if you havent already.
The cluster is nice but I'd just keep an eye out for a good cluster for a better price. They pop up every now and again on Ebay for way less than that. It also depends on if you have to have the Spirit R or if you want the 99 look, the green gauges, whatever. You can also mod the cluster to show MPH as well.
Recovering the seats depends on what condition the seats are currently in. Since it's an R1 and a CYM I personally would stick to the Alcantara-style fabric, that's fitting with the spirit of the car.
The current seats that are in there are leather but I have a chance to get a set of really good condition R1 seats locally. Price wise, the r1 seats will be a little more than the recover.
Rebuilt engine with about 5k miles on it.
- 2mm Apex seals
- Street port
- Single turbo GReddy T78
- Fuel mods to safely support 450+ HP
- Apex'i PFC
- AVC-R
- GReddy Titanium catback
- GReddy FMIC
Future engine plans
Going to pull that engine and install a stock port engine that I have with 99 twins with full emissions, HKS twin power, downpipe, OEM Cat, Exhaust TBD.
I usually know how I want to mod my cars but wanted to get your thoughts.
Question
Should I powder-coat the LIM, y-pipe, water pump housing and PS bracket wrinkle black? I want a clean OEM look and wasn’t sure if this would devalue the car.
Or should I get some kind of heat coating on the LIM and UIM? If so, what and who do you recommend?
Do you think a new OEM oil pan is less likely to leak than a clean used pan?
Do you think the oil pan brace are worth the price?
Pics are the previous owner ad.
Will address interior and exterior in a later post.
Nice find. That was a hard hitting turbo back in the day, but very laggy by today's standards.
Take a look at Jason Poco's cym. He did a lot of wrinkle black in his engine bay and it looks really good.
Definitely a new oil pan and a brace. They are cheap.
Last edited by IRPerformance; Feb 28, 2019 at 11:13 AM.
Ordered a new pan and found out the engine that is going in has a brace so I'm good there.
Painted PS bracket flat black last night. Decided to keep LIM as is.
Got another UIM that has the double throttle and other emissions stuff. It's currently polished. Need to decide if I want to keep it polished or transfer everything to another UIM I have.
Nice low mileage CYM!!
If she was mine I'd put it back to as close to stock as possible... minus the reliability upgrades.
Hope to see it at DGRR this year.
Last edited by estevan62274; Feb 28, 2019 at 05:50 PM.
Looks like fun project, I like that you're going back to twins. Cant go wrong with a CYM too .
If you can justify the cost, the SR cluster really does lift the interior nicely and make it look less dated. All the late clusters are getting harder to come by these days.
Nice low mileage CYM!!
If she was mine I'd put it back to as close to stock as possible... minus the reliability upgrades.
Hope to see it at DGRR this year.
Thanks, what do you mean minus the reliability upgrades?
Just thought I would include prices on some of the stuff I updated just in case anyone is interested in updating the fuel, emissions or sequential stuff. I tested the solenoids and they tested fine but I wanted to go ahead and add replace a few of the solenoids with new ones. This stuff adds up quick.
To simplify things I could have removed double throttle, EGR, switching and fuel solenoid but wanted to keep it stock. Kind of wished I remove the coolant stuff for the throttle body but again wanted to keep it stock.
A tip for the vacuum hose for the rear is to make it a little longer so that you can remove UIM a little easier in the future if you need to.
150 RC engineering cleaned injectors
54 Fuel filter
20 (4) Fuel injector insulators
138 Fuel pulsation damper
20 Fuel hose $382 Total for fuel related items
55 new 89-91 FC fan thermoswitch
74 Water pump
6 Water pump gasket
100 AST (Used)
70 Air Separator Tank Hose Set
17 FD Rx7 twin turbo coolant hose set - inlet/ outlet
10 N3A1-13-681A -rear iron to throttle body
5 N3A1-13-691A – Throttle body hose
5 FD01-61-214b – Pipe to radiator hose (front of the engine)
5 N3A1-13-692A – Water pump to pipe
208 Koyo N flow Radiator (bought from a forum member that never used it)
40 Radiator hose
$595 Total for coolant related items
68 vac hose
59 Turbo Control by the acv
65 Turbo Control on the rack
58 Charge Control
58 Charge Relief $448 Total for emission and sequential stuff
Another reference point. Paid $1050 for good condition R1 seats.
Just curious - what made you decide to go back to twins? I've been tossing and turning on whether to stick with my twins or simplify things by going single.
^ I think having a working sequential is cool even though it could be a headache. I think once you have it setup right, you shouldn't have to mess with it for a while. Passing emissions, having a good working AC, quiet and non stinky car was also important to me. I have two other single turbo FDs and I could never really get AC to blow cold sitting in traffic.
Another annoying thing with going single is finding a good tuner and scheduling time to tune. You have to take into account your availability, the tuner and the shop. Most ppl on here won't ppl say negative things about pre made single harness but that’s another thing to consider when going single. You either have to figure out how to make your own harness or hope that the pre made harness is correct and delivered within a timely manner.
I've been sequential twins on my car since 2004 when I bought it and the only real problem I've had was the turbo control solenoid that bolts to the ACV got lazy and would sometimes keep the door closed on a 1-2 shift. Replaced that and no more problems.
It's not as complicated as people want to make it out to be. The big killer is people who have monkeyed around under the intake manifold and broke nipples, routed lines wrong, etc. Bad or broken check valves are a real common problem too.
Hands down biggest problem is boost leaks. People will chase solenoids when they have cracks in the hoses going to the CRV/BOV, etc.
Hope you get the car ready in time for DGRR, would love to see it in person Johnny!
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