Hey y'all

Little back story - I bought my first FD in 2020. It was a 93 touring that "just needed a tune" (spoiler alert: It did not only need a tune) and after spending ~6-8 months saving that poor thing I managed to get it going just in time for my first trip to the dragon in early August 2021. I loved that car. Shortly after the dragon I decided it was time to start doing HPDE and did my first track day (Homestead Miami) in a car and everything was great.



My second track day was at Sebring, a ~3 hour ride from my old house in Miami. Drove the car up and met my buddy and....the next morning the car started hard. When it finally started there was a massive puff of white smoke, then, a coolant alarm. Unfortunate.

I skipped the track day and just hung out for the weekend. Got the car fired up and crossed my fingers it would make it back to Miami, which it did, and then dug into researching what was wrong.

Now, at the time, I had very little money. I had a med student wife, a house I couldn't afford, insurance kept getting more expensive every year, and now a broken car. Everything was falling apart unfortunately lol. I made the decision to sell it and get a Miata for HPDE. That was a hard decision, and I regretted it the minute I saw it leave on the trailer. The new owner is actually still driving it as is and loving the car. I am assuming it still burns coolant. I am glad he's happy though. To be clear, we talked extensively about every flaw and issue with the car and he knew what he was buying.

(Womp womp)

So far.. no deja vu?

Things went south in the marriage, house got sold, I moved to Tampa and found myself with quite a bit of profit from the house sale. Priority 1 for me was finding another FD. The Miata was fun, but, it wasn't what I really wanted.

I fired up FB marketplace, craigslist, and the forums. Stopped in here and found this car.. https://www.rx7club.com/market/1162193 which appeared to have some history around the forum. Car is broken, but looks neat as hell. It's an R1 which was a priority for me (I am tall, barely fit in my touring), it's not perfect which would hopefully save me from the fear of putting a hole in something or denting the transmission tunnel for a seat or whatever other thing. I wanted nice, but not perfect/mint/original, and this car was everything I was looking for at a price I felt was pretty fair.

So, we struck a deal and the car was dropped off a couple hours away from where it was in Alabama at my sister's house in TN..and there it sat. I was in a small apartment and already didn't have room for all of my vehicles. My tow vehicle was broken. Etc.

Fast forward, I acquire a single car garage and the tow vehicle is fixed....and the sister is selling the house. No choice but to go get the thing, and so, I did.




Ignore the lawn, I didn't even have a lawn mower yet lol. Car arrived in June.



I wanted to work on the thing but money has become tighter again and I also needed to take out the front wall of the garage and put doors in.. so I kept putting it off. Eventually got around to the doors and I decided one random day to bore scope it to see if I could spot any carnage. I could not. But I COULD spot like...a bunch of coolant lol. Both housings were full of it. Neat! Sure sounds like my old car that I decided I couldn't/shouldn't fix. I did not spot any damage at least.




And so, deja vu.

I'll end up redoing most of the same stuff on this that I did my old car lol. In addition, I'd like to go single turbo. The 8374 seems to spool nearly as fast and make more power overall, and the stock twins are in iffy condition anyway. I really liked the sequential on my old car but this car is missing the rats nest and the solenoids etc, so time to move on. Perks of not having something pristine.

Anyway, so I got the motor pulled out over the weekend and disassembled literally yesterday on lunch. Found some interesting things.

First, I can't believe this car was ever driven after the motor was installed. Things I found while taking it apart:

• Loose o2 sensor
• Loose knock sensor
• Downpipe converted to bolts instead of studs, only 3 bolts tight. The last finger tight.
• Broken wires
• Absolutely disgusting wiring job in general
• Only one motor mount had a nut on it
• Turbos iffy
• Clutch/Flywheel are trashed
• Two wire wheel bristles in the oil pan
• Hugefuck amount of sealant everywhere.

So, armed with the knowledge of how hodge podged this thing was, I decided...what the heck. Lemme check the tension bolt torque before I take it apart.

I found multiple bolts with only 10-15 ft/lbs of torque. Hell yeah lol party time. Proceed with the disassembly and find.. inner coolant seals trashed. One popped out of the groove entirely and flapping around in the chamber. My assumption is, that after the install the early easy driving break in was going..okay. When they decided to add power it popped the seal out. There was blowby on the rear inner seal, the front was popped out completely.





I could not identify any actual damage. There is very little step wear, most of the discoloration has come off etc. It appears to be using OEM 3 piece apex seals which I'm going to swap out. One of them has either pitting or some build up on it but it just doesn't seem worth reusing these. I'll put them on a shelf somewhere maybe.

Anyway, that's where things stand now. I have the outlines of a plan and will update as things happen. Hoping to get the car back out there by July for another TOTD trip.

Will update more as things happen

 

This is a cool story and a beautiful car! Glad you are going to get it going again, subb'd for updates!

And the miata while not as sexy and thrilling, is a great HPDE car. I have a NB for a DD, a NA turbo track car, in addition to my FD (project). Welcome!

 

Welcome back to the FD scene and nice to know there is another one around in Tampa, even if its not running. Sounds like you may have dodged a bullet with this coolant issue if the housing are ok and it was just an assembly error. Unfortunately there are a bunch of hacks out there that probably should stick to building legos rather than cars but I'm sure since you are aware of these issues, you will handle them properly and get this thing on the road.

 

Thanks guys!

I actually blew up the silver Miata unfortunately. The used built bulletproof motor I bought had some preexisting issues lol. Not so bulletproof. I bought a different Miata for HPDE and am selling a bunch of stuff from the silver one, which will be a basic bolt on car now. My girlfriend will probably do some HPDE in it when it is fixed.

Hell yeah cool to see another member in Tampa. I'm right in Tampa Heights, not sure where you're at. I did see a guy on marketplace selling stuff in Brandon, and there's a few people with FD stuff north towards Brooksville, so there's a few of us around.

 

So I pulled the fuel pump to take a look at the tank. I know the car had sat for 15+ years so... Did not have high expectations. Which was a good thing lol.

The hanger is nothing but crust at this point. The tank was less than half full. The area below the fuel line is mostly fine, but everything above is solid rust. The fuel pump was a refurb apparently, which is mostly crust now as well. The PO seemed to decide a girl sock was unnecessary and ran some not fuel safe rubber line instead, which turned into a horrifying gel mess. Pretty neat!

Will be looking into getting this tank hot tanked and coated or at a new OEM tank from Mazda. I've had enough mediocre experiences with the diy methods in the motorcycle world


Screenshot from the crust video inside of the tank 🤭

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Ooof, that's ugly

Might want to look for one in the forum's marketplace. Or call Ray Crowe to check if they are still available new.

 

I looked around the marketplace and didn't see much. There's the guy that does part outs up in Murfreesboro but I also have a Mazda Motorsports membership and can get a new one there.

 

I'm a little north of Tampa in Lutz. There are a few of us FD guys just north of tampa. If you need parts, check with Kevin at rx7parts.com. He is local and parts out lots of FDs so he would be your best bet for a tank and sender locally. He's pretty active on Facebook too. I believe he just got in a fresh wrecked JDM FD which will work just fine and it looks like it was in good shape prior to the wreck in the front. Tank should be fine

 

Hell yeah, I'll take a look. Is there a local group chat or FB group or anything? Would be glad to have some local people to go over stuff with etc. Thanks!

 

Sent a pm

 

Nothing crazy interesting going on here lately. I did find a haltech elite 2500 single turbo harness for pretty cheap that was repinned for a platinum and picked that up. It looks pretty trivial to switch back to the elite pinning so I'll be doing that. I also have a WB1 to go with that, so my gross oem harness situation is sorted. Picked up an elite 1500 last night so ECU is ready to go. I was planning on using the stock ignition but this harness does not have an ignition sub harness and if I'm doing it I feel like I might as well go with ign1a coils, so, add that to the list I guess.

I got the gas tank pulled out and it does look gross. I haven't had any luck finding someone that will soak/strip it and do any sort of rust prevention in it and I really am dreading the idea of doing that myself, but, it may come to that I guess.

I also ordered turblown engine studs which I've been putting off. Next step is all of the soft seals, apex seals, and lots of cleaning then I'm slamming this thing back together. I may also clean up the porting a little, not really impressed with what's been done. I don't expect it to live forever, but I'm hoping to get a couple years of irregular use out of it. I think long term building a fresh motor from all new components will be the way to go.

Anyway, a little at a time over here. I am going to be mainly focused on getting my rotrex miata fixed in the meantime so the girlfriend can drive that to work when she feels like it.

 

Looks like you've got your work cut out for you. Good on you saving another one from the weeds/barn. Car looks good, though. I have a good rust free FD fuel tank I would sell but I am in NC.