FD#3... I finally got my favorite color/trim! 1993 SSM Base
 

First off, I'm the worst at build threads so bare with me and it shows by how long its taking me to make this post.
I've own it since March 2019 and have been slowly upgrading and replacing things since.

Background, I always wanted a SSM FD, its my favorite of all the colors but we know that's very subjective. :)
Well after 2 previous FD's(both 93 VR bases) I found what looked to be a good deal on a 93 SSM Base.




Here she is.... Kids named her "Silver Girl".

The crappy pics and ebay lights don't do the car justice. Its all stock with 91K miles, a Power FC, Racing Beat muffler and HKS twin power.
Previous owner had the car repainted about 9 years ago, they did a really nice job, removed the glass, bumpers and such.
Also car was garage kept since being repainted, older gentleman owned it a really took very good care of her and it shows in person.


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Stay tuned for updates, as I put her back to a more stock exterior and YES the ebay lights are the first thing to go.


Steve

That’s awesome, it looks like a beautiful car. I’m glad you’re on the right track with the lights, will you be having the fender vents color matched?

Up to date pic!
 

Thanks man!
Yes Sir, PO had the vents painted back when the car was painted but choose to install the carbon fender vents instead... he included them with the sale :)
Here's a current update pic of her in the garage.... ill do my best to bring this thread up to date.


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Looking at the garage picture, she look to be in really good shape! Paint is shinny and really clean engine bay.

I'm way overdue on that hood LED light bar, which one do you use? I need to get one.

Thanks for the kind words!
It's a Harbor Freight light bar, works pretty decent, I think it was like $29.
Steve

Seen this car in person and it's a great car. Looking forward to seeing updates.

The engine bay looks damn clean and in well-kept condition. :icon_tup:

I'm fairly jealous that you live close by Johnny K :bubrub:

Thanks!!
 

Thx bro!

Rich,
PO took good care of her.
I live in Melbourne, fl.... I believe Johnny talking about when he seen her at DGRR back in May.

^ saw the car at 7s day in Orlando.

Oh yeah, that's right... forgot about that.
Sucked that the rain kept alot of people from coming out.

Coilovers and rims
 

Around, April 2019.....

Now that I have my silver fd the red fd with be put back to stock and eventually sold.


One of the first things I did was swap over the Tein coilovers and rims from the VR FD.
My friend Tito came by in his VR R1 to check out the ride.

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Stock Suspension coming out.

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Tail lights swapped out
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Coilovers and rims on.... also put the stock makers light back on.

Much better!!

Shes ready for Deals Gap 2019.
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Ride up to Deals Gap 2019
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Made it up to Deals Gap 2019
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She ran great, A/C and cruise control were a bonus.
Stock FD's are a real treat!



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Such a clean car! Glad you started a build thread!

Dale

Man that thing is clean in the dirty places.

You're doing god's work, there.

Agreed.

June 2019.........
 

June 2019...
Back from Deals Gap Rotary Rally.... The FD ran great!

Only issue was when I was pushing the car hard up in the mountains the air and water temps via the commander would creep to high for my liking.
This caused me to back off a let them come back down.


Also as soon and I got home I swapped out the leather seats to the base seats from the VR FD.
I prefer the base seats and wish I would of had time to swap them before DGRR, I was sliding in the leather seat while in the mountains. :(


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Thanks Dale!




Thanks Man!

awesome find Steve....love the base seats. My first FD was SSM with base seats. brings back some awesome memories

Hey bro! Thanks man!

Its good to hear from you, hope all is good.
You getting back in the rotary game or just looking around?

Always looking. saw a decent R100 the other day but didnt pull the trigger on it. The older i get the more picky i become. ahahahahha enjoy the new FD. she looks awesome

Cool bro, it'd be sweet to see you back in the game. You always build some sweet rotaries!

Exhaust..............
 

Sept 2019

I swapped out the racing beat cat back for the Tanabe that I had on the VR FD.
Was surprised that the exhaust wasn't any louder but seems to me that the Tanabe is a touch deep in sound.

Below is a pic of the two cat-backs
Tanabe on the left.... Racing Beat on the right.



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Is the RB and Tanabe equivalent in weight?

Dale

Dang!!! Good question.
I can tell you they are similar in weight cause while moving them around neither one felt heavier than the other.

Should've weighed them.

Steve

Super clean. I love SSM and RPF1s

The Tanabe is lighter, the construction is not as robust as the RB. IMO it can't be beaten for the price and performance although, like my RB, it has gotten louder.

Thanks man!

Awesome feedback.... thx for the input.
I think my Racing Beat might be done too cause its was louder than the Tanabe I replaced it with.

Steve

Small details.....
 

I wasn't a fan of the ROTARY badge on the rear so I got rid of it.
Ended up replacing it with nice red RX-7 Efini badge.


Before

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After

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CFR Rotary Meet
 

Wanted to spread the word about this...

Central Florida Rotaries Meet at Aces Café in Orlando.
Weather looks like its going to great!
This is always one of the biggest rotary meets around... Come on out!!

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Had a great time at the Aces Rotary Meet here in Orlando. There was well over 100 rotaries that came out to support.
Sadly I only took one pic... its my friend Tito's VR R1 and my SSM... I'm the worse at taking pics.
If I get some free time ill grab some pics from FB and IG and post them up.

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Also getting ready to drop in the EFR single turbo/motor setup that I had in my red FD
Should be straight forward drop in since i'm not changing anything and the red FD was running very well before I pulled it out.

I also have everything ready to convert the A/C to R134 and run the RX-8 condenser with rotary works v-mount.
We converted my friend Tito's FD to this setup and it works awesome here in the hot summer heat of Florida.



While the block was out I added Turbosource stud kit.

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Setup in the red FD before I pulled it out... car was sold to a friend in south Florida

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Ready to go in...

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.

Looks good man
glad to see your still active!.

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Here are some pics from Ace Cafe. I saw the car in person and it is very clean. A beautiful car for sure.

Hey bro good to see you're still around too.

Thx for sharing the pics and the kind words about the car.
Great meeting you there also... we'll need to get together sometime.
Steve

Single Turbo REW installed
 

Stock REW is out and the single turbo REW is in.




Prep to pull the stock REW

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Stock REW removed...…

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Ready to go in....

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Quick pic the single turbo engine in, now just gotta hook everything up.

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Steve
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IR Performance Fuel Pump adapter install
 

Since i'm moving to a single turbo the stock fuel pump was not going to cut it so I upgraded to the IR Performance Fuel Pump adapter Kit.
I chose to get the Adapter, Relay harness and Walbro 450 fuel pump..... for my power goal the 450 will work great.

Everything arrived and the same box and I had it my hands 4 days after ordering. Awesome service!
Very Nice kit, everything goes together with no issues.
One note is.... You have to cut the feed tube and install the hose to the pump but many of these upgraded pumps require that anyways.


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All back together....

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Very nice brother. I am so headed your way for you to take me on a joy ride when it's all done. I actually want to see what all the hype is about those iwg borg warner turbos. I may switch to one of those if it is much greater than my twin scroll pte. For what I hear it is. Brap on brother

Yeah bro, I'll let you know when I'm up and running again. :icon_tup:

ATL Bulkhead connector
 

I was alittle worried about the stock bulkhead connector and the Walbro 450 fuel pump.
Reading up and noticed lots of people have ran into problems with the stock connector getting hot and burning cause big aftermarket pumps pull way more juice than a stock pump.

Found some guys using these ATL bulkhead connector so I figured id try it out.



All wired up with 10gauge PTFE wiring and PTFE butt connectors.
Stock connector/wiring below too for comparison.

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RX-8 Condenser install
 

Also wanted to share up my A/C using the RX-8 Condenser.

We did a similar set-up for my friend Tito's FD here locally but he's using a Greddy V-mount but they very close in set-up.
His is up and running and blows ice cold a/c... works GREAT!!

Mine includes Rotary Works V-mount kit.... Radiator and Intercooler, RX-8 condenser, and the high and low pressure lines from the RX-8 that go to the condenser.
I cut the hard lines to the length and had a local guy weld them up to the FD lines for me.
Then made a simple bracket using existing holes on the bottom of the radiator to mount the bottom of the condenser... and similar bracket to mount the top of the condenser.
The brackets are not pretty but the condenser is solid and when the front bumper is on you don't see it at all,
The RX-8 condenser sits about a 1/2" above the radiator.... and finally I had to notch a 1" of the reinforcement bar at the bottom on the passenger side to clear the high side line.


FD's Pressure sensor welded onto the high side line going to the RX-8 condenser

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Nice, doing work!

I want to see how cold this ac gets at DGRR.

Very nice. I have had lots of luck with a bosch 044 fuel pump. Only down side is it's a bit noisy. By the way love that rx8 condenser. I have heard it works better than the OEM fd one

Yes Sir, should have the car back together soon.
Then I'll be charging the a/c..... gotta have a/c for the drive up to DGRR.


Yeah those are tried and true pumps.
Are you still running it with the stock bulkhead connector?

Thx, Steve

Coming back together....
 

Shes back together and running great.
Only running 11 psi (wastegate pressure only) but man i do not miss the twins at all.
Glad to have this setup in my SSM FD now.



Some pics of the final steps of putting everything back together..

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Back on the ground with the front bumper.


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Blacked out the RX-8 condenser brackets...

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Back side of the headlight lids were starting to crack so i used some epoxy to repair them before they end up flying off.

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Next up will be to charge the A/C system.


Steve

Man, that UIM looks so good!
I haven't considered myself a fan of polished UIMs in the past, but something about the way it looks in yours... Maybe I missed it but is there more finishing work done to yours than just polish, like powder coat or clear or something?

Thx, I polished this UIM/LIM & TB combo back around 2008.
It takes some time to sand all the casting down then polish.
There is no clear on it. I hit it with Mothers every now and then to keep the shine up. That's about it.
Thx, Steve

Good work brother she looks great. That rx8 condenser looks like a great idea. I have also heard of people gutting out fd starters and putting the guts of an rx8 in it.

Dialing in the tune..
 

Good stuff, i think i heard of that too.


Dialing in the tune.. its hitting 10-11psi on wastgate spring. AFR's are 10.5-10.7 going to bring them to 11.3.
Ill eventually bump it up to 15psi with 93 pump and leave it there... shes plenty fun.


Another engine bay pic...

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Also plan on intalling these soon.

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A/C is working again!!!
 

It only getting warmer here in Florida, we're in the 90"s today
So this weekend I rented a A/C vacuum pump/manifold from Auto Zone and went ahead with getting the a/c working again since the swap.


Vacuum pump...

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Manifold...

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Pulling a vacuum..

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Break time while i wait... :)

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Took a couple hours but well worth it.... very happy with the results.

Went for a drive it was in the 90's outside and I was seeing 38-40 degrees coming out of the vent.

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That is awesome. What did you charge up with - 134a or Dust-off or something else?

Did you just get new RX-8 AC lines to cut and splice into the FD's lines?

Dale

Yes, 134a
I got the lines used from EBay... like $15 each
Here are the RX-8 lines that I used to adapt to the FD's lines.




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The passenger side line is obviously cut/welded to the stock FD line. The driver's side, did you have an AC shop crimp a new rubber hose on and combine it with the FD line or what?

Can't argue with the results coming from the vents!

Dale