Some more assembly happening…..

Also tackled the rats nets silicone conversion, my advice to people pondering this is take your time, and heat the hoses as necessary. Thanks to the write up of other people, I was able to complete the job without breaking any solenoid nipples

Before:

Tools required:

Nearly done.....

I decided to wait until assembly of the engine to replace the other hoses as there were some I couldn't confidently get the length required.

More assembly….



Double throttle removal….



This is what you remove when you remove the double throttle mechanism:

Gonna tackle wastegate porting soon as I feel boost creep coming on….

Stay tuned, she'll be running soon....

 

Looking good...

 

sweet! congrats on the engine being in one piece again.

 

Any more pics?

 

Hey there guys. Sorry there’s not been an update for a while, I’ve been away from work and as soon as I got back I went into hospital to have my 4 wisdom teeth out. So at the moment I look like I have billiard ***** in my cheeks!

Engine is nearly ready to drop in. I’m just now waiting on a carbide bit to arrive from ebay to use with my die grinder I just bought to port my wastegate. Then the tubos, etc will be on and I’m hoping to drop the motor in this weekend and have it running.

I have an autocross (we call them Supersprints here in Aus) on 22nd April, and I need to have the motor run in by then.

Anywho, here’s some pics of what I’ve been up to..




I made up a cardboard template to mount my fuel pressure gauge then cut it out of alloy.


Here it is mounted.


I also made up a panel to house my gauges, battery isolation switch and bleed valve. They mount where the stereo once lived.


Here’s a pic of my wastage (soon to be ported, then I can drop the motor in). I found only a couple of very small cracks around the gate itself. From what I’ve read these are considered normal and I shouldn’t get any leaking from them. They would only be Ľ” long.


I will be posting some pictures of the wastegate porting process for you guys as I couldn’t find many photos on how to do this process.

The re-assembly of everything was extremely easy as I had all the bolts, etc marked and labeled in freezer bags. I would highly recommend doing this for the 1st timers like me as the whole process is much more straight forward when you know exactly what bolts are for what part.





Shouldn’t be too long guys and I should be able to post some final pics and videos of the results. I’m really looking forward to finally being able to drive my FD!!

I don’t know whether to bolt my coilovers in the car now or wait and have a drive with the standard setup first. I think I’ll leave them until I have driven the car a bit and got a feel for the handling so I can see just how they change the characteristics of the car.

 

Ok,a bit late but i have to ask because soon i 'll rebuilt my old engine:

Is it necessary to install new rotor and stationary gear bearings or not?

 

I'm of the opinion that if in doubt, replace it.

My stat bearings looked a bit suss, so I decided to replace them all, including rotor bearings.

Mic yours as per the FSM, but if it were me, I would spend the extra money and go with all new bearings.

Do it once, do it well.

 

I just wanted to say congradulations! It has to feel so good to be putting it back in the car!

Ill be starting this process myslef, so its definately reassuring to see others smoothly accomplish this. Except mine will be done in 2 parts. 1 The rebuild and 2. Making it fit into an FB

I was just wondering, what rebuild kit did you go with exactly? And which rebuild video? Was it specific to the REW motor? I apologize if you mentioned or linked to it earlier, but I should have been asleep an hour ago, before I got all into this thread

Cant wait to see it finished!

 

Hey there slayer. Thanks for the kind words. My advise is roll up your sleeves and jump in! Do alot of research on here and you'll learn what to look for and pay particular attention to when tackling the rebuild.

I highly recommend the Bruce Turrentine DVDs. I bought both the R&R for the 3rd gen and the Overhauling Mazdas 13B videos and they were a massive help (along with the FSM) do a search, you'll find 'em.

Rebuilt kit I went with was all OEM from a local guy (Mazbiz) who I found on Ausrotary.com

I'm hoping to have the engine purring this weekend. Stay tuned!

 

So today I finally received my carbide cutting bit off ebay.

Here’s a photo of the bit, and my die grinder.


I tried to separate the turbo but couldn’t seem to easily pry it apart. I decided to leave it assembled and tape off the exhaust turbine area to prevent shavings entering the area.
Here’s another look at the stock gate.


Here’s before I got started. You can see from my digital vernier calipers that the standard wastegate has a diameter of approximately 1.016 inches.


I then closed the wastegate and sprayed some engine enamel paint to give me an idea of how far I could enlarge the gate.



I was then ready to start cutting. The bit I used worked great, it cut through no problems at all and left a nice finished surface. I then smoothed the edges further using an assortment of stones.

Here’s the ported gate. I took mine out to about 1.20 inches diameter. I probably could have gone a bit further, but wanted to ensure the gate still had some material to properly seat on when closed.

There was quite an amount of shavings that ended up everywhere. I used an air blower to properly clear out the turbo and all surrounding areas.

Here’s the result.

 

Update:

I’ve got everything back in and hooked up but she just won’t start: no spark.

Here’s some photos of the job finished for you guys:






I’ve posted another thread asking about the lack of spark issue. Please help me: https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=638146

Hopefully one of you helpful gurus will be able to help me solve it and I will have her purring very soon……

 

OK Guys, tonight I solved my no spark problem.

I traced and tested just about everything I could think of. Tested ignitor for power & earth : no problems. Tested the coils for power & resistance : no problem.

Last thing (of course) was the crank angle sensors. I had already given these the visual inspection (after having to pull off the powersteer pump + bracket & get the vacuum chamber out of the way.

Visually, they looked fine. They were plugged in to the right sensors, and the plugs felt firmly fitted to the sensors.

Now here’s the part where I finally won…. I unclipped the plugs to test for resistance through the wiring back to the car to check for open circuit or dead shorts. The first one checked out OK, my multimeter read 1992 ohms. Second one (white) read open circuit…………. Another careful inspection of the wires reavealed nothing unusual and then……….I wiggled & tugged on the wires and out came one of them!!! Seems the factory crimping job is pretty average. I must have dislodged the wire when unclipping the harness and tearing down the engine…….

So here’s some photos.

You can see from this picture that the wires appeared to be OK.


But have a looky here!!


I replaced the connectors with some utilux female spade connectors that were the correct width and slid on to the terminals nice and snugly. Hey presto, I had spark!! I then packed the sensors with silicone grease to keep moisture out and wrapped them in insulation tape.

I was then able to start my car for the first time tonight!!! Started right up, runs smooth as and sounds oh so sweet!!!

Just wanted to tell the story on the small chance it might help someone else out one day….

Now I’m off to install my coilovers, break in the engine and then have a play on the track in the next 2 weeks. I’ll let you guys know how I get on later…..

I’m off to enjoy my FD!!!!

 

Well done!! I got my parts from Mazda yesterdzy. New housings, new irins, new full long block rebuild kit, OEM 2mm 2pc seals etc..

I'll be off porting it soon and puitting it back together.

Did you reuse the original tension bolts in the engine or did you get new ones?

Neal

 

Congratulations on your successful rebuild. Great write-up as well...

 

as an electrician rewiring a house is like riding a bike for me, but re-building an engine wooof f**k that lol
would like to just say well done and hope everything works out ok for you, and again Congratulations

 

Thanks for the comments guys.

Speedworks: I used the old tension bolts but chased out the threads and used new sealing washers under the heads as instructed by Bruce in the DVD. Good luck with your build!

James.

 

Congrats on getting it all installed started! Cheers!

Simply because you (would have if it wasnt for that loose wire) got it started the first time with no major problems, I will definately go with the rebuild videos You reccommended by Bruce T.

You actually used 2 different dvd's for this rebuild correct? I already have the FSM on cd and with 2 or more dedicated ink cartridges, the FSM in a binder

Is it possible to remove the ratsnest and still have the sequential set up? I have a horrible feeling that seq is dependant on the rats nest because of all the vacuum operation/routing.

And I havent seen any mention of it, but did you go with the original computer in the car?

I may just wait and see how the OEM kit holds up for you after the motors broken in and a few races.

Again, excellent work!

 

Good job man, glad it all worked out for you! Dont forget to get the car checked on the rollers since you ported it!

and thanks for the tips on the crank angle sensor, i have a car at the moment that has a weak spark - hopefully this is my problem! Ill give it a test!

 

Hey Guys.

I got to the track and the car went well. I was keeping a close eye on temperatures and everything seemed OK.

I had some boost issues (no boost for a couple of laps) but I wasn’t working the fresh engine too hard. Found some silicone hoses that I had replaced to the boost solenoid had split!

Then I came in from a session and my AST split in half whilst the car was cooling down.

So I’m off to get an alloy one made (I’m still waiting on one I paid SLONSHO for, can anyone chase him up for me?) I can’t afford to wait much longer cos I have a hillclimb on next Sunday, 5/6.

Also on the “to fix” list is relocation of my battery to boot in custom alloy box, to make room for my custom alloy catch can to be installed. After this the car is going to go to the dyno to get some numbers, I’ll keep you all posted on how this turns out.

I'm still trying to install my coilovers, I just can't seem to free up the adjusting nuts on the damn things!

I’m also going to change the oil on the car.

I’ll let you guys know how I go after the hillclimb.

Here are some pics….





What do you guys think of the FD on the race track?

 

Damn, here's another pic I forgot to post...

 

That looks wonderful, nice job on the rebuild, clean car.

 

Wow now this is what i call subsequent motivation to action.. five star job. Very inspiring...


I hear there are a lot more rotary enthusiasts in australia.. is this true?

Regards,

Ben

 

[QUOTE]I hear there are a lot more rotary enthusiasts in australia.. is this true?[QUOTE]

Many rotorheads in aus, but not as many as there should be!

Thanks for the comments guys.

 

Hey just wondering how things are coming along now! Did you make it to the hill climb yet? Or to the dyno by chance?

 

Update:

Well, I'm at a loss guys. Would love some help and opinions from someone.

I have made a couple of further improvements. Battery relocation, aluminium AST, catch can install. Unfortunately I still have this boost issue that has got me stuffed.

At the hillclimb recently my car wouldn't boost at all, nothing. Also, I get quite a bit of smoke on first start up. Once the car is warm, it blows no smoke at all. I got my butt kicked and the car just wasn't going well at all.

So I took it to a performance workshop who have worked on rotaries before, but don't necessarily specialise in them. I thought it was high time I get the mixtures checked and stuff anyways.

So I went and saw the guy this afternoon. He told me good news and bad news:

Good news : A/F ratios are fine. Looking on the dyno sheet (I'll post it tomorrow) the A/F hover below 1.0 and above 0.8 the entire time on the dyno.

Bad News: Peak RWHP was a measly 172! WTF? What do these cars make standard?

I was expecting around 250RWHP. Is that unreasonable? Considering I have no pre cat, full 3in mandrel exhaust, Apexi power intake, slight mild port on the exhaust, etc? Wouldn't I be looking at around 260+ hp at the wheels

The other thing I can't understand is that he said it boosted fine. Peaked at 10psi measured at the manifold and just held steady slight dip down to 8psi about 4000-4500 rpm. From what I've read this is a perfect 10-8-10 boost pattern, no? I don't know what's going on with this tempremental boost issue, but it's really pissing me off.

So why the lack of power by so much guys? Before you mention it, I WILL do a compression test to check things out.

One possible factor is that I permanently have a "EXH HEAT" light on the dash. This guy thought maybe the computer is in "LIMP" mode and therefore retarding the timing resulting in low power. He said he plugged a scanner into the ECU to check for fault codes and there weren't any. Although, I have once done the "bridge GND and TEN terminals" in the diag connector and there was no CEL on the dash. I checked, and maybe it's because I have a JDM version, but there is no check engine light at all.

We're going to try an ECU swap with another car and see if that fixes it. I dont' mind buying a PFC if that's definately going to fix my problem, but I want to be sure.

Failing that I think I might take the car back to RX Engineering who specialise in rotaries and see what they think. I just hope it's nothing I've done wrong in the engine rebuild and results in tear down again......

I don't know where to go from here, so please offer your suggestions, at the moment I'm really dissapointed. My budget is stretched, I'm about to be a father again soon (so the wife ain't too keen on more money poured into this thing) and I just want to be able to enjoy the car and have it run the way it should............please help me guys..........