Fifteen to Life
 

I joined Rx7club over 7 years ago and have yet to start a build thread. I blame it on school, work, and just life in general. With some time on my hands and some exciting new mods near completion, I've decided to finally start one up.

I got my FD back in February of 2003 when I was just 15 years old. It was an early birthday present from my parents and I was beyond stoked. The only thing was that I was still too young to drive it. Talk about torture! I would go home after school and head straight to the garage. I'd get a cloth out and wipe off the dust that had collected on the car, then I'd sit in the driver's seat and just imagine myself taking her out for a drive. I did this pretty much every day for 3 months straight until I was old enough to drive a car (with an adult in the passenger's seat of course).

The car was purchased from the original owner with 102k on the odometer. It was completely stock and I left it that way for a couple years. The first mods I did were to upgrade the intakes and exhaust. I went with the APEXi Power Intakes and Racing Beat exhaust system. A year later I upgraded the suspension by purchasing some Tokico shocks and RS-R down springs. I also swapped out the stock rims for some AME Circlar RS wheels.

Fast forward to 2012/2013 and we arrive to the current status of my car. My FD had over 145k on the original motor and it was starting to really show. I knew this day would come eventually. It was time to replace the motor and other components that had serious wear. I went with a street ported engine from Atkins Rotary, upgraded the turbos to the 99 spec twins, replaced the stock clutch with an ACT clutch kit, replaced the stock radiator with one from Koyo, and finally purchased a PFC. The work is being completed Mark Young and his guys over at Complete Auto Works in Concord, CA. Everything is pretty much done, just putting the final pieces of the puzzle back together. I should be getting the car back sometime this week so I will update the thread with pics.

Looking pretty stock. At this point I had already installed the power intakes and RB exhaust.
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AME Circlar RS Diamond Cut Wheels (18x9, 18x10), RS-R down springs, & Tokico Illumina adjustable springs put on my the guys at AutoRnD.
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I've got plenty more pics I just wanted to get this thread up and running. More to come...

Clean!!! :icon_tup:

Some engine bay shots before the most recent mods
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Goodies ready for install
http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6691205d.jpg


Engine from Atkins Rotary (mild street porting, new rotor housings, cast irons, eccentric shaft, rotors, stationary gears, oil pump, and front cover)
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99 spec turbos
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Koyo N-Flo Radiator
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ACT street/strip clutch & ss clutch line
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PFC
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Silicone vacuum hoses
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holy money!

Appreciate it!

She's my gold digger :biggrin:

nice what part of the bay area are you from? do they have like a FD meet or something in the bay?

Nice build so far! I'll be starting up more meets and trying to rally a northern california mazda club, you're definitely more than welcome to join in and our thread is in the west forum!

Wow, there would have gone my life's savings.

Mega clean though!

Nice man. Will be watching this build.

Digg'n the new twins! I like the low key build man! Keep it up this is inspiring.

Wow, that's some good parts you're putting in there! Should be a real winner. Take the time and do everything right and you'll have a super reliable and fun car that will last.

Also looks like you need a set of my Viton check valves. PM me for info :).

Have you had a leak in your clutch hydraulics? Your fluid in the brake master cylinder is low.

Dale

I thought my 102,000 original miles on the motor was a big deal. Congrats on making 145,000! I'm in the process of putting mine back together and fitting a set of 99 twins as well. Good luck with the build.

Are you going to upgrade your IC?

Nice goodies...gonna be a brand new car when your done:icon_tup:

Very nice. Just the way I would have done it too. Very clean car, excellent base to start with. Good luck :)

I live in the east bay (san ramon). I know there us to be occasional meets down in the south bay but I'm not sure if they're still doing that.

Awesome! I'll definitely be down to attend some future meets around here.

Thanks Dale. I appreciate it.

Yeah the hose connecting to the ABS needed to be tightened. It seems to be doing just fine now.

Thanks! Yeah I was surprised the engine lasted as long as it did but I was really babying her for the last few years. I just needed the engine to last me long enough until I had the for a rebuild.

I will definitely be upgrading my IC in the future. There are a couple more mods I have planned before I get to that stage though.

Out with the old...
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There may have been a few leaks
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A shot of all the old parts that came off my car. From the water pump to the fuel damper to the gaskets to the vacuum hoses, it all got replaced.
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In with the new...
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Quick update. The car is finally up and running! I never thought I'd see the day. I picked her up on Friday and man that mild street port makes her sound so sweet. And I'm not sure if it's because I swapped out those old leaking turbos but there is a noticeable difference in the high pitched screech of the 99 spec turbos. Right now I'm just taking it easy on the car breaking everything in and not going above 4k rpm for the first thousand miles. But even then the car feels really solid and so responsive. And it feels better and better the more I drive it and the more miles I put on the new engine. I' couldn't be happier with the way everything turned out.

I spent some time this weekend cleaning the interior and outside of the car (been over a year and it needed some TLC) I'll spend some time this weekend cleaning the engine bay and get some pics up but in the meantime here are a few interior shots.
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http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/...ps59bed44a.jpg


The original engine didn't quite get to 145k but it was close. The official start mileage on the new motor: 143685
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Definitely one of my favorite cars on the forum. Everything is so neat and tidy. I'm glad its running the way you wanted it to :)

I'm going to be picky and say that the only things on your car I would swap out would be the shifter knob and e-brake handle... I dont think they work well with the rest of the clean stock appearance.. But its your car! :)

Wow! A lot of good parts and money went into her. Looks clean for the miles she has on her. :icon_tup:

Cool build!

Thanks!

I'm going to have to agree with you on the Momo parts. It was one of those dumb purchases you make as a 17 year old kid :scratch:. Eventually I want to swap them out for some RedlineGoods parts. Looks clean and not as flashy.

Looking for some advice!!! :ponder:

I took my car out for a nice long run yesterday (still working on breaking her in). Once I got home I popped the hood to let the engine bay cool off a bit. With the open hood I waved my hand over the engine bay and noticed that the hottest spot was right where the 'hot air' intakes are sitting (I assume getting some heat off the radiator). First question, is there any risk of doing damage to the engine by running this hot air through the intake system and with a stock IC? I've read before that a hot air setup can potentially ruin the air pump and therefor the CAT but could there be any other repercussions? I obviously want to protect my investment in the car and make her as reliable as possible.

I'm almost certain I will eventually swap out the Power Intakes for a cold air system. The answer to my first question will determine how quickly I will make that change. I will also eventually swap out the stock IC for a Greddy SMIC. What is a great intake system that will fit that IC setup? PFS, SRM, Pettit, and Autoexe are the ones I've been looking into. Any thoughts??

honestly, the stock airbox with the poor mans cold air intake mod is the best way to go to maintain the stock look and have an actual EFFECTIVE cold air intake. other than that, the only other one that you listed that I would get is the Autoexe, it's really the only one you're looking at that is "really" a CAI. the others still suffer from heat soak from the radiator even with the lil heat shields they come with. the autoexe is expensive and difficult to source though.

I can't really comment on if putting hot air in your intake will ruin the airpump but I can't really imagine that sucking up air that is much hotter than ambient would be good for anything.

btw, Greddy SMIC FTW. that's the route i'm going because I want something that's much more effective than the stock SMIC but still allows you to keep everything else stock too.