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Hello Internet I’m Miles and after almost 2 years of looking for the right FD I finally pulled the trigger on a 93 MB touring about 4 months ago. I was sitting at work on a Sunday I decided to go through FDs for sale on the forum and found this car for sale in Rochester, New York. I showed the listing to a friend who then said “Let’s go get it” and that night we drove from South Bend, IN to Rochester, NY. Picked up the car, paid the man and set off on another 8 hour drive back. Car drove absolutely fantastic and had 0 issues. End goal for this car is something I can hopefully keep forever, take to the occasional track day or autocross as well as cruise around and enjoy.
Currently also own a 1990 Miata that is a prepped SCCA STS car and a 1999 10AE Miata as my daily driver.
The Car:
1993 Mazda RX-7 Touring
Montego blue
Mix of 93&94 Black Interior
Basic Reliability Mods
99 Spec Bumper and Taillights
BBS RGRs 18x8+40 Fronts, 18x9+42 Rears
Ohlins DFV Coilovers
99 Spec White Face Gauge Cluster
Racing Beat Exhaust
Power FC
Plans:
Body will be staying as OEM+ as possible. Suspension will likely remain unchanged for a while. Engine bay will be getting a new intercooler ASAP. Fixing the few things that are for lack of a better term done in a very ghetto fashion. Someone relocated the battery to the trunk but did not make any sort of battery tie down so it just moves about if you accelerate it slides back, brake to hard you have a battery as a passenger. So I will be relocating it again with a proper tie down to the bins. Tan seats are pretty poor shape and will be getting replaced with some Suede R1 Seats. Dual oil coolers will be added shortly.
I will try my best to update this thread as more progress is made on the car and apologize in advance for rambling on about it. I’ve never made a build thread and no better time than the present
First thing that needed to be done was fixing the battery relocation so it could be driven without the fear of a random electrical fire or being impaled by a flying battery. Previous relocation was done with no circuit breaker and cheap 4 guage wire with no battery tie down of any sorts. Drivers side bin had already been mostly cut out at some point in the past so I used the drivers side not the best for weight distribution but it was already cut out so i went with it. Used a Optima Yellow Top 51R Battery with the Eddie Motorsports battery box and battery is held down great. Battery did have a bit of play when install in the box so I added a folded up shop towel between the mount and battery to solve that. Circuit breaker was added along with moving from the 4 gauge wire that was used before to a 0 Gauge wire. Ghetto Battery Relocation Battery mounted Finished Relocation
Next was fixing the loose headlight covers. Pulled them off to find most of the plastic mounting tabs were broken but thankfully all still there. A little superglue to hold the broken plastic in place and some plastic bonder epoxy as reinforcement they are almost as good as new. Some fresh stainless hardware and they are back on the car. This was done a few weeks after getting the car so I don't have any good before photos on the car. But the repaired covers line up much better
Nice FD. The PFS IC is pretty good for a SMIC, but you're missing the intake duct. Having that is critical so it's exchanging heat with ambient air, not the hot air off the radiator. And the blue paint job
Looks like you are also missing the clamps off the secondary air intake connector. Not super critical though.
Broken headlight tabs are common. Your fix is spot on
Nice FD. The PFS IC is pretty good for a SMIC, but you're missing the intake duct. Having that is critical so it's exchanging heat with ambient air, not the hot air off the radiator. And the blue paint job
Looks like you are also missing the clamps off the secondary air intake connector. Not super critical though.
Broken headlight tabs are common. Your fix is spot on
I believe I did get the duct for the intercooler when I got the car. Probably should work on installing it. I'd imagine the same person that painted the intercooler blue relocated the battery with no tie downs. I already have it so might as well paint it black and use it for now. Clamps will be added to the intake shortly another thing that was strangely missing on the car.
If you have the duct, get that installed pronto. You also have the stock plastic AST. Supposedly they break. You can find a steel one at Pettit Racing or used from someone on the forum. If it were me, i'd move it so it's not blocking the IC. That SMIC is designed for stock installation with the battery and stock air filter. Since you have neither, there's plenty of room to relocate it. It's not a huge thing, but everything you can do to keep that car cool is for the better. Also, i hope you have an aftermarket ECU. You are in danger of getting boost creep with those mods if it's the stock ECU
EDIT: An aftermarket AST mounted on the PFS IC may provide more clearance for airflow than the stock AST (i.e. it may be fine in that location)
If you have the duct, get that installed pronto. You also have the stock plastic AST. Supposedly they break. You can find a steel one at Pettit Racing or used from someone on the forum. If it were me, i'd move it so it's not blocking the IC. That SMIC is designed for stock installation with the battery and stock air filter. Since you have neither, there's plenty of room to relocate it. It's not a huge thing, but everything you can do to keep that car cool is for the better. Also, i hope you have an aftermarket ECU. You are in danger of getting boost creep with those mods if it's the stock ECU
EDIT: An aftermarket AST mounted on the PFS IC may provide more clearance for airflow than the stock AST (i.e. it may be fine in that location)
The AST will be getting replaced or deleted soon still unsure what path i'm going to take with that. Car does have a Power FC with commander and I have a datalogit on the way to hopefully track down some boost issues with the second turbo though I think that is just a pinched vacuum line as all the vacuum lines for the simplified twins are just stuffed under the upper intake with none of the solenoids mounted to anything.
all the vacuum lines for the simplified twins are just stuffed under the upper intake with none of the solenoids mounted to anything.
Oh dear
Seems like the same amount of care that was given to the battery relocation. You may have to go through everything. If you are having boost control issues, (after you determine it's hooked up correctly) i recommend testing all your boost control solenoids and actuators (cold and hot)
I did pull the Upper intake manifold a few days ago and tried to straighten everything out a bit. Mounted the turbo precontrol and wastegate control solenoids to the manifold as they were just dangling. Took the car on a little cruise and the turbos were working much better don't think it was 100% but have also never driven another FD so have nothing to compare to. Gonna try and make or track down a solenoid rack for the others and redo the vacuum lines and they aren't the correct lengths for mounting on a rack.
Clean looking car looks well looked after considering the full 99 spec lip conversion even down to the side lamps, looks like an hks intake there too. You got Banzai racing nearby. Welcome to the club!
I kind of like the tan carpet with the black seats. Not sure i have seen that before (and you'd think it'd be common). It kind of gives the interior a little pop. I'd convert the door sills and seat belts to black though.
Somehow corona has caused a massive increase in business (No complaints). But I haven't had much time to work on the car or drive it for that matter. But I did trade a fellow forum member my tan floor mats for his black ones. One step closer to a full black interior. Next up is gonna be resealing the oil pan as its developed a pretty decent leak and installing a wide band.
04-25-20, 11:31 PM
