If it ain't broken, fix it until it is: my ill-advised and somewhat humorous build.
 

Hi folks, figured I would create a thread cataloging my experiences in dismantling, assembling, and modifying these four-wheeled wonders that we know as third generation RX-7s.
First, I would like to provide a little background information on how I found myself in this wonderful position (predicament!).

I stumbled across this forum by happenstance back in 2017 and was not particularly interested in cars, but had also just discovered FIA GT and IMSA at the time and had just decided that I wanted to pursue a career in engineering. After perusing the various how-to's and general discussions here, I came across many rather exhaustive build threads and development efforts posted by the dedicated members of this forum, I had made up my mind: I wanted an RX-7. One problem, I didn't have a job (or the requisite capital to procure such a vehicle) and wouldn't for the next two years. But reading every thread I could find here cost me nothing but my time, so I did just that. I spent the next two years reading and consuming every piece of RX-7 related material I could find when not doing schoolwork or playing hockey.

Fast forward to graduation, I got a full-time job working nights and attended college classes during the day. I started saving all of the money I made since I had very little if any living expenses and figured I would buy myself a very nice spirit R with some obscenely low number of miles for $30k by the time I graduated from college and got a job as an F/A-18D Weapons Systems Officer making big naval aviator bucks whilst hoarding RHD FDs while stationed in Japan (Did not necessarily go as planned since the Marine corps closed off accession to that MOS, so I reclassified to Judge advocate, I just need to get my butt to OCS and law school)
Well, like many other things in life, my plan did not go as expected. During the summer of 2020, I noticed that it was getting much more difficult to find "nice" third gens for sale, and the ones that were on the market were rather spendy. so I figured that I ought to get one before I ended up missing the boat. This was also when college courses transitioned online, so I took my courses elsewhere. At the office I was doing my schoolwork at, I noticed that there was a '94 CW parked at the end of the lot. I had seen the car once before going down the highway, once before and thought that it was the first and last time I would see it. I left a note on the door handle explaining my fanaticism about the platform and explained that I was going to be in the market soon and wanted insight regarding ownership and maintenance and left my email address.

Miraculously, I got an email a day later with his phone number, and I later went for a spin in the aforementioned vehicle, powered by a large street port REW with an S362SXE bolted to the side. It was rather wild. The next day he brought his '93 VR base that was running stock twins, and we rode in that. Turns out, this crazy old guy (aarkaah) had owned several of every generation of RX-7 dating back to 1985 or thereabout, and lived right up the road from me.
He didn't have anyone to help him work on his cars, so I willingly volunteered and was able to gain a lot of experience in not breaking interior plastics whilst attempting to remove them, general maintenance, and other things that you would do to an FD.

Then came May of '21. I had all of my funds read to go, I just needed a car to spend it on! This was right about the time the gentleman mentioned above was looking for a chassis to use for his single turbo three rotor build. He found one of the four produced automatic 1994 Silver Stone Metallic base model in Illinois, right out of Chicago. The seller was an older gentleman who had owned the car since 2005 and had allegedly only put 1000 miles in that time. When asked about the condition, he replied that it was a "cream puff" that was in the greatest condition that you would ever see, so he flew up there ready to make the purchase. Without going into too much detail, the car was NOT a "cream puff" as previously alleged and was going to need some work. He gave me a call and asked me if I'd be interested. I had read up on the manual conversion and was rather apprehensive about it, being that I had never done anything of that scope, but I knew that it would likely be my last chance to procure one for as little as it was, so I gave the okay. Made it all the way down here without a hitch!

I put a few miles on it and encountered my first (expected) issue, which was signs of impending water seal failure!

aarkaah drove it back all the way from Illinois to eastern PA in a couple days, and I had a SSM hardtop with 51,109 miles on the odometer (had to send cluster out for repair to find that out).
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...33f10841f.jpeg
Here is one of the first photos I took of it, bug parts and all!

The car wasn't perfect but it was a good foundation to do whatever the heck I wanted with it. It also came with a ton of parts that I subsequently sold to fund the purchase of a new engine, GReddy v-mount, and all of the requisite parts to do the manual conversion.

After taking inventory of everything and determining what parts and materials would be needed to do the work, we began disassembly. This thing was FILTHY! for whatever reason, the shop (a well-known one) that was hired to do maintenance on it vented oil vapor directly into the engine bay. I had to spend three days cleaning the thing because every square inch of the bay was caked in grease, and so were all of the peripherals on the engine. I spent an entire month cleaning it all with an old toothbrush, brake cleaner, and low odor mineral spirits in my garage.

I won't bore you with the minute details of the conversion, but will say that it actually was not that bad, just annoying. I'd do it again if I were ever in another position to obtain and properly maintain another third gen.

After months of waiting for a few specific parts to show up, we got it running.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...5210248d4.jpeg
Before
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...0ffc34665.jpeg
Maiden voyage
Do note that for whatever reason, the previous owner swapped the tan seats from the Montego blue car that he also owned at some point into this silver car (still a little upset about that :lol:)
If anyone here has a '94 MB JM1FD3336R0300984, I've got your seats and original purchase receipts, and some service records! :lol:

I brought my car back to my garage on November 7th :cool:

I later put the hood and headlight covers on. Drove when the weather permitted to get break-in miles and learned the car. and assisted on the single turbo three rotor build for the next several months until we got that running.
Put a couple thousand miles on it until I ran into a little issue.

I would smell coolant intermittently. I thought I was just imagining things until I actually saw it coming from under the glovebox, and concluded that I had a leaking heater core. ( I didn't but I would not know this for several months until I was able to get the dash out to have the carpet sanitized. Turned out to be a direct result of me bending a coolant pipe!)

I looped the heater core and ran without heat for a while until I was ready to take the thing apart. Everything worked as expected.
Began disassembly on the car and noticed that I had some torn-up insulation and something that resembled mouse droppings. While less than ideal, I figured it was confined to a single area.

Turns out I was wrong! this thing was literally full of crap! I ended up having to pretty much junk all of the jute padding that was in the car. (Will provide photos of the carnage in a later post)
I had poop everywhere and it was stuck to the floor pan. I spent several weekends when I was back home from school steam cleaning and sanitizing the thing. I thought I was done, and I realized that I never checked the headliner. So I began removing it and heard a bunch of stuff moving around up there. Got it down and it began to rain mouse droppings all over myself and my newly sanitized floor. I was less than thrilled with this discovery. and had to clean everything all over again.

By some divine measure, the mice that once resided in my car were not interested in my wiring, so you would think that all would be well, correct?
This was not the case. The previous owner had some aftermarket electronics installed in the car, and whoever he paid great sums of money to perform the installation absolutely butchered parts of my chassis, just about every wire harness in the car and some other difficult to find parts.

Will provide photos later. I want you all to see just how poorly this stuff was installed. I had a head unit connector that was partially melted together!

Prior to this, I had always been interested in building a track car and competing in time trials and SCCA/PHA hill climbs, but told myself that I could never do it because my example was too nice to do so. After getting to experience a single turbo FD for a few (slow) laps at Pocono Raceway, I was hooked and said to hell with it, I really only ever drive the car to aarkaah's house and the gas station, and with all of the horrendous drivers I have the pleasure of dealing with on a daily basis by virtue of being so close to NJ and NY and knowing that sooner or later I may be liable to have it written off due to that, I may as well go build the car I always wanted, because I am only going to get one chance in this game that we call life.

This brings us to the present day. I am now preparing the vehicle for some fabrication and safety equipment (someone let water get in the hatch and I have a hole in the spare tire well)
Pulled the front ring harness and am currently mocking up a new harness for the impending PDM installation.
Also working out a single turbo conversion, given that I already have most of the expensive parts required to do so.

Whilst I know dismantling a vehicle to this extent with such ambitious plans often results in failure, I am dumb enough to attempt to do so and expect that my outcome will be different.:nod:
Stay tuned!
more pictures to come off the butchered harnesses, chassis and botched sound system install and mouse poop mountain!

Nice, looking forward to more posts on this one!

Dale

Thanks for sharing. I especially enjoyed the park about how you met Ato!

I remember @Aarkaah
Let's see if we can drag him into this thread :)

Damn tagged in a thread!!!! Can’t ignore it now. 😂

Seriously though @SETaylor has put in some serious work on this car post the rebuild and upgrades. Once he puts the car back together it will be beautiful.

What really got me on this car was that despite my best efforts there was no way to determine what was going on behind the scenes. Let this be a caution to “barn yard” shoppers. You get what you pay for and then some!

Anyway Simon and I have worked together in my garage on 3 other cars since then. The last one, my blue Mazdaspeed 20B, goes for tuning next month!!!

Following your thread Simon!!! Let’s go!!

As promised, here are an assortment of photos taken over the course of the disassembly process.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...6ae96182d.jpeg
alleged high dollar head unit installation. Had to have been at least eight feet of wire jammed in there.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...227e41cb9.jpeg
Hole in spare tire well+ botched stereo installation.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...f82e16975.jpeg
Mouse poop floor pan!
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...9ee365785.jpeg
Mouse poop headliner!
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...169a4e5a7.jpeg
How not to install a keyless entry system. put a hole in the chassis to pass wires, and also jacked up the X-20 connector.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...4f45ddf3b.jpeg
Twist and tape in place of crimp and heatshrink.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...e850cc78c.jpeg
Current state of vehicle.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...fd0ae53e2.jpeg
Passenger side headlight
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...3431013e6.jpeg
mocked up harness on passenger side.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...2a6a82110.jpeg
Mocked up harness on driver side.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...8cfdc09c4.jpeg
Mocked up harness routing for headlight.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...8233ac866.jpeg
a few of the wires that will be going to the charging harness.

Will post photos of my revised front harness schematic, Picked up a pre-owned but never used E-T-A SCS-3000 (pretty much a Syvecs/ Life Racing PDUx2) from the United Kingdom.

That car didn’t leave my garage like that! Lol. I hope everything is labeled man.

Great stuff Simon - looking forward to this coming together


I had looked into a Syvecs system as well, and found (as you most likely did too) there aren't too many FD's running one. Solid cop out on my part in going with an Elite 2500 (many more use cases to go off of in joining this century from my trusty Power FC)

That all said, Eric (@speedjunkie) was one of the only FD owners I was able to find with a Syvecs (Life?), and was an awesome help in sharing pain points/precautions/whys and why nots and his findings with me

There's also a tuner that used to be local to me, Franz Diebold, who had experience and gave me great feedback on either Syvecs/Life that may come in handy for you. He used to dial into our endurance S2000 MoTec trackside, and had sorted out many a pre-green flag mess for us. I can ping him to set up something for you if you'd like

Edit: no informal hand off needed - Franz has his own site here


Best of luck!

With enough plastic bags, tape, and factory service and wiring manuals, you can do anything! :biggrin:

Additionally, here are some photos of the work Aarkaah and I did over the summer when we performed the engine replacement and manual conversion.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...a0609181c.jpeg
Australian style engine pull.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...36487a56a.jpeg
New short block prior to installation of peripherals and sequential system.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...ec6637255.jpeg
All vacuum lines redone, courtesy of Aarkaah himself!

About halfway through the process, my family went on vacation and took me with them (against my will) leaving Aarkaah to put all of the vacuum lines together. Everything worked as it should!

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll likely end up reaching out to them at some point in the future.

I really like how open-ended the software is and the fact that just about everything is user-programmable. All of the other features are nice too. A 2500 would have been sufficient for my purposes, but I like the syvecs/life architecture better :cool:
I had an old Autronic SM4 that I pulled off of another FD that I could theoretically use, but I don't think anyone in the rotary world programs those anymore and it doesn't support CANBUS. I could probably get it to work, just likely not the way I would want it to.

Indeed. The Syvecs is a great ECU, and it probably saved my butt numerous times, but it was too confusing for me and being one of maybe four people in the country using it meant information for simple fixes wasn't available, which meant I had to run to Chris every time I needed help with even the simple stuff. Not to mention he's one of only four shops in the US authorized to tune it, and he's the only one that does rotaries also. Chris was super helpful though, and still is.

Looks like this will be a fun build! Congrats on the purchase, Simon!

Yeah skip the Autronic, had a guy running that here, he had ZERO support on it. Also I think it really didn't do trailing timing right, like you just set a fixed split and that was it.

PFC has new legs after the amazing FC-Tweak came out that can autotune for you. Haltech is great but it's still not as simple of a plug and play process as the PFC.

BTW it looks like they took the hump out of the bottom of the spare tire well that the spare mounts to, most likely to make it flat so they could put a sub box or something in there. Yeah car stereos are nice but damn don't go cutting off the damn CHASSIS of the car!

Dale

If it was an SSM on red car it could be the same Autronic ecu.... :P

Previously, I had been planning on using the post(s) that the spare tire would mount to affix a battery mount to. I was less than thrilled when I peeled back the dynamat to find that someone had cut the post out and bashed it in with a hammer. Quite truthfully, I don't even think the previous owner was aware of that, since he hired a stereo shop to do the work.

I'll be addressing it (properly) sometime this year!

PDU/PDM showed up today. It's a 16 channel unit, and I am going to need more to provide power to everything that I would like. I decided to use two units for better packaging when installed in the vehicle. I'll probably affix one to where the ABS computer is and the other to a mounting plate on the firewall that I will have fabricated after I throw some Cardboard Aided Design at it :cool:



https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...56bfaf9e8.jpeg
E-T-A SCS 3000-16.

Front harness schematic has been finalized. Now to determine the current values that will be running through each wire so I can size accordingly.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...604c284c9.jpeg
My very primitive schematic for the revised front harness.

@SETaylor Just a word to affirm your plans before you go too deep. You're approaching a point where it's hard to turn back from which is the "semi-custom race car" point. Outside of the mouse nests it appears that it was a clean example with no body damage which is increasingly harder to find.

I encourage you to keep this one mostly stock and mod another one that is less nice.

Yes, I am aware that I am at the metaphorical "point of no return". I struggled with the whole "do I leave it alone because I can get more money for it, or do I go build what I want and enjoy it?" dilemma for the longest time. Quite truthfully, if I knew that I would end up going this far, I probably would have looked for something less nice, though it probably would have cost me the same amount of money or more given how little I paid for my chassis all things considered (at the time). I also have a few rust holes in the trunk and also had some metal cut out of there and beat down with a hammer to fit a speaker box. The only real way to fix that is to cut out the section and have a new one welded back in, Previous owner also went wild with self-taps, so I have several of those to have plugged. The dash harness also had a ton of extraneous stuff poorly spliced into it, hence why I am opting to control body functions with a PDM, given that there are far fewer wires and all that needs to be done is for me to construct a harness and program it. Could I have just replaced the harnesses with some that were unmolested? Yes, I could have, but for my purposes, it doesn't necessarily make the most sense.

I probably should have just bought someone's old SCCA IT prepped first gen for a couple grand and been done with it :o:

I like competition vehicles and wanted to put one together that wasn't some raunchy "jdm tite drift missile", and reading the exploits of Fritz et al. having fun with their cars on road courses is something that I find much more appealing than going through the trouble of putting together a really nice car and then hard parking it at a show. I enjoy seeing these cars developed to a high level.

If it is any consolation, The vehicle will look completely stock from the outside, sans the current FEED hood and wheels when I am done with it (think Peter Farrell's IMSA third gens). Mazda got it right the first time with respect to the series 6 design.

@SETaylor ,

There’s a lot of good advice above from very experienced forum members. The more you customize a car beyond what is common knowledge the less valuable it becomes. At some point, a car with unique custom harnesses becomes a nightmare to maintain and consequently a deterrent to prospective buyers further down the road.

if you goal is to track an FD, clean this one up, sell it and go by a single turbo, ported, high mileage car you can beat on. Your funds will go a lot further imho.

Anyway bud, at the end of the day it is your car but just don’t want to see this thing on jacks again…. 😂

Just my .02 cents man. Send it already! 😂

Sell me your blue car for $10k since the PO made his own front harness and relocated the fusebox :lol:
wrt wiring, the PDM and CANBUS integration is about as simple as it gets. All you do is run wires to everything that needs power and also run two wires to each CAN device on the network. If someone can't figure that out, they probably shouldn't be anywhere near one of these things.

I calculated the difference between selling all my stuff and purchasing a "built car" (one with a built engine), and the savings were negligible. Not after crazy power, a "small" single conversion is more than sufficient for my purposes. I would still need safety equipment and trying to re-engineer the factory wiring to get it to do what I want isn't necessarily the best use of my time or effort.

If I own this thing long enough, It too will be a "high mileage" single conversion. The end result is the same. If you can find me a roller with "good" paint, and no sunroof (due to having to spend money due to head clearance issues w/ helmet) for under $16k regardless of mileage, I am all ears :)

Yeah rollers that cheap don’t happen anymore. 😂

Well wishing you the best on this epic voyage! I think you may be over-simplifying things a bit. But hey, I never took any wiring or harness courses. Holler if you need anything. 👍

So awesome to see people like Aarkaah inspiring others and being open in assisting those who want to learn and get involved.
Thank you for helping grow the rotary community.

This build will be great!

To be honest, this infectious pay-it-forward attitude was learned from @amp. I would have never had the courage to wrench on these cars without his willingness to help and sound advice.

Standard fee for any amount of help? Lunch or a six pack. (Used to be a beer but inflation is rampant in these parts… lol)

Anyway, we digress…

Hi folks, figured I'd share this since it directly pertains to what I'm doing.
I created a spreadsheet with PDM functions. channel assignment, information on current draws, wire sizing, and connector information so I can later create a full blown schematic with info on pinouts, connector locations, and other info. With this being the first harness of this nature that I am attempting to build, I have found in my (extremely limited) experience that taking the time to plan every single thing makes everything much easier when it comes time to assemble everything and later diagnose if need be.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

If you see anything that looks out of place or not advisable, please do let me know.

Nice work on the spreadsheet! For the unknown inrush currents, you can use a hall effect current sensor/meter and do a test to characterize each of them once you've got everything wired up. Some years ago, I was having a rash of dead alternator issues on my FC. This was after I switched to an aftermarket ECU, E-fan, IGN-1A coils, fuel system mods, etc., so I decided to characterize all my current draws at steady state & inrush conditions. Purchased a simple Hall effect current sensor & digital amp meter rig from Amazon for about $20. The one I got measures currents up to 150A, with a resolution of roughly +/- 0.5A, so good enough for my purposes. Stick the current sensor ring over the alternator's B+ output wire to measure current draw, run the car & switch loads on/off in a planned sequence to determine each load at steady state and get an estimate of inrush as the load just switches on.

Appreciate the recommendation!
If I had known I'd be going this far, I probably would have measured everything before taking it all apart. :lol: Luckily, I have a few of these cars local to me so I just need an ammeter. That should get me pretty close.

Did more conceptual design work today. Early on in the process, I realized that attempting to organize several discrete harnesses and branching off specific things to a dedicated point could be done, it takes up quite a bit of space. The solution was to run everything to a singular junction box inside the vehicle and branch off everything needed and route them to their respective areas.

I took inspiration from this photo posted on the "Motorsport Wiring Resource Group" on facebook While I won't be using those obscenely expensive Autosport connectors, I have found mil-dtl38999 spec connectors to be a more cost-effective equivalent. Deutsch DT series connectors could also work.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...3df3828720.jpg
Photo courtesy of Motorsports Wiring Resource Group on FB
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...b7113127a.jpeg
A basic routing schematic. The plate that these devices are to be mounted to will be located on the firewall of the passenger side of the vehicle.

Loved reading your background story and am happy that you were able to find such a nice example, all things considered. SSM hardtop is a great spec! Having seen your posts around the forum, I'm sure this build will be nice wherever it ends up. Good luck...

Appreciate the kind words!
I generally operate on the principle that regardless of how un-advisable (read: bad) an idea may be, you can achieve a good result as long as it is well thought out and properly planned. Coming up with an idea is the easy part, it's the process of determining how you are going to make it happen is the more challenging part. Once you have a general understanding of what needs to happen and why, you can do pretty much anything if you are willing to go to such lengths. :nod:

I really liked the design philosophy seen in FIA Grand Touring 3 and the IMSA competition vehicles where the only stuff present in the vehicle is what is needed to operate it, and given my rather limited use case, I figured I'd put together a more modern interpretation of the RX-7's that were tearing up road courses and being operated by the likes of Peter Farrell Supercars in the IMSA series, Pettit in their GT efforts and the factory-backed SP team over in Australia that gave Porsche a lot of trouble for four years. I think there is something to be said about a stock body series 6 car that only retains essential equipment, instead of the (often rather gaudy and sometimes vulgar) "super JDM time attack racecar rotary 10000 rpm fireball extreme aero" look that has become so prominent and has become more and more so in street-driven cars.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...7078d0d8c5.jpg
Photo courtesy of fd3s.net. Taken from the January of 1994 issue of Sports Car International.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...ebd793a85f.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...7209529d15.jpg

https://www.rx7club.com/build-thread...build-1001518/ Forum member PandazRX-7 was a major source of inspiration in showing that proper planning, design, and implementation can go a long way. Whilst I won't necessarily be going as far as he did with his development effort, I would eventually like to compete in NASA/SCCA/EMRA Time Trial and Pennsylvania Hillclimb Association events with it, so it needs to be fixtured properly so I do not create any more unnecessary and potentially critical issues, and that I not be in too many pieces to put back together should there be an incident.
I am aware that doing this kind of stuff to an FD in this day and age is a heinous and executable offense but given the circumstances and my very limited use case, I do think this could work.
I'll try to go rent someone else's race vehicle for an HPDE for good measure, as there isn't much sense in building something you don't like. Hopefully, later on in life, I'll be able to get a hold of a tube-framed sevens only SCCA GT2-3 car, or an Improved Touring first-gen and road race that. :nod:

I am back with another update.

One aspect of the build that I wanted to get right the first time was my seat choice. Given that it must fit the driver properly so that the horizontal "harness bar" component of a rollover protection structure and that the geometry of the shoulder harness among others must be within the prescribed specifications published by manufacturers and sanctioning bodies alike. I would also be less than thrilled with incurring spinal compression related issues as a result of such a configuration.

I ended up going with a Recaro Pro Racer for the driver and a Moretti-Monza Daytona for the passenger seat because HPDE instructors come in many varying sizes.
Got the Recaro for $600 used. Has a bit of paint transfer that can be addressed and some abrasions on parts of the cover, but I can have that replaced for well under the $2275 MSRP (:eek:) that the manufacturer just set for this year. The momo was $675 shipped down from $825. Both are getting back braced on the rollover structure that is to be installed. Got two very nice seats for a total of $1275, which was significantly less than what I was expecting to spend.

I went with the Ronin Speedworks seat brackets. Have yet to receive them, but am looking forward to seeing how far I can drop the seat. I sit rather upright in the car so my head is very close on sunroof cars and within two inches of the roof on hardtop cars depending on how far gone my hair is on that particular day. The stock seats are rather comfortable, but they provide zero support under lateral acceleration and I have grown tired of having to force my left knee onto the door card just to stay in place.

I went with neck restrain seats due to them being designed to retain the head in side impacts that head and neck restraints aren't necessarily designed to handle. One of my greatest concerns was obstructed visibility. But quite truthfully, they are less obtrusive than one would initially think.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...2ff5ad65e.jpeg
Recaro Pro Racer
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...e359af5bf.jpeg
Recaro Pro Racer side profile
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...04abb7d26.jpeg
Momo Daytona XL
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...1a9a810bd.jpeg
Momo Daytona XL side profile

Thanks for reading!

Greetings all.
I have yet another exciting development to bring you. I have had my eyes on a set of Penske 8300 dampers for the longest time, but like most people, I want everything for the price of nothing. I figured I'd save up for a set and get some a few years down the road. Miraculously, one of the approximately 3 known FD owners that had any sort of Penske dampers on their cars decided to move onto something else and was looking to offload a set of double adjustable 8100s for a fraction of the price new, with all of the engineering already done. Granted these are about 25 years old, in need of servicing, and priced accordingly. I just so happen to live less than an hour from Penske's Reading facility, so when the time comes, I will be having them rebuilt and revalved for higher spring rates and the 8100 compression adjuster switched for an 8300 compression adjuster, or if I happen to have additional funds, perhaps the 3-way 8670 compression adjuster. They are all part of the 8000 damper series save for a few small details, they all go together the same (for the most part), so while it's still going to cost me a fair bit to do what I want, it won't be the obscene figure of $5-6k!

Pictures to come in the next week or so, as the semester at school is winding down and I need the requisite grades to earn a degree and get a job that allows me to set more money on fire messing with these things. If you happen to see me in your town selling bulk used underwear or the like, please pay it no mind, as I am merely generating the capital required to keep this build (read: addiction) going. :lol:

So.....what is it about the Penske's that is better for your application than an $800 set of Tein Flex Z's?

Curious but also want to make sure you are spending your money smartly.

I can't see going insane high end on coilovers unless you are doing an all-out track build and are looking for 10/10s of performance.

Dale

Hi Dale. My reasoning for going with the Penske's and not some of the more commonly available (and much more reasonably priced) options is for a few reasons. The main reason is really none other than because I wanted to learn about setting up these kinds of dampers and how they relate to the control of the chassis while also being able to put it into practice. The ease of maintenance and the fact that the factory is right up the road was also what pushed me toward them. I've had experience with the Koni yellow dampers, Tein basic, the long-stroke Ohlins DFV's and the stock dampers and springs on various FD's I have been around. I wanted something that allowed compression and rebound damping to be adjusted independently because you sometimes end up with something that either ends up over or under-damping the rebound and compression strokes of the spring and damper, and I'd like for that not to happen. They're also one of the cheaper dampers to service out there, I believe the standard rate at the factory is $170/damper or so.
I am building a vehicle for hill climb competition, track days, and time trials that just so happens to wear a license plate if that makes any sense. It will have an SCCA logbook once I get my time trial license and the requisite safety equipment. I have had more fun in one of these cars on a road course than I have on the street, so that is how I got to where I am. I do less than 2000 miles a year, and it's mostly relegated to the spring and summer months. The car already saw limited use, so it made the decision easier.

While I really would have liked to do this in stages, as it is much easier to manage, I came to the conclusion that the only thing more expensive than building a car is building a car multiple times. With that having been said, I am well aware of the plight of "well, it's already apart, may as well do everything" and have changed some elements of my plans to make things more reasonable to deal with respect to cost and complexity. It is very easy to get carried away with these things and spiral out of control, and staying with your original plan can be quite difficult at times. As you are likely aware (as a consequence of being around these cars for longer than I've been on this planet) with a few carefully thought-out modifications, I can have a car that isn't a running and driving migraine and also does not cost an arm and a leg to do so. The only thing stopping me is the fact that I have to build this to the specifications of a sanctioning body and also because I very much enjoy building things and competition vehicles. So to answer your question (with great apprehension), yes, this is an "all-out track car" of sorts. I really wanted to avoid saying that here because of the connotation it carries with it. I could probably get by alright with a set of flex z's, but these just happened to show up and I figured I'd see if they do their job as well as I have been advised that they do. With that having been said, I do get a kick out of seeing folks dump outrageous amounts of money in their engine bay only to be rolling around on suspension components from "Ebay Racing Dept." and wondering why they were having issues with power delivery.

Hope that helps answer your question.

yeah search on google, everything is available there :lol:.

one way or another we always like to overbuild our cars even though we know that it doesnt always work out.
I completely get the "track/ time trial car with a license plate" and this is the rabbit hole i have been in for many years; but truth be told, i change my approach to what i want from my car as i grow older but the basic idea has remained the same.

I'll probably want to dial it back a touch when I get older and wiser, but for now, I want to get full use of my young and dumb years :lol:. I'll probably add a first gen or an RX-8 to the garage for a more "civil" experience if I have the space by then.
It was a pretty odd progression. I went from not understanding why anyone would want to mess with one of these things and thought a lot of the folks here were out of their minds with these rather extensive builds. Then I thought I'd put together a dual-purpose car and only do one or two HPDEs a year with the majority of use being on the street ergo driving to other RX-7 owner's houses. Then I got behind the wheel of someone's 550 whp burnout machine for a few slow laps and said to hell with it, this way is too much fun while also being much safer (I am a little risk averse).

Most of my funds will be going toward safety equipment, like a plumbed fire suppression system, rollover structure, and all the other stuff you would see in a prepared vehicle.
(think 996 cup w/o the horrendous operating costs), and the idea is to have something that closely resembles Peter Farrel's IMSA supercar but with a small(er) single conversion for heat management updated electronics.
I've managed to offset a great deal of costs by finding nice parts from the early days of the forum and mailing list that are otherwise in good working order and just need to be refreshed instead of purchasing new.

If all goes well in the next few months and I start my new job, expect more frequent updates :cool:

that’s bleach, are you trying to sanitize your “machine”? :scratch:

One piece of advice I will give you -

Just don't do mods that are not recoverable. Bridgeported engine you can swap out for a stock one down the road. You chop up the rear fenders to put a wide body on, you are DONE, that car will never be worth a crap again.

Same goes for hacking in non-pop up headlights, throwing away interior pieces you can't easily get, severely hacking or removing factory wiring.....

​​​​​​​Dale

Dale,
I completely understand where you are coming from. If it is any consolation, there will be no bridgeporting, widebody addition, or modification of the headlight buckets of any kind. The finished product will look like the same stock body series 6 that I started with. Unfortunately, I cannot make any promises with respect to the wiring (as it was already jacked up pretty good by shop PO hired to do work. still wondering how it didn't set itself on fire)... No interior pieces or upholstery will be harmed, but there will be chassis fabrication involved (partially as a consequence of there being several holes in the spare tire well). I appreciate you bringing up the value proposition of intensive modification, and how it usually does the complete opposite of what one would expect ergo more monies spent do not necessarily increase value. Do I increase the functionality for its intended purpose and deal with the (monetary) consequences, or do I attempt to work around something and deal with a less-than-ideal setup in hopes of bringing in more capital? Truth be told, if I'm still around in 60 years and this thing is too, I wholly intend on giving this thing to another 20 year old who really likes these cars and is willing to learn. If I am fortunate enough to have an opportunity to reflect at the conclusion of my life, it probably won't be about how much money I acquired or lost messing with these neat little vehicles, but likely related to all of the fun had, friends made (both on here and in person) and lives changed (hopefully for the better).
Optimistic and potentially naive? Perhaps, but we have yet to see what the future will hold... (I may also just be too dumb to know any better. If so, please advise)

I get it, You've been in the game for a very, very long time and are tired of seeing people screw these things up with poorly thought-out and implemented modifications. I am not particularly a fan of such practices either. While I wish I would have been born 12 years earlier so I could have lived out the heyday of this form with all of you, it didn't really work out that way. All I can promise you is that everything I have planned was the result of my trying to determine the best solution for what I wish to do and that it won't be half done. :)

Quasi-update
I have removed the majority of the bitumen (tar) sound deadening with only two more sections to go. I will be placing "thermo tec high temp heat barrier" in select areas.
I was able to get the flat sections of the tar mat up with dry ice without much trouble. The diagonal and vertical sections were a different story... This required the use of a heat gun that I managed to appropriate from my father's garage and took way longer than it probably should have in addition to being one of the least fun RX-7 related activities I have had the privilege of taking part in. The seam sealer will also be removed for reasons that will become apparent in the coming months. With my recent emancipation from the academic institution for the next couple of months, I am no longer relegated to only being able to do work during the weekend, but am still relegated to only being able to operate between 11pm and 4 am (for unrelated reasons) but it is a net gain in time I am able to spend in the garage so more work can be completed in preparation for reassembly and fabrication work.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...5350aa3ec.jpeg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...ec19fe642.jpeg
(please excuse the mess and my hockey equipment bag)
Interestingly enough, and I suspect that this was a consequence of how some of the tar mats were laid at the factory all those years ago, there were actually some sections that were applied in such a way that facilitated water ingress between the tar mat and the chassis. Left a bit of surface rust that can easily be mitigated, so it isn't the end of the world but may be something to make note of. I have heard reports of similar things occurring on early 911s to the extent of floors needing to be replaced but I suspect this to not be an issue for us as the kind folks in Hiroshima were gracious enough to craft this machine out of glorious Nippon steel folded 1000 times :gwink:.


I also bring you a mildly interesting tale of how I haphazardly managed to successfully track down a race-prepped FD and the gentleman who has been racing it since at least '97 (I think he is the original owner)

I had joined Pennsylvania Hillclimb Assoc. FB group a while back, and came across the following photo.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...a13b158d71.jpg

Someone running a third gen in the Super Production Over class? I thought they had all gone extinct! That turned out not to be the case. I looked all over and was eventually able to conclude that it belonged to a gentleman named Gordon. (That's right, there are two of them with Brilliant Black third gens!)
I had several questions for him, as a great deal of the people who once traversed road courses and hill climb stages with their FDs at this level have moved on to other endeavors at this point ergo I can't track them down because they last logged onto the forum 10-15 years ago.

I knew that his organization would likely be present at the import show in Carlisle, PA so I went down there with Aarkaah. There were a few RX-7s there and we ran into some other rotary-affiliated buddies. One of them brought their '95 VR touring. He left his other 5 or so RX-7's at home. ( two FDs, two FCs and 2 SA/FB iirc).

After wandering around for a bit, I came across a pavilion full of race vehicles (including a '96 Formula/Star Mazda!). I quickly realized that the Brilliant Black Touring model I had been in search of was parked right in front of me!
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...e2341d2af.jpeg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...a11256936.jpeg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...8d54c0abc.jpeg

You all have no clue how excited I was to see this thing in person. I asked someone standing next to it if the would happen to know who the owner was, and much to my surprise, it was them! He appeared to be in either his late 70s or early 80s, and he later explained to me that he had been (road) racing and autoxing this thing pretty much since the day he bought it, so at least 25 years. (this was also not the only RX-7 he road raced, as he had also owned a prepared FC at some point and showed me several photos of it and his FD of him hustling it through a packed field)
This thing was set up exactly like you would have seen a race prepared third gen all those years ago and featured the venerable CCW classics, competition tires, and safety equipment! I asked him if he'd be willing to explain to me how he went about vehicle setup and he was more than willing to do so.

He went single a very long time ago and was using one of the older turbocharger offerings of the time. I don't recall what model it was, but he did also tell me that he went to a 4.77 final drive for the best low-end. Put the widest wheels and tires he could reasonably fit on it and left it alone. The engine was built by Cameron Worth of Pettit back in the day. I also found out that he had the rest of the car built at KD Rotary which was later known as Speed 1, which has been defunct for some years. Much to my amusement, I learned that the exact same person who built the car for him was one of the former KDR/ Speed 1 lead technicians who lives a couple of miles up the road from me and was a great deal of the reason I was able to do the manual conversion on my car. (he handled some of the wiring alterations that needed to be made, redid my 5th gear synchro and spindle while also being gracious enough to supply me with several NLA parts so I could complete my conversion and also built gmonsen's N/A 3 rotor BB car)

Something came up that he had to attend to, so he shook my hand and we parted ways. I hope I run into him again at the hills when I get this thing put back together. He knows his stuff!

I also came across this very nice Stohr (at least I think it is) Formula 1000 car. These things are horrendously quick and probably the highest performance machine you can get for the money, and you can buy a used one for the price of an FD! 240 whp at 1025 lbs is a serious power-to-weight ratio. It was also painted silver, further confirming my biases that it is the best vehicle color. I will be procuring one of these things one day...
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...2122a7219.jpeg
(this will be my new computer lock screen from now on)

Later that day we (Aarkaah and I) went to assist forum member KaiMotus with his engine installation. Took much longer than it should have but we did get it in.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...aa6e4da0f.jpeg

Thank you for coming to my TED talk

Would this be none other than the AngryPerson himself? AKA, Brian T.?

Close but not quite! :D Last I heard Brian had relocated to Vermont and was in the process of building his own shop. He came down here a while back to help Aarkaah set up his 3 rotor car. Yordan helped me/us track down NLA stuff for my initial manual conversion and provided helpful knowledge from his experience working on this platform professionally.

That's who I was thinking of too lol.

I've been talking to Gordon a bit on Facebook recently. Haven't met him in person yet, and only met Brian when he made his trek across the US years ago and he stayed with me a couple days while he rebuilt his turbos lol.

It's cool meeting all these people from the forums. Makes me want to drive the car around the country meeting everyone.

I recently came to a similar conclusion. The cars are neat, but the people behind them are even better.

Greetings folks. I bring you a tale of schematics, physical validation of combination switch circuits, inputs, and superseded OE parts not being consistent with the wiring manual.

I had to revise my plans for control of certain actuators, as my ambition exceeded my budget, but I think this will allow me to retain the same design formula followed by the 996 and 997 cup variants (and every other production-based competition vehicle seen in FIA GT3/4 and other circles)
Recall from life experience how while something may theoretically be possible in your head, the merit of it executed in practice may be questionable when subjected to further evaluation.

This was the case with my initial concept which involved the use of CANBUS buttons and rotary switches to control various functions. I later realized that an enclosure that would mount to the steering wheel with the required buttons, buttons switches and all of the other required peripherals would set me back well in excess of $1000, and then I'd need to program it. I could probably have made it work, but I remembered that the factory (OE) combination switch has all of the control logic built into it, so it was probably a better use of my time to explore that route.
I also ran into a similar caveat with PDU i/o sizing and concluded that attempting to run every single electrical function off of two PDUs would necessitate the additon of a second one. Recall that the E-T-A SCS-3000-16 I procured was approx $1000 shipped and was purchased secondhand but unused. A second unit would set me back anywhere from $1600-2000 contingent on whether I added a Syvecs, Life Racing or E-T-A variant (they're the same thing for all intents and purposes) it also takes up more space than I would have liked, hence my revision.

Lighting takes up A LOT of I/O on the PDU, and I don't necessarily see the value of assigning many of the channels on your PDU if you are not going to make use of the capabilities it provides. This was the basis for my revised implementation of the PDU.

• Utilize ISO-280 E-T-A relays in a 96-way GEP relay/fuse holder to control all lighting (and power windows)
• E-T-A circuit breakers in place of traditional fuses (more on this later)
• Power distributed from PDU to fuse box for lighting control and switches
• Cooling fans and fuel pump(s) powered by their own dedicated PDU channels and controlled by ECU through analog switching. The thought process behind this is to be able to monitor trends in operation and actually be able to see what occurred should one not function properly or fail. I will limit this to all "mission critical" functions.

Naturally, there are more components to this concept, but we will move on to a slightly different element of the equation for now.

The combination switch that I referred to earlier will be used to trigger relays for lighting, wipers and other functions. As one would, I consulted the 1994 wiring manual. This later became the source of a mildly annoying and rather humorous issue. The combination switch I was working with (purchased new a couple years ago) DID NOT entirely correspond with the terminal color coding shown in the factory diagram. What is one to do in such a situation? Break out the multimeter and set it to continuity while actuating switches to see what results it produces!

This was a neat little learning experience and involved me creating my own application-specific documentation. Results are pictured below.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...51e41e3af.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...acaf910c0.jpeg

Note my production-grade test apparatus proudly displayed on the dining table, much to the behest of my father. :lol:

I know what you're thinking. "Simon, what possessed you to do such a thing? Are you under the influence of some illicit substance or are you just dumb?"
For legal reasons, I cannot disclose whether I am under the influence of such substances, but I will state with (some) confidence that while I may be stupid, I am not dumb (or so I tell myself) :gwink:
I will say that working out what thing does what when the documentation falls short is a great way to further your knowledge of how things work, and I am very much enjoying the iterative design and revision process.
This concludes my pseudo-case study on RX-7 wiring, project management, and workflow.

Overdue for an update. I am still alive and progress is being made, albeit at a much slower pace than I'd like due to factors beyond my control. The civil court system leaves much to be desired in some respects.

About a year ago I procured an M2 AP Racing 5200 brake kit from the days of the mailing list (I am pretty sure these things are several years older than I am. I had to have been in diapers when M2 closed up shop, but I digress). For approx $500 shipped from the other side of the country. There is/was some work that will need to be done to them before I affix them to the vehicle They will need new rotors (obviously) which will be sourced from Coleman Racing when the time comes. The rotor hats and calipers had this terribly half-done red rattle can job on them. Perhaps this was a measure to increase the performance of the vehicle, as we are very much aware that the application of red paint on brake calipers will make the vehicle faster. My calculations suggest that it will decrease my lap times by 5 seconds at Daytona :lol:. Anyway, the red paint had to go. I was too cheap to spend money on real paint stripper that probably wouldn't had worked as well as what I ended up using, and my favorite aromatic hydrocarbon, xylene would not touch it. Old cheap brake fluid to the rescue :cool:.

I applied the brake fluid to the rotor hats and calipers with a brush and placed them in brake fluid-saturated shop towels and a plastic drop cloth to speed up the process. After 24 hours the vast majority of the paint could be removed with my specialized garage toothbrush (only one in the world like it) I will be power washing them, and if any paint is still left, I will be employing the use of the nastiest chemical paint stripper I can get my hands on without needing a hazmat permit to transport it.

I will also be replacing the caliper pistons with their stainless steel counterparts (due to aluminum doing a very good job of transferring heat to the brake fluid) and replacing the caliper piston seals because they're probably old enough to have a family. New brake lines will also be fabricated. Unsure of the manufacturer as of now.

Pad selection for the 5200 appears to be pretty decent. More options than the stock front calipers. They also appear to be decently priced (on average) so I can keep my consumable costs reasonable. The Raybestos ST-43 looks promising for what I wish to do.

I would have liked to adapt some PFC ZR22 and ZR20 calipers w/ a mechanical parking brake caliper so I could take advantage of the 30mm thick :eek: pad they use and the fact that everyone and their mother that runs an asphalt late model uses them so you can get barely used PFC pads for nothing and will last much longer slowing down a 2450 lb contraption. Until I reach the point where my caliper hardware is an issue, we will continue the use of the "big list" era solution of an M2 setup up front and an RZ rear. Master cylinder bores will be sized accordingly.

Pictures to come later.

I have returned once again to deliver a tremendous (not really) update and some other things of note that are pertinent to my ill-conceived vehicle construction and design process.

Most young folks (as I am told) partake in late-night escapades that include but are not limited to the following. Social gatherings, Copious amounts of alcohol (impending liver/pancreas delete), consumption of illicit substances, and other debauchery that may either be regarded as absolutely hilarious at best and irredeemable or inconceivable at worst. I have rejected this doctrine and have been secluding myself in a garage with a (fixed until broken) RX-7 that I will likely be buried in if I can't find some 20-something to give it to once they put me in the old folks home and take my license away where I will subsequently continue to talk about RX-7s to the point that the poor aide that has been assigned to me will have the requisite knowledge to do just about anything to a third-gen despite never actually having seen, driven or worked on one whether they like it or not.

We will now move onto the part where I tell you about what I did.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...1a053230ea.jpg
new furniture

Pictured here is my recently acquired "garage stool" that I dug out of the trash the other week. I keep the car in a garage in an apartment complex across the street from a medical campus, so we get a lot of doctors and the like discarding perfectly good stuff. This was a welcome addition because I had been sitting on the floor for the past two years, and quite frankly it hurt my butt. I will eventually repaint this in SSM single stage, plaster RX-7 decals on it, and bring it with me to events so I can set it next to the vehicle while I wear a shirt that has a bunch of RX-7s on it, jean shorts, and some white new balance shoes. (I mean it)

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...97d4fd7076.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...42d21c33b.jpeg

Here are photos of my discount paint removal process. Will eventually be pressure washing this stuff off and replacing caliper seals. They share piston bore sizes with the AP CP9200 so I can easily procure piston seals despite being obsolete. The AP parts catalog also shows a good amount of replacement parts for these.


A major milestone wrt my chassis preparation project has been passed recently. I was able to remove all of the hot-melt bitumen sound deadening from the vehicle. I subsequently began working on the seam sealer. It had to go because I am going to have the interior repainted and it looks like it was applied on a Friday just before the end of the workday. Not an issue for most, but it will be visible upon reassembly. (when I said this build would be heavily influenced by the likes of #7 and #77 PFS IMSA cars and other heavily prepared third-gens of the time, I actually meant it ;)) so I want it to look half-decent. Will be staying with single stage for all of my paintworks because I believe it to be better for my purposes.
I have been advised that the 3m seam sealer product has been used with great results, so I will likely be using it for this task when the time comes.

The neat thing is that it (seam sealer) isn't as near as annoying/hazardous to work with as tar mat, so it can be scraped off easily with heat and doesn't make you smell like asphalt and fill the garage with carcinogenic fumes (I had a VOC respirator) I will be coming back for the areas left behind with a flap disc to remove the remenants.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...f2c52285f.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...b76415990e.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...6798c02ad2.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...c8f9acc50.jpeg

Not pictured are the several self-tap holes from the PO's haphazard modifications, (bothers the heck out of me and I could not in good faith put this thing back together without doing something about it) They put them everywhere and I am going to have to have some welding done in the engine bay, and the paint there isn't in great condition, to begin with, and sometime back in the day the battery leaked acid all over the driver's side frame rail and it looks exactly how you'd expect. Since I was planning on taking everything out of the engine bay anyway ( ergo all of the hard work is done), I have elected to prepare the area for paint when the time comes. This will also be in SSM single stage.

Query for those knowledgable about bodywork.

Looking at the rear wheel well (had been planning to address this as it was like this when I got it) there is some corrosion where paint has come off. Is this as easily mitigated as removing loose corrosion, applying a converter, and then touching the area up, or would I be better served sanding this to bare metal?
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...157240f3b.jpeg

Thanks for reading and any pertinent advice is appreciated.

Great work stripping the interior. The corrosion you show seems really light. I'd remove that aero cover and double check, but it doesn't seem like anything to worry about. Knock it down and paint if it bugs you. Give the underside a really good spray cleaning to remove any road salt etc., when you get the chance.

Narfle, appreciate the recommendation. I'll take a closer look at it next time I'm in the garage. It's got some similar spots near the driver's side frame rail under the car where the factory undercoating failed some decades ago, so I'll likely address it in the same way. Going to have to drop the rear subframe, diff case, and repaint them as it's looking pretty nasty after whatever the heck happened to it.

FYI POR15 and Eastwood have some good products for that sort of stuff.

Thanks, gracer7. I'll have to look into those more thoroughly.