Very nice David, I know what your going through my 20B Fc project took about 3 years and 3 different shops before the job done right, Congrats though

 

David Hayes you can write a novel about this,that is some crazy drama dude. My heart was pounding when i was reading about Chris not wanting to give you the car back. You has lots of patience and a big wallet as well.

 

Like other famous cars that have caused their owners's trials and tribulations I think your car deserves a name. I am thinking of the "general lee", "eleanor", etc.
Give her a name, your car is truly famous in this community.

Anyhow congrats on the end of a saga.

 

I spent yesterday with Jesus. As I am going to DGRR next week (after promising to go for 3 years but not having the car ready), I had him check out the car to ensure everything is all right. It's looking good.

I had two tuning issues for him. Wanted my idle to be more finely adjusted as it varied a bit and second, found a hole in the map under load where the car went rich at 3,500 RPMs, bogging it down. Still have a little wavering with the idle but it's much better and he eliminated the bogging down issue which makes the car really fun to drive. Step on it and it's a wild ride! In fact, I'm not used to that kind of power and had to focus on keeping my foot down or I would instinctively let off the gas.

Also had him replace the Spa oil pressure sensor as the prior one would periodically crap out and display crazy numbers (the stock OEM gauge works and I used this to ensure everything was okay). Now with the new sensor seems to be working fine.

So I am down to a few things on the fix list (in order of importance), all of which won't keep me from driving the car:

- Voltage issue. At idle, the voltage on the car starts to drop into the 11 range. With the AC on, this happens more quickly. Alternator checks out fine and when above 1,500 RPMs, everything is good but the issue needs to be fixed. I have a set of 13B engine pulleys on the car and Jesus wants to replace them with the larger 20B ones. He believes this will fix the issue.
- Bad PLX boost sensor and main unit. Bought these from Gotham (bought 5 total sensors - oil and water temp, boost and vacuum, egts and AFR) never got to use them. Returned last week to PLX and I am hoping they hook me up with new units even though they are very much out of warranty. Told them my saga and they seem like they're going to help out. Will reinstall these locally.
- Slow windshield wiper motor. Ordered a new one from Ray Crowe (the last in the US he tells me) and it will be installed here locally.
- Exhaust smell: The car can still be leaned out a bit but I doubt if the gas smell will go away unless I do something else so I am considering adding in the mid pipe a high flow cat. I would think this would fix the problem. Yes, I would lose some HP I'm sure but how much I don't know. Might be a good trade off though for getting rid of the fuel smell. Don't know if anyone has done this with a 20B. gracer7-rx7 has given me a few leads on who to talk to about this. If I do this, I'll probably also replace my Greddy exhaust with a RB dual-tip unit to bring it back to a more stock appearance.
- Incorrect fuel gauge: Displays 3/4 tank when full. Bad sensor? Do I recall someone here on the forum that re-calibrated their fuel gauge?

So, that's it for now. A few pics from yesterday in my parking garage (still no vids but those will come soon):

 

You'll probably be ok with a high flow cat and a RB dual tip muffler as long as you're just street driving the car. However, I would highly recommend that you run a much higher flowing exhaust and no cat if you ever do a track day or push the car hard for an extended period.

 

very nice. i've been thinking about doing this to the underside of my car as well.

 

How much would a high flow cat restrict airflow? I know this depends on the cat, but something like a Random Technologies cat as recommended by gracer7-rx7?

I'm planning on taking the car out several times a year for autocrossing so maybe I keep my current setup and swap it back in on track days?

Would be nice not to smell like fuel. It's not nearly as bad now as it was but I can still smell gas on my clothing after a short drive.

 

I recommend it as it works well and is very easy to install. Just cut to shape, peel, and stick.

 

You know, I have owned the car since buying it new in 1994 and I've never named it. It's simply the RX7. Don't know why that is but it is. My wife names all of our cars (her Miata - "Frankie" after Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons; the Range Rover - "Max" with "Geeves" the navigation system voice) and she's named the RX7 for me - "The other woman"

 

To David, won't changing out those parts require a retune?

 

The cat I was referring to is Random's Universal Fit Round, Metal Matrix (Race style) 7000 Series
Part # 141-30000- 3" inlet/outlet
http://www.randomtechnology.com/products.html

It worked well on my car. Here are a couple of old threads on the topic:
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ight=metal+cat
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ight=metal+cat

They should have other metal core cats in different sizes that might better fit your flow needs. That size worked fine on a 13b flowing enough air to make 330+ rwhp. I barely felt a seat of the pants difference compared to a straight or mufflered mid pipe and it smelled much better. Call and talk to the engineers there to get knowledgeable advice.

I am now running an SMB mid pipe with metal cat and muffler. It was easier to buy the SMB than to find a reliable fabricator to add the Random metal cat to the rx7 store mid pipe I used to have. The SMB is the highest quality mid pipe I have ever owned and fits perfectly.

I used both of these cats for a fair amount of track days and they are holding up fine. Extended abuse from track days has melted many a ceramic core cat. So far the metal ones seem to hold up better - my unscientific opinion based upon my limited experience. There is always the risk of melting any cat on a turbo rotary under prolonged usage. John knows that better than I.


Adding a cat, often does require some tuning changes - usually leaning things out a little. You won't have to rush out and do it immediately but it is a good idea to get it retuned or at least check AFR.

After hearing Carlisi's car, I would suggest maybe following his lead and doing a custom exhaust using Borla mufflers vs. a RacingBeat cat back. His car sounds very very good.

 

i have the same gas smell in my car....keeps the wife out of it though

let me know how the cat changes things. i can spare a few HP lol

 

If you're just doing some autocross then you'll be fine with a cat.

Good cats don't really rob too much power - it's just that they burn out pretty quick when driven on a track - or can even break down causing lots of backpressure and creating a lot of heat.

It will help you "smelly" issue though.

 

Yep, my wife commented on the gas smell just the other day. Was fun stepping on the gas and watching her face. Went from surprise to excitement. I'm going to call some cat experts today and see what the possibilities are.

 

- Voltage issue. At idle, the voltage on the car starts to drop into the 11 range. With the AC on, this happens more quickly. Alternator checks out fine and when above 1,500 RPMs, everything is good but the issue needs to be fixed. I have a set of 13B engine pulleys on the car and Jesus wants to replace them with the larger 20B ones. He believes this will fix the issue.

UPDATE: ordered a Cosmo RE 5 rib e shaft pulley from Brian/Japan2LA and it will be here by Saturday. This gives me some time to replace it early next week before DGRR. The 13B pulley on the car is 4.75 inches and the Cosmo one is 5 inches so we'll see if this fixes the problem. My local mechanic says a little change goes a long way but we'll see.

- Bad PLX boost sensor and main unit. Bought these from Gotham (bought 5 total sensors - oil and water temp, boost and vacuum, egts and AFR) never got to use them. Returned last week to PLX and I am hoping they hook me up with new units even though they are very much out of warranty. Told them my saga and they seem like they're going to help out. Will reinstall these locally.

UPDATE: Looks like PLX has come thru on replacing the faulty gauge and the master control unit for free. They're on the way back and hopefully will be here in time to reinstall on the car. This would be good as I don't want to drive "blind" up to DGRR.

- Slow windshield wiper motor. Ordered a new one from Ray Crowe (the last in the US he tells me) and it will be installed here locally.

UPDATE: New motor is here and will be installed early next week.

- Exhaust smell: The car can still be leaned out a bit but I doubt if the gas smell will go away unless I do something else so I am considering adding in the mid pipe a high flow cat. I would think this would fix the problem. Yes, I would lose some HP I'm sure but how much I don't know. Might be a good trade off though for getting rid of the fuel smell. Don't know if anyone has done this with a 20B. gracer7-rx7 has given me a few leads on who to talk to about this. If I do this, I'll probably also replace my Greddy exhaust with a RB dual-tip unit to bring it back to a more stock appearance.

UPDATE: Am calling several recommended high flow cat specialists to see what the options are here. Has anyone installed a cat on their 3 rotor? I would assume I'll need to retune the car but I am going back in a few weeks to Kilo anyway so we can do it then. My electronic boost controller is hooked up but not being used so I am going back to turn this on and tune to a higher boost level (16-18 PSI).

- Incorrect fuel gauge: Displays 3/4 tank when full. Bad sensor? Do I recall someone here on the forum that re-calibrated their fuel gauge?

UPDATE: Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Other than that, today I'm going to put some Dynamat under the driver and passenger bins. Gotham cut out the bottom of the bins and I am now left with the exposed metal floor so I thought I would Dynamat the area to see if I can cut down on noise from the area. I'd prefer to use Quiet Car as it works better and weighs less, but I've boxed up all of my materials for the move to NC so Dynamat it is.

 

I like this better than dynamat:
http://www.secondskinaudio.com/

 

Yes, but Best Buy had the Dynamat so I went with it. Just need about 4 square feet of it so it won't be too bad. THE best product for noise elimination
though is Quiet Car (www.quietcoat.com). Check it out - it vastly outperforms all other products.

 

Well, I've had to deal with the voltage issue sooner than expected as the alternator gave out yesterday and almost stranded me on I95. I just made it over one of Jax's famed bridges and to the mechanics with the car backfiring and with all of the electricals shutting down. Last week when I tested the alternator, it was putting out 13.5 volts at idle but it seemed to me something was going wrong. Hence, the purchase of the new e shaft pulley from Brian. Yesterday, the alt was putting out a whooping 8.5 volts

Fortunately I have a spare unit that Jesus gave me and the mechanics slapped it on the car and let the battery charge overnight. We'll see today if that fixes the problem of if something else is wrong also.

Bad feeling driving in rush hour traffic watching all of the electrical systems failing one by one!

 

Interesting conversation with Cam Worth of Pettit Racing about this. With the car at the shop yesterday for my alternator issue, I did a once over on the underside of the car and noted my steering rack mounting bushings were giving out as well as my sway bar bushings so I called Pettit to order replacements.

Spoke with Cam and asked him if he had ever put a cat on a 20B. He has but asked why I was asking. Told him about the fuel smell in the car and his recommendation, before putting a cat on the car, was to check if the charcoal purge canister was hooked up. As he explained to me, this canister (located to the right of the fuel tank) is usually disconnected during conversion work but is pretty effective with controlling the fuel smell if you hook it back up. Said he keeps them always hooked up but with my car, who knows what has transpired over the last few years. I was a little confused with what he was saying but you have to drill a small hole (20 thousands) somewhere and ensure that a check valve is installed on the unit so it doesn't back pressure the fuel tank.

I've talked to the mechanics where my car is for the alt issue and they say they're very familiar with what Cam is describing and they're going to reinstall the canister to see if it helps.

We'll see.

 

I think this is pretty typical of the FD in general. My FD and most I've ridden in only read 3/4 when full.

 

Well , mine used to read correctly and I am wondering if I can fix the issue. I like everything OEM like

 

^Interesting Gordon. Any more info on this?

 

You guys are brave souls. I'm too old for manual steering.

 

I know Gordon. I said that in jest.

 

g-racer has been to the Batcave Gordon....he won the IRP Engine at last year's Carlisi event.