I repeat, Motech is a great system BUT (note the caps) always go with what your tuner uses or you will end up unhappy for sure. Traction control is a very nice feature but it won't be enough to make me switch particularly at this point.

 

Yes. With the FD it always seems you are taking two steps forward and then one back. I am close but the car is still at Kilo.

Turns out the radiator fan was wired incorrectly again this time by the body shop guys and it fried the wires from the fan all the way to the relay. Maybe my conversation got lost in translation but I tried to make sure the fan was wired to two relays but apparently this didn't happen so it fried. After 4 other fans (don't worry, didn't have to pay for these) I am now the proud owner of a 3,300 CFM "Cyclone" fan and Kilo promises it is now wired correctly. The problem is when installing this, Kilo found a leak in the radiator which they will either fix today or replace if it can't be fixed. Wanted the radiator flushed anyway so this is the ideal time for this.

So, with a little luck the car comes home this week so I can participate in a local car show on Saturday. I will post up pics of the car soon.

 

David,

130+ pages of thread and I say you are a very patient person. This makes my dilemmas seem small in comparison. If for any reason you are near Jacksonville/camp Lejeune, NC area, let me know. Id love to buy you a beer (or a case) anytime. Im hoping to make it to Deals Gap in April, so maybe then. Stick with it.

 

Wow. Just read this whole thread over the past week. The car is gorgeous. The story had me hooked. The funniest thing was the people on the boards (although it wasn't really funny). every shop you went to was a reputable shop. And every time you said you were there, all the forum members were like ' yea, thats a great shop! they'll take care of you good!' and it never came to be (sorry, it's not really funny, but i hope you know what i mean). I have one question. Have you ever been to Puerto Rico? I would highly advise you do so just to check out the drag races. Ask Jesus. My grandfather has an old Corolla with an old 13B in it. Many cars like that. Ask if he knows about the 88 MR2 with the 12A in it. awesome car.

great build, great learning experience (and honestly, if anybody else had done it, i doubt it would be much differently than how you did it) and the 'end' result is great (even though you haven't quite reached it 'yet').

Petit did the actual conversion
wolf did the single setup
Gotham did the center rotor oil mod and new oil cooling setup
kilo did what they couldn't.

you really did get something from each shop, so it was not a total waste (at least in my eyes. My car is in Hawaii with my dad who is great with old RX-7's not the FD, i'm in Virginia. The only rotary guy there died from an accident, and my car hasn't ran since 2005 and they won't ship a non running vehicle for less than 6 grand. I feel you for the length of time.)

Good luck and please please please keep that awesome wife you have. Won't be another like her.

Jose

 

David, have you read The Gold Plated Porsche ?

When this car is done I think you would be fully qualified to write "The Solid Gold Mazda"

 

OK so one week and 139 pages later I have finally finished reading this thread..(At least I was getting paid to do it) Anyways Dave, you have set the bar for patience required when owning an FD or a rotary for that respect. I know Kilo, Rolo (tuner), and all those guys down there...actually that is what led me to start reading this thread...the fact that I saw Kilo Racing on the title. I was lost for so long as I read and felt like none of this had anything to do with Kilo as your car was in all these other "shops" and came so close to being done that I really thought it would be done but I kept asking myself "why am I on page 69 and there's like a hundred something pages...????" So anyways... I had Haltech from the begining (F-9 fuel only....yes back in the days) and once I got on microtech I never went back. I'm really happy that your car is now at the point where it is and wanted to say that you (with your ordeal) have inspired me to be more patient with my car and have even helped me regain focus of the basic fundamentals that made the FD such a unique supercar.

Anyways...to echo what many have said already... Great car! Sex on wheels! and good luck with what's left (which for a true rotary guy is always everything cause the car is never done!!!).

One quick question... How are you running the OMP? Is the microtech running it with one of the aux outputs?

Oh and Pics please!!! It's been over a month and a half!!!!

 

^Thanks for the comments guys. I am currently in Asheville NC trying to get my house completed (it has rivaled the car build). Will provide more updates and pics soon. The car is currently in JAX at my Range Rover mechanics having its radiator raised and some wiring cleaned up.

 

why not at kilo?

 

about damn time! i am up there every other week lol

 

He posted previously that the British are pro's at fixing odd wiring issues, so the Range Rover dealership is a natural choice

 

Maybe u can have Lucas do the Wiring :P (Lucas is a British car wiring manufacturer in the 50-80's or so. And it's one of the worst in the world.

Here is quote about it.

Apparently, part of British Leyland's effort to be profitable included omitting any fuses the management thought unnecessary. There were only three fuses in the entire wiring system of a stock Triumph Spitfire, in an era where American cars often had three or four times as many fuses. Some systems, such as the headlights, did not have any fuses on them at all. Lucas earned the nickname “Price of Darkness” for a reason.

Lucs the company that invented darkness :P

JT

 

^^^Maybe we should start a thread about your house build also? lol j/k!

 

This is true. Kilo is 2 hours away and the Range Rover guys are local. Also, it's not the dealership, but a small master tech shop. The local dealer sucks so bad this shop has 20 or so Range Rovers at any given time. Finally, the guys working on the car, James and Tom, are hot rodders and both are working on their own conversion projects so they know about wiring.

 

Funny, I had a blog going as it is a modern "green" home but the build has taken so long and has stressed me out so much, I haven't written anything on over a year. It's rolling now and looking great though. Nothing like being on site to get things moving forward.

 

We're trying our best to get the house done. Should be no later than mid-November so we're excited. Tired, but psyched.

 

Is this officially the longest build thread ever yet? Go Dave go!

 

though you might like this.

PDF file:
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/...9#/22f19aa9/32

full size jpg:
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/2...iledslarge.jpg

small size jpg:


looks like audi does use both heatsinks and cooling fans to keep their led's cool.

 

that's really cool theorie, thanks for sharing.

 

^That is really cool. LED lighting will be the technology used for all lighting on cars including headlights and it is interesting to see the components involved. Another side benefit of the LEDs will be Dan and I will have nothing to argue about

Makes me want to get my turn lamp assemblies installed on the car. The car is in Jax and I am in Asheville so this will wait for a week or so.

 

Dave, Awesome thread. Ive read from about page 80 or so in the past 2days. WOW. You and i seem to have the same type of luck. I am currently working on a 20b FD and a 26b 79 Vette. Your thread has brought my interest back to life. Cant wait to see the end results. Good Luck.

 

139 pages read, my head hurts, and my eyes burn... i hope there isnt a test...

you are one patient Jedi..

 

Heya David!
Long time no see.. since the wolf days back in the FI sections.. LOL

I am sorry your car has gone through a wild array of trials and tribulations, and happy to see you have Jesus working on it and all the bugs are being sorted as they arise.

I spent the last two days reading the entire thread from post 1.

You are a good man, and have treated everyone in the situation admirably.. Jesus is lucky to have you as a client.

Congrats! And hope to get a chance to see you next time we both are doing a rotary event.
(Im thinking DGRR 2011)

 

Chris is apparently still trying to get his shop going again after this ordeal. last i heard he was being evicted from his, 3rd shop? heh. that 3 rotor really killed him....

 

Yes, patient or just stubborn. Not sure which

Good to hear from you. The car is in pretty good shape now so I can actually enjoy it.

Well, the good news is he's still alive as I seriously did worry about that. As for the 3 rotor killing him, I'd say if he stuck to what he was supposed to (single turbo conversion) it would have been simple and painless. It's just when he went off the reservation and started to do his own things to the car, it fell apart.

Anyway, I am pretty much done as much as one can be done with something like this. Will post up a summary soon on the trials and tribulations of an undertaking like this and lessons learned - and there are a lot of them.

I am happily driving now though so it does take some of the sting out of the entire cluster-you-know-what

 

David, any plans of hitting the drag strip to see what this sucker can do in the 1/4? I wonder what it would trap.....