aggreed.

 

how much does it really cost cuz i knoe 35k is gotta be bullshit. I want the 20B conversion 2 but i don't have the resources or the money.

 

Sorry you had to deal w/ this David. I really am. I hope this speaks VOLUMES to others when it comes to experimentation. While it's great when things go right, the consequences of them NOT going right are far from minor. Hence my initial urging AGAINST going w/ a Wolf unit. Go w/ what's tried and true, over and over...

Nonetheless, I hope everything's going smoothly at Gotham. I'm 100% confident they'll make sure you're completely satisfied w/ the car after they're done w/ it.

All the best,
~Ramy

 

Acosta Racing here in Jersey wants $65k for a 20B install in an FD!!!, about $70K in an RX-8!!

 

+2

 

Thanks for all the comments and support. It's quite a journey I've had and I hope others can avoid the mistakes I've made.

Yes, it's cost a large amount of money to date (well above $35K). Going after Chris Greene is not an option as money would be hard to come by even if I won a judgement. Chris is certainly a master RX7 mechanic but he's definately going through bad times and my car got caught up in it. In the end, I decided paying the extra money was better than having to try to get my car back through other means. Nobody, most of all me, wants to pay for something and then not have the job done right, but at least I have my car back and it's now getting done. If Gotham and Steve can't finish the job, I'll be the first to put the car up for sale on this forum and go buy that Aston Martin AMV8 I've had my eye on. Think I can slip that past the wife? Damn neighbor owns one and has to drive it past my house each week. Lucky bastard.

Sorry for the long post in the previous message. That was the short version of the story. Here's to soon posting the results and pics of the shiney new conversion!

 

David, not to push, but while I'm sure Steve can finish it, this would prob. be a good time to switch to a proven ECU, vs. to still end up w/ problems and/or limitations down the line... Just my $0.02.

~Ramy

 

Yes, you are right about this. I've already had the conversation with Gotham and I'm going to go with whatever Steve recommends.

Thanks.

 

David, Steve recommends you ditch the Wolf Seriously

And I SWEAR I'm not just trying to pile on the expenses. Just a friendly bit of SINCERE advice. It'll make his life easier by making sure he can adequately address all the problems the car has, and tune it safety and accurately, while making good power - although the motor is a big question mark after the findings you mentioned...

~Ramy

 

I feel for you, I had a similar problem, just on a less expensive scale. I spent a good amount of money on my fd just to get it running, it took forever and now its back to not running. I think we will both be happy once they are a live again. Hang in there and don't listen to the naysayers.

 

i hope this all works out for you.. you have waiting a very very long time and still havent gotten the car back.. iv met steve at a dyno and he seemed like a really nice guy, id trust him with my car

 

Damn David sorry I brought this back up, while I knew it was now @ Gotham I had no idea all the **** you've gone threw. Steve will get it together and running and then you can go spank that AMV8 of your next door neighbor's

 

I'd love to take a bat to a certain someone's knees. Did I just think out loud again?? DOH! Best of luck on your car David. -S.

 

Sorry I didn't want to read through 73 pages of thread to see if you have driven the car with the 20B in it yet, but this question has been left unanswered in my mind for awhile.

How does the car handle with the added weight of the third rotor in the front? I love turbod 20Bs and personally think theyre one of the best performance motors, unless you want an n/a powerband but then theres 26Bs ;-), but I can't help but think that it would offset the FDs excellent handling. Thanks

-Andy

 

well atleats your car is in capable hands of Steve kan. He is the Man, Gothem Racing and the whole crew are great guys. hope to see that beautifull car on the road soon.

Tell that next door neighbor when the car is done to see whats what on the track

 

Very interested in knowing what Steve and the rest of the guys at Gotham end up recommend you running as far as the ECU goes. I'm still debating which ECU to use with my planned 20B setup. Please let me know. I'm considering Autronic, but leaning more toward Tech 3 now just from my research.

Oh and goodluck with the car! I can't believe some of the crap you've had to deal with it. I really hate hearing stories like this.

 

just a hint: he hasn't driven the car with the new engine yet

there are plenty of threads about handling "differences" (there are none)

 

Wow. I was having a similar problem with a shop once and decided to yank my car. This story makes me glad I did.

Best of luck David.

 

Ah I see, thanks.

-Andy

 

Hello David,

read all of this and you're not the only one so telling my story in short will show you there are other people with the problems.

Bought a FD here in the Netherlands without an engine together with a 'rebuild' engine here at a 'specialist'. The car was built with the new engine and the day came of the first startup. Car didn't want to idle well and had severe problems revving up.
The shop owner decided to tow the car because the car wouldn't start the following weekend. After some towing around the engine fired but again, it didn't want to rev high.
The owner floored it some times and heavy stuttering and so, later it showed that the sparkwires were fitted wrong, 1st rotorhousing on 2nd. After that the car started well and i could drive it.

Took it home, the exessive blue oil out of the exhaust was due to 'the rebuild engine' and i believed that. To make it short:
Went back 4 or 5 times and the diagnostics were always different according to the shop. The turbo's were the problem and replaced twice.

This took a year untill i went to a Mazda dealership and they tested the compression. Difference of over 1.5 bar on the houses and compression between 6.1 and 8.9. Very, very bad.

So the shop took it out to rebuild it again. Took HALF a year and i called every week the last months to ask for the progress.

After driving 4000 miles with the (again) rebuild engine it blew so took it to another shop here (there are only 3 shops in this country).

So you're not the only one, i feel your pain, some guys have bad luck and some shops mess things up. Hope everything will go well in near future for you so you can enjoy the car!

Best REgards and all the best luck from the Netherlands,
Andreas.

 

What about the guys that perform the V8 swap (think this swap is blasphemy and does'nt belong on a rotary forum anymore but what do I know)?

 

Advice taken. Out with the old and in with the new. The Wolf unit and Innovate datalogger is coming out and I'm replacing it with the Haltech E11. Seems to be my best option, particularly with Steve Kan. The Wolf 3D unit was used for all of about 3 months of actual driving. The rest of the time it sat idle in the shop waiting on the single turbo upgrade.

 

David,

After seeing Steve "debug" a particularly deficient/hacked FD here at a Montreal Tuning Session (the result of JDM transplant done by a bunch of audio specialists- eek!)... I am more than confident that he'll sort out your car nicely.

 

I catually did drvie the car for several months. I had the car for about 2 or so months during the break in period. Could really test its performance then because I had to break in the engine. I then had the car for about 3 months after picking it back up from Pettit. The 20B (with the twin turbo setup from Pettit) drove well and the low end torque of the engine is very noticable. Pretty much instant reponse was available from about 1,500-2,000 RPMs on. I posted one of the initial dynos much earlier in this thread with the torque curve.

I'm not a track person yet, but the car seemed to handle as well as when it had the 13B in it. Didn't notice any bump steer or negative effects from the 20B. Was scared **itless when Cam Worth gave me a test drive in the car down at Pettit. It was the first time I could remember actually being scared - I'm surprised I didn't rip the passenger handle off with the grip I had. I've also upgraded the suspension on the car so this could have something to do with the performance.

Even though the car performed better than I've ever had it, it still seemed to lack something though in performance. To me, with the twin turbo setup (in parallel), the car would take off great but would lose its edge on the upper RPM range. This was proven out with some of the dyno runs I made in Jacksonville after Dean Colver and I tuned the car. The car would make about 400 RWHP and torque would be available very early in the power band, but then the car would run out of "air", with RWHP dying off at about 5,500 RPM. Prior to this point, the climb in HP was fantastic, but then the car would just flatten out and not be able to make any more gains. The datalogger indicated the car would make boost but woudl then lose it and slowly drop back to the spring pressure (10 lbs.) We changed the spring to a 12 lbs. spring, but the car would still go back to 10 lbs. Our on the road test proved this out also. I raced Dean Colver's FD (small single turbo setup) - we did a 3rd and 4th gear WOT pull from about 2,000 RPMs. I as able to pull away from him by 5 or so car lengths initially but at about 5,500 RPM in 4th gear I lost the ability to blow him away. He stayed even with me from this point forward. So, I then started my single turbo conversion odyssey.

My last Gotham update is the Haltech 11E unit should be in this week. My AC parts showed up yesterday and we're now just waiting on the new battery. All wiring has been fixed and once the new battery shows up, Gotham is going to trace all wiring to ensure everything is getting the correct voltage. They're also fixing the AC unit next week, wiring up the Haltech and finishing up the intercooler piping (the initial piping coming from the intercooler was missing). Once this is comlete, they're going to drain and relace the gas (over a year old) in the car and fire it up for its initial start. My guess for this - by the end of next week.

 

Glad to hear things are coming along for you, David! I enjoyed seeing your car on the dyno that day with you and Dean - that sucker oughta be something with the new turbo and EFI!

Dale