(laying sleepless waiting for Davids pics)

 

Sounds nice... I'm sure it wil be worth the wait. Probably will make me ditch my 20B twins and go single also...lol

 

hope the drama's finally over.

some pics would be great!!

 

Good luck David!

 

Progess is being made. Brian, Alex, Steve and the Gotham team stayed overnight to work on the car. I bailed on them at a little over midnight

Several missing Aquamist components and the PLX guages showed up yesterday. The Gotham team worked long hours to get these installed on the car. Some pics:

Aquamist system:

The pump is a little over twice the size of a normal pump.
Custom Aquamist tank:


The tank replaces the stock Mazda windshield wiper fluid tank.

The PLX guages are actually not released yet but Brock was able to twist the arms of PLX to send a prerelease set over for installation. Turned out to not be plug and play. Shots of the install:
[img[https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=226422&stc=1[/img]

 

The custom tank seems very close to the oil coolers, wonder if thats going to affect the airflow and cooling of the oil.. Just curious....

 

Steve states the amount of air flowing into the cooler will not change just the back pressure. He believes it will not be an issue.

 

Car on the lift:

Front end of car:

Engine bay:

 

I'm sure it's been asked, but what kind of wheels are those? For me, it's mesh or nothing at all

 

forgelines

david,
what intercooler is that? bonzai?

 

Forgeline CCWs

 

Pettit 20B Banzai. Will post more later. Off to lunch.

 

I would do something about the air conditioning lines and other hoses that run along the passenger side of the engine bay. There are air bag sensor wires in that area too. They look really close to the turbo. Ceramic coating the hot side would help alot or at least run one of Gotham's heat blankets. Has it been started yet? Don't forget to prime the oil pump.

 

Increasing the backpressure will decrease the air flowing into the cooler if everything else is kept the same. Have him blow into a vacuum line with and without a bolt in one end and ask him if he still stands by his opinion.

I don't think the new water tank will create a problem unless the system was already on the boarder line though.

 

I still stand corrected, Since this is not a "Closed system", I can interupt backpressure and still able to maintain the same flow rate since the impedance stays the same. All I'm doing is redirecting the flow.

Your idea is true for a closed system since there is no other places to go but to the restriction.

 

Funny story about this. The car now has a turbo blanket on it and the AC lines are going to be reworked and thermal blanketed. Yes, the car starts and we've now taken it on its maiden voyage/trip. Quickly found out about the AC line situation. Actually the rubber boot on the headlight control ***** came off and landed on the turbo, causing a small fire. This then caught the AC line insulation on fire. We saw smoke coming from the engine and immediately puller over. Needless to say, the insulation and rubber boot are now "toast" and a new solution is in the works.

Actually the wastgate is also causing a problem. It's currently venting directly on the heater lines. They're wrapped but can't take the punishment in the long-term. The solution is to move the AC lines and wrap them in heat insulation. The downpipe is also getting wrapped and Gotham is going to come up with a solution for internally venting the wastgate.

As far as tuning goes, Steve has a pretty good base tune on the car now. After figuring out a timing issue (was running 0 degrees timing at WOT) the car pulls like a mother and I'm eagerly awaiting the rest of the tuning and the dyno sessions. Given the issues discussed above, this is going to have to wait until next week.

So, good progress was made. Alex and I just sat down and put together a punch list for finalizing the car. Probably about 20 items on the list with most being fit and finish items (broken stuff caused by Wolf USA). Basically, anything and everything will be fixed, from small things like missing fasteners to more complex like the wastgate and insulation issues.

I'm pleased at this point. The plan is for me to come back a week from Thursday to pick up the car. Steve's going to have all tuning done (both street and dyno) by then and we'll go to the dyno to see the HP the car will make. Will certainly post charts then.

More pics:

MSD coils:


Tial Blow off valve:


Magnaflow midpipe muffler:


Brian and Alex working on car:



^Still not sure why Wolf removed the headlight covers. Also lost one of the bezels for the headlights.

 

PLX gauges:





The PLX gauge is configurable to display anything you like, from a standard looking gauge to a JPEG. You can also use a remote to scroll thru the different sensors or you can display all at onece. Pretty neat stuff.

Still haven't figured out all the options though. Going to have to play around with the setup.

 

Steve Kan tuning:



Car shots:







Sticker was on for the NOPI event which unfortunately I didn't make it to. A much smaller and more appropriate one will replace it.

 

Thats pretty neat!

I just read about it on their site (http://www.plxdevices.com/products_iMFD.htm).

Hmm.. I might have to consider buying one of those.. it eliminate having multiple gauges..

 

^I'll do a write up on these once I get the car back. The promise of having one guage to monitor and display up to five devices was appealling to me.

If all goes well, you'll see them in person at DGRR

 

Great photos David, keep them coming!!!!!!!! Really hope to see you @ DGRR.

 

i know how you feel with the waiting, i went a year and a half without my fd too while it was in cleveland and i am in NY. the jokes definitly get old haha looks like everything turned out great tho, congrats!

 

Hey David,

I'm REALLY REALLY happy for ya that things are tuning out very nicely Just one suggesstion if I may. Not to say you're pushing, but I know most of the guys at Gotham have been working *literally* around the clock, w/ VERY little sleep, trying to get everything buttoned up and taken care of (ask Steve what time he slept yesterday -- err, I should say today).

If it was me, I wouldn't hesitate to give 'em another week or two, which will enable 'em to rest a bit more, and thus step back and take a better look at everything. This will undoubtedly decrease the likelihood of any oversights or slight mistakes. And this isn't a reflection upon Gotham; rather an observation on human nature

I know how incredibly anxious you are on getting your car back, but lemme put it like this. If I had a life-or-death meeting to get to, and I had to choose between getting there NOW w/ a pilot on his 35th hour on call, and getting there a bit late w/ a pilot who's well rested and starting his shift, I'd take the latter every single time, w/o hesitation.

Besides, you've waited THIS long. What's another week or two really? Esp. for 100% satisfaction's sake...

Just my $0.02,
~Ramy

 

Very happy to hear about your update David, seeing all those pics makes me miss being at the shop . It's pretty funny seeing pics of Alex up on the forum after all these years, his FD is one of the cleanest and most tastefully modded around but he's been a 'Forum Phantom' until now

Let me know which headlight bezel you need, I believe I have a spare set and would be happy to have it installed on your badass ride

 

Glad to see things are working out for you David, we're all anxious to see you get your car and report all the gory details....