Lol....

 

Received these this morning from George at Gotham Racing. He worked thru the night and finished up the reassembly of the engine. He said he's taken better pics of the engine prep and assembly process and I'll post them when received, but these two were from his iPhone:





I don't know yet when the engine will be put back into the car and fired up. Hopefully over the next few days.

 

crazy how long it took to put the motor back together, especially when you consider that you were out there 4-5 weeks ago and assuming you'd be getting it all finished then...

I hope this is the last of your troubles!

 

Man, you've got to change that "It's Alive" title. You got me way too excited to then find out it was "just" that the engine was put back together. Looks good, though. Looking forward to the REAL "It's Alive" post.

 

Charlie--

You have to remember that Gotham has over two dozen FDs there for motor jobs etc. They actually stopped taking in work two months ago to catch up. This isn't the only car they're working on by far

A pretty well known rotary shop on the east coast is so back logged that I know of one particular guy who's been waiting for his rebuild for over a year now.

Glad to see the motor is built David, in the end you'll be happy and that's what's important

 

Okay, so I got ripped the last time I said, "it's alive". So this time it's close to breathing. The long block is now assembled and will be dropped in today. A few iPhone pics:





Hoping to hear a little "zoom zoom" soon

 

Beautiful! That's too pretty to waste in an engine bay covered by a hood. Just keep that out on display in your living room.

 

David, Looking good! Oh, that's a tiny turbo you're putting on there

 

Hah! It's an ASE T51R BB, supposedly rated to 1,000 HP. I have my doubts about that though. Should get me into the 700+ range though. We'll see soon I hope.

 

David, what kind of boost are you ging to run with that turbo? I think I saw a youtube video of that turbo on a 3 rotor before.. I might have to search for that... I don't remember what he made or what kind of boost he was running..

 

I'd say no more than 18 PSI. This should get me to the 650+ range.

 

Looks great. Keep it coming.

 

I planned on hitting 650hp at around 12psi on a standard T51r.

It's QED =)

 

Looking good David, Ill save you a spot in the featured car section @ this years DGRR

 

Man, I hope like hell David's car makes it to DGRR

 

wow iphones sure have shitty cameras.

 

wait wait wait, i thought this was all done? unless something broke, anyone want to explaine. dont want to go back page after page to find it

 

David... what do you do for a living?

 

The original engine wasn't built as advertised. We found metal in the oil before what was supposed to be the last dyno run at Gotham. Pettit, the original engine builders, supplied new parts for the car, including NRS ceramic seals. The engine is now rebuilt.

 

I had a healthcare software company, Tempus Software. Sold it in 2004 to QuadraMed. Since then, I've been teaching entrepreneurship at a local university and have been working on a few new projects. I'm basically a semi-retired bum in my early 40s. The way the stock market has been going though, it might be back to work for me

 

The engine is now back in the car!







This is the closest I've been in a long, long time so I'm pretty excited. Talked with George about the engine starting plan. Today was supposed to be the day but - yes, there is always a but right? - we've decided on a slightly different oil pedestal plan. We were going to modify my current one but George feels a Greddy pedestal and relocation kit is better so that's what going in. If I followed him correctly, Don the welder will be by in the next day or two to modify the Greddy unit and we'll be back on track for an engine startup over the next few days.

Regarding HP and the turbo, I'm not going after maximum WHP. However, I was low on my 18 PSI maximum boost statement. George feels, with the methanol system, he can safely tune the car on pump gas to 20 PSI so I'm leaving it up to him. He's also going to tune for race gas so we might get into the high 20s on the boost before it's all over. I also forgot he is making a pretty trick downpipe for me. The unit will be controlled by the Haltech and will flow thru the exhaust system until we hit a certain boost, and then it will switch over to an open 4 inch pipe. Should scream like a mother but also make a good bit more HP. We're planning on dynoing the car before we add in the modified downpipe to see how much HP the modification actually makes.

That's it for now. Will post more as it comes.

 

Just saw that DGRR is on the same weekend as the Master's golf tournament. As it turns out, I'm going this year. This is kind of a big deal as I've never been before. What I'm wondering though is does much happen on the 11th at DGRR? If so, I might not go to the Master's on this day and drive over to DGRR and spend the day and then drive back. I'll have to check the mileage on this.

EDIT: Just checked and it's a 4.5 hour drive. Hmm

 

Good to hear, david. I hope this time around it will be together for awhile, so you can finally really enjoy the car out on the road or track. After all this time, money spent, a few builders, tuners and so on, most here would have thrown in the towel. It is very good to see a true enthuisiest of the rx7 own one of these cars and give it the love they deserve. She needs to hit the road and stretch her legs soon , so make sure you give us some video....

 

Nice, I've heard from a few different sources that George is the man when it comes to tuning 20Bs. Can't wait to see and hear the results David!

 

Hey David.. Regarding DGRR 2008..

I'm actually heading over on Thursday the 10th and I believe quite a few people are doing the same. It will give me a chance for some of us to hang out, chit chat, and relax before the event really starts!! Most likely, I'll be stuck at the lodge setting things up on Friday and Saturday so, Thursday will be the only day for me to do anything fun

So, being that said, the event doesn't officially start until 6PM on Friday. So, I would check out the Master's and head over to DGRR on saturday morning. Event will begin around 8-9AM and will be over when last person stops partying!! Of course weather pending and such..

Hope this helps.. and can't wait to see the monster run!