My build - 94 PEP
 

Greetings! I recently purchased a black 94 RX-7 to replace my dead 03 WRX. Originally thought it was a Touring but a little research showed its a PEP (apparently only 150 black 94 PEPs were made). It has about 100,000 miles on it and runs well.

It came with three binders full of records and receipts that I am still sorting through, but so far the list of modifications done is:

Custom Solenoid Rack
RX7.com smoke signal lamps
The armrest
Nardi Steering Wheel
Boost, Oil temp, Oil pres, Water temp gauges
Kenwood stereo
Silicone vacuum hoses
Efini badges & key
SS brake lines
Hi-Flow catted mid-pipe.
Optima 35R RedTop battery
R1 oil coolers
JasonS floor and cargo mats w/ Red rotor logo
Pettit Racing Alt and Water pulleys

As I figure more out I'll post it

Issues:
She does flood, which threw me for a loop at first but a quick search revealed the deflooding methods.
Oil temp gauge lights up but doesn't register - occasionaly does a full sweep but that's it
Tachometer does not work - lights up but does not move, previous owner replaced gauge - I figure must be a short in the wire that runs in the bumper? Read about it somewhere. It does work on really hot days though
Driver's door seal is loose right next to exterior door handle

Plans:
Exhaust wrap or ceramic coat the hot stuff
Need Efini center caps for wheels

I did a lot of weight reduction on my WRX and am planning to do the same here (while keeping the twins). I have already pulled the entire A/C, and the emissions stuff is next. Coupled with simplified wiring harnesses I'm working on, deleted Bose, I should be well on my way to at least removing my own weight from the car (240 lbs) Seats are a big one, as is the cast iron in the exhaust. There can be a decent amount of enjoyment in finding something not needed or a lighter way of securing something etc... Just from the Dash, Instrument, and Rear harnesses I have about 3 lbs of tape and plastic bits, plus the extra wires and connectors. If anyone has Front, Emission, Floor, or Door harnesses please hit me up!

OP,

Welcome! Very nice to see a new owner that has spent some time doing research.

Looking forward to seeing some pics!

Mods on these cars are a slippery slope. Enjoy!

OK finally got home and have an updated list of what came with the car to go with the above! Pics to follow

140A alternator
Act Streetlight flywheel w/ counterweight
Pettit CCIII intercooler, silicone hoses and fan
180 degree thermostatat
Turbologic vacuum hose kits 6mm and 3.5mm
Custom Solenoid rack by Eric Zheng
Sakebomb Garage SS brake lines and clutch line
Hallman MBC black and red


It's the oil temp gauge that isn't working properly not the oil pressure.

Sadness! The Army has decided to move me to Ft Carson Colorado. As of now I will probably only have a 1 car garage and can't justify leaving the RX7 in there as my wife would kill me, so it is probably going to be stored for the 3 years until I return to NC. If I do end up getting a 2 car garage, I will have her shipped out to me in CO to be able to work on it. CO apparently gets some nasty hail and I don't want to risk ruining my precious FD. However I have plans and some updates.

The headlights work now, just needed to open up the retractors and clean the grease off the contacts so they both work flawlessly now!

The oil temp gauge is just not connected to the sensor and that's why it doesn't read.

The tachometer works when its really hot outside and the car sits in the sun. I figure its some metal expanding in the heat. But I'm planning to get a whole set of speedhut gauges so it all matches and can get wired up nicely.

I would like to acquire a beat up FD and take the entire car's wiring harness to rebuild it with new wires and possibly connectors so that I have a new, and lighter harness to drop into mine when I get it back. Remove connections and wires to unneeded stuff (Bose, rear wiper, cruise control, etc.) and wire in spots for new sensors for when I buy an Adaptronic ECU.

I'd like to get new rims, but I also like having the ability to put Efini logos in the stock ones...who knows

A guy on norotors.com makes incredible floormats and trunk carpet. I'm having him make me some black ones with red efini logos in the center of them.

I've tried looking at different mods and DIY stuff but it seems there's not much in that dept for the FD, at least in comparison to the WRX world I previously lived in. But there's also the idea of keeping the car clean and looking as it deserves to.

I also want a new steering wheel, a flat bottom, since I'm 6'4". I like the Momo 27a with the cutout but don't trust myself to drill the holes for the hub centered.

Congrats.

Removing rest of the A/C. Entire system is for sale/trade.
Removed Bose - looking for non-Bose rear speaker brackets

IMO a decent car cover beats abandoning it for 3 years (there are outdoor versions that are made to withstand minor hail). If you store it, fill the radiator with 100% quality coolant (eg Shell Rotella Ultra ELC) and run it through the engine. Also top off your fuel tank and add plenty of anti-gel.

On the way, 185 degree fan switch, 180 degree thermostat, Pettit air pump delete kit, heated O2 sensor.

Just bought another LIM, UIM, TB to port match, and remove unnecessary stuff, will remove ACV, EGR, AWS upon install, hopefully with a thermal coating.

Decided to ship the car to Colorado with me, just store it there so I can work on it.

If you have a PFC, you don't need the fan switch. If you don't, removing all the emissions stuff may play havoc with the stock ECU

And reading your first post, I don't find FDs flood like earlier gens. You may have a faulty injector

No PowerFC yet, going to buy an Adaptronic. It doesn't flood often, maybe twice so far, after sitting for a few weeks. I'm waiting to remove the ACV and EGR and AWS til I have the ECU, air pump is going though

Arrived in Colorado, car works well despite the altitude, though they only have as high as 91 octane here. trying to install the stock foglights, can't find the mounting points. Discovered a set of rear speaker mounts in my box of goodies from the previous owner, really made my day!

Have a battery harness and dash harness on the way, time to being the wiring harness run around of rewiring and deleting unneeded stuff

Fabbing phenolic spacers for intake, bought an efini y-pipe, JasonS floor mats arrived!, installed one rear speaker - no sound though weird. need to fab brackets for foglights, anyone have a picture of what they look like? there isn't much help in the FSM or even google for the OEM foglights brackets, they aren't on the bumper or rebar.

You should be able to get factory fog light brackets out of the FS section for cheap. I'm sure Fritz or Tomsn16 could help you out.

Let us know how the spacers work out. Most people find they warp and leak in our application.

Phenolic spacer is done! Lots of Dremel work but it's finally complete. Need to buy 2 UIM-LIM gaskets to sandwich it and prevent leaks. Then fire up the car get a heat reading on the UIM, swap the spacer in, heat it up and temp again, hopefully all this work is worth it. If it is I'll fab up a few more for selling, prob charge $75 each (good amount of labor in making it, plus price of dremel bits and the sheet itself) - not to mention posting results for all to see. They're only about 2 inches wide and I bought a 24x12" chunk of Garolite.

Also began to PnP the manifolds, TB, efini Y-pipe, crossover pipe, and rear turbo inlet. Manifolds getting port match and a lot of "milling" out excess - gonna find a welder to close holes. everything else before the TB butterflies getting a "as polished as I can" interior, also cleaned up the exterior of the Crossover pipe, it's no Robinette polishing, but a hell of a lot better than before.

Milling the manifolds is laborious! Dremel was taking way too long and I was flying through bits, apparently this is some interesting aluminum, seeing as its ruining my tungsten dremel bits. So I bought and angle grinder and what a difference! Also have some aluminum specific bits on the way for the more detailed work. Cut off a lot of the excess on the LIM, everything that had emissions stuff bolted to it - GONE. Also going to polish the manifolds exterior to look better than sand casting.

Finally putting some pictures up. 3 are the interior with the JasonS floormats, pretty sure he has a group buy going on right now. And an engine bay shot, because engine.

Polishing progress is so slow! Every time I get a good shine going I find a spot that has a deep gouge and need to go down (up?) a grit. The crossover pipe is starting to look pretty damn good though, its been sanded down to an 800 grit, so the polishing wheel is next, once I triple check there's no bad spots left. LIM is very slow going, I'm still working on cutting out the unneccessary stuff. Are the vacuum pipes that run through the LIM (between front primary and secondary) needed if all the emissions solenoids are being deleted? The UIM and TB have some very difficult spots to reach due to all the vacuum lines and stuff, those will be tough, may need to do some of it without power tools..

Haven't done much in a while, too cold in CO and I haven't bought a space heater for the garage yet. Made the templates for LIM-engine, y pipe-turbos, and intake pipes - turbos on the phenolic sheet. And have 2 gaskets for each one to sandwich the spacer and seal. Left the emission holes on the LIM closed.
Bought a metal dead pedal and OEM gas pedal in the group buy - looks awesome.
Have a whole new set of vac hoses and a new driver's door seal.
Car is in pieces, I'm working on removing the extra stuff (bose, rear wiper stuff, antenna motor, etc...) as well as getting the wiring harnesses lightened and new connectors (huge project, and slow). I have a huge bag of removed stuff from wiring harnesses - tape, plastic, loom, excess wires. its got some weight to it. Some of the ground connections are weird though, y-connections branching out which makes me need to cut instead of just de-pin.

Have a set of braided OMP lines to go in as well. Anyone know if defined autoworks is still in business? I sent an email and got no reply.

Began polishing the crossover pipe, had the wrong rouge and wheel combination so I have some very shiny scratches in the metal, waiting on a rougher rouge to come and then I should be able to get it to a mirror. Other pipes (y and rear turbo inlet) are just a bitch - still sanding, like the manifolds and TB

Have a new interior carpet coming, black. to replace the tan OEM one. Need to find a place in CO that I can try out seats at. The ones I had on my WRX were a little tight on the hips and the fabric wore fast from getting in and out.

on left, the rear turbo inlet pipe, sanded with 40 grit to remove sand casting (step 1)
on right crossover pipe, polished with jewelers rouge (last step)
in theory, this could help with heat soak, or at least delay it....by how much idk. (less surface area and more reflective, prob will just look nice)

nice build, man. have you met any of the forum members there? there are a few I know of and met up with on my monthly trip to the springs. My FD is in So Cal til the end of summer, but I might take my RX-8 on my next trip.

Haven't linked up with anyone yet, talked a lil with speedjunkie on the phone though. Mine is in pieces so it won't be meeting anyone soon, unless someone wants to help remove the entire interior so I can get to the instrument and dash harnesses

Whilst taking a break from polishing aluminum, I did some more work on the wiring harness.
For those curious on how much extra wiring there is, here's the ground wiring for the BOSE.....just the dash harness section. (shielding not pictured)

Speedhut gauges are here!!!! Time to modify the gauge cluster to fit em and wire it up all clean with a Delphi 24 pin connector. It is amazing how much wiring can come out just for switching from Bose to standard and no center speaker. I'm somewhat tempted to make a large spreadsheet of connectors and which wires go where, make it easier than thumbing through the FSMs - especially with X connectors.


24 pin Delphi gt connection kit

Mock up of the new gauges!!

Disassembly has begun. Ripping apart the engine bay, rat's nest in the trash, fuel pump resistor in trash, working on getting emission, engine, and front harnesses out. (front harness is a bitch btw). If only I had more garage space.

Entire interior is gutted. Tons of stock parts for sale for anyone needing a return to stock or anything. Will be converting P/S and oil cooler lines to A/N. OEM oil pressure sender will be replaced with a better 3-wire one.

Rear and floor harnesses are back in the car! Time to reinstall the rear half of the car (everything behind the bins)

enroute: C-west headlights and sakebomb IGN-1A kit!

Wiring in new fuse/relay block. I used one out of a Mazda6. Provides tons of room for relays and fuses, more than I really need, so there's room for expansion. Connectors are all different though so lots of cutting/crimping/soldering. I have effectively removed the fan relays, front relay box (the one with the TNS relay) main fuse box (connects to battery), and the fuse/relay box (w/ EGI/circuit relays), and headlight relay and combined into one block, as well as removed retractors, air pump, fuel speed, and radio relay. I also put the fogs and headlights on the same trigger, which free up the foglight switch in the cabin for something else. Still need to extend the power lines and triggers for the fans, horns (old trigger came through air bag harness, need to add), add the hot start wire for the GPS speedometer, and run some wires for the electronic water pump for the future.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...7ce60a0b3c.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...1f3c270813.jpg

A word on the Mazda6 fuse and relay block I used. The blade fuse portion of it has battery power slots and other slots controlled via relay - the blue relay, large black one, and the one next to that and the fuse puller. The square fuses are direct battery powered, as are the blade slots immediately left and right of them, the rest are relay controlled. Those relay controlled ones will receive straight battery power, you just need to wire in the trigger for the relays. You can see the metal inserts in the second picture (the bottom view) that run from the battery pos through the fuse block.

Be sure to have a diagram when attacking this, and one you can put into the lid of the fuse block for reference. Also, some wires in the front harness will need to be extended, like the fan wires (the thickest ones in the harness) so be ready to extend or completely replace them. The front harness is the biggest one in the car but it has A LOT of ancillary crap that can be removed/redone to trim down*. I removed the A/C so I have only 3 fan relays now. Though I am going to connect the A/C button on the dash to trigger all three relays if the Davies Craig Water pump I'm getting ever can't cut it.

I'm planning on mounting this where the stock battery goes.

*removeable from front harness easily - a/c, fog lights, fuel pump speed, radio relay (BOSE), A/C fans relay, and combining others. Enjoy!

A note on speaker wiring. When converting from BOSE to non-BOSE, you need to add the speaker wires for the driver's side rear speaker, and the passenger side speaker up to the floor harness. Apparently, the rear harnesses are different for Bose and non-Bose, but the floor harness (passenger side) are not - as it already has the wiring for the rear speaker. The driver's side speaker is just from under the dash to the speaker but the passenger speaker will be the entire length of the rear harness.

Currently building an excel file to be the master "wiring and connector" index. Essentially consolidating the Body electrical manual into an easy to use spreadsheet. Lays out and labels every connector in Front, Emission, Engine, Dash, Instrument, Rear, and Floor harnesses, as well as what wire in each connector does. It is based off the 94 USDM book so I'm sorry if things are different for you. It's a little slow going to build but it should help out anyone doing any kind of wiring job once it's up!

I'll load what I have here and if anyone has any suggestions for it please PM me so it can be as helpful as possible.
Haven't done all the X A or B connectors yet. Section C has the wire labels for instrument panel, so far.

The instrument harness can be absolutely stripped if you are replacing the gauge cluster with individual gauges, like remove a scary amount of wires.

Ya know what's fun? Pulling the turbos while the engine is still in the car........with a seized 3/8" bolt keeping the downpipe on..... Now I gotta try to get the LIM off with the turbos just sitting there, have the 3 bottom and to the rear bolts left. Omg.

Well thanks to the inventor of the deep offset wrench. LIM and turbos off! Now to get that downpipe off and begin pondering life's biggest question. Sequential, non-sequential, or single turbo (and what setup)?

Pondering done, as much as I love staying pure and the quick response of the sequentials, I also love the idea of simplicity and dropping weight. So, since I do not have the money right now for a single setup (eventually HX40 likely), I'll be going non-sequential. Have everything disassembled and stuff, might as well use this as the time to do things right, and I get to remove more wires from the emission harness.

OK who the hell crams a 3/8" bolt on the uppipe (or on a foreign car in general). It's the bolt that's bottom and rear so can't get a socket on it and a tiny 3/8" wrench is either rounding the bolt or just bending. I've tried adding some heat and whacking the bolt with a hammer and punch, no movement....I'm tempted to cut it and drill it out. really don't want to.. though I have a spare set of twins I may just salvage the center section. any suggestions?

If it's a cheap hardware store bolt, it's probably welded into your manifold. You can try a stripped bolt remover, but you may have to get a new manifold. Another trick to get rounded bolts out, is to weld a good bolt on the bad.

Good luck

Yeah that thing's not moving, I'll leave it for now. Didn't realize I can port the wastegate with the pipe still attached. That bolt is a problem for future Jeff and/or shop when installing EGR and wideband bungs. Got the passenger airbag out of the carrier/cover. I'm going to try to make it into a second glove box or something. Turbosource Davies Craig EWP has arrived!! Please check my for sale thread and help me afford my fuel rails, injectors, pump, Hall trigger kit, and adaptronic!

Went back to working on the LIM to get it all polished up....and sanded right through the rear secondary runner (it's not important right? lol). Glad I have a spare. Prob gonna just use the spare as is until I get an xcessive or elite, which will be after buying the ECU. Decided to ditch the OMP as well and run a richer premix. Simplicity is key, that's 8 more wires to remove from Emission harness, and lets me sell the rear washer tank, which I was going to use in the engine bay as a 2 stroke feed to the OMP adapter - tank for sale, OMP for sale soon, braided OMP lines for sale!

OK I believe I once stated that X-12 connector may be deleted if you go far enough, well I did it. X-12 is gone. X-11 had one opening and I put the W/G wire in it (EGI relay) to ALT from X-12. The rest of X-12 was removed for the IGN-1A kit, and removal of the warning lights due to removal of OEM gauges. The wiring is incredible how much crap you can remove depending on what you are running. My engine harness is about 5-6 wires now, which hasn't gotten the battery relocation job yet, so it will prob get even smaller. If I deleted ABS holy crap! what a drop in wiring to do that!

Well that last post about "if I deleted the ABS..." got me thinking, so I did. Pulled all the ABS related wiring out of the harnesses. Will be buying a Pro-Line Motorsport ABS delete kit to pull the ABS stuff in the engine. Before you blow up on me ------ yes I have read many a thread "keep or delete" "why remove a safety system?" "you think you are faster than the ABS?" I have done a good amount of thinking on it, have also graduated from 2 advanced/evasive driving courses where they randomly would turn off the ABS in your car (so close to setting a record in one).
This will also allow me to get the Chase Bays brake booster delete kit and drop even more weight and free up space!

About the ABS delete. If you are removing ABS, the only things left on the floor harness are: exhaust temp sensor, right door switch, and right rear speaker (non-Bose). So, I removed the door switch and exhaust temp sensor from the car, and extended the right rear speaker wires a tad from the Rear harness, and now completely removed an entire harness from the car!!

Removed the alarm system wiring and connectors that go to CPU#2 (kept flasher stuff...for now) considering building a modern flasher unit to replace the old board. Also thinking of combining what remains of Instrument harness into the Dash harness. I'll need to essentially build my own wiring guide for that....

Proline ABS delete kit on the way...from UK. But should plug right in and will look great with the red braided lines. Once it gets here I can figure out what adapters I'll need for the Chase Bays Brake Booster delete/proportioning valve/clutch line.
Block off plates coming from LRB Speed, nice and cheap compared to some other kits, and have every plate needed, comes out to less than $5/BOP. FFE Hall trigger kit on the way as well. So I can officially say the ignition system is done, between hall kit and IGN-1A kit it's g2g. Now for fueling...... Found a site that has Walbro 450 with install kit (not RX7 specific) for $109, so I'll get that alone with the Rotary Performance secondary rail with 2200cc injectors to handle feeding the beast, keeping the OEM primaries.

Decided to not worry about A/N lines, power steering convert to electrical, better oil cooler, moving alternator until after I get the car running and ECU tuned /done. I've gone into rabbit hole after rabbit hole and need to get it working. Those systems are fine for now and allow for some work after the ECU.

Please hit my for sale thread to help fund the Adaptronic.

LRB block off plates in, look great. Proline brake lines arrived. Very impressed by the kit. Comes with T's, clips, and everything needed to replace hard lines without ABS for the car, should just need Metric to AN adapters for the brake booster eliminator as well.

For my battery relocation I went to batterycablesusa.com 24' of cable, terminals, connectors, and 2' of adhesive heat shrink for about $75 shipped. Way better than trying to use audio power cable at like $7 per foot or something, and quality cable too - 2ga welding cable, have red and black.