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Hello. Long time rotary owner and lover. My first cars at 15 years old were 2 FC Turbo II’s I actually found on here in 2002ish. After that I had a 88 GTU and then a couple more Turbo II’s. My dream has always been an FD but life never aligned for one until now.
This car was imported earlier this year and sat on a small dealer’s lot in WA until they listed it on ebay. They knew very little about the car. Advertised it as a drift car, called the wheels rotas etc. I took a chance and hit buy it now without getting much more info. With Craft Company on the side I did some photo searches that led me to a thread here and eventually to the previous owner’s blog. I spent a few days going through every post covering 4-5 years starting in 2008. I was blown away. I basically got a full mod list from that blog and tons of history on the car.
I knew I picked a good one. This car was pretty well prepared for circuit use. I plan to dial the car back a bit to make it more streetable. Roll cage and 2 way diff need to go among others. Then ill do some body work and restoration.
1992 Type R, original silver stone. 117k km’s currently.
Mods. I may be off on a few after translation or unknown.
Engine/drivetrain:
FEED/Fujita Engineering Nur Spec rebuild (around 20-30k km’s)
HKS Intake (has some FEED intake pipes, might be a mix of the two)
FEED Exhaust (according to the prev owner, doesnt have a tag/plate on it)
FEED Plug Wires
Apex’i Power FC
Custom ducting behind front bumper for radiator and oil coolers
Exedy Compe-R twin disk clutch
Cusco 2-way differential
4.30 rear end
Solid differential bushings
Suspension/Brakes:
HKS Coilovers with SWIFT springs 18kg/16kg tuned by Craft Company
Bigger OEM front calipers
Super Now tie rod ends
Super Now front sway bar mounts
Super Now rear upper toe/control arm
Super Now rear lower toe/control arm
Desmond Regamaster - 17x9 +38 w/ 255/40 x4
Interior:
safety21 around dash bolt in roll cage
Momo steering wheel
Apex’i boost and coolant temp gauges
Apex’i Rev Speed Meter
Bride seats
FEED heavy weight shift ****
Exterior:
FEED AFFLUX Version 2 Type R front bumper w/ HID fog light
FEED AFFLUX Wide Front Fender
FEED AFFLUX GT II spoiler
Craft Company rear diffuser
I dont have many pics in my ownership at the moment, I just picked it up yesterday.
Thank you. I am also a huge JDM fan. My last car I went deep into modding was an S2000, full of J’s Racing parts. There is nothing like the quality, fit and finish of authentic parts. Totally worth the expense.
I spent quite a few hours on the car yesterday. The front coilovers had been maxed out high before leaving Japan and the US dealer removed the diffuser for transport to me. I lowered the front back down to about where I think it was and got the diffuser about half way mounted. Some of the hangers for it lost their rivets on the car side. I will probably reinstall with riv-nuts so I can totally remove the diffuser and hangers if wanted. Luckily I have a riv nut setter and hardware from doing rear over fenders on the S2000.
The previous owner cut and mounted a thin wooden splitter for the front end. It was really beat and some of the hangers for it also broken so it was removed and probably will be trashed.
The rear end is pretty violent in low speed turns. I went through everything back there and couldnt find anything loose/worn and the diff seems tight enough. Im guessing with the full pillow ball links, solid diff bushings and a 2 way thats just how it will be. I love the thought of a 2 way but living with it is a different story.
Saturday evening I ordered a set of Firestone indy 500’s (rebadged bridgestone re003) in 255/40. I searched around here a bit but couldnt find many recent posts on what tires everyone runs on these cars. They arent ultimate performance tires like the advan a050’s (now slicks) they will replace but they are well reviewed summer tires and should be more than capable enough for what I will put the car through on the street.
I plan to change the fluids this evening. The tires will be in tomorrow then I will be off to get them mounted, do an alignment and I also need to finish registering the car. With that done I will take some more pictures and take some time to enjoy the car before going much further.
Some more from yesterday. I was happy to find the a/c system intact being in FL. Unfortunately it does not cool. I found the air con fuse under the hood was blown so I was hoping for a miracle. Replaced the fuse and no dice. I have a set of gauges but R12 is foreign to me. I will be doing some research into this as having a/c would be fan freaking tastic, still in low 90’s high 80’s here.
On the way home saturday I pushed the wiper stalk down more than once looking for the blinkers. I quickly found the wipers were destroyed. Replaced those with new bosch icons yesterday. If anyone is wondering, the standard blades you buy for a US FD fit the same. 20” both sides.
After all that I was winding down for the day. I decided to see about removing the cd player so I can put in something with bluetooth or usb atleast. Its a very old kenwood unit and I dont have the special keys for removal from the cage. I’ll see if I can get creative with butter knives and pull it out, I tried a set from a pioneer head unit and they wouldnt make it happen. I also yanked out the electronic toll device, need to remove the wiring. Ive got to remember to put some double sided tape or something on my boost gauge also, it keeps falling out of its stand.
Changed the oil and filter yesterday. Car has a magnetic drain bolt and it came out with some sludge on the end. The prev owners blog stopped being updated in 2012, so who knows when the oil was changed last.. It showed great pressure on the way home though. Ill eventually get to the coolant also.
probably the last one of these ill see
Afterwards I swapped in a pioneer media receiver. The car had an old kenwood as previously mentioned. Now ive got bluetooth, aux and usb.. Next in that section will be new speakers as the rears atleast are oem.
I also got my new rear badge. And have an “efini” badge on the way. It makes the rear look really busy but I dont like seeing the holes left behind.
My license plate is permanently stained from being on numerous oil burning cars and really old hehe. Almost at the 10 year mark for a new one.
After researching, i’ve found my cusco 2 way diff is adjustable. I should be able to disassemble it and make it a 1.5 way. That should make it much better on the streets.
Here’s a few random undercarriage shots showing the ducting up front and some of the aftermarket pieces.
Dropped off the wheels and new tires today. Ill get them back tomorrow, long wait.
Also just ordered a RE-Amemiya AST and threw in a shift collar from rhdjapan.
Hopefully get some miles on the car this weekend. I found my left front caliper is missing the spring/clip that holds the pad pins in. Its got an e-clip on one pin and nothing on the other. Have been searching for the oem piece to no avail so far, other than a full rebuild kit for both sides at ~$140 on ebay. If anybody sees this and has a lead i’d appreciate it.
edit: ordered a generic guide pin kit, we’ll see what happens
Thanks for uploading the extra photos. I see you have what look like Super Now front and rear sway bar mounts and upper/lower rear trailing arms - very expensive if genuine!
FYI the FEED oil filters - you can also get those from RHD Japan. Pricey though.
Regarding your missing brake pad clip - reach out to Fritz Flynn or tomsn16 those guys have lots of parts!
Took the car out to cars & coffee yesterday, about 2 hours of driving total. I popped my hood before leaving c&c and saw my rad hose had collapsed. I removed the cap and heard the spring fall in. Went to napa and got another cap, so far so good. Ill be draining and refilling the system when I get the AST so hopefully I can find that spring but dont think it will hurt anything.
Today I drained the trans and diff. Not sure if I mentioned it before but 2nd-3rd was a little notchy in high rpms so was hoping new fluid would help. They both had royal purple. I put RP back in the trans, still got a notchy 3rd but I know its got fresh fluid so no loss.
I did some research and cusco doesnt recommend synthetic fluid for their clutch type lsd’s. I got some cheap valvoline dino 80w-90 and a tube of friction modifier. Went on a test drive and a few times leaving my neighborhood, the diff was still clunking loudly as before. Once I got out on the road and the rest of the trip the loud clunk was gone. I mean you could feel it in the seat before. Now it seems like a normal clunking noise as the diff locks and unlocks, 100% better than before so im happy about that.
I also moved the front coilovers up another mm or so. I was dragging the front bumper on the hump into and out of my driveway and actually broke the fender-bumper mounting point in the wheel well on the pass side. Luckily that’s the fender that already needs a decent amount of work so not a big deal. With the height raised just a few hairs its good to go now.
Next up will be an alignment and I need to make a decision on the cage and seats. The jdm fan boy in me thinks theyre all awesome but the adult in me knows its all unsafe without a helmet and harnesses on.
Really loving the car. Still can’t believe I have one after all of these years of wanting one.
Last thing. I did some searching here about a din pocket. Someone pointed to a mazda 626 oem part number, it works great. I had an open slot before.
Roll cage removed. Local importer had a set of oem cloth seats that i gotta go pick up so that will be next. Then ill try to replace the missing plastics and get some new carpet as mine was cut for the cage. Looking at other solutions for the apex’i gauges as they are on their stands just stuck to the dash.
Get yourself the feed splitter, canards and sideskirts!
im thinking about changing it up. The left bumper lights have alot of corrosion/rust and a full set is expensive. Also needs quite a bit of fiberglass repair. I like the bumper but not sure I want to invest the time and money into it. We’ll see, that’ll be down the road.
im thinking about changing it up. The left bumper lights have alot of corrosion/rust and a full set is expensive. Also needs quite a bit of fiberglass repair. I like the bumper but not sure I want to invest the time and money into it. We’ll see, that’ll be down the road.
Damn, that sucks. I remember the bracket was painted or something. I'd definitely sand blast those and get it powdercoated lol.
Yea it is but the socket/bulb holders on the parking lights and turn signals are whats corroded. Im gonna see if I can fix it but not too worried about it right now.
My rear speakers were seperated from the outer base due to age/rot. I purchased and installed infinity components, stock size rear and 6.5 in the front doors with adapters from ebay. The adapters needed some trimming for wiring that was in the way but no big deal and the sound is much, much better.
Used oem jdm full cloth seats installed. Man these things sit high in comparison to the Vios lol. The driver seat also moved me closer to the inside of the car. I didnt notice before but the pedals are offset to right center of the steering wheel. I guess the aftermarket seat and rail pushed me further right. So my body is center of the wheel but my legs will be pushed towards the outside of the car on the pedals. I feel like im gonna have to learn how to drive it all over again. Much nicer to get in and out of the car though.
After driving the car with the Vios from the beginning to now the oem... The oem seat is NOT gonna cut it. The cushions arent terrible but it made me fit really tight. My knees are really close to the steering wheel, I have to look around the steering wheel to see the top of the cluster and my eyes are near the top of the door window. The Vios position is much better and sits further right to center up better with the pedals. Ill probably reinstall the Vios and look for an alternative without such high bolsters for ease of ingress and egress.
Got under the car this afternoon having a look at exhaust gaskets as I get a steady click click click from the area. I assumed the car had the factory down pipe, turns out it has a FEED Sonic down pipe (verified by tag welded on) Gaskets at the end of the down pipe looked ok (had 2 sandwiched with a spacer). Further back after the midpipe is questionable, unfortunately I only had 3" gaskets and the exhaust is 3.5" so I had to order one.
Coolant swapped, AST installed and shift collar swapped. AST is peace of mind, shift collar I didnt know I needed but the plastic oem piece was in bad shape when I pulled it.
I did alot of research on coolant, pentosin pentofrost a2 seemed to match the requirements. Was available at local advance auto, along with the spill free lisle funnel. I opened the drain on the middle housing and the rad, pulled TB coolant hose during refill. All went well.
Looks like you are making good progress on the car
Regarding seats, another factor to consider is getting a quick release steering wheel - it helps with access when using seats with high bolsters. But my Bride Gias are still a squeeze.
Nice find on the downpipe, those suckers are not cheap! The AST is a smart upgrade and looks good too! I just wish RE Amemiya took a little more care polishing their parts, but they are significantly cheaper than FEED.
09-30-18, 01:12 PM
Gaskets at the end of the down pipe looked ok (had 2 sandwiched with a spacer). Further back after the midpipe is questionable, unfortunately I only had 3" gaskets and the exhaust is 3.5" so I had to order one.
