My de-riced dream build - ALB1N0 RX7
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Joined: Aug 2020
Posts: 11
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From: Auckland
My de-riced dream build - ALB1N0 RX7
Hi all,
I've been a long time lurker of the forums, finding answers to things I couldn't work out and perving everybody elses builds for ideas and enjoyment.
So why is my car named Albino? Or more accurately ALB1N0? Partly because it's the plate, but that relates to me in that I am fortunate enough to be one of very few Albino's (super pasty white dudes who are scared of the sun) who is able to drive, as albinism significantly impacts your vision. It seems only appropriate
Around 18 months ago I picked up my FD, a dream car of mine since I was young and my first rotary. A 1999 series 8 type RB RHD JDM import with 101,000km from new, mechanically solid but had had a few not to my taste modifications and was certainly rough around the edges. It needed a little TLC but I was over the moon none the less, and if nothing else satisfied that while it needed work I had a mechanically solid platform with the engine rebuilt, rats nest rebuilt and running a stock powertrain.
It certainly needed some love with a fair amount of paint damage, skirts held on with over-flowing silicon, the lips held together with duct tape that was painted over and big wings, fake Bride buckets and fake Defi gauges everywhere. To its credit, it did have certified BC golds all round and seemed pretty clean underneath, but certainly saved me some work!
For the first few months I just looked at maintenance and making sure I knew the car was right, nothing major during this time, general service, gearbox oil, air filters, right rear wheel bearing. All items needing done but nothing of much note.
After I'd had the car for a few months and began getting used to it I began looking for parts and the expenses began. The first thing on the list was getting rid of the Bride reps. While they served the purpose I wasn't a fan and they were far from comfortable, on top of making getting in and out of the car an extremely difficult task. In replacement, the seats I'd always thought should've come in the FD in the first place. A set of Mazdaspeed Type-F buckets. Not in the finest of condition but certainly a lot more pleasant to be in than the Bride's!
Next was getting rid of the big wing, not my style and not what I wanted for my OEM+ goals. I began searching for an OEM S8 wing for my S8 car. The car still had the original holes in the boot where one was once bolted on but it was just a matter of finding a replacement. Eventually one was sourced, a white item but worth it just to get hold of one! Thanks to the Mrs photo and editing skills it's hard to tell it's white in the photo
Side note - whichever glorious bastard install the previous wing very much did not want it coming off. It was drilled and bolted up as you may expected, however they had also emptied an entire tube of windscreen sealant on the mounts where it meets the boot lid. It took 30 minutes (each side) of cutting with a cheese wire to get through it and a caramel wheel to remove the residue! But, I suppose it never fell off?
For some time I collected parts, minimal photos but a number of replacement interior trim pieces, OEM and aftermarket cosmetics and performance parts, a few key items:
Odula carbon wing blade
Spirit R shift ****
OEM dual oil coolers
Ash tray
Brake ducts etc. - you get the idea!
Finally, it was time to replace the wheels. While I understand many people are big fans of Meister I was not, not only were they not my style but the one time I tried to enjoy the car on a back round going fast through a dip they immediately smashed into and badly dented the guard - they had to go!
Enter - Konig Dekagrams!
F: 18 x 8.5 +35
R: 18 x 9.5 +35
F: Pilot Sport 4 - 235/40/18
R: Pilot Sport 4 - 255/35/18
BC gold suspension
Stock guards, no rolling - no rubbing or scrubbing, lovely setup!
Kneed for speed?
For some time, the car stayed similar to this, minor changes with little fixes or upgrades but nothing notable. I just drove it, enjoyed it and had fun!
I've been a long time lurker of the forums, finding answers to things I couldn't work out and perving everybody elses builds for ideas and enjoyment.
So why is my car named Albino? Or more accurately ALB1N0? Partly because it's the plate, but that relates to me in that I am fortunate enough to be one of very few Albino's (super pasty white dudes who are scared of the sun) who is able to drive, as albinism significantly impacts your vision. It seems only appropriate
Around 18 months ago I picked up my FD, a dream car of mine since I was young and my first rotary. A 1999 series 8 type RB RHD JDM import with 101,000km from new, mechanically solid but had had a few not to my taste modifications and was certainly rough around the edges. It needed a little TLC but I was over the moon none the less, and if nothing else satisfied that while it needed work I had a mechanically solid platform with the engine rebuilt, rats nest rebuilt and running a stock powertrain.
It certainly needed some love with a fair amount of paint damage, skirts held on with over-flowing silicon, the lips held together with duct tape that was painted over and big wings, fake Bride buckets and fake Defi gauges everywhere. To its credit, it did have certified BC golds all round and seemed pretty clean underneath, but certainly saved me some work!
For the first few months I just looked at maintenance and making sure I knew the car was right, nothing major during this time, general service, gearbox oil, air filters, right rear wheel bearing. All items needing done but nothing of much note.
After I'd had the car for a few months and began getting used to it I began looking for parts and the expenses began. The first thing on the list was getting rid of the Bride reps. While they served the purpose I wasn't a fan and they were far from comfortable, on top of making getting in and out of the car an extremely difficult task. In replacement, the seats I'd always thought should've come in the FD in the first place. A set of Mazdaspeed Type-F buckets. Not in the finest of condition but certainly a lot more pleasant to be in than the Bride's!
Next was getting rid of the big wing, not my style and not what I wanted for my OEM+ goals. I began searching for an OEM S8 wing for my S8 car. The car still had the original holes in the boot where one was once bolted on but it was just a matter of finding a replacement. Eventually one was sourced, a white item but worth it just to get hold of one! Thanks to the Mrs photo and editing skills it's hard to tell it's white in the photo
Side note - whichever glorious bastard install the previous wing very much did not want it coming off. It was drilled and bolted up as you may expected, however they had also emptied an entire tube of windscreen sealant on the mounts where it meets the boot lid. It took 30 minutes (each side) of cutting with a cheese wire to get through it and a caramel wheel to remove the residue! But, I suppose it never fell off?
For some time I collected parts, minimal photos but a number of replacement interior trim pieces, OEM and aftermarket cosmetics and performance parts, a few key items:
Odula carbon wing blade
Spirit R shift ****
OEM dual oil coolers
Ash tray
Brake ducts etc. - you get the idea!
Finally, it was time to replace the wheels. While I understand many people are big fans of Meister I was not, not only were they not my style but the one time I tried to enjoy the car on a back round going fast through a dip they immediately smashed into and badly dented the guard - they had to go!
Enter - Konig Dekagrams!
F: 18 x 8.5 +35
R: 18 x 9.5 +35
F: Pilot Sport 4 - 235/40/18
R: Pilot Sport 4 - 255/35/18
BC gold suspension
Stock guards, no rolling - no rubbing or scrubbing, lovely setup!
Kneed for speed?
For some time, the car stayed similar to this, minor changes with little fixes or upgrades but nothing notable. I just drove it, enjoyed it and had fun!
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Aug 2020
Posts: 11
Likes: 2
From: Auckland
Unfortunately, after a fun months of enjoyment a wild rabbit decided while hearing a loud scary car coming around a corner, that the best possible idea was to jump into the road. Great idea, great results.
One of the reasons I'd been keen to purchase a series 8 originally was that I wouldn't feel the need to do a front end conversion - it was all stock anyway so no need to worry! throughout 8-ish months of ownership at this point I'd never taken apart or even looked twice at the front end. Post this incident I began looking at it and to my surprise the bumper was a fibreglass replica, the crash bar was from a series 6 and the car had clearly had some kind of minor frontal at some point in its life, leading to a cheap repair.
While very frustrating, that just meant it was something to fix, and so a trip to my friends at Mazda wildly pointing out all of the bits I needed from the parts diagram... In hindsight that was an extremely expensive afternoon... None the less! Some time later all the bits began to arrive to make everything as it should be.
OEM Bumper & support:
A nice rare AutoExe single piece front lip which require some.... minor TLC:
Frankenstein's MRonster
OEM steering wheel:
Deletion of the (pointless) rear seats:
And some (now repaired) carbon fibre ****:
This was followed with a few items of which I'll spare adding more and more photos of, including new slotted rotors and pads front and back, new front and rear carpets and carbon door sills from Garage Alpha etc.
And then came the big thing, the thing I'd been thinking about since I bought the car and was still undecided on. The paint condition was crap, one way or another it needed a respray. I thought for a long long time about how I wanted to do this as silver was my least favorite colour for these cars, yet I am also not a fan of resprays unless they're really well done.
So, do I do an exterior respray of OEM silver? Or do I spend more than double the amount to do it whatever colour I want? And what could would this even be? I was fortune to have a good friend who worked in a high end paint shop who could assist and do the proper painting, but it was still a big an expensive decision. After much time and though, assembling all the right parts and making sure everything plugged together nicely, it was time to take the plunge - a very cool Mad Max looking plunge TBH.
One of the reasons I'd been keen to purchase a series 8 originally was that I wouldn't feel the need to do a front end conversion - it was all stock anyway so no need to worry! throughout 8-ish months of ownership at this point I'd never taken apart or even looked twice at the front end. Post this incident I began looking at it and to my surprise the bumper was a fibreglass replica, the crash bar was from a series 6 and the car had clearly had some kind of minor frontal at some point in its life, leading to a cheap repair.
While very frustrating, that just meant it was something to fix, and so a trip to my friends at Mazda wildly pointing out all of the bits I needed from the parts diagram... In hindsight that was an extremely expensive afternoon... None the less! Some time later all the bits began to arrive to make everything as it should be.
OEM Bumper & support:
A nice rare AutoExe single piece front lip which require some.... minor TLC:
Frankenstein's MRonster
OEM steering wheel:
Deletion of the (pointless) rear seats:
And some (now repaired) carbon fibre ****:
This was followed with a few items of which I'll spare adding more and more photos of, including new slotted rotors and pads front and back, new front and rear carpets and carbon door sills from Garage Alpha etc.
And then came the big thing, the thing I'd been thinking about since I bought the car and was still undecided on. The paint condition was crap, one way or another it needed a respray. I thought for a long long time about how I wanted to do this as silver was my least favorite colour for these cars, yet I am also not a fan of resprays unless they're really well done.
So, do I do an exterior respray of OEM silver? Or do I spend more than double the amount to do it whatever colour I want? And what could would this even be? I was fortune to have a good friend who worked in a high end paint shop who could assist and do the proper painting, but it was still a big an expensive decision. After much time and though, assembling all the right parts and making sure everything plugged together nicely, it was time to take the plunge - a very cool Mad Max looking plunge TBH.
Last edited by JMcP92; Aug 19, 2020 at 03:07 AM.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Aug 2020
Posts: 11
Likes: 2
From: Auckland
I eventually decided it was to be a colour change, simply because I knew even if I made the car perfect in silver, it'd still be silver which wasn't my preference. None the less this would require a total strip down (per above) and doing the door jams, engine bay (with the engine still in it), boot jams, etc. I was only comfortable with it being able to tell if you went under the carpet, under the car or deep into the engine bay.
Then, what colour? For me, this was simple. The best colour for the FD (in my opinion) was always Mazda Sunburst Yellow available on the late cars. I looked at other shades, custom yellows, Lamborghini colours etc. again the benefits of knowing a good shop, but none could beat Sunburst, as agreed by the shop themselves - and so, it began.
Once it was finally time to take it back home, I was over the moon! In my mind it is absolutely the most spectacular colour for these cars, set off with a little bit of carbon and some dark wheels? Absolutely awesome!
Since the paintwork - not much has happened. I put the car back together, tidied everything up and just enjoyed it! Predictably however, there's now more to do!
So what's on the to do list now? Now I want to add confidence that when it goes to trackday it can, well... not die. the downside of a stock powertrain while relaible, means track conditions may be a little tough on the cooling. So currently waiting on the delivery of:
Greddy V mount complete kit
Aftermarket fuel rails
Larger injectors (open to recommendations of what to use here, spec per above, Power FC, street car)
A few small bits and bobs to make everything work well! Followed by a tune.
It's been a long journey and more cost than I care to add up (though I do have a spreadsheet of everything, I just really don't want to SUM that column...) but the car is very nearly where I want it to be. I'm also lucky enough to have recently found my ideal cluster which I may need to make some modifications to make work!
I'm really happy with where the car is now. I'm sure it will slowly evolve and I'll try and make the effort to keep up with this thread for anybody interested.
Tucked away at home with the Mrs and my other toys
Big thanks to all my mates and the Mrs who helped along the way, lots of spannering and getting dirty but always worth it!
Thanks for reading!
Then, what colour? For me, this was simple. The best colour for the FD (in my opinion) was always Mazda Sunburst Yellow available on the late cars. I looked at other shades, custom yellows, Lamborghini colours etc. again the benefits of knowing a good shop, but none could beat Sunburst, as agreed by the shop themselves - and so, it began.
Once it was finally time to take it back home, I was over the moon! In my mind it is absolutely the most spectacular colour for these cars, set off with a little bit of carbon and some dark wheels? Absolutely awesome!
Since the paintwork - not much has happened. I put the car back together, tidied everything up and just enjoyed it! Predictably however, there's now more to do!
So what's on the to do list now? Now I want to add confidence that when it goes to trackday it can, well... not die. the downside of a stock powertrain while relaible, means track conditions may be a little tough on the cooling. So currently waiting on the delivery of:
Greddy V mount complete kit
Aftermarket fuel rails
Larger injectors (open to recommendations of what to use here, spec per above, Power FC, street car)
A few small bits and bobs to make everything work well! Followed by a tune.
It's been a long journey and more cost than I care to add up (though I do have a spreadsheet of everything, I just really don't want to SUM that column...) but the car is very nearly where I want it to be. I'm also lucky enough to have recently found my ideal cluster which I may need to make some modifications to make work!
I'm really happy with where the car is now. I'm sure it will slowly evolve and I'll try and make the effort to keep up with this thread for anybody interested.
Tucked away at home with the Mrs and my other toys
Big thanks to all my mates and the Mrs who helped along the way, lots of spannering and getting dirty but always worth it!
Thanks for reading!
Last edited by JMcP92; Aug 19, 2020 at 03:37 AM.
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Thread Starter
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Joined: Aug 2020
Posts: 11
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From: Auckland
A small update for what's been happening in the meantime! So there's a long list of bits currently in the process of going in the car:
R I've spent way more on car parts than I'd like to think about!
Here's a few pics of progress in the meantime:
One of the issues I'm having is both understanding the vacuum layout as well as making everything fit with some new parts. For example the new secondary fuel rail fouls on these vacuum hard lines and so cutting them back and re-routing soft line on top of trying to work out where everything else goes is going to be fun! If anybody has any experiences on S7/S8 TT's they can refer to it'd be super helpful!
One way or another me and the Mrs are always spannering on something every weekend, FD, NSX, bikes or other cars we get our hands on from time to time, always more things to fix! The FD will keep trucking along with hopes to complete in the next 3-4 weeks get it back on the road and get a tune ready for some track action!
- Full Greddy V mount (now all black)
- Aeroflow primary & secondary fuel rails
- Aeroflow fuel pressure regulator & AN lines to make it all work
- 1170cc primary injectors
- 1550cc secondary injectors
- Pettit racing air pump delete kit (albeit order over 2 months ago, still in transit
) - New water pump
- New gaskets everywhere
- New throttle cable
- Vacuum simpliciation
- CSG tail lights
- Cusco strut brace
R I've spent way more on car parts than I'd like to think about! Here's a few pics of progress in the meantime:
One of the issues I'm having is both understanding the vacuum layout as well as making everything fit with some new parts. For example the new secondary fuel rail fouls on these vacuum hard lines and so cutting them back and re-routing soft line on top of trying to work out where everything else goes is going to be fun! If anybody has any experiences on S7/S8 TT's they can refer to it'd be super helpful!
One way or another me and the Mrs are always spannering on something every weekend, FD, NSX, bikes or other cars we get our hands on from time to time, always more things to fix! The FD will keep trucking along with hopes to complete in the next 3-4 weeks get it back on the road and get a tune ready for some track action!
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Aug 2020
Posts: 11
Likes: 2
From: Auckland
It's been a while! Slowly working through changes while having very little time to work on the car and getting help where I can!
I'm glad to say that at this stage the kit is mostly in and ready to go, along with the new injectors, fuel rails, air pump delete etc. and looking great!
As expected, things are never that easy and I've run into 2 issues:
1). The new water pump gasket seems to be not sealed in that it's fully pissing out coolant when it gets to that level, so need to pull that back out and pop another in.
2). The car is cranking extremely slow, originally expected a dodgy battery but chucked a new one in with the same result:
3). I put in Bosch 1550 secondary injectors, which is great... except my PFC maxes out of 1500cc secondary!
I'll work out these items, hopefully get it running and tuned and we should be back on the road, cannot wait! Missed this car much too much.
I'm glad to say that at this stage the kit is mostly in and ready to go, along with the new injectors, fuel rails, air pump delete etc. and looking great!
As expected, things are never that easy and I've run into 2 issues:
1). The new water pump gasket seems to be not sealed in that it's fully pissing out coolant when it gets to that level, so need to pull that back out and pop another in.
2). The car is cranking extremely slow, originally expected a dodgy battery but chucked a new one in with the same result:
I'll work out these items, hopefully get it running and tuned and we should be back on the road, cannot wait! Missed this car much too much.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Aug 2020
Posts: 11
Likes: 2
From: Auckland
And we're back on the road! We've had a few issues and some more things to fix post dyno but I'm happy as could be to have my car back, even if there's more work to do.
So after 4-ish months on jack stands completing about 1 months worth of work because I'm in over my skill level - it finally got together, started, running and driving. Given all the changes particularly to the fuel system I didn't want to drive it until it had been tuned so towed it to the tuning shop to spend some time on the dyno.
We ran into a few problems at the start of the day given the car had minimal testing before hitting the shop, a couple minor coolant leaks etc. but nothing major. Eventually getting on the dyno we found the secondary injectors weren't coming on at all and found it to be the injector driver in the PFC had died. Thinking my day was over and a bit frustrated I was amazed to find one of the mechanics at the shop happened to have a series 8 PFC sitting in his work bench... as you do.
Once we solved this we found one further issue of the secondary turbo not coming on and the car maxing out at 9psi. None the less we tuned with what we had (as it'll be no doubt a vacuum issue I need to solve) and the car now runs and drives safely, albeit with a few things to fix.
Then comes the (possible) bad news. While prepping we also did a compression test, of which the results were:
R1: 80, 80, 73 @206
R2: 76, 74, 70 @215
Obviously, not great. My only hope is that the RPM this was tested at was super low so potentially just lower RPM creating lower compression numbers. Since the car has been running and the battery is happier I will re-test it in the coming week to see if I've got a big issue.
So what's next? It really depends on some test results - First off I need to test the compression and pressure test the coolant system. If those (hopefully) end up being ok I'll track down the turbo issue and get it back on a dyno to finish off the tune.
If the compression is bad? Well I'll probably have to suck it up, pull the engine before it gives up and do a rebuild - that is way beyond my skill level but I know a few options locally so all possible. While it's out though... might as well do a turbo kit... right?
We'll see, results first then some decision to be made. None the less in the meantime I am just super happy to have my car running and driving sweet, doesn't run or start like a low compression engine so I'm still holding out hope we might be ok - I shall report back when I know more.
Enjoy, and no doubt more pictures will come in time!
So after 4-ish months on jack stands completing about 1 months worth of work because I'm in over my skill level - it finally got together, started, running and driving. Given all the changes particularly to the fuel system I didn't want to drive it until it had been tuned so towed it to the tuning shop to spend some time on the dyno.
We ran into a few problems at the start of the day given the car had minimal testing before hitting the shop, a couple minor coolant leaks etc. but nothing major. Eventually getting on the dyno we found the secondary injectors weren't coming on at all and found it to be the injector driver in the PFC had died. Thinking my day was over and a bit frustrated I was amazed to find one of the mechanics at the shop happened to have a series 8 PFC sitting in his work bench... as you do.
Once we solved this we found one further issue of the secondary turbo not coming on and the car maxing out at 9psi. None the less we tuned with what we had (as it'll be no doubt a vacuum issue I need to solve) and the car now runs and drives safely, albeit with a few things to fix.
Then comes the (possible) bad news. While prepping we also did a compression test, of which the results were:
R1: 80, 80, 73 @206
R2: 76, 74, 70 @215
Obviously, not great. My only hope is that the RPM this was tested at was super low so potentially just lower RPM creating lower compression numbers. Since the car has been running and the battery is happier I will re-test it in the coming week to see if I've got a big issue.
So what's next? It really depends on some test results - First off I need to test the compression and pressure test the coolant system. If those (hopefully) end up being ok I'll track down the turbo issue and get it back on a dyno to finish off the tune.
If the compression is bad? Well I'll probably have to suck it up, pull the engine before it gives up and do a rebuild - that is way beyond my skill level but I know a few options locally so all possible. While it's out though... might as well do a turbo kit... right?
We'll see, results first then some decision to be made. None the less in the meantime I am just super happy to have my car running and driving sweet, doesn't run or start like a low compression engine so I'm still holding out hope we might be ok - I shall report back when I know more.
Enjoy, and no doubt more pictures will come in time!
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