H_M

iTrader: (7)

I finally got around to uploading the video of my custom fiberglass duct. I widened the inlet hole to allow more air to be pushed on to the intercooler. The whole process took about 1.5 weeks from start to finish and was quite fun. I had never used fiberglass before and wanted to try something new. The end result turned out better than I expected and the intercooler stays cool while driving. I'm definitely looking forwards to making more things out of fiberglass.

Here's the video of me making the duct fro. Start to finish.

7krayziboi

iTrader: (15)

Beautiful.

H_M

iTrader: (7)

Thanks. I'll clean it up a little in the future but I'm happy with the duct.



I went to Speed Sport yesterday and took some videos. I'll put them up as soon as Premiere Pro stops crashing. We parked at the back of the parking lot and took a walk around because the line up was 150+ people long. Saw some R32 GTR's, S14's, RX8's, many Subarus, and lots of neat stuff. I hoped that the line would die down but it was still long after 45 minutes. Inside were many nicely restored muscle cars and classic cars with a small stance section in the back.

I even saw another RX-7 FD3S on the way home.

I was a little sour that I couldn't take my RX-7 but the insurance company took forever to get back to me. I should have insurance sometime this coming week and then I'll get plates and an inspection. Then it's finally time to drive.

H_M

iTrader: (7)

Got everything ready for the car. Got my insurance on Monday and got my license plate and safety yesterday. I drove the car home from the safety inspection, took it down the road, and nothing... I was at 6000rpm in second gear and the engine shut off. I coasted to a stop and tried restarting the engine. The car wouldn't start and I had it towed home.

At home I did the usual trouble shooting. I checked electrical (all good), checked vacuum lines (line had broken off on the vacuum tank), tried unflooding the engine (wasn't flooded but didn't hurt).

I don't have a compression tester, it was getting late, and the stores were closed. So, I pulled the leading spark plug from the front rotor disconnected the EFI, cranked the engine and heard psss psss psss psss psss psss like it should sound. Then I repeated the steps for the rear rotor and heard .... nothing. There was no psss psss psss. Just a hollow sound. I guess that's why the engine turns over but won't start. No compression at all on the rear rotor.

I guess that I'm going to do a rebuild now. Really not what I wanted to do at the start of summer. I was hoping to drive all summer and then work on the car come winter.

Such is rotary life I guess.


Some more bad luck to report too. Yesterday morning I found out that my credit card got stolen and that someone made a $1700 purchase on it. I've had the worst luck over these last two months. It has to get better soon.

7_rocket

iTrader: (6)

That is terrible news man. Sorry to hear about your misfortunes.

Now it's time to go single turbo and never look back.

H_M

iTrader: (7)

Hahaha, I wish. I can't afford to go single right now. My house needs a new roof more than I need a bigger turbo. Being grown up sucks.


...And for anyone that's interested. I drove the car 19.1Km (11.9 miles) before it blew. I think that's a record of some sorts.

7_rocket

iTrader: (6)

Used set of stock twins and go non seq?

Trying to diagnose that rats nest, no thanks. I rather get punched in the ***** by Mike Tyson

HalifaxFD

iTrader: (18)

Sorry to hear of the bad luck. I hope the bank will go good for the credit card theft.

Narfle

iTrader: (16)

Sorry for the bad luck, dude. Head up, eyes forward. You will overcome.

H_M

iTrader: (7)

Thanks guys. It can only go up from here, haha.

Began tearing down the engine this afternoon. It's slow going but this forum is a huge source of help. My friend is coming up on Saturday to help me get the engine out. I want to get everything ready by then so that we can just pull it out. Then I'll disassemble it and assess the damage. I'm hoping for the best but planning for the worst.

7krayziboi

iTrader: (15)

**** eh! When you think **** cannot get worse it does ...

We are here to support you bro

Johnny Kommavongsa

iTrader: (13)

Dang man sorry to hear, keep at it.

RuffRx7

Sorry to hear man, hope the rebuild goes well and not to much damaged.
Keep up the great work with the videos, very helpful!!!

7krayziboi

iTrader: (15)

Iunno I couldn't stop thinking about you....even tho I'm married...lol gotta laugh a bit

Don't gave up man !!!

I hope your going to keep those video in he process. It'll be nice to have it documented the way you do it. It would be sssssww-eeeeaat.

I got a feeling you got a apex seals stock in the housing which destroyed the other two , the rotor and the housing....

Once the turbos out you can see tru the exhaust port with a flashlight to see some damage,
If apex seals are shatter...don't forget to check the exhaust wheels on the turbo....

H_M

iTrader: (7)

I'll get everything fixed asap. I want to drive the car this summer and canadian summers are short, lol.

I'm pulling the engine tomorrow and then tearing it down. I'll know how bad it is then.

I'm glad you like the videos. I enjoy making them.

I got the engine ready this week and we're pulling it out tomorrow. Of course there will be videos. If I forget where something goes then I can watch the video and see what I did. It's kind of weird listening to yourself talk, haha.




I've been planning for the worst and have been calling places to get a used engine (and rebuild it). I have not found one single place that has a proper working engine. Most places are trying to sell me blown engines for $2000+.

One company sent me a video of the compression test after I instructed them how to do it with a regular compression tester. The needle jumped between 0psi and 30psi on the front rotor. They wanted $2400 for the motor and refused to talk to me when I told them that the front rotor was blown.

I'm mostly worried about the housing. I can get a good condition rotor for a reasonable amount but I don't know where to get a new housing. If the housings are still in some what descent shape then I might send them to Goopy to have them refurbished.

Anyways, that's enough talking about what could be.

I went Speed Sport last weekend with my friend. It's the first car show of the season here and the crowds were nuts. I don't like people and I can't stand crowds. So, I decided to walk around the parking lot to prepare myself for the chaos inside. I have one of the videos uploaded and I'm still working on the other one. It should be up in a few hours or tomorrow at the latest.

I also have a couple more videos of me finishing the RX-7 before the engine blew. I'll upload those during the next two weekends when I'll be waiting on engine parts and won't have time to work on the car due to my work schedule.

Here is 2016 Speed Sport Video #1. These were some of the cars that caught my eye inside. My favourite was the green corvette (I don't know the year because I don't know much about cars).

H_M

iTrader: (7)

I guess I won't be uploading the second Speed Sport video after all. My hard drive died while the video was rendering. It also took all the footage from the last three days where I disassembled everything in the engine bay to get the engine ready to be pulled.

DaleClark

iTrader: (55)

I was SO STOKED to see the intercooler duct video. That's something I have wanted to try myself for some time.

Could you give a breakdown of what fiberglass/resin you used?

Also, you can get rubber weatherstripping at the parts store that can go on the edge of the duct that touches the IC so it seals to the IC. Will help with an airtight seal.

Just realized I wasn't on the last page, saw the news about your engine. Man, I'm so sorry to hear that! It happens, though! We're here if you need help rebuilding it better than ever!

Dale

H_M

iTrader: (7)

For the fiberglass I went to Canadian Tire and bought a package of fiberglass and resin/ hardener. It was in the auto section for body repair. These are the links to the two products that I bought:

Fiberglass (I bought the biggest fine pack and had lots left over)
Bondo Fiberglass Cloth/Mat/Tape | Canadian Tire

Resin
Bondo Fiberglass Resin | Canadian Tire

The total material cost was about $55-$60 CDN.

I will finish the edges of the duct when I get the car fixed. I didn't have much of a chance to test the duct and intercooler combo (about 20 minutes) but it seems to work fairly well from what I saw on my way to and from the safety inspection. The AIT were 45C during slow driving and some stop lights and 35C while driving 70Km - 80Km on the way home. I'll want to do a lot more testing with the combo when things are back together. The total cost would be about $300CDN ($200 USD) for the intercooler and duct.




Some good news. I got my hard drive working again. I have no idea what was wrong with it. but I switched some plugs and it finally spun up. I make backups to a second HDD after every video but I don't make backups of the footage because I usually edit it right away. That's why I'm relieved that I was able to recover all the footage from Speed Sport and from the engine prep.

Here's the second part of Speed Sport. We walked around the parking lot on Saturday afternoon and checked out some of the cool cars. I thought that the parking lot was better than the inside. Much more variety.


Here's my computer in its current state. It never had a chance.

H_M

iTrader: (7)

I've got two more videos to go before I get in to the engine rebuild. This time around I finished the engine bay and made a block off plate and battery tie down. It actually came out pretty well. Too bad that it didn't last long, hahaha.


I pulled the engine and disassembled it last week. I'm going to take the keg apart this week. I've got most things ordered for the rebuild and just need a few more gaskets. I should have the car on the road by June if the parts arrive on time. The longest part will be waiting for parts.

H_M

iTrader: (7)

My housings came this morning. To say that I am disappointed is an understatement. The person that I bought the housings from told me that they were ported and new. Not only are they not new, they are damaged and he sent me two different housings. He sent me one S4 housing and one S5 housing. I'm trying to get a hold of him to see what he says.

Both housings side-by-side (S5 on the left, S4 on the right)


"New" S4 housing. Yeah right!


The other "new" housing (S5)



So, now I have a few questions for the more experienced members:

- Are either of these two housings even usable? I've heard of chrome flaking but I don't know how much is acceptable. Personally I wouldn't use them but Rotaryresurection's wear guide says that this amount of wear is acceptable and will still yield descent compression

- Can I use an S4 and an S5 housing in the same engine? The leading spark plug holes are different. The S5 housing would run regular timing and the S4 housing would run advanced timing? Or am completely wrong on this?

- Can I use the S5 housing with my good S6 housing. The leading spark plug is int he same position but I'm not certain about the exhaust port. The S5 housing has a ported exhaust while the S6 housing has a regular exhaust port.

H_M

iTrader: (7)

I talked to the guy that I bought the housings from. He's agreed to refund me my money when I ship back the housings. He said that he had bought them as new housings from Rotary Specialties in Calgary and those were the ones that they sent him.

Rotary Specialties sending old, resurfaced, mis-matched housings as new. Not going to be buying anything from them.

HalifaxFD

iTrader: (18)

PM'd

DaleClark

iTrader: (55)

You are sending them back (good idea) but you can't mix S4 rotor housings in. The spark plugs are in different spots in the housing, so one rotor would have the spark timing off by quite a few degrees. That's a recipe for disaster.

Dale

7krayziboi

iTrader: (15)

The S5 housing has also a "exhaust divider"
I mean the NA one are pretty much identical to the S6 for the exception of stronger material.

IMO , it should affect it if one is to be used in a S6 *stock-ish rebuild.

Single taugh...not too sure...

I mean they were made for 140rwhp -ish
Don't need to tell you the multiplied number people put on the S6 housing.

H_M

iTrader: (7)

Running two different housings didn't make sense to me either. I can see running an S5 and an S6 housing because the spark plug distance is the same but running two different timings in one engine just didn't make any sense to me. I figured that tuning the engine would be impossible so I sent the housings back.



The NA housings have the exhaust divider. The turbo housings have an open exhaust port like the S6 housings. I think the S5 housings are identical to the S6 housings except the chrome coating on the S5 housing is a little weaker and they have 4 oil injectors.




This was the last video before the engine blew. I installed the Power FC and went for a drive. At one point I got up to 6000 rpm and everything was running fine. Even the over sensitive knock sensor didn't show anything on the PFC. Then, a week later, I got gas from a different gas station and the motor lost compression and died.

As a note, a few years ago the company that I got gas from this time was involved in a scandal where they were selling 87 octane in 91 octane pumps and were also selling watered down gas. Usually I don't get gas there but my needle had been on empty and it was the only gas station around.

That's why I think that bad gas or the broken vacuum chamber hose had something to do with the engine losing compression.