my first rx7 FD, with engine rebuild
 

hi all, i have been lurking in the shadows reading many posts an have to say this is a awsome forum for information and it has helped me greatly. i got my rx7 fd after first sighting it a year ago tucked under a cover, i finally pursuaded the owner to sell up and now its sat on my drive.

i hope to get some help on this post with the engine rebuild as it will be my first rotary rebuild and am going to do it all myself.

the car itself is in pretty good condition i will be respraying it after the engine build.
so far the mods are :
coilovers
flat mount intercooler
twin induction
alloy rad
ac delete

tbh dont know much about these engines but really want to learn, you guys know more than me just from the photos haha.

i bought the car with only the knowledge that it runs but has no oil pressure. i found the problem to be the main output for the oil pump was blocked off!! because someone fitted a oil filter relocation kit and cooler incorrectly.

another fault was it would not run for more than a few seconds, this turned out to be mice chewing through the fuel pump resistor wires!

when i had it running it was very smokey and the coolant was pressurizing very fast. i later did a compression test which confirmed my fears.

below from the pics i have stripped the engine and cant seem to find 2 corners off the apex seals on the front rotor! can anyone tell me why they are designed in 2 pieces!?

anyway on with the pics,
engine out! i left the tranny in

Attachment 617531

Attachment 617532

Attachment 617533

Attachment 617534

once removing the engine i noticed the mess that is the rats nest, i dont like it at all and am wondering if theres a way to remove it? possibly go non sequential on the turbos?
alot of the vac pipes are perished and split.

Attachment 617526

this is how i mounted it on my stand, had to drill a few holes so it could be mounted on the rear iron
Attachment 617527

standard turbos
Attachment 617528

i then started to strip the engine down, noticed some metal flakes in the oil pickup

Attachment 617529

Attachment 617530

front cover off
Attachment 617520

This is where i got abit worried, From the rebuild threads and videos i have seen there should be a spacer that fits behind the front pulley bolt, this then sets the crank float.
Before i removed anything off the crank i was able to move it back and forth about 10mm which i thought was alot, later when i removed the bearing there was no spacer present? could this be from when someone has rebuilt the engine previously and not put the spacer back? maybe even caused the breakdown

here is the bearing assembly i have...

Attachment 617521


and the front rotor, looks like its been fitted with solid corner seals which is strange, not sure wether to go back to oem. the front rotor was the one with the missing corners off the apex seals! hope they havnt gone throught the turbo!

Attachment 617522

this tab on the rotor looks like its snapped off too??

Attachment 617523

the rotors look okay, slight marking on the tips, possibly from a failed apex seal? the rear rotor had all seals intact but was highly carbonated, and one of the apex seals was jammed in as the pic shows.

front rotor:
Attachment 617524

Attachment 617525

and the rear rotor as you can see had a apex seal stuck and is far more carbonated

Attachment 617514

Attachment 617515
the stuck seal:
Attachment 617516

here are the irons which i plan to test the run out on to see if there okay to reuse,

Attachment 617517

and heres a pic of the apex seals missing the corners, to me the seals dont look hugely worn ?! maybe you guys can shed some light on this

Attachment 617518

Attachment 617519

next step is to check the turbos, then clean up all the components and decide what parts im going to use for the rebuild!

opinions and tips apprecieated :)

Nice work!!

I wish I invented those awful frog eye replacement headlights. Not because I like them, but because they seem to have sold so many! I'd be swimming in gold coins like Scrooge McDuck!

i personally hate the lights too! going to put them back to standard when i get the change, gotta get it running first though!

people only bought them because they are cheap.. just produce cheap nice looking headlights

You may be onto something...

i want 50% profits

Bit of an update, been a slow and lean winter so finally started to gather parts again. I picked up a single turbo :) it's a borg Warner s366. With a hks cast manifold and unknown external waste gate. Also bought a power fc with controller and boost controller
Oh and Walbro fuel pump and sytec regulator

Attachment 613164

Attachment 613165

Attachment 613166