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So....Finally picked up another FD....god where do i even start with this one.....
Found this FD for sale on craigslist in California about two months ago, Was being sold by an older gentlemen who apparently bought it for his wife as a daily driver and one day the coolant light came on, she parked it and they never drove it since. He suspected it had a coolant leak but wasn't sure and hadn't been able to turn it over (bad plugs). It had been sitting on the side of the street for about 3-4 years when i picked it up. Trailered it back to Washington (during the weekend snow storm, that was a nightmare it itself.) Took it to Jerrys Little Car shop in the hopes of maybe getting lucky but it was not the case as about a week later after getting it running i found out it had a MASSIVE coolant leak when i parked it outside my garage and found all of the coolant i just put in gushing out. took it to Jerrys to verify where the leak came from and found it has a bad seal between the coolant passage and exhaust port. I will be taking hopefully to Jerrys for a rebuild either tomorrow 5/17/21 or Tuesday 5/18/21.
Speaking of the rebuild, I have done some research on it since i had originally wanted to do it on the first FD before it got a bit toasty. But i wanted to ask some of the veteran rotary enthusiasts their opinion. I was considering doing a stock port rebuild but This being my second FD and seeing as the other one I had was stock I was wanting to do something a bit different and possibly do a street or even bridge port (to get some of that glorious idle brap) and detuning the turbos to make around stock power that way I don't grenade my trans but also get the idle (and maybe two step) but let me know if that's a dumb idea or not (again I haven't done too much research but what i have found isn't much because most people do single turbo swaps when porting and haven't found many stock turbo port threads).
Now onto specifics about the vehicle:
1993 Mazda RX-7 Touring A/T Red on Tan With the Bose system.
Current Cons with the vehicle that I know of on 5/16/21:
Coolant leak - Rebuilding soon
No Audio
Tires are...usable for now but will be replacing them within a few months
Dents in driver side door/Rear quarter panel (From sitting on the street I'm assuming)
Under shield is broken and Both from wheel well liners are missing.
Current Pros of the Vehicle 5/16/21:
Full interior (Unlike my last FD)
Bose System (Assuming i can get it working)
Stock engine/bay
Racing beat Axle Back
Came with Enkei RPF1s
My Plans over the next year: Id would like to be able to Maybe do a small port of some kind with the stock turbos (maybe detune them slightly), Put a Apexi Power FC ecu (For tuning), Put some coil overs on and lower it a inch or two and get it resprayed. Full turbo pack exhaust from Greddy, touch up the interior. I want it to be a nice "daily" but I also want a little bit more power than stock (like 300-320 RWHP). I also have a fire extinguisher kit coming for the passenger seat.
I will post pictures tomorrow before it gets loaded on the tow truck to be sent to Jerrys. Over all its a MUCH better FD than the old one. I just hope it lasts longer than FD#1
Other than that this is gonna be the build thread for it. If anybody has any Tips/Tricks they wouldn't mind sharing would be much appreciated.
Good on 'ya man for getting back on the horse! Looking forward to seeing what you do with this one. I made 290 on my old setup with twins and stock ports, I betcha if you added a streetport it'd get you to your goal pretty easy, although someone else with more porting experience might chime in on that. Just make sure you've got an intercooling setup that's up to the job!
Here is a pic i remembered to snap of the new FD, Also found out today it has Tein Coil overs on it which i had no idea about since i never bothered to look and only realized after i started looking under it on the flatbed. Also found some old carbon interior pieces i had bought for the first FD but never got around to putting on and since this one is missing some of this interior pieces might as well put them on when its out of the shop?
The pic below is on the good side as i forgot to take pics of the other side.
Just shows you don't need to go nuts to make great power.
Dale
probably going to stick with an auto. I know it's a sin to not manual swap it but I'm planning to buy another manual FD so no point. And yes it is a catback from racing beat that was on the car when I bought it. And yes I pretty much am gonna copy that build though I'm wondering of I should stay with stock cats or use the hks metal cat.
If you want a high-flow cat the Bonez from rx7.com is the way to go. The HKS cat is going to be VERY expensive and VERY hard to get.
If you need to pass emissions, stock main cat all day long.
Dale
hmm alright I'll look into that, you have any suggestions for mid pipes? For now I'll most likely do cats but when I get it tuned/2 step added I'll be moving to a mid pipe cause I don't wanna melt my cats.
I just swapped from a Bonez cat to a Racing Beat resonated midpipe. I was quite happy with the Bonez, but wanted to see what a midpipe would do for power. The Racing Beat I think is great if noise is a concern. At idle and cruise, I honestly can't hear an audible difference between it and when I had the cat in place. It's somewhat louder at WOT, but I'm fine with that.
It did allow the turbo to spool quicker in the midrange, but also caused boost creep up top (not something I think you'll need to worry about with twins). If I get that boost creep sorted I'll have the Bonez up for sale locally (Everett) if you're interested in a mildly used one, but don't wait up if you're in a hurry to get one immediately.
I just swapped from a Bonez cat to a Racing Beat resonated midpipe. I was quite happy with the Bonez, but wanted to see what a midpipe would do for power. The Racing Beat I think is great if noise is a concern. At idle and cruise, I honestly can't hear an audible difference between it and when I had the cat in place. It's somewhat louder at WOT, but I'm fine with that.
It did allow the turbo to spool quicker in the midrange, but also caused boost creep up top (not something I think you'll need to worry about with twins). If I get that boost creep sorted I'll have the Bonez up for sale locally (Everett) if you're interested in a mildly used one, but don't wait up if you're in a hurry to get one immediately.
That would be cool especially since I still have the stock cat so I could do a comparison between them, and I'm in no rush seeing as the car is in the shop for atleast the next two weeks. Would also be cool meeting another rx7 owner because I literally have not seen a single rx7 FA/FB/FC or FD ever besides the ones I've bought.
That would be cool especially since I still have the stock cat so I could do a comparison between them, and I'm in no rush seeing as the car is in the shop for atleast the next two weeks. Would also be cool meeting another rx7 owner because I literally have not seen a single rx7 FA/FB/FC or FD ever besides the ones I've bought.
Well, I'm always down to talk shop so if you ever want to swing by, just drop me a PM!
Got the engine rebuilt by JLC and have been driving it around, now that it's reached a little over the thousand mile break in I planned to take it back but as of last night it's now reeking of gas (not sure why?) And my oil pressure is pretty much non existent while at idle and even while cruising on the freeway it drops below 30, I've read that it's either gunk in the oil pressure sender, the sender going out entirely or it's the gauge, if anybody has an idea as to what might be the issue (gas smell and oil issues happened at the same time and last time my car reeked of gas it shortly after caught fire)
I would stop driving the car until you get the fuel smell sorted out. Jumper the fuel pump test connector to run the fuel pump, pull the upper intake manifold, and look and feel for fuel leaks. As you stated, this is an easy way to burn a nice car down!
Go ahead and get a new oil pressure sender, they aren't too pricey (I think like $80-90). There are things that can happen on a rebuild that can cause low oil pressure, mainly problems with a poorly installed front cover O-ring. You need to know NOW if you have problems before it turns into a spun bearing and literally eats all the parts of the engine.
I would stop driving the car until you get the fuel smell sorted out. Jumper the fuel pump test connector to run the fuel pump, pull the upper intake manifold, and look and feel for fuel leaks. As you stated, this is an easy way to burn a nice car down!
Go ahead and get a new oil pressure sender, they aren't too pricey (I think like $80-90). There are things that can happen on a rebuild that can cause low oil pressure, mainly problems with a poorly installed front cover O-ring. You need to know NOW if you have problems before it turns into a spun bearing and literally eats all the parts of the engine.
Dale
alright, I was planning to leave it in my garage till this Friday and then take it down to JLC, do you think it would survive a 30-40 minute drive down to his shop or would it be better to have it towed down?
05-16-21, 02:03 PM
