RX7Club.com - Mazda RX7 Forum - Project: Altered Beast

Here's my RX7 I finally picked up after a few months of waiting for a fairly standard. Bear with me as this will be a bit of a brain dump!

The RX7 has been my dream car for a long time, so this is my ultimate purchase. I've kept talking myself in and out of an FD or a 911 for a while but it always came back round to the FD as the dream. I'm looking to slowly build the car up to a really nice spec and condition.

Here's the car as it looked when I picked it up (Pics stolen from the ad):

https://fdoc.co.uk/forum/index.php?a...00-1-jpg.5563/https://fdoc.co.uk/forum/index.php?a...00-2-jpg.5564/https://fdoc.co.uk/forum/index.php?a...00-5-jpg.5565/https://fdoc.co.uk/forum/index.php?a...ab29-jpg.5566/

Ignore the intake, this is back to a stock unit now.

Decoding the VIN gives the following details:

Built 08/1994
Brilliant black
'95 R2 Bathurst (1 of 300, looks like the decal got removed at some point though)
No lip or spoiler (special to this edition)
Manual with cloth seats (Maybe carbon as standard or these were added later, not sure...)
Rear bins (Fairly rare?)
No rear wiper
Dual oil coolers
16" wheels
smaller brakes of the two types

What I know about the cars history so far (pieced together from folder of receipts and an old ebay ad i found):

Steve Rivett rebuild in 2011 including:
- Street port
- Wastegate ported
- Upgraded engine mount set (Presume the DM-motorsport kit)
- Sump brace kit (Presume the DM-motorsport kit)
Momo steering wheel + gear knob (To be swapped out very shortly, probably go for nardi deepcorn)
The car had a fuel leak and subsequent fire at some point, there's a receipt for having the engine wiring loom replaced, OMP pipework replaced and new hoses all round (inc rats nest + 1 solenoid)
New radiator (not had a look if oem or ali)
Aledged compression of 8.1bar cold, 7.9 bar hot (no proof, but it starts nicely hot or cold)
Pre-import (I assume) the car also had a modified (stock) ecu fitted, it's a REDOM ecu flashed my RE-amemiya, there's not a huge amount of information online and they aren't upgradeable, so I will be swapping to something more accessible.
Unknown exhaust

That's about it for history, I want to use this build thread as a bit of chronicle of the car. I'm going to try and document everything I do and hopefully contribute a few guides to the forum as I go along.

Issues to investigate:

"Gravel" type sound for a second or two after starting the engine
Juddering/bucking when crawling / low RPM
Temporarily fitted an ebay special boost gauge, definitely not getting the 10-8-10 pattern need to investigate what was done when the rats nest was replaced.

Next jobs / to do list:

Swap out MOMO wheel and knob for something a bit more subtle
Rip out JDM stereo and fit something a bit more modern
Service: Oil change + filter, coolant flush, Fuel filter (+relocation), belts
AST replacement / Delete
Fit decent boost gauge in centre vent
Fix A/C
Decide between Adaptronic modular or Haltech elite 2000 + PNP harness
Fix broken exterior door handle (Aluminium replacement)

Future Plans:

Single turbo (or maybe push the limits of the twins)
V-mount + Battery relocation
99 spec or LED rear lights
99 spec front end
Wheels
Fix/replace a lot of trim to try and get to an OEM+ type look
Suspension refresh