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Starting my build thread to share my FD build and the transformation it has taken over the past 2 years. For some background, I’ve had a 1985 Supra that I’ve been restoring and tinkering with since 2000. I had an article on my car in April 2009 and has been my pride and joy since learning how to drive. My brother (Fourtyounce) has had his 93 FD for even longer. I’ve always loved the classic FD body styling and the uniqueness of the rotary platform so I jumped at the opportunity at owning and building an FD of my own when Jio (Amp) offered his CYM for sale privately about 2 years ago. At the time, I was in the process of doing a ground up restoration on a 72 Datsun 240z but the project was taking painstakingly too long and the rust repair was endless. When I heard that Jio had a clean CYM for sale, it didn’t take too much to convince me to sell my 240z project and scoop up his clean FD.
Article cover shot of my Supra
Recent shot after taking a trophy home at WekFest East this year.
Here’s a link to the article for those who want the inside story behind the car.
Shot of the 240z at the furthest point I got it to before selling it. Had it on a home-made rotisserie and had completed replacing the floor pans and welding in new beefier frame rails. One day I may take another shot at restoring one of these.
Onto the CYM. Car had 54k+ miles on it when I picked it up from Jio. VIN ends in 102. Production sticker states it was assembled in 12/1991. I was told that the first 100 FDs were not sold to the public and were used for promotion by Mazda. (I haven’t researched too much into this.) So if this holds true this car is the second FD imported into the US and might very well be the first CYM!
The car had all original paint and no reported accidents. Full interior and came with some mods such as mazdaspeed steering wheel, drilled rotors, Koni yellows/ground control coilovers, mavel manual steering rack. Jio was working on swapping in a 20b but at that point in time I was interested in putting a 13b back in as 20b build was not in the budget.
This is the car as it sat with 20b still inside. We helped Jio pull the motor that morning.
On the trailer and ready to go to a new home. I think Jio was giving one last goodbye.
Mileage check once I got power hooked up.
Over the next 2 years I spent time researching, lurking the forums, and collecting parts for the build. I didn’t take many pics along the way because I wasn’t planning on making a build thread but I’ll post the pics I have of what was done along the way.
Overall, the major theme of my build along the way was to keep thing clean, simple, reliable, while upgrading parts along the way. I hope you all agree I’ve kept to this theme. As with my Supra I kept to the powder coated wrinkle black theme as it kept the engine bay looking simple yet easy to clean. All the powder coating was done in house with the use of a used electric oven and harbor freight powder coating machine.
Greddy Vmount kit I bought off RHD Japan when the Yen was down and there was a sale.
Picked up an Aspec Twin Scroll Precision 5866 Turbo Kit with Dual Tial 44mm WGs off the forum.
Shot of a part of the hardline ABS delete kit as it tucks under the firewall ledge and custom AC delete cover.
Shot of the hardlines at the driver side. Kit was made to fit the 929 Master cylinder mod. Very clean install. Kit was purchased from Robert at Rotary Shack.
Revolution Thermostat reservoir modified. Had the non-pressurized cap removed and had pressurized cap adaptor welded on.
S2000 Antenna Mod
Vmount and battery placement mock up. Had to shift the vmount intercooler about 1” in order for the PC680 to fit. Made a custom mount to had the battery mount on the frame rail but clear the radiator. I wasn’t interested in relocating the battery and hacking into the rear bins.
Powder coated door sills with some 3m clear bra protector to prevent rubbing into the paint.
Custom Marine ground distribution block mounted close to the battery. I ran one large 2/0 gauge wire directly from the battery to this block then all grounds from the block out. This kept the battery clean of numerous wires running directly to it.
Sake Bomb head lights installed.
The day Jehan picked up his second FD. 2 CYM’s in the family now.
Brand new core from Mazda Japan. Picked up from Ihor at IRP. I originally had intentions of having IRP build a motor and had irons redone by Chips Motorsports and housing resurfaced but couldn’t pass at the chance of having a new motor with all new components. I’ll keep the parts I had to build the motor and keep them as spare for now!
Oil pan removed and new Bacon oil pan installed! Also installed new ACT clutch and symmetric steel motor mount brackets to be used with IRP motor mounts.
Racetronix electrical bulk head installed. Allow me to run thicker gauge wires to the fuel pump and bypass the oem bulkead which is known to cause issues.
Tapped rear iron and removed coolant nipple to prevent leaking since I was not using it.
Fuel rail, lines, and AFPR installed. Installed a line separator and mounted to the motor to keep the fuel lines from moving around.
Motor finally in. Used an extra UIM to save the powdercoated one from getting scratched during install.
Feed anti sludge tank installed. Had to unmount the fuel level sending unit and mount the new tank. Makes installing the fuel hanger a breeze. Sorry for the crappy pics.
Surprisingly was able to fit the Greddy intercooler into the electric oven with about ½ inch clearance on each side. Installed the custom splitter and I was not installing AC and using the AC condenser as the splitter. I made it so the splitter angle is adjustable but so far the car runs rock solid temps at the angle I set it which is about 50/50 with the radiator.
Simplified Oem engine harness installed with fire sleeve to protect from the heat from the down pipe.
Manual fuel pressure gauge installed for quick reading while in the engine bay.
Plugged the oem booster nipple on the passenger side of the UIM and tapped a fitting next to the throttle body to eliminate the firewall hardline. Added a supra one way valve to use as a valve and extension as the oem hose is too short to make it to the booster.
Used a Devils own no leak drain fitting and used a VW windshield washer low level sensor instead of the AEM sensor. Both work the same way and use conduction through the fluid to detect low level. However, the AEM sensor uses a threaded fitting which makes leaks more prevalent when using the OEM tank since it’s so thin. The VW sensor uses a rubber grommet that sandwiches between the sensor and tank. Using a 1” hole saw, it allowed tight fitment of the sensor. I added FIPG for extra insurance. So far no leaks and works like a charm!!
Defi multi-gauge installed. I didn’t like the look of having so many gauges displayed but yet wanted the functionality of being able to read the engine parameters. I felt the defi gauge met those requirements. I have oil pressure, oil temp, water temp, and fuel pressure hooked up. Boost is on the center column on the RE pod. The PF commander is mounted on the cigarette light using a custom mount I made.
Red Alternator boot. I’m all about detail.
Tial BOV welded on and oil catch can installed.
Pics after I finally got the car up and running. Fired up on the first start!!
Custom LED turn signals. The entire housing lights up and then turn amber when the signals are used just like the Audi’s. Bought these off a member on the forum.
More engine bay detail shots. Custom throttle body cable to eliminate the long travel and extra brackets. I think it cleans up the engine bay a bit more.
Pic of the Vmount splitter installed. Also used the side covers that come with the kit to direct air into the intercooler and prevent air escaping to the sides into the engine bay.
Installed 99 spec brakes but had to shave the Mazda emblem off to allow clearance for the Fikse wheels. Installed high temp Mazdaspeed decals to make up for the missing Mazda emblem.
Pics of the twins at the local Eat Sleep Race Warehouse Wednesdays a few months ago.
Installed a LIM heat shield and turbo blanket but ended up removing the blanket as it contacted the passenger fender wall and ended up transferring more heat there.
Installed Oem under tray after some trimming.
JDM spare that fits with the bigger brakes. Fits with the oem cover. Just raises the cover about ¼” which isn’t noticeable with the rear carpet in place.
Bought new Mud guards from mazda but unfortunately they only come in red. Had these sprayed at a local body shop which took them several attempts to get the paint to match. In the end they may be a shade off when you see them in person but overall match pretty well. I’m happy with the result.
Bought a shield from LRB, made a cardboard template then trimmed to fit. Had to get this powder coated locally as it’s too big to fit in my oven. Overall it came out pretty slick and matches the rest of the powder coated parts.
Brand new hood insulator installed.
New fuel door decals installed.
New body rail grommets installed. A few were missing so I ended up replacing all of them.
More pics of the front bumper and me being able to retain the from opening plastics to keep the front bumper from sagging. Also I’m using the oem fog light corner clam shells. I think it finishes off the front opening pretty well.
Removed the supra pump and installed the Walbro 450 prior to tuning as the tuner recommended it to be more reliable for the mods I had. I had a 12 volt relay installed as well.
On the dyno. Car made 382rwhp with 16lbs on pump gas. I’m really happy with the overall result of the car and just enjoying the car as much as I can at this point.
Some recent shot of the car when I took it to the WekFest East Show. Unfortunately the CYM did not take home any trophies but got mad love especially from the FD community.
Wow, dude. Awesome attention to detail. This looks a lot like the single conversion I do in my mind!
Amp did you well by setting you up with '94+ interior plastics.
Do you have more info on the underbody grommets and fuel decal sourcing and/or PNs?
How was it splitting the turn signals? Looks like you took the orange out? Looks great, was it difficult?
Wow, dude. Awesome attention to detail. This looks a lot like the single conversion I do in my mind!
Amp did you well by setting you up with '94+ interior plastics.
Do you have more info on the underbody grommets and fuel decal sourcing and/or PNs?
How was it splitting the turn signals? Looks like you took the orange out? Looks great, was it difficult?
The car actually came with the oem 93 plastics but was able to convert to the 94+ plastics along the way.
As far as the grommets and decals I don't have the part numbers on hand. I usually search any of the online parts catalogs to find the part numbers. One I like to use is: Mazda Genuine Parts | Jim Ellis Mazda Parts You can also try contacting Ray Crowe directly as he can source any mazda part for you.
The turn signals I bought already modified by the person I bought them from. The internal amber was removed and LEDs were used to get the clear that change to amber effect.
Nice work Jason. The first shot made me think you had the RX7'on the rotisserie.
Next we will have to do some shots of the car when I head up there next weekend weather permitting.
amazing work here with how clean the installs are with everything. if you dont mind i would like to do what you did with the brake booster line. that single hard line running across the top of the firewall kills me. what size fitting did you use for that?
amazing work here with how clean the installs are with everything. if you dont mind i would like to do what you did with the brake booster line. that single hard line running across the top of the firewall kills me. what size fitting did you use for that?
I took the butterfly valves out of the UIM and tapped the existing opening to fit a -6an fitting. Definitely clean up the firewall!
We shot some pics this weekend of the car after Jason helped me with my own CYM project. I will post up his efforts in my thread later today. Jason picked a great location for a Photoshoot. Look forward to him posting a few of his favorite shots. Thanks for the hard work you did all weekend for me. I owe you.
The FEED slosh tank pics are great. Plan to do that soon and they should help figure out how it fits.
And food for thought on the AEM filter. You may want to support it by the filter and not the plastic tubing. I really don't trust those push-lock fittings and the weight of the filter may pull it out
Originally Posted by 1cleancym
FWIW, I took a piece of aluminum and cut a hole that was slightly larger than the filter for it to rest on. I then mounted to the cross member and I can reach the filter from the top
10-09-16, 12:12 PM
