When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Lets be thankful for having people in our life who respect us and who are our friends that give us emotional support because they want to see us happy and safe.
Try to understand those who are volatile, upset, revengeful, and jealous because maybe they do not know they have a mental illness. How would you know if you did, you wouldn't - Think about that.
Lets be thankful we have a clear mind, we are empathetic, and that we have a good life compared to other countries going through hell right now.
I'm thankful for what I have earned through hard work, but more importantly being born into a place that was established and gave me the opportunities to survive and thrive!
Last edited by rotaryextreme; 11-24-22 at 01:17 PM.
It's been just a little time since I did an update. Aside from the excitement of making 350whp I still had some issue I needed to sort out. Daniel Kuo was concerned about my knock sensor, I was concerned about my car wanting to die when the AC was turned on, Xavier Borg who created FC Tweak was concerned about my Ehay alternator and what it might have done to the XBIGN igniter I got from him when the car refused to start up the cold azz day I was supposed to leave for SS24. I hopefully got some traction on these issue and fixed a few more things as well. I am also slightly considering getting an Apexi 3 Bar map sensor and turning up the boost to 17psi to see what the BNR Stage 1 twins will do. I still have 550/2000 injectors so I do not know what the 550's will limit me to until the 2000's kick in. For the sake of the club I think it is worth it. Apparently even though my engine is leaking coolant in and outside along with lowish compression during a compression test, as DK put it best - the engine seems stout.. lol. Might even be worth it to change coolant and oil seals and leave everything else alone. I would like to experiment on this "stout" engine before I put the new one in and be bummed out keeping it at 12psi for longevity. Let's get on with what was done.
1. Oil in Intercooler
2. PS and AC Adjustment Pulley
3. Knock Sensor
4. RAZO Convex Mirror
5. Stock Alternator Swap
1. Oil in Intercooler
While taking off the IC piping I noticed a little oil in the intercooler. I'm guessing it's from the oil catch can since I have it going to 2 breather areas and to the pri turbo. Maybe I need to put a restrictor on the turbo side to slow it down. I think it's still cool though since it's extra lubrication and things seem fine so far.
2. PS and AC Adjustment Pulley
My adjustment pulley was squeaking at times and it was also off a tiny bit in relation to the PS pulley. I was also missing the dust cover and I have no idea how much the bearing was affected by that. I went to Atkins site and found the pulley, dust shield, and the nut. On the old pulley you can see where the belt was rubbing against the back lip. I wonder if I added the spacer on the PS pulley to bring it forward prior to the swap if it would have fixed the intermittent squeaking. Anyways I installed the new pulley, dust shield, nut, another spacer behind the PS pulley and everything looked good. No rubbing on the back lip and no squeaking sound.
3. Knock Sensor
Daniel Kuo said my knock sensor looked suspect and knock was all over the place during our joy ride. The knock sensor swap was such a pain, the connector was buried under a bunch of crap. I had to remove the pressure chamber, some vacuum lines, alt connections, and the Greddy elbow. I removed the spark plugs and found the rear rotor leading sparkplug covered in coolant. I also noticed somehow I got the alternator connector dust seal pinch in the pins -doh!
Maybe the internal coolant leak is running right on it causing the rough idle for a few seconds before it smoothes out on a hot start. Anyways my old knock sensor sealant was soft and sticky compared to the new one. I got it all back together and after the swap I can confirm there is less knock at idle, but when you rev it the whole row on the PFC Commander lights up. lol. I still need to test drive it under boost.
4. RAZO Convex Mirror
The straight RAZO mirror was cool but I had to offset it allot and since I could not rotate the mirror bracket I decided to get the RAZO convex mirror. I installed it and I can see the full back window now and a little of the passenger side. I also like the fact that I still do not see myself which would be annoying. I did have to offset it a little but it's good enough to keep.
5. Stock Alternator Swap
My Ehay alternator was possible suspect and putting out too much voltage on a freezing morning which could have possibly had an over voltage event and frying the IGN upgrade from Xavier. Prior to SS24 I installed the upgraded igniter and all was cool. Right before going to SS24 there was an update to FC Tweak and I installed it. It might be possible that I goofed somewhere and the stock ign dwell time were uploaded instead when I went to reload the file onto the PFC.
Xavier wanted me to log some cold start-ups to see what the Ehay alt was doing. At first I was saving the log file to a default folder and they would disappear, later I figured out I had to choose a folder to save them in to get the .dat / .txt files. I logged the following test cases and noticed some interesting things.
Ehay Alt Stuff
1. Warm up on Ehay 150amp alt - stock ign/hks twin power. Normal warm up. Bat V 14.4.
2. Cycle loads on Ehay alt - stock ign/hks twin power. Turn lights on, RPM jumps to 1100rpm and batv is 14.2, turn on AC and car stumbles to 775rpm and batv drops to 13.5 then rpm and batv recover. With AC on first RPM jumps to 1100rpm and batv is 14.1, lights are turned on and the RPM stays stable at 1100ish and the batv stays about 14.1. I repeated this several times with the same results. Lights on first then AC on second almost always cause a drop in RPM and Bat voltage. With AC on first and then lights turned on second it was always more stable. After a bunch of cycles the system seemed to stabilize a little more.
Stock Alt Stuff
When I saw this I figured I might as well as put the stock alternator back in. I found it and it was grimy as hell. I found one of Rob's videos from 12 years ago on how to take the FD alternator apart - It made the experience less scary.
I took it apart and cleaned everything with soap and water. I lightly sanded down the copper contacts and re-assembled everything. I used a small flat head screwdriver to hold the contacts in and swapped over the aluminum pulley as well.
1. Warm up on stock 100amp alt - stock ign/hks twin power. Normal warm up. Bat V 14.1.
2. Cycle loads on Ehay alt - stock ign/hks twin power. Similar results to the Ehay 150 amp alt except the batv stayed way more stable. It rarely dropped to the lower voltage when having the lights on and then turning on AC.
The stock voltage regulator was way better. It did seem like it was a little harder to start with the ALT putting out less current and I think my dual battery set-up is probably the cause of that. But the switching between loads proved the stock alternator was far superior and holding a constant batv.
Xaviers Upgraded IGN Stuff
I thought to myself what the hell, let's throw Xavier's upgraded IGN back in and see if she fires up. I grabbed my laptop and checked for an update and once again there's a V26 that lets you select an upgraded radiator and a front mount. I'm guessing if you have a VM kit you will select front mount. I triple checked the right config, loaded it up, and - holy cats Batman (1941 Robin/Batman) - she fired right up - albeit the little rough idle for a few seconds but then all is good. I quickly started logging away and once it warmed up I did a few load cycles as well. I do not know if it's because coolant is getting on the L2 sparkplug or if its the dual battery set-up or both, but it's a little rougher at start-up just for a few seconds on the lower AMP alt. Switching between loads is far more stable as noticed before. I am still considering to send back the upgraded igniter to have it inspected just to be safe.
It looks like I have 2 options.
1. Remove the second battery set-up and use the stock alt.
2. Keep the dual battery set-up and get the ARD (Mitsubishi) RR150-FD3S-9G Blue/Red from RHD Japan or another source. This is what I will most likely do since I will need to power a bunch of electronics later down the road.
I made a super crappy video due to my old camera, but I wanted to share the gauges changing color with the lights on/off and also the 2nd turbo pre-spool. (sorry for dropping F-Bombs). I don't know if the stock cars or modified cars do this, but mine sounds wack. Is it because I have the solenoid upgrade along with the twins having independent piping to that IC, and also the BNR stage 1 twins having a different turbine wheel. You can literally hear the second turbo spooling up as the car starts to make a weird two-step misfire sound at around 5k, sounds perfect for launching!!!!!!
Just touching bases with anyone who's following this thread - or even cares for that matter...lol
Started a new job which means I have to work again since I no longer have the union to protect my lazy ***. hahahaha
I trolled a few of you to gain experience for myself so sorry if I annoyed any of you - I can tell because I'm ghosted. Oh Well.
I do not claim to know everything, but I share all... good and bad.. growing pains.
I listen to when people tell me I'm making a mistake and I greatly appreciate the warnings. With that warning I still continue on so that I can witness a failure for myself to have a better and thorough understand of how/why its not ideal/bad.
I don't easily throw in the towel and I like to see how far I can take things. Take my engine with blown coolant seals leaking internally and outside on the ground. I switched to Ford specialty green and used the recommend pressure cap. This coolant turns to a florescent green powder when it dries. I think over time it's been building up like dirt on an oil leak. The car leaks less external and now actually pulls coolant from the reservoir back into the AST when it cools. To limit the dripping into the engine I pull the relief lever on the AST to release the pressure so it does not drastically leak past the coolant seals into the engine as soon as I shut the engine off. The next day I am maybe 1 inch from the top of the AST cap vs being 2/3 empty. I did verify only the rear rotor L2 spark plug threads were wet with coolant when cold. The T2 spark plug threads were dry so I think the internal leak is around the L2 plug and the external leak is at the exhaust section. The car is no longer overheating and I was able to do a few dyno pulls plus a fun test drive with Daniel Kuo. I know the engine is a bag and tag for a rebuild, but it was a perfect test bed to learn all kinds of **** on.
It's the reason why we do build threads, why we document everything. So that the next time we do something we try to incorporate everything that we learned about.
So yeah - just wanted to put some thoughts down.
My car is kind of on hold so I got permission from Calvin Wan to post about the refresh I'm doing on his RX7.
How did I get this gig - inherited when I bought Rotary Extreme. Rotary Extreme was a sponsor for C.Wan so I honored that.
I will start a refresh thread on his car soon.
Here's a random video I made from Ken Block's 1st gymkhana invite. RIP KB
Mini update on parts, hopefully the info will help some of you guys.
1. Apexi FC Commander LED upgrade
2. Like New HKS Twin Power
I am 55% sure I am going single turbo with the new engine. I am not after the fastest spooling or biggest hp possible turbo. I am simply after some old school give me goose bumps type feel when I open the hood and see something nostalgic, something that will keep its value for years to come. There are many cars faster than a 97-2002 gts viper, but when you see it you have a soft spot in your heart for it. It was the passion and the vision behind it, why it was created and how it was supposed to make you feel. I'm just putting feelers out in my circles and if I get a good enough deal my single turbo kit will be... dun dun dunnnnn......
HKS GT3-4R Single Turbo Kit. PN: 14020-AZ003
Why? Because HKS, it's as simple as that.
1. Apexi FC Commander LED upgrade
My PFC Commander was dying and I could barely read the numbers. I searched the threads and found info.
He did offer the factory amber color everyone wants, temporarily even me. I went back and forth for about a week and finally decided on the standard stock yellowish replacement. It would be the best contrast for my eyes and keeps the PFC stock looking. It did take a while to get to him in the land down under but overall it was not that bad of a wait considering the distance it had to travel to and from. The price was fair for the R&D that was put into it by these guys and I thank them for their service.
2. Like New HKS Twin Power
I'm really surprised this one lasted almost 2 weeks on the RX7 market place with over 300 views and no replies. You guys, it was like new with the box, matching serial numbers, manuals, FD3S specific harness, and the universal harness. If you saw it and procrastinated on buying it and now your kicking yourself in the butt, well you knew better. The price was more than fair for a like new complete kit.
Thank you for your time and consideration with reading my build thread.
pics 1. Apexi FC Commander LED upgrade
Last edited by rotaryextreme; 03-28-23 at 08:16 AM.
That's really nice. I have seen these kits since the 90's. But yes im on an HKS binge right now...lol.
Tomorrow I hope to put a deposit down on the hks turbo kit. Maybe later I can get the grounding kit when I get the new hks racing sqv bov.
Maybe it'll help my dual bat set up.
Nice wrote up too!!!!!
Woah what an update. That's exciting to hear man! That is going to be a beautiful setup.
Thanks Bro.
Its nice to be fast, but after a while I just want to be on the road.
And single turbos just look so sexy in the engine bay.
I love my twins and they feel amazing for the condition of my engine, I just always wanted to go single - with the new job I can.
Hopefully my next purchase off of ebay with a matching serial numbered box will show up. Kinda worried since the seller wanted to finish the transaction off of ebay, he also was a new account with nothing bought and nothing sold.
With the current rise in cost on collectable classic JDM products, I have been trolling the internet for parts with matching boxes. I was shock when I found an Apexi AVC-R boost controller that has not even been installed yet.
I got this from a guy on Ebay who worked with me on his asking price, and I would like to thank him from the bottom of my heart for selling it to me. I even got a personalized note from him as he passed his baby onto to me - Thanks Eddie !!!!!!!!!
This thing is complete with all hardware, booklets, and matching serial numbers on the unit and the box. I choose this boost controller because from what I read it's the best hands down and I would like to learn how to use it so I can support my friends who have it as well.
I start my car every 2 to 3 weeks to clear out the coolant from the engine and to keep things lubricated. I always let it fully warm up so I can check the rad and oil cooler fan operation. This time I noticed that when my oil came up to temp the second oil cooler fan did not turn on. In fact I saw a little smoke coming from where the wires went into the fan. I turned off the car and checked the relays and fuses, nothing stood out. The Davies Craig DC-0444 I have has set-points and the 1st fan comes on and then the 2nd fan 10 sec later. It's worked flawlessly until now.
My car was outside during the crazy new year's storms and I wonder if some moisture got into the controller. There is a note that says it is not water proof and mine is where the hood and headlight meet. This is a new design that came onto the market and has great reviews, but one review sounded like my issue. They said their second fan went out as well and the question of inrush current was brought up. Inrush current is a main culprit of fan controller killers and one way to solve it is to get PWM control which will bring the fans on without inrush current.
I found a few PWM controllers online but most had mixed reviews. I came across autocoolguy controllers which are PWM, ground based systems, somewhat affordable, and have great reviews. Since I am running smaller twin 90w fans which pull 7.5 amps each I felt the 85 amp model with dual fan set-up would be fine.
01 - Power And Pieces
02 - Bench Test Verified
01 - Power And Pieces
I needed power to run the test so I ran jumper cables from my car to the table and secured them with some clamps. I bought 2 new oil cooler fans, the 85 amp controller, a temp probe, and a thermo switch that turns on at 200F and turns off at 185F. The instructions that come with the kit are very detailed and Darryl the autocoolguy has the best customer service ever. I will verify on/off temps via the oil temp gauge and change the thermo switch if needed.
02 - Bench Test Verified
I hooked the fluke up to the temp probe and heated it up with a heat gun to verify it worked. Next I wired the fans pwr and gnds, controller acc and gnd, and wired the thermo switch to where it says to wire the fail safe switch to run the fans at hi rpm. I shorted the fail safe to gnd to verify the fans would come one and they did. Next I heated the probe and the fans came on and pulled away the heat gun to see the probe cool and turn off the fans. I repeated this cycle a few times for confidence testing and called the set-up verified. I also shaved down the probe tip to fit in the oil cooler fins.
This is a robust and reliable set-up and this will be what I will install on my car as well as on C.Wan's car. I will place the controller inside the cabin since all I need to route to the engine bay is 2 grounds, 1 is 10 awg for the fans and the other is 20awg for the thermo switch.
Enjoy the pics.
01 - Power And Pieces
Last edited by rotaryextreme; 05-29-23 at 10:10 PM.
I have been wanting to track down where some oil has been coming from in my IC turbo side piping for a while now. It was just a tiny bit but I wanted to know. Well, I went to move the car to work on the oil cooler fans and found a puddle of gas smelling oil under the car. Damn. I eventually found the problem as my oil catch can somehow turned into a gas catch can as well.
01 - Leak Checks
02 - Oil In Turbo Piping
03 - Oil / Gas Catch Can
04 - Add A Restrictor
05 - Turbo Pipes
06 - Eccentric Bolt Out
07 - Eccentric Bolt In
01 - Leak Checks
I moved the car out of the garage to take the bumper off for the oil cooler fan upgrade when I saw a dark puddle, super weird. At first I thought it was the coolant leak from the engine so I gave it the taste test and it was an oil gas mixture. I put the car on the lift and inspected the radiator hoses, oil cooler lines, ps lines, and all were good. Then I noticed the secondary turbo and saw where the oil / gas mix was leaking from. Damn, time to tear it apart and see where it's coming from - No oil cooler fans this weekend.
02 - Oil In Turbo Piping
I took apart the turbo side piping and found most of the gas/oil sitting in front of the charge control plate. It looks like it leaked paste the plate and seeped out where the flanges mate when the car is at idle. So basically the pri turbo boost is pushing fluid past the plate. The sec turbo shaft has no play and spins fine. The sec turbo charge relief BOV is clean so I know under sec turbo operation there is no oil getting past the shaft seal. There is also no oil overspray from the sec turbo BOV on the oil cooler. Time to inspect the Oil Catch Can.
03 - Oil / Gas Catch Can
So uhhhh, the oil catch can is definitely working. 550 pri and ID2000 (2200) sec. I remember doing the dyno tune and it was a little lean up top, then we made it pig rich, then backed off. Also along with running 14psi high boost, I wonder how much gas blow by I have now. Anyways this is a new problem and it turned out the oil catch can was halfway full with oil and gas. The check valve was clean in the boost lines going to the pressure chamber and turbo control solenoid valve. I know the turbo shaft seals are fine so the only was in was the catch can line going to the single turbo inlet for contact vacuum to suck the vapors. My catch can pulls from the nipple on the center iron and on the oil filler neck. When I poured the oil out, the mixture separated after 15 minutes and it looked about 1/2 gas. Well that explains what I tasted. I originally made this VM kit to maximize what the bigger BNR's could do in seq and non-seq set-ups. But when only the pri turbo is in operation it looks like this is a side effect. I also have a larger vacuum line for my catch can so it easily sucks the vapors. Time for a restrictor.
04 - Add A Restrictor
I am on my 3rd tank of gas since the car has been running so it seems like the catch can might be pulling too hard for it to have that much gas in it. I do not know what the norm is, I like how the catch can set-up is but I just need to slow it down. I made a restrictor pill out of a small aluminum rod. I put slots on the outside of the pill so when I tie-wrap the vacuum lines they will have a better bite. I put it in the turbo side in hopes it will be more difficult to suck up whatever fluid get's in there.
05 - Turbo Pipes
I cleaned the pipes, inspected the vacuum lines since a few are on the hot side of the engine and everything looked fine and were flexible. I did notice some rubbing between the sec turbo intake in sec turbo outlet piping but for the most part everything is holding in place. Time to put the car back outside so I can move onto a quick job - of so I thought. Replacing the oil thermostat behind the eccentric shaft bolt.
06 - Eccentric Bolt Out
What a royal pain in the butt, but I got it out. I have a new engine that is already out of the car and I wanted to put the oil thermo pellet in for safety reason. I have all the time in the world to allow the oil to warm up. My current coolant leaking motor also has this mod and yes, it does take forever for the oil to come up to temp. More importantly I wanted to do it on my engine before I did it for C.Wan's engine since his car lives in a race environment and needs to have every safety measure employed. If you can reduce points of failure you can increase the chance of winning. I lifted my engine off the motor stand and somehow it was sitting in a puddle of fresh oil. I got the engine on the stand and rotated it pulley side up to swap the oil thermo pellet. The typical rusty coolant/water came out, I'll do a detergent flush when I finally get the engine in the car. After trying a bunch of **** to get the bolt out with no success I went for the Hail Marry. I strapped the engine stand to 2 of my metal racks to hold it in place, put some foam between the oil pan and a shelf, and grabbed a 4 foot engine lift extension I made and used that as my pry-bar. I was shocked at how hard I had to push to break it loose, damn you Mazda and your RTV / Loctite.
07 - Eccentric Bolt In
I pulled out the stock oil thermostat and spring and cleaned the eccentric bolt and the area inside where it goes back in. I put the oil thermo pellet and spring back in and prepped the eccentric bolt with RTV on the flat face and the top part of the thread with red loctite on the lower part of the threads and torqued it to 200 ft-lbs. The eccentric bolt locking bracket was close to the original locking position, maybe 1/2 hole, so I tightened it just a tad more. Everything lined up like before so I bolted the front pulley back down and called it a night. It's amazing what my garage looked like after fighting just one bolt...lol. Time to do it all over again on C.Wan's engine - hoorraayy !!! - smmhh - j/k - sorta.
11-24-22, 12:35 PM
