Thank you sir, I appreciate it !!
I have to finish Calvin's car, install the Nav and rear camera in the RV, and then I can finally get back to my car.
It sucks having everything for the car sitting in the garage waiting for all your other projects to be finished.

 

I'll have more to report back on waterless in due time - thank you for keeping the conversation going Ben

 

I think your system will be able to log the temp differences between the 2 types.

Your car is so dope bro.

I wish you were closer, I would have happily done the free VM frame upgrade for you.

 

What's up my homies, stay tuned because with FC Tweak I'm gonna stay in tune!!!!!!

 

Does anyone else find the intel logo front center on that thing to be a nod to being period correct?

 

now that you mention it yeah that's like super dope you're right it is like period correct. I'm not sure how old Xavier is but the fact that he has this much experience and is into the third gen RX7 shows that he is also bringing dreams of those 90s import days to our current times.

 

I put the PFC master controller in the Apex PFC Commander holder and it fits just fine fits perfect actually. I have a 95 so I don't know if this holder sits different because the glove box is different than the 93s. Enjoy the pics.

 

That thing is an absolute unit

 

that's what she said

 

https://www.norosion.com/evanstest.htm

 

Bousou 7 - Update 131

The Devils in the details.



I have been in home owner mode since I got my home and car life stopped. I accomplished alot of things I needed to do and now I can get back to the car life again. I fixed a lot of little things that were bugging the heck out of me, some caused by carelessness, some by inexperience, and some that just need to be messed with until it's right. That's life.

Well, I have my Lofi, Lulubeats, and 80's mixes playing so it's time get writing. Just a reminder, everything I do, I do it for you.



01. Windshield wiper Alignment

02. Firewall Dent

03. Electrical Panel Apart

04. Electrical Routing Booby Trap

05. New Ground Routed

06. Battery Grounding

07. Electrical Panel Together

08. Trunk

09. Coolant Flush

10. IC / AC Interference

11. Oil Cooler Fans

12. Dutch Bro's Coffee



01. Windshield Wiper Alignment



Somewhere on another planet I was doing a test drive and about 120 the front wipers went up on their own and at about 130 I was asked to slowdown because they wanted to enjoy the rest of their life. The first issue was the wipers were not aligned at the full down position and the wiper blades themselves were the ones that are designed to use the airflow to help them move up faster. This made me realize something, there is a huge amount of air pressure when it hits the front windshield. Could this be drag that can be improved or is this down force designed into the car. Whatever is was, it was enough to push the wiper blades all the way up into a vertical position on the windshield. On to the fix, when I took everything apart to paint the engine bay that is when the misalignment happened. When I put it back together and turned on the wipers they would always go down a little then go back up. When I took the motor out and turned it on I saw the more turning in complete circles. This means the motor has a home position when you turn off the switch, when you turn your car off with the wipers on they just stop where they lose power. Anyways, I had put the arm onto the motor shaft at the wrong position, thus when it started to rotate the arm still had room to travel to the furthest point (towards the fender) before it would start to rotate away from the fender. This would pull the wipers causing them to go down before pushing them back up. I unbolted the wiper motor, rotated it, and pulled enough of the arm out so I could reposition it on the shaft. I knew that it needed to go down to make the home position pointing towards the fender. After the adjustment the wipers no longer go down before they go up. Now I am able to readjust the wiper arms in the lower home position. I bought some new wipers, I went with 20 driver side and 19 passenger side. The book said 20 for both, but 20 on the passenger side was rubbing the top of the cowl panel. Yes I could have made it higher but I wanted the overall position to sit lower. I also lowered the driver side a little bit out of view. The wipers work great now and look much better. I also broke one of the clip covers, the big ones can be found online, E016-50-796).



02. Firewall Dent



The firewall dent was one that hurt. I didn't see it when it happened, but it's something that shouldn't have happened at all. I was using L-brackets that were on my adjustable engine lift brace and one of the L-brackets hit the firewall while installing the engine. It put 2 nasty dents and scratched the paint. While I had the cowl off the adjust the wipers I also took care of the dent. Luckily there was a cut out where the dent was and I was able to use a small body hammer to tap the dent back out from the inside. After about 50 taps, the dent was pushed out. I used some universal red for touch up and it came out pretty nice. It's good enough that if you don't know it's there, you won't see it. Unfortunately, I know it's there.



03. Electrical Panel Apart



I have this crazy dual battery set-up for future planes with the car. I got more of the electrical gremlins worked out but speaking with Xavier Borg is said it was AFU - (in a very nice way). He recommended to have all the grounds placed on the dual batteries, have a ground strap between the batteries, and a ground from the engine, and then to the strut tower area. I did have this set-up before except both battery grounds went to the chassis separately. I also realized that my copper ground bars were not ideal on the aluminum battery tie downs. So, out comes the back panel.



04. Electrical Routing Booby Trap



While investigating on how to rout the new 0 Gauge ground wire I discovered a future short if I don't do anything about it. I have the main power cable, the dual oil cooler fan power and ground cables, and some other wires going behind the fuel door and trunk release assembly. I noticed some scratching on the insulation and discovered the spring ends digging into the cable insulation. When you pull the trunk release one spring end moves and when you push the fuel release the other spring end moves. These spring ends were digging into my cable. I re-routed the cables above the spring end and added a furniture floor pad to project the power cable from the sharp edges of the bracket. No more worries about something I needed to worry about.



05. New Ground Routed



I was racking my head on how I was going to route the ground cable and I found a spot through the firewall. It goes through the floor to the right of the gas pedal and down where the floor meets the transmission tunnel. I used some PVC parts from the Home Depot sprinkler section and made a little pass through grommet. I ran the ground along the tunnel and under the drivers chair under the carpet and it comes up near the cage, then into the battery area. I put the floor back down and everything fit nicely. I preformed the main ground cable and secured it under the car with a cable clamp on the bracket that holds the brake lines. I attached the ground cable into the threaded hole next to the engine drain plug. I ran another ground from the center iron to the shock tower area.



06. Battery Grounding



I redid all the grounding for the dual batteries. Both battery grounds are tied together and then go straight to the engine and then to chassis at the strut tower, no more battery grounds to chassis. The oil cooler fan controller said to tie ground to chassis, that is on the battery ground now. I also placed the copper ground bars on the negative battery post like I had before. I added some more labels to wires so I knew who was who.



07. Electrical Panel Together



I put everything back together and took some pics with the driver side seat out so the LRB rear panels can be seen. I painted the RX-7 logo to match the gold and silver on the door sills and floor mats. I put 6x9's on top of the battery covers for that stereo sound. The bass comes from the Bazooka tube and the 6x9's are more for vocals and instrument sounds. I checked the battery voltage with my gauge and the main battery is really low at 10.0V. I wanted to see if I could start the car so I turned they key and the starter barely moved, then I heard the VSR kick on the second battery and she fired right up. It never did that before so I guess you're supposed to have the second battery ground going to the main battery ground for it to work. I rechecked the battery voltage gauge and both batteries are showing 14V proving my alternator and electrical system is working. Thanks Xavier.



08. Trunk



Speaking of the Bazooka tube, I made a special bracket for the rear carpet to slide into while holding the bass tube. It fits nicely under the rear cover.



09. Coolant Flush



I would take my car out every now and then at work but it would never overheat, just get low on coolant. After it sat for a few month I went to start it up to bring it home and it was completely bone dry. I filled up 2 gallons, got it started and towed it home. I took it around the block and it was never able to cool back down. I set the fans to 86 and the car can idle forever at that temp but as soon as I go into boost she heats right up. I guess the coolant leak is so bad now combustion gas is getting in at a faster rate. I also though more crap grew in the engine and radiator so I decided to give it a good CLR/Prestone Cooling system flush. There is a lot of coolant residue on the engine and sub frame, yup its definitely getting worse. I drained the coolant and refilled with CLR/Prestone Cooling system flush and water and ran it for about an hour. I drained that and saw some sand looking stuff like before - crap. I performed a second refill with the CLR/Prestone Cooling system flush and water and ran it for another hour and then let it sit over night. I drained it in the morning and when I opened the caps it looked like green tea matcha was floating on top of the coolant. I refilled with 50/50 coolant and started it again and it was able to ideal at temps.



10. IC / AC Interference



I noticed the AC dryer was rubbing against the IC so I reamed out the bolt holes for a quick adjustment. All good now.



11. Oil Cooler Fans



Next I wanted to monitor the oil cooler fan on/off temps via the oil temp gauge, well it needed to be addressed. I have a 200F thermo switch, but the temps would go up to 220F and hold. I swapped out the thermo switch for a 190F and installed another probe with more surface area this time. I shave it down to fit between the tubes the oil flows through taken care not to damage them. I have it on the 2nd cooler to prevent over cooling. If it is on the first cooler it will cool down more from the 2nd cooler and be too cool going into the engine. Now it turns on at around 205F and off at around 185F per the oil temp gauge at the oil filter pedestal.



12. Dutch Bro's Coffee



I went for a drive to check everything out and got into boost for a 2nd gear pull. It definitely took longer to get hot than before but it's still bad. Before it would last on the dyno - nope - not anymore. I stopped by Dutch Bro's where I let it see to see what happened and the temps just kept climbing, to like 98C per the PFC Commander. I drove it home and let it cool. I started it one more time when cool and it ran smooth just like butter. Next was to finish spraying phrases on the car (with plasti-dip), for HIN Stockton Halloween Haunt car show.



Overall it was a productive weekend. Next update will be reverting to the Greddy Profec B boost controller and installing Xaviers FC Tweak Master Controller!!!!

01. Windshield wiper Alignment

 

02. Firewall Dent

 

03. Electrical Panel Apart

 

04. Electrical Routing Booby Trap

 

05. New Ground Routed

 

06. Battery Grounding

 

07. Electrical Panel Together

 

08. Trunk

 

09. Coolant Flush

 

10. IC / AC Interference

 

11. Oil Cooler Fans

 

12. Dutch Bro's Coffee

 

Bousou 7 - Update 132

I kind of want to say nothing to see here, but if you love watching me tear stuff apart just to rebuild it again - this build thread is for you.. LOL

With the addition of Xavier's PFC Master, the PFC Commander will no longer be needed. Due to the size of the PFC Master I will no longer be able to mount Apexi AVCR like before. I originally installed the Apexi AVCR to get familiar with it so I could support C.Wan. Now that I understand it better I can go back to the Greddy Profec-B boost controller. I really love the simplicity of it.



1. Greddy Profec-B Re-Installed

2. PFC Master And DL-340 XB Wiring

3. Apexi Silencers



1. Greddy Profec-B Re-Installed

I pulled out the Apexi AVCR pressure sensor, boost solenoid, controller, and packed them all in the original box. I found the old bracket for the Greddy boost solenoid and reinstalled it. I had to add about 6 inches to each silicon line to get it back to the Greddy solenoid since they were cut shorter to use with the Apexi boost solenoid. The solenoid harness was routed the same way though the right side fender wall and then through the grommet in the firewall behind the fender liner. Last time I had some hair brained idea to have the Greddy Boost Controller on a swing out arm in the glove box. This time I wanted to mount it somewhere different. I know on top of the steering column is a classic location, but I didn't like how it affected the ambiance of the stock gauges. I have a double din radio so I can't install it near the radio as if it were a single din. Then I remembered there were 2 screw holes in the panel under the gauge cluster trim panel. I have no idea what was there but I test fit the Greddy Boost Controller ther and it worked !!! This location makes for a cleaner install and it's easy to access. It was also cool that there was a vent under the dash that held all the wires for the controller. I knee clears it and when I turn the key my knuckles don't hit it. Win Win !!!



2. PFC Master And DL-340 XB Wiring
The PFC Master install instructions are easy to understand and Xavier makes it extremely easy for you to install it. For the PFC Master you connect the power and grounded as directed, connect the other end of the power cable to the power connector on the PFC Master, then plug the PFC Master usb cable into the DL-340XB. I ended up splicing the Greddy Profec-B power cable into the PFC Master cable to simplify things. The only problem with my install was I didn't have the DL-340XB installed yet..lol. I printed out the install instructions for the DL-340XB and the only pin you need to cut is 3C which reads the factory O2 signal. Xavier uses this to assist in the auto-tuning portion of the software. For the AFR gauge I just moved it over from the FC Datalogit to Xavier's DL-340XB. The DL-340XB also gets its power from the PFC. I put shrink tubing (used cardboard to protect carpet from the heat gun), over open connectors used for the Apexi AVCR so nothing with short of cause interference. I also put shrink tubing over the PFC Master power connectors for good measure. I powered up the car and the PFC Master has its own high energy music that is playing. I changed the setting to my AFR gauge (Prosport Series), and changed to units to F, MPH, and PSI. The screen is so awesome and it's such a relief knowing I can easily auto tune now.



3. Apexi Silencers

I thought I lost these things. I live in a quiet neighborhood and now I'm that guy with the noisy car. Thankfully the Apexi Exhaust tip extensions are also pre-drilled to put the silencers in. Unfortunately the car is still annoyingly loud, oh well.



Enjoy the Pics.

1. Greddy Profec-B Re-Installed

 

2. PFC Master And DL-340 XB Wiring

 

3. Apexi Silencers