Lookin' good!

SR Motorsports flywheel, that's a blast from the past! I think I had one on my old FC back in the day.

What all new components did you use? Change anything to the porting?

Dale

SRM flywheel is old school indeed. Just glad they're still in business so the friction surface was still available. Impressive service BTW.

Other than replacing all the rubber seals, the engine remains unchanged. All the intake and exhaust porting are IRP's race port. It remains an engine with under 150 miles on it.

Even more certain that the coolant freeze expansion in -20F weather was the culprit of the coolant/oil mixing. The bottom of the C&R radiator was bowed out at the endcap from the same. Thankfully, that won't be a problem here in Texas. Much less in the new garage, but I also won't run straight distilled water again either.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...bc40b50648.jpg
Center iron casting piece
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...bc801d2622.jpg
Center Iron Crack
My foolish optimism that the oil/coolant barrier failure was merely a seal issue was cleanly torn asunder with the coolant pressure test. Apparently the irons aren't designed to deal with -20F ice. So I got that going for me... that's nice!

So all new irons heading to IR for some work.

...Big hitter, The 'Lama....

Wow! Glad you found that! I'm assuming you had to tear the motor down again (which sucks) but finding problem spots like that is REALLY tricky.

Dale

Dale, it's funny cause I was just glad that the coolant test precluded the reinstall. Easy enough to teardown, but would've sucked to remove after installation and THEN teardown.

Also, your comment about the trickiness of finding the crack(s) was my biggest concern. Without identifying the failure point, I was prepared to trash all three plates. I had a Bosch borescope at the ready but thankfully I was able to find the compromise with just a mirror and a little patience. So at least I could salvage the front and read endplates (only 10K mile) for some other build; I literally tested that they hold water. Guess those go into the parts locker... for now.

You say that like it’s a bad thing... ;)

Holy Ham Sandwich™ resurrection!!! I assume you had been swallowed up by the social media... or at least communities of more bouggie cars! :wink:

Seriously, VERY glad you're still around. One of the most interesting character in this place, in my not so humble opinion!

Lol. I'd almost forgotten about the ham sandwiches. You should see what I have in the garage now... in non-running condition, of course. :D

I visited Drew while I was in Texas in May and got to see his non-running RX-7. His wife was nice enough not to kill me for contributing to its present state. ;)

Well g'damn. Here's a name I haven't seen for a while!

Regards,
Crispy

I though this thread might unearth an old fart circle-jerk; so far I'm not disappointed.
Aside for the current Illuminati,
if I could just get Tuck, Max Cooper, Gene Felber, Sean (A-Spec), Brooks, and Kevin (in spirit) in,
I'd call it a "win".

Time is my enemy... on so many levels.

Okay, I'll play. Hi all!

Hi

Holy crap Gene... what a cool cameo!! Thanks.
Hope all is awesome and the cars fast AND reliable.

Wanna take a wild ass guess whose rollbar is my corn-to-noise converter!?!? ;-)

New IRP Street Ported Housing Irons
 

Thanks Ihor and your IRP team for the porting. SpicRacing Keg (vers. 5.0) is nigh...

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...f4b878e138.jpg

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...abf093dfb8.jpg

To Be or Not to Be...
that IS the question!
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...b93d43bfea.jpg
Motec M1 GPR Rotary

Gene,
Is that really you? 😂
I still have you web material up on my website!
I doubt anyone reads our old shit anymore though.
Regards,
Crispy

^ I was browsing on Triple R just the other night ;)

Looked around your site and the image of Gene's just last week. It's kind of remarkable how many old rotary sites are still around even when the cars are gone. Yours, Gene's, Max's, Brian Goble's, and Robinette's are all time. Steve Cirian's went down not too long ago which was is a bummer. That site was a chronology of RX-7 performance development. Keep going!

Crispy, I suspect you'd be surprised by the site analytics!

If nothing else, I'm glad I refired up the thread just for the old fart reunion. Hope more join in..


Now back to deciding how many HRD's my marriage can afford that I spend on this latest round of upgrades. :fingersx:

Indeed it is! I'm impressed you're still hosting that data and hope it's useful to some degree- though likely much is out of date by now.

Hey Carlos! All is awesome, but sadly I'm doing nothing with cars. I moved to Montana and have a pickup truck now :) Career and other hobbies have gotten in the way, but really nice to see you and others carrying the torch.

I was rather hoping that the new C8 would be the car to get me back into the hobby, but I'm very disappointed with the aesthetics. To me it's the new Pontiac Aztek of sportscars. Can't GM design a car these days?

My rollbar? Was that a Fritz special?

Gene

Gene, I have to admit some jealousy in having broken the rotary love-hate spell. Unfortunately I "haven't hit bottom" yet. ;-)

Definitely agree with you on the C8. It's a lot like the GTR to me: entranced by the performance, but damn it that face I couldn't live with everyday.

Finally, yes indeed it's your old (M2?) roll bar in my car. It's even still silver in color. Were you got it from, I assume you bought it directly from Brian.

I thought Genes rollbar was black. I came this close to buying his car from Fritz, and in retrospect should have.

I'm pretty sure Genes car has a V8 in it now but is otherwise intact.