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Old 10-10-18, 07:03 AM
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6/21/12 - Banzai differential brace

I was still getting some wheel hop, even though I'm only on stock hp and have already installed my new rear end pillowball and poly bushings. I went hunting for a differential brace on the classifieds.



The PPF nuts were seized, so the studs just came out with the nuts when I tried to loosen them.



Nothing huge to note, except I was still getting some slight wheel hop so the search for an answer continues. I can tell the rear end has firmed up some or maybe its just a placebo effect. My differential bushings are delrin bushings so I'm sure its not that. I'll have to bring down the differential just to make sure though. I would rather have the new HPP 2 in 1 cradle, but there's still a wait list for that one as well.
Old 10-11-18, 12:59 PM
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7/4/12 - AC refurbishment part 1

All the parts for the AC refurbishment came in and I went over to another forums member garage to get started on dismantling the AC plumbing.



These are a mix of the lines I bought online from Fritz and the lines from my car. One of the lines was weirdly bent. Might have been for an non-stock intercooler setup


I had returned the SMIC back to stock so I could get at the AC without messing with the nicer couplings from the upgraded SMIC.


This is why cabin air filters are part of newer cars.



This was the old expansion valve. This is pretty much it for the disassembly portion. Chunked the deuce on most of the stock lines and some of the new lines. The next day is going to be spent on cleaning the lines for installation.
Old 10-11-18, 01:01 PM
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7/5/12 - AC refurbishment part 2

Started off the day cleaning the lines with this AC cleaning spray I bought from the autoparts store.




Prior to the AC refurbishment, I bought a new medium SMIC setup to replace the XSPower setup. Check out that new SMIC duct. Seems like it'll be efficient.


Here's the new compressor. It's actually the compressor off of a 93-95 Toyota Corolla. $130 off eBay vs spending $300-400 on an actual RX7 compressor.


The drier was a retrofit of the stock RX7 lines and lines off of a 1st gen Tacoma. It turn's out the 1st gen Tacoma / 3rd gen 4Runner uses the Denso drier instead of the MANA type. I had a local shop weld the aluminum lines. Turned out great.



Found some real R12 off craigslist. Held decent pressure. It wasn't perfect and we found out that the schrader valve was bad. Too bad it was after we filled up the system so that'll have to be dealt with later on after I finish my plans with the engine.


Spent roughly 20 hours refurbishing the system overall. AC works but it only gets super cool while at freeway speeds. Coolant temperature creeps while sitting in traffic or in the city. At least I can leave town with the car if I need to take it anywhere. However, now a days, if needed I can use my 4Runner to tow it with me for track days or if I need to go up to Rotary Performance in Garland.
Old 10-11-18, 10:52 PM
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7/28/12 - M2 medium SMIC installed

I moved from the XSPower SMIC to an M2 medium SMIC setup. The fiberglass intercooler duct I installed with the AC refurbishment came from this setup. The new SMIC setup came from allrotor, the same guy that sold me my FD. It just took a while because I was waiting on the Greddy elbow and finding the fabled cast hot side pipe that allows for strut bar clearance.






Side by side comparison shows a slight difference from the XSPower and M2 SMICs.


This was pretty much the high point of the engine bay. Only other upgrades would be fuel upgrades, direct fire coils, v-mount intercooler, and single turbo. Not all but at least fuel upgrades would be the next step, behind the scenes upgrade.


Next up are these Stance XR coilovers on the next update. These are custom valved for the FD with 10k/8k front/rear Swift springs. Received these babies a few days (7/23/12) before the M2 SMIC install.
Old 10-12-18, 12:23 AM
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Old 10-12-18, 05:59 PM
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The M2 piece is real history.
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Old 10-13-18, 08:02 PM
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8/14/12 - Stance XR install part 1

The rear coilover installation went fine..



Went ahead and replaced some of the old suspension bolts while I was at it.



It'll be nice to have proper suspension dampening again. Front bushings on the tokico shocks are known to wear out so hammering a seized bushing does nothing except just make it jiggle in place. This is where a BFG would have been useful but I didn't have one back when I was staying at the apartment. I didn't have access to a power saw so I'll be using a hack saw to get it but that won't happen for a few months.
Old 10-13-18, 08:28 PM
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4/10/13 - Stance XR install part 2

So 8 months later, finally dusted off the FD and took her to my friends place so we can cut off both front strut to control arm bolts to put in the front Stance coilovers.



Pretty straight forward, just cut off the strut bolt and chucked the old setup in the trash.





Although factory settings from Stance has the car pretty low. I can't really tell between the settings on the coilovers. Soft and stiff feel pretty much the same to me.
Old 10-16-18, 08:02 PM
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Bushings were the biggest pain in the ***. I still had wheel hop after coils and that same rear differential brace and bushings
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Old 10-18-18, 01:20 AM
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12/5/13 - minor updates

Not many updates left before we catch up with the present. Ticked over 90k back in 8/23/13.




Then I moved out of my apartment back in November 2013, so I had to arrange to leave my car at my friend's house for long term storage.



Bought a few supplies (12/5/13) to get the brakes ready for track weekend in December of 2013.
Old 10-18-18, 01:21 AM
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12/8/13 - front brake job

For a combo of track / street use, I just went with Hawk HP Plus pads with slotted Stoptech rotors. I didn't really think there was a need for larger rotors / BBK calipers like I did with my 3rd gen and 4th gen 4Runners mainly because the stock system felt pretty robust already.





Ran into some issues trying to break the rotor off of the rusty hub.




Pads were almost done.



I like the bite the slotted rotors give. Prefer them over crossed drilled, which was what my RS4 had and my CTR has now. The calipers have seen better days though and looks kind of off with the shiny new rotors. I'll be doing a complete rebuild in the future of the calipers and probably new finish as well. Not sure what color I'll go with though, I already have red on the CTR and 4Runner so maybe black or blue. I was also debating on rebuilding these calipers or just buying rebuilt ones from NAPA or RockAuto.
Old 10-18-18, 01:41 AM
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12/9/13 - rear brakes day 1

The rear brakes were a bit of an ordeal. The passenger side gave me some hell taking 2 days to finish the job.



Check out that crusty goodness.


Ended up snapping the passenger side bolt that holds the caliper in place as well.


To end the day, I couldn't get the piston all the way in with long needle nose pliers. Must be some kind of seizure of the piston going on. All I know is, I spent 4 hours going no where and the sun was already going down. Good thing I wasn't in my old apartment parking garage.



The work on the driver side on the other hand went fine. I should always know that things won't ever go smoothly on this car.

In retrospect, I could have probably left the rears alone since I needed the car up and running for the track day. These setbacks almost cost me my track weekend.
Old 10-18-18, 04:16 AM
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12/10/13 - rear brakes day 2

Third day working on the brakes now. Reminds me of my recent venture with the 4th gen, taking 4 days to change out almost all braking components. I pray that the hard lines aren't rusted through like what happened later on with the FD.


The piston refused to go in, even with the rental tool from Autozone.





Next up was to drill out the seized bolt. Just cutting through the threads was enough to loosen up the bolt from the spindle. I can't remember if I tried hammering it with a BFH though. I learned alot more with my recent brake work on my rusty 4th gen.



Fluid looked pretty bad. The rears looked just as bad even though it came out a bit more golden brown.


The aftermath with all the rust and metal shards that came out from all the work. The new pads have that nice sporty noise that sporty pads have on BBKs. Unfortunately, I can hear the rear passenger brake binding a bit on the freeway, which eventually went away. I'll have to try to rebuild the caliper and if that doesn't work, buy a new one. My friend was telling me to do some soaking in vinegar to get the crustiness off the caliper before rebuilding.


The car had been sitting for a good while, so I borrowed my friend's battery tender to top it off for my road trip to MSR Cresson.
Old 10-18-18, 04:48 AM
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12/13/13 - alignment / inspection / semi-detail

Took her over to brake check for one of those nifty lifetime alignments.



Turns out I wasted my money because the steering adjustments were all powdercoated like the toe links. They were frozen in place so I'll have to replace them before I can get them properly adjusted. I'll also go to a shop that specializes in alignments for lowered cars. Brake Check just doesn't cut it for this type of work. The guy also messed up and bumped my lip on the end of their alignment rack. Good thing for plasti-dip.


The next stop was to get the car track inspected.



Then I had my friend do a semi-detail, even though the track day will just dirty her up again. Needed a nice wash either way.
Old 10-18-18, 05:29 AM
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12/14/13 - MSR Cresson weekend

This would end up being my first and only track weekend in the car. Not because the car wasn't up to the job. More on that later.



Saw some interesting cars out there.


Including some other FDs, with one being an LS swapped.


My instructor they paired me up with had a first gen RX7. I didn't get a chance to do a ride along because he didn't have a passenger seat.



Also turns out the wash before the trip was virtually pointless. Dallas had an ice storm the week before, so I ended up kicking up a lot of salt/dirt on the way to MSR Cresson. I also had an off and luckily did not roll the car in the dirt


This was the last time the car was driven any discernable distance before being put into permanent storage for the next 5 years. My friend was nice enough to drive her around every 2 weeks for me while he had her. I drove her on my own once I moved her closer to my parents house.


By the end of the weekend, I could tell it was pretty good on the track with no brake fade and rotated around corners quite well. FD was very easy to drive. As you can tell, temps stayed within range after 7-8 hard laps. Attribute it to the cold weather but I'm sure all the cooling mods did what they were supposed to. The only thing that bothered me was the time commitment to keep up with the car between track days and spending a whole weekend away to go to the track weekend. I just figured it wasn't for me because between the car hobby, I started to travel more and picked up snowboarding. All the expensive hobbies started to add up. This is when I started to think that my journey with the FD was coming to an end. The brake job ended up being the last major upgrade I did to the car because after this I started to do a part out.
Old 10-18-18, 06:38 AM
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2014/2015/2016/2017 - mash up of updates

I'm just gonna mash the next few updates into one post. The only thing I did in 2014 was an oil change. First time I did a semi-long drive in the car since the track weekend, besides my friend driving it around his hood.


I also got around to finally taking off the track day stuff roughly 4 months after going to the track. It all came off pretty easily though with no damage to the paint.


In 2015, I moved the car down to Sugarland. My friend has a red FD that I had passed on when buying one. It was the only base model I ever found. He got lucky because this was when I started to part out the car, so he got my slotted rotors and semi-new HP Plus brake pads.


A month later in February of 2015, I removed the M2 SMIC with the intent to post it for sale but never got to it. It's still boxed up at the moment on my list of things I might sell. My other friend also got my base cloth seats.


I moved the car to my friend's storage facility, where he stores peoples sports cars and keeps them running as part of his storage fee. In June of 2015, I removed my turboII projector setup and the CF M2 box. I ended up at least selling the M2 intake.


No huge updates in 2016. I took a trip to Japan for the first time and at the Sega "theme" park, they had a full on car Initial D game where you sit in the car and the car moves around as part of the game play. It was pretty neato. I waited for the FD for my turn.




I also went on a tour of the Mazda factory. I got to see the assembly line for the ND Miata and the portion where they install the windscreen. The automation process was pretty awesome. They didn't allow for any cameras in the assembly area but I did get to see some pretty cool rotary lineage, including the 4 rotor racing car and a hydrogen rotary powered RX8.


Here's another oil change in April of 2017. Don't worry I did one in 2016 too, I just don't always take pictures of oil changes.




A few months later, I bought my house and moved in July of 2017. First house and I at least wanted a 3 car if not 4 car tandem garage. Settled for a 3 but I could definitely use a 4 car tandem for the project work. Having the work space is definitely a nice update. I had the car towed because registration had long expired back in 2016. I'm basically waiting now until 2019 for when I can register the car as a classic. I have one more semi-major update before I talk about future plans for the build.

Last edited by tv4184; 10-18-18 at 06:44 AM.
Old 10-21-18, 03:55 PM
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Great build. Where did you get the clear lens for the projectors?
Old 10-22-18, 07:54 PM
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Originally Posted by Johnny Kommavongsa
Kudos for all the work. Keep at it.
Thanks bro, it was a lot of hours pounding rust and laying in the parking garage back in the day.

Originally Posted by 7_rocket
Great build. Where did you get the clear lens for the projectors?
They're Sonar RX7 headlight housings. I didn't do the retrofit though I got mine from turboIIrotary. You can see his work here retrofit. Although you've seen it on my thread too.

Detailed how to here though: Retrofit How-To

Originally Posted by stevexk
Bushings were the biggest pain in the ***. I still had wheel hop after coils and that same rear differential brace and bushings
Yeah they are. I got lucky most of mine were delrin bushings so I didn't have to deal with the aluminum sleeve. I plan on adding the HPP 2in1 brace though. And I also have the front bushings to do...yay me.

Originally Posted by gmonsen
The M2 piece is real history.
Which one? They all seem pretty real history now haha. I miss my M2 intake though but it wouldn't work in my future setup anyway. Looked real blingy when I had it though. I like tiny bits of CF in an engine bay. My RS4 had like a tiny cover over the oil filter. Really made the engine look good with the red valve covers. I'm not sure what I'll do with the FD bay yet though.

I still have one more update from this past year to post before moving on. Not many pictures to add but lots of frustration that added to my desire to sell. Thanks to all the forum members comments on my sale thread though, it did make me change my mind in a hurry.

Last edited by tv4184; 10-22-18 at 08:09 PM.
Old 12-06-18, 05:53 AM
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2/2/18 - suspension downgrade

This will be the last update in reference to past events. My friend came over to swap out my Stance / Swift spring coilover combo for his stock / H&R spring setup. I had agreed to this initially because I had planned to sell the car shortly after removing the suspension. I was going to sell the coilover setup afterwards because my friend had already bought some DFV Ohlins for his so he wouldn't have been needing the Stances anyway.



The H&Rs sit way lower than my Stances did. I do plan on just putting the Stance coilovers back on, now that I decided to keep the FD. Couldn't justify going out for some HKS hipermax or DFV Ohlins.


The mileage is still semi low for a 24 going on 25 year old car. In a month, I'll be able to register the car as an antique vehicle and be emissions exempt in Texas. My registration has been expired for the better part of 3 years now. That's pretty much it for the build up and semi-break down of my build thus far.
Old 12-06-18, 06:22 AM
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12/6/18 - updates

I decided that I'll make a small update today, the eve of me trading in my CTR for my new daily. Two months ago I picked up a box of brake service parts from a guy on the Facebook RX7 marketplace. It is nice that there is so many avenues of finding parts, but then again you have to be pretty diligent to find good deals. The guy included some speedbleeders, hawk HP plus pads, and front / rear Stoptech SS lines. Going back down the path of focusing on suspension and brake mods. I need to source some new rear calipers, my current ones are pretty frozen.



He also threw a couple of other parts in the box including a Mazda coolant level sensor. Then I also got in some replacement bolt hardware to replace the rusty bolts on both the FD and my 4Runner. At the same time a Mazda keyring came in overseas courtesy of eBay.



Looks great, very racer-ish looking.


Next up, I just got in my HPP 2-in-1 diff brace / cradle last week. Looks very crab like. I'll be installing this maybe next week along with a couple of exhaust mods that have been waiting for a while.
Old 12-07-18, 07:44 PM
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Cool that you decided to keep the car.

We have similar taste. I DD a blk 3rd 4runner and have a blk FD.

My wife's has a CW FD on RPF1s, lol.

You said your AC still doesn't work all that great? You gonna try change anything to get it to work better?

What's next after the parts install?
Old 12-08-18, 08:26 PM
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Originally Posted by Johnny Kommavongsa
Cool that you decided to keep the car.

We have similar taste. I DD a blk 3rd 4runner and have a blk FD.

My wife's has a CW FD on RPF1s, lol.

You said your AC still doesn't work all that great? You gonna try change anything to get it to work better?

What's next after the parts install?
Haha it's probably almost the perfect combination. You have a practical daily driver plus a fun weekend toy. Dang 2 FDs...that sounds pretty awesome. I should have kept the RPF1s. I sold them a few months ago.

I haven't tried anything as far as my AC goes. I already replaced the expansion valve when I did the system overhaul. Only things I can try to do is replace the heat exchanger and the schrader valve. After that I can recharge the system. I'm sure the system is evacuated now because the schrader valve was busted when I charged it with R12. I'll have to settle for ES12a this next go around.

As far as future plans, I drew up a slight timeline and preliminary build of parts. At least plan on updating to 99 front end, some kind of vented hood setup, Recaros or Bride seats, upgrade the fuel system (new pump, injectors, rails, regulator), delete the emissions / airpump, have the 5th gear synchro fixed. Long term I do plan on going single with either a Turblown or Gleaseman manifold with an EFR8374 setup. Probably plan on changing out my PowerFC for an Adaptronic setup and getting the IGN-1a direct fire as well. Engine mods alone are tallying almost up to the price of the car itself...lol I think that's why I shelved the build 5 years ago in the first place but now with the new house, I have space and time to do things right. I'll probably do everything in stages so I'm not taking a huge hit all at once.

Last edited by tv4184; 12-09-18 at 05:47 AM.
Old 12-08-18, 08:36 PM
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Not a real RX7 update but this past Thursday I traded in my CTR to Tesla for a new Model 3.



Between not having to make regular gas station stops for multiple cars and the enhanced auto pilot features, it was a better move to have this supplement my 4Runner as the daily. I figured having the IS300 / RX7 was enough to satisfy my tuner car / manual transmission needs. Eventually once I build the FD to daily driver-ish status then I might make that hard decision on whether I should keep the IS300 around. Feels that the IS300 would be too redundant, that the manual FD would be more fun and the sedan form would be fulfilled by the Model 3.



I got one last farewell group picture before bidding farewell to the Type R. It is arguably the best combination for daily driver / fun / practicality in one. If I was a normal person and didn't have multiple cars, that would be the one single car I would own. It's funny, my delivery advisor was like a bit shocked and questioned my decision for trading in the CTR for the Model 3. I'm sure they took it around the block for a spin. In the end, the safety features / accident avoidance was what sold me in my decision. Anyway, hopefully my next update will have something more exciting in relation to the FD build.
Old 12-09-18, 05:53 AM
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Not a real FD update but I traded in my CTR the other day to Tesla for a new Model 3.



Between not having to make regular gas station stops for multiple cars and the enhanced auto pilot features, it was a better move to have this supplement my 4Runner as the daily. I figured having the IS300 / RX7 was enough to satisfy my tuner car / manual transmission needs. Eventually once I build the FD to road worthy status then I might make that hard decision on whether I should keep the IS300 around. Feels that the IS300 would be too redundant, that the manual FD would be more fun and the sedan form would be fulfilled by the Model 3.



I got one last farewell group picture before bidding farewell to the Type R. It is arguably the best combination for daily driver / fun / practicality in one. If I was a normal person and didn't have multiple cars, that would be the one single car I would own. It's funny, my delivery advisor was shocked that I would trade in the CTR for the Model 3. I'm sure they took it around the block for a spin. In the end, the safety features / accident avoidance was what sold me in my decision. Anyway, hopefully I'll have a more exciting update next time in relation to the FD.
Old 12-09-18, 12:50 PM
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Continued nice work on the FD. Still a bit confused about Tesla's and other electrics.


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