tv4184

iTrader: (2)

This build thread is about 7 years in the making. I picked up the car on November 4, 2011. Initially I picked her up to do a track day build so I just wanted a CW and didn't look into the history. I probably should have been a little more patient. Previously a Minnesota car that must have been driven through the winter time, the car had surface rust through most of the underbody, but at least nothing concerning that will damage the frame or body panels. I'll tally the build history in this post as best as I can since it's been 7 years since the majority of the work has been done. I also got to a point where I was ready to sell it and did try to sell it a few years back. At that point, I did part out a few things like my M2 carbon fiber intake and gave my friend my base cloth seats. Another friend got my Stance coilovers and brake track setup (slotted rotors and hawk HP10 pads). This was back in 2016, and I had my car in storage at a neighbors place and then my parents place until I bought my own house last year. Been garaged most of the time I've had her and I was about ready to repost last year but the brake line busted near the separation point in the rear. It took me the better part of the year to get around to fixing it. Took several tries with the flaring tool til my friend said I might be better off getting a new line from Mazda, and thats what I ended up doing. Would have saved like 4-5 hours of work haha. Anyway after reposting the sale ad for less than 12 hours, I re-evaluated everything and figured I might roll with the build for the near future. Thought that if I had remorse and wanted to get back into the FD game, it might be harder down the road. I know that might have disappointed a few people that saw my initial sale thread last night.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

In a decision I sort of regret later on and frequently curse myself for, I picked up a second FD RX7 because of my obsession with white cars. If you can't tell by now, I mostly shop for white cars, sometimes settling for other colors depending on the situation. One of these days, I'll learn me some patience and wait for the right car to show up, like my low mileage 5 speed IS300. Shortly after picking up my V8 4th gen, another one popped up with 35k miles at the cost of roughly twice what I paid for mine. :ybrick:


While still at the seller's garage

So I flew out to Raleigh, where the seller picked me up and we went to the bank for me to get him a cashiers check for the car. Unexpectly, we had to fish a piece of a key out of the passenger key cylinder since that was the only side I could lock the car from. I loaded up my tool box (checked a bag full of tools including my torque bar and wrench), along with my other luggage. Before leaving Raleigh, I promptly made 2 more copies of the keys in case mine broke at any point on the way back. I made the same journey to Asheville like I did with my 4th gen to visit my friends. This was before my friend picked up his own 4th gen.


Broken key that was fished out



Spent some time around town visiting local joints that my friend, who had just barely moved there a few months prior to my visit. I also had to dial back in some height because the previous owner had it pretty much slammed. This not only made the ride terrible but it also messed up the front fenders a bit. I'll need to get a shop to fix this in the future, but at least they didn't ultimately become bacon fenders. After a short day and a half trip, I started to make my solo 2 day journey back to Houston.


12 Bones Smokehouse for lunch


Thirsty Monk for dinner and a flight

I stopped in Meridian, MS after the first night of driving and stopped at a Holiday Inn Express. It was pretty rough because I ended up doing the Tail of the Dragon three times, which ate 3 hours total. I lost cell signal, this was back when 3G was all the rage, so I had to retrace some steps back to the beginning of the trail to figure out the quickest way back. I ended up having to go back the way I came, hence the third time. Spent only 6 hours on the road because of this slight delay and also trouble shooting a vacuum leak, which was a simple line falling off of a sensor. I did the fix on the side of the road with a flash light and re-installing the spring clip that wasn't in place before.




Fuel stop before hitting the Tail of the Dragon




Tennessee border


Alabama border


Mississippi border
That concludes day one of the trip back.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

On day 2, I left early in the morning and made a stop in Louisiana at a hole in the wall for some boudin. This was where the lack of AC in the car started getting to me because of the swampy heat and being mid day. Besides the heat, it was mostly uneventful except for a giant engine on the back of an 18 wheeler. I had the old Minnesota plates on the car the whole time since the car was insured but not registered in Texas yet.


Holiday Inn Express continental breakfast


Louisiana border


Hole in the wall boudin lunch





Texas border


One of the few pictures I have of the car with the elusive silver FD and the other cars in the fleet minus the CB7 Accord



My souvenir from my trip to the Tail of the Dragon. Each car always gets some kind of unique piece to them. I was glad to be home after 2 days on the road and was pretty stoked at the time to swap over all the parts from the old to the "new" RX7. I did note that the car felt loads better, might partly be due to the mileage (85k at the time) and also the freshly built engine. The engine might be questionable because, although it was rebuilt like the previous FD's transmission swap, it was cobbled together with new and old parts. Remember to also note the Minnesota plates, that will come into play later on in my build.

Narfle

iTrader: (16)

Can't get that just anywhere. One of my favorite parts of LA.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

Some parts that I had ordered on 10/24/11 prior to picking up the white FD (which was on 11/5/11). Turns out I didn't even need the fuel filter. Looked like someone already did some aftermarket setup for the filters.



First thing I did when I got her back was to start swapping in parts from the old FD. This was exactly the next day too (11/7/11).




Went out to Harbor Freight on 11/14/11 to get the smallest shop press they had to start the bushing / "pillowball" replacement project.


Here's the stock "pillowball" and delrin bushings.


Barstock I had to get to make most of the weird angles work.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

Took a few tries after that between my friends and me to push out the first couple of bushings. Took a few trips to the store and iron yard to get the right socket sizes, harbor freight bushing clamps, and iron bars to make the right contraptions to push out the stock / delrin bushings. I think the bar stock I got had slightly rounded edges so sometimes the pressure we had on the bushing from the press would sometimes have the bars go flying. Good thing we practiced safety with goggles and shoes at the time.


This is the first time I encountered problems where I couldn't get a seized bolt out. The stock bushing just kept absorbing my hammering so I ended up using a hack saw to cut out the bolt. No access to power tools because I was living at an apartment with no nearby electrical outlets. Lived life on the edge working on a car in a parking garage. I used my 3rd gen as a makeshift storage shed for tools and random parts.


The Powerflex bushings came with some grease but I decided to use Green Grease at the time to grease the bushings. I think I'll probably regrease them with Mobil 1 when I start taking her apart again.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

The next part I swapped over was the B&M short shifter I got from my friend back in July. I followed another forum member's DIY on how to regrease the shifter. The shifter is known to seize up over time so might as well do it while its out of the car.


A busted shifter boot is pretty common with the amount of heat build up from the exhaust system and the age. The main side effect from this is the smell of exhaust fumes in the cabin. Most of the time it would be apparant when the car is stopped and less whenever the car is in motion.




The stock shifter on this car happened to have the Mazdaspeed aluminum bushing. I should have swapped it over to my short shifter but it was more trouble than it was worth at the time.


I had to drill out the transmission tunnel to get to the bolt since I did the install with the transmission dropped on the old FD.





Disassembly, clean up, and reassembly was pretty straight forward. The only big deal was to make sure not to lose the shifter springs and magnets.



Green Grease came in handy again.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

Next up was the steering rack bushings. Found the usual issues with a car that was lowered more than it should have been. Bent front tow hooks...






...and trashed sway bar mounts. Also discovered the radiator was meant for an automatic FD. The radiator has the connections for the automatic transmission fluid cooler.




Removal of the steering rack clamp wasn't too bad. At least I already bought new hardware from Mazda to replace the old one.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

The only downside to upgrading to Powerflex polyurethane steering bushings for the FD was that they needed triming. Powerflex makes them square when the stock ones have rounded edges. Superpro bushings actually fit better, but I didn't get them in time so I took out the dremel and spent countless hours trimming away and then test fitting them til they fit properly. Even the Superpro bushings need some trimming, just less because its a small line where the mould comes together.





The new bushings were more placebo effect than actually any change in feel. Still nice to remove a 85k mile 17 year old set of bushings.


I'll probably have to regrease these too and maybe recoat that bushing clamp.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

Small workings, painted the headlight shrouds with Rustoleum trim paint.


Replaced the broken shifter boot with a factory fresh one.





<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IK3LdL8Ts9o" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Also had a nice encounter with the factory alarm. My driver lock is busted so I had to disarm it by unlocking the passenger lock. Gotta refresh the lock set whenever I have a chance to remove the cylinders and find a locksmith that can do it.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

After working on both my 4th gen 4Runner and the FD, these look oddly familiar. The aftermarket replacements for the FD and the long travel kit sold by Metal Tech are quite similar actually. If I ever get around to getting both, I can post a side by side, but I guess thats the thing with suspension parts.



Ended up ordering some non-powdercoated toe links. I also had the guy sell me a complete set of suspension bolts off a lower mileage FD. I was using some grade 8 bolts from Ace Hardware for about a month until these came in.






Another trip to Lowes to get a 1.5" socket to press out the bushing in the traction bar. The trick here is to cut off "ears" from the stock bushing so the bar stock can hold the lower control arm in place while pressing out the stock bushing.





Here's a side by side of the old and new hardware. The old pillowballs were really loose. The new hardware will probably wear out quicker but the miles won't be piling on like before so they'll last long enough until I need a new set. I should have contemplated getting aftermarket toe links and lower control arms but using the factory hardware is always more cost effective though and if I polish up the aluminum everything will look like new.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

It took a combination of sockets available to me, larger ones from Lowes again, and a ball joint service kit from Harbor Freight to tackle the toe links. Some work from the hacksaw was also required.





The aluminum lined bushing made it more difficult to press out.



All flaps around the larger bushing had to be removed so there could be a surface to keep the toe link in place while pressing out the bushing at the same time.


Both the ball joint kit and the bar method did not work for getting the larger bushing out on my first try. I had to throw in the towel and try again a few days later.

Johnny Kommavongsa

iTrader: (13)

Kudos for all the work. Keep at it.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

After hacking some more of the rubber and aluminum off along with a trial and error of several sockets / ball joint combinations, my friend and I were able to finally press out the larger toe link bushing.








The new bushing will probably have to be cut off if I ever need to remove it. The polyurethane bushings have a lip that extends around both sides of the toe link arm leaving no room to properly press out the bushing. Next part will be the trailing arms...

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

Toe links were fun. Taking about 3 separate short days...




The trailing arms were fairly easy because the previous owner had delrin bushings in so they required very little pressure. The replacement bushing was another two piece, which will be easy to service later on.



The final product would look nicer if I had the tools to polish up the aluminum arms. That'll be a project for much later.

I'd like to say in retrospect, I would have skipped out on working on the toe links altogether. Aftermarket toe link arms would have retained the 3d movement the stock ones had because I noticed both the Superpro and Powerflex bushings do not flex like the stock bushings were designed to. Now taking into account the time/effort, the replacement arms I had to order, and the cost of the Powerflex bushings for the toe links, it would have been better just to go with the aftermarket toe link arms in the first place. Not to say I didn't enjoy the time I spent on them.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

I'm not always big on cosmetic upgrades but I did decide to order a set of these on eBay. There was a few weeks delay was mainly due to the seller sending me some MR2 signals by mistake. It's funny because I think I've been buying lights from the same eBay seller since highschool. A set of clear bumper/corner lights both for my old 93' Corolla and first 3rd gen 4Runner.







I also put in LED 194/168 parking lights instead of the amber light that was included. I initially wanted the smoked ones, but most sites had them for almost 3x the price of these non-smoked ones. I figured if I really want smoked ones, I can do it later on my own. These can hold me over til I decide whether or not I want to do a 99 front end.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

I received this retrofit kit in along with the TRS kit I used to retrofit my 3rd gen. At the time there were 3 options for the FD, one from Sakebomb garage ($$$), one from another forum member ($$), and DIY ($$). I say the DIY option is almost the same as the second option because you still have to get clear headlight housing and the parts to do the retrofit, plus the time involved in getting it done right. Just depends on how much your time is worth.







In a few years, I might consider redoing this setup with an MLED morimoto projector or just getting a set of RE-amemiya headlights for a sleeker look. The only problems are that RE-A headlights cost ($$$$), out of production, and halogen non-projector lamps. This means a retrofit would be done on some pretty expensive headlamps. The HID retros look and work great, way better than the fluted stock headlamps.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

The builder I bought the car from had an Optima red top installed in the hatch area. The car did not originally have a factory spare and I had the seller include it with the purchase. The battery not only took up cargo space but it also blocked access to the factory spare tire area, so the spare had to be carried on top instead of underneath the trunk carpet.





The factory carpet also had a nice cutout in it after removing the battery.



I kept the 4 gauge wire they used for the Optima battery. I re-routed the power wire inside the cabin under the carpet and through the firewall. The original route they used was through the fuel tank lid, underneath the car next to the exhaust and up into the engine bay to the factory battery mount. The battery post mount was coupled to the wire using a nut and bolt. Removed the post mount/nut bolt setup and just bolted the positive wire directly to the main fuse. Next thing to do was to modify the cargo bin to take the Miata AGM battery.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

I mostly copied my friend's battery relocation project as far as the tie down method and the use of a circuit breaker. Makes it real easy to service the battery or work on the car without having to actually disconnect the postive from the car.

I connected the ground wire inside the passenger compartment to the seat belt mounting pount. I didn't take as many pictures of the process but anyone that's done a battery relocation setup would know the basic details.





Battery was tied down to the car frame using a simple battery strap setup. I'll test the battery voltage from time to time with the terminal wire touching the battery ground. I used a Westco AGM Miata battery from GoMiata. It's been working well for the past 6 years and I keep it connected to a Battery Maintainer most of the time.



Voltage only looks high because it’s connected to the maintainer.

Future plans include rewiring the engine bay and the fuel pump once I get all the details together. The ground in the engine bay is pretty ghetto looking with the yellow ring terminal. The floating main power source is also just as non-asthetically pleasing.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

I decided to do some work with the engine bay with air flow and the coolant system. I decided on an M2 intake, which took a while to hunt down, however it didn't take too long to find one from another forum member. The good thing about rare parts is that someone is always holding on to it and might be willing to sell to fund their new projects.



Then I also got an XSPower SMIC from a friend in Austin. He spent a good deal of time grinding away the XSPower logo and polished it up. Looks pretty close to an M2 SMIC to an untrained eye.


The oem SMIC looks like it does very little cooling if anything.


The only downside is that I didn't realize I needed the Greddy elbow to make this kit work so car was going to be down for a little while til I could make it work.


Actually if I didn't have the M2 intake box it would have fit fine because I could have shifted it over to fit the smaller connection that was meant for the stock elbow. I should have done more research in the end because I ran into overall fitment issues. My RZ bar wouldn't clear the hot side pipe. I didn't have a proper place to mount my AST anymore after installing this SMIC either. It's not surprising that I used to rush into things before researching. Now a days though I might spend too much time reading and making spreadsheets on information before deciding on anything.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for that. Most of these are catch up posts since I didn't post anything when I was working on the car back in 2011 / 2012. I'm almost caught up now though. I have a few more left before I can start actually posting new updates. I haven't done anything significant though besides remove parts because I was about ready to sell the FD like twice, once in 2016 and a few weeks ago...lol

Yeah for sure man. I always love eating the local cuisine wherever I go. I make tons of stops on road trips whenever I can to get local craft beers or foods that I can't get back at home.

Narfle

iTrader: (16)

Do you have a duct? Intercooler wont work without a duct.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

Decided on the regular flow Koyo radiator. Looked so shiny and new that I almost felt bad installing it into my dirty engine bay. I also went ahead and bought brand new OEM radiator hoses from Ray Crowe.





This was a time that I wasn't picture heavy and I lost some of my back ups too. The cool thing about the replacement radiator hose clamps were that they came with these red metal ties that you just pull off and they clamp into place. So cool...lol


I bought an aluminum air separation tank from Tri-Point Engineering to replace the stock plastic AST. They don't make anything now a days but I used to like what FD parts they offered at the time. I never understood the shape of the stock AST being square, seemed like the coolant wouldn't swirl properly to get rid of air in the cooling system. It'd be cool to add something like this to the 4Runner but we don't have any issues with cooling plus a lot of RX7 owners end up deleting this. If you can properly flush your cooling system, you should never have any air bubbles in the first place.


I also met up with a local forum member to talk about the process for restoring the AC system. He had a pretty cool rotary engined pickup truck with TE37x wheels. He recommended on getting a full MANA set of lines, just in case the ones I had were bad, an extra condenser, new compressor, new expansion valve, and rig up a new drier. The new drier was to replace the MANA drier, which was a pain to find a replacement for. For FDs, there was the MANA (port installed) and a JDM (factory installed) AC setup. Differences were very small but mainly the drier for the JDM setup is very easy to find, while the drier for the MANA setup is pretty much impossible. I guess this is partly the reason why most people just ditch the AC setup altogether. The other reason would be racecar...

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

I decided that it was time to clean up everything and do a photoshoot.


Some last minute touch ups from exhaust carbon build up.





Exterior was mostly factory, most of the mods were to suspension and engine bay. At least the height was adjustable thanks to the Tokico/M2 coilover setup.



Also replaced the old PowerFC commander with an OLED commander.


I liked this shot I did a few days later too. If you're still keeping up, by this time I took off my R1 lip and ziptied on a 99 spec lip to my 94 bumper. A nice side profile of all of my cars at that time.

tv4184

iTrader: (2)

At the time, my friend was just starting out with his detailing business so he offered to do a correction and debadge what could be debadged from the rear.








The SBC RPF1s always looked great when they were cleaned properly.



I went ahead and fixed the sagging lip. When I first installed the 99 lip, I ziptied the factory holes to the ones on the 99 lip which obviously doesn't line up. So I did the reasonable thing and just drilled a bunch of small holes in inconspicuous areas and just did about 6 zip ties per side to get the lip as close as possible. I plastidipped the lip because initially it was white but the previous owner must have hit something so it had a giant spider crack on the edge. Looks good enough for a track build anyway.