Turk82

iTrader: (17)

Thank you, I should have another update tonight which will get this to just about current time.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

Here is the nearly completed wire tuck harness, my trusty sidekick enjoys walking all over things. Even though I don't have A/C or fog lights and some other things I wired it all up just so I knew there were no wires crossed up. I can always go back later and cut things out.



I also had to break open my twin power to fix a wire with a broken case. I made a thread on this. It wasn't complicated, just cut and spliced in a matching wire and shrink wrapped it. Then filled the case back up with silicon to seal it.



Then came formula D at Wall New Jersey. Naturally I was attracted to the Nexen Rx8 which was the lone rotary running that day. Unfortunately the engine let go in the first round.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

With the wiring harness pretty much set It was time to try to start the car. The good news is that it started right up. The bad news is that it still had a surging idle. I eliminated two of the only other weak links I knew of by replacing the ISC gasket and getting a fast reacting IAT.

When I pulled the ISC off I cleaned it up the best I can and while I was doing this I noticed something strange in the ISC. Really have no idea what it is. Its's a very hard rubber piece.







Bolted everything back up and started it up with the same results. I have verified that the TPS is in spec Numerous times. Here are some videos. Don't mind all the wires hanging out, they are all for lights or properly hooked up but just not routed in an organized fashion. Also have massive exhaust leaks.






I thought the PFC was learning idle and I was going through the steps of the learn process but it really never did. the car would settle down and sound ok and then it would go back to whatever it wanted to do.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

With the car still not running correctly I got pissed and you might say I got a little carried away but I decided to ditch the stock ignition and the PFC and go in the route of a complete standalone with direct fire. This will simplify the system and all wires for the engine will be new and fresh so the 20 year old wires will not be a factor. I started by pulling the motor again. This took all of like 3 hours.



Then I pulled the Heater core and carpet. Deep down I knew there was still something off about the frame of the car and when the carpet came up this was confirmed.











So I got in touch with my co-worker's friend who owns a collision shop and set up a drop off time to have it looked at and possibly pulled, correctly this time.

tt7hvn

iTrader: (5)

so you finally got around to getting knee deep in it and posting the pics of what you found....

now I see you're really in the same boat as me, lol

apparently it's the stuff you can't see what kills you

build looks like it's coming along though, I think a lil more troubleshooting and you would've figured out your ignition/idle issue. I just hope you don't replace everything and still come across the same issue.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

Ya, same boat just not as ugly even though the real damage is just as bad.

As far as the ignition and idle issues I'm not sure I would've got it figured out. I messed around with it for a few months replacing things as I felt necessary. The last item that I didn't mess with was the FPR and I had no reason to believe it was at fault because it held good static pressure. I think I will be happier with the route I'm heading because it will be much simpler and I will be the only one to blame if something is wrong. My wallet wont like me though.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

I had been thinking about converting to a manual steering rack for a while to clean things up in the engine bay because I love simplicity. I never really had a real reason to do it though until I dropped the power steering pump during removal and broke the pulley. I had two options Option 1: make a replacement. Option 2: convert to a manual rack. While making a pulley would've been simple enough I decided to go manual rack since it would cost nearly 0 dollars. While I was waiting for the date to drop the car off for frame assessment was the perfect time to do it.










These lock washers for the inner tie rods are impossible to find



I also did the mod to the door handles that relieves the stress on the worn linkage for easy opening and ease of mind that I wont snap them off.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

Then it was time to drop the car off at the frame shop to have its fate decided. When I dropped it off I was hopeful and after looking it over with the owner of the shop it seemed like the car really wasn't in bad shape. I informed him to measure it and then call me to decide whether it is worth fixing or not.

Mps_hell

looking more and more like the Flintstones car every day......
anyway good luck with the body

tt7hvn

iTrader: (5)

i think you're in pretty good shape.....as long as your suspension geometry is in specs, you would never notice that perhaps the frame was a little off.

however, with that being said, the tolerance is 4mm off center. I had stuff ranging from 12-20mm off center and I never knew how bad it was because my suspension was where it was supposed to be (whoever did the work beforehand bent the swing arm mounts so the wheels would sit center)

I would say that you're pretty close to be in spec, or not far from it. most of it seems just trying to pound the sheet metal back where it's supposed to be so there's no ripples and maybe a light pull to get it perfect. but hey, at least you don't have to clip it right!? lol

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

I thought so too but the car had been aligned at Speed 1 and I measured the wheelbase on both sides of the car before it wen to the frame shop. The rough measurements showed the driver side wheelbase to be roughly 0.750-1.000" shorter than the passenger side. And I can tell the driver side front corner was bent up because the car never sat on all 4 corners on jack stands.

Here is a picture from before the first time I had it pulled. You can see something is pretty off. I didn't notice this when buying the car because the wheel was always turned.



I also feel like the whole car is crooked. I took these pictures to try to capture it with the wheels dead straight. My calibrated eyeball says the driver front sits inside the rear and the passenger front sits outside the rear.

Driver


Passenger

93R1RX7

Looks like a lot of hard work went in.Good luck on your build..

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

An Update!!!

Over two months ago my frame guy informed me that he wasn't confident that he could get it right because of the plate welded to the rail and that it some other oddities that he found. I didn't see it to be a good investment to put money into a car that wasn't in anywhere near good shape to begin with and have no guarantee it would be straight afterward. Yes the car would still have a clean PA title but if I were to sell it I would sell it as an R title because I have morals. So the search began for a suitable replacement.

Originally I was searching for a stripped chassis. This was nearly impossible to find so I began looking for a roller. My requirements for a roller were clean body and nothing else but finding a reasonably priced roller with a clean body is pretty tough as well. I then started looking at upper end rollers and at 7-8k I was turned off. In this period of time I made contact with many owners with rollers, non-running, and running cars. one of the cars I stumbled upon happened to be no more than 5 miles from my apartment. This was as close to a barn find I will ever see when it comes to Rx7s. This car was modified right around 2001 in the F&F days, had 44k on the clock, and had been stored for the last 3-4 years. I pursued that car for a while but the owner was delusional about its condition and value.

I then went back to a car that I previously passed by since it was a complete running car. I had a friend that lived no more than 15 minutes from the cars location go check it out for me before I made the drive. He put it through its paces, snapped a bunch of pictures, and gave it his seal of approval. I then arranged my own visit yesterday and ended up leaving with the car.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

Details on the car:

93 touring with tan interior
77k miles
nearly stock
almost everything works.

Mods:

Blitz nur spec exhaust
B&M short shifter
Pettit Racing ECU

The bad:

Engine mounts, What engine mounts?
Oil pan leaks like a champ
no undertray
front left spring seat is dry rotted and basically non existent.
Clear coat on back bumper is peeling
Driver's windshield wiper does whatever it wants

Plans for the car are:

Fix the oil leak
Swap the AST for an aluminum one which I have
Find an undertray
change the engine mounts
Change all fluids
Swap coilovers and suspension from the other car
Drive the hell out of it in stock form for a while

I will drive the car in this form and work on making the built single turbo motor bulletproof in the meantime.

kelldog44

What are you plans now that you have two engines haha

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

The previous owner had the compression checked on this car by Speed 1 recently and it came in at 90 psi. I am going to run it myself to confirm that. While I drive the car in nearly stock form I plan to slowly work on the ported engine and make sure everything is sound with no shortcuts or compromises. I will swap it in when I want more power.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

I got a chance to dig into the new car today. I have to swap over the suspension components from the old car so I began with getting it up in the air to get a good look at what I was working with. As expected it's 77k miles with 20 years of grime on it and has never been touched. I also confirmed that the driver side front upper spring seat is basically nonexistent, dry rotted all the way through, which is causing the sag (not that it matters since I have coilovers for the car).

Crust on top of dirt, on top of spider webs and bodies, on top of more dirt.





Demolished spring seat.




I sprayed all the suspension bolts down with some PB blaster to loosen them up. Then I got to work figuring out what was going on with the driver side windshield wiper. The nut holding it on was brand new and barely tightened. I think the real issue is that the hole in the wiper arm is opened up a little and wont grab anymore. While investigating this I got side tracked and started taking the cowl cover off because I saw an abundance of dirt in it. It looks like a bunch of pieces of acorns in there so something was living in or near the car. It was parked under a tree so this all makes sense.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

I get side tracked easily so while I was fiddling with the suspension and the windshield wipers I also stated to track down the oil leak. I knew the oil pan was going to be the ticket. I crawled under the car and confirmed that the oil pan is part of the oil leak. The OEM paper gasket is still present and doing absolutely nothing. I also noticed oil grime on the side of the block on the turbo side. I assumed it was coming from the OMP. So I began to remove some things from the engine bay to be able to access that area of the engine.

Found some petrified stink bugs hanging out in the battery tray.



I also found this little treat,





Oil in the intake track. It's both pre-turbo and post turbo which confuses me since I would think bad turbos would only spew oil into the post turbo side of the intake track. Also, the pre-turbo side only showed oil on the primary turbo intake. Next time I get out of the garage I will dig deeper into this issue.

placd1

iTrader: (3)

I admire your perseverance and ability to get things done! I'm terrible at starting projects and giving up as soon as things get tough. In your case I'd have given up after I realized that the frame was bent initially and the vehicle had been in an accident. I just can't stand fixing other people's crappy workmanship (or lack of it)
That being said, the new ride is a steal of a deal! Hope you actually get to put some miles on it and have some fun driving before you take it all apart for the engine swap.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

I have a passion for the FD, like most on this forum. It's probably a little bit unhealthy but you have to do what you love. Something else that drives me is that I have pride in never giving up. I can't recall anything I have quit without finishing in my 22 years.

I did some reading on how the stock system is set up since I really only have knowledge of single turbo setups on these cars. It seems to be a fairly common problem to have oil in the intake track and primary turbo inlet. This seems to be caused by the two nipples on the oil filler neck and the PCV valve. One of the nipples is connected to the UIM via the PCV and the other to the primary turbo inlet. Judging by the minimal amount of oil in the intake track I would say this is my issue. I will inspect the turbos and determine if this is the case.

Since I am not near the car during the week I decided to go through everything that came in the car. Some of the stuff makes me feel great about finding and buying this car since its been bought, maintained, and stored only in PA by two owners.

Leatherman, padlock keys, some CDs, and a cassette,



Original warranty brochure and associated items along with business cards of sales personnel.



Registration, insurance, and maintenance records



Maintenance records from purchase until 1997 (Yes that's a TV stand made out of a Formula D tire)



Original pink slip from 1992 and previous owner's pink slip.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

I got some tear down done on the car today but had to cut it short by the lack of feeling in my feet. In my attempt to get to the OMP I had to take off the IC and duct work and broke the nipple off the AST (not a shock). After getting the duct off I noticed something was strange about the fans so I decided to drain the coolant and pull the rad to deal with the problem. This is what I found.





The blade is completely separated from the motor. I didn't notice it because I was too cold but the fan also seems to be missing a fin. Luckily I have a good set attached to a Koyo from the other car that should fit nicely on the car.

stockms3

Cleaner than my 07 ms3

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

So upon further inspection the fan wasn't missing a fin, that's just how they are designed and I never noticed before. So I will simply install the Koyo with the good set of fans and be done with that.

I finally made my way down to the primary turbo. Holy hell there is a lot of **** in the way. This journey got me my first ever look at the infamous "Rat's Nest" and damn that thing is scary. I refuse to touch it until warmer temperature because the once rubber, now glass, hoses are ready to shatter if they are touched.

My first horrifying look.



When I finally made my way to the turbo, after digging through all the little bits of car that had to come off I found some shaft play. This is obviously part of the oil in the intake track issue but for as long as I will be driving the car with the twins I am fine with it.

ArmenMAxx

iTrader: (21)

My primary turbo had about the same shaft play and leaked oil slightly. It was never a problem, the car didnt smoke at idle or anything. Occasionally, I would get blue smoke after a backfire.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

That's good to hear. This car blows a little blue smoke on startup and that's all I see. I will only be driving it with the twins for a summer so I am fine with their condition.