Turk82

iTrader: (17)

I didn't necessarily get any work done on the new car other than loosening some bolts but I did take advantage of the good weather in PA this weekend by stripping down the old car to bare bones. I got both front and rear suspension off the car in one piece to save time and effort. I just have to disassemble it from each subframe, clean it up, and install it on the new car.

It's sad to see an FD like this









Couldn't resist taking a parting shot when I left the garage for the night.

tt7hvn

iTrader: (5)

i know the feeling of looking at your car and having your heart drop because of it's current condition....but yet, you have to get through the hard stuff to get to the good stuff!

you'll be rolling around soon enough and look on the bright side; you have double the amount of parts!

btw, didn't PA have a massive infest of stinkbugs a couple years back? I remember visiting a friend up there and they were like locusts!

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

I know what you're saying. The tweaked car was my baby for over 3 years and even with all of its imperfections I still treated it like it was pristine. Looking at it now I am still sad to see it in its current condition but sometimes bad has to happen for something good to happen. And I do now have more parts then I know what to do with .

As for the stink bugs. I don't recall an infestation of them, at least not in my area. Maybe to the south of me where this car came from. I would definitely have taken note of a large amount of insects flying around. I am the first one to run when there is any kind of bug. It doesn't matter what is in my way, women, children, dogs, cats. When I see a bug I'm out of there.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

Well it was a sad day today. I watched my old baby be towed away to a new home. I woke up early and finished stripping it down before the buyer showed up.

If anybody reading this thread need some random parts I probably have them so just shoot me a PM and if I don't need it it's yours.

Might have shed a tear or two.







And then the tears quickly went away.




Now I have to sort through all the parts and separate things for sale and things I'm keeping. If the weather ever gets warm in PA I will get to resealing the oil pan and swapping all the suspension over.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

Had a sunny weekend in PA but still not warm enough to want to reseal an oil pan. This prompted me to decide to take on a light job, swapping the peeling rear bumper with the nice and shiny one from the old car. This job turned out to be not so light and my back hates me now.

These torx drives are bastards and the points rust off of them. Had to break out the Dremel and the impact driver for one of them. I have to think of something I can replace them with.


Half the interior removed all for just 4 bolts. Truly a nightmare. The new bumper wont go back on until its warm enough to wash all the crap from behind it.


New bumper ready to go on, need some double sided tape to make the valence fit nice and flush. Also, some jackass put the RX-7 logo in the wrong spot so Ill design a vinyl one or do the Cx-7/Rx-8 thing. Needs some touch up paint here and there but its much better than peeling clear.


Also took the hood off because its much easier to work without it there.

Fd3BOOST

iTrader: (7)

That's a really weird place to put the RX-7 badge.
The PO must have been drunk.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

I prefer to think he was terminally ill with a brain tumor impairing his ability to think anywhere near clear. That belief is based on fixing 3 years of pulling your hair out WTF things on the old car.

TomU

iTrader: (11)

Is there a market for a tweaked chasis? I am also the proud owner of a tweaked chasis

And hat's off to your effort which may be attributed to being an ME (being one myself)

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

The new owner has access to the tools to fix it and the parts needed. If it didn't sell I would've cut piece off that people needed, like quarter panels and such.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

Since all my knowledge is of single turbo nowhere near stock FDs I have to ask some questions about the cooling system. I plan to eliminate the AST, no big deal, need an FC cap and filler neck piece from Ray. I figure while I'm ordering I should order an FC thermostat aswell since it opens earlier. Is this necessary? I wasn't concerned about this on the other car since the PFC was set to kick the fans on at 80 or 85.

Another question is about the Radiator. I know the stock one is somewhat garbage but is it sufficient for a summer in PA? I have a Koyo but I doubt it will fit with the OEM SMIC and the air con components. and I modified the inlet to fit with a rad hose that fit the previous FMIC setup (not a huge deal to weld it back to original if it will fit in the car.

TomU

iTrader: (11)

Cooling is the Achilles’ heel of the FD. I just killed mine after multiple track events. It was completely stock and i was reading over 300F temps. Of course i was having too much fun to back off, so here i am. As for the AST, there's some consensous it provides a usful function and is worth keeping as it aids in air elemination in the cooling sys. As forthe Koyo, it's supposed to fit stock placement with only minor fitment issues. Fluidyne and Ron Davis are also supposed to fit (I have a Ron Davis on order and will report back on the install). A 2nd oil cooler is also recommended. Suggest you check out the 'The Big Fat FD3S Cooling Thread' and others on the subject.

Tom

TomU

iTrader: (11)

And for the thermostat, Pettit makes a quicker opening stat as well as a fan switch that turns on the fans earlier. There are other vendors that provide similar.

Tom

Fd3BOOST

iTrader: (7)

I eliminated the AST on my last fd with a single turbo and never had any overheating issues.
It would track usually around 80 C under normal street driving conditions. Never saw a temp spike above 90. I was running a mazda comp rad.

Your koyo should fit fine and yes you should swap out your thermostat, IMO.

Johnny Kommavongsa

iTrader: (13)

man sorry to hear about the frame damage, im in for updates.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

Alright, Ill test fit the Koyo this Sunday and try to get the inlet welded back to stock over next week. As for the T-stat, I should just need the FC Stat and a replacement gasket for the filler neck? or just seal it with The Right Stuff when I'm doing my oil pan?

Thanks to all that help me out
Ryan

Edit: From pictures it looks like it seals with an O-ring, I'll check my FSM to confirm.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

No real progress, it's still too damn cold to do anything notable. But, since I have two sets of tail lights I decided to do a 99 spec conversion. I only opened the lights up so far but it was much easier then I expected. I have to go get my arts and crafts supplies tomorrow to mask them off. These should turn out just like all the others but if they dont I still have some stockers.

tt7hvn

iTrader: (5)

^ I definitely need to do that

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

Cutting the circles out of contact paper has proven to be a royal pita. I'm going to have to recruit my roommate to hold the compass while i pull the paper through the blade.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

This weekend was above 32 degrees so I actually got some work done. That doesn't mean my garage was warm, it still felt like a meat locker in there. I stripped the front suspension and brakes so make room for the fresh arms with Powerflex bushings already installed. Also had to remove the brake lines so I could install my SS lines.

I didn't want to pull the engine to do the oil pan because the car is nearly bone stock and never been touched so I didn't want to break bolts and gaskets just to do an oil pan. Ill suffer and do it on my back. Lifted the motor off the subframe, dropped the subframe and pan, and then set the motor back down on some wood blocks with the hoist still attached for safety.



By far the grimiest thing I've ever pulled off a car.





The oil pan wasn't sealing anything. It was previously sealed with an OEM gasket and RTV between the oil pan and gasket. This method didn't seem to work. I'll be using the tried and true "The Right Stuff" method with all steel motor mounts.






I also gave up on trying to cut circles. That wasn't turning out well with any method I tried. I resorted to a much more efficient approach. Contact a person that does vinyl cutting and ask for the size circle you need cut out of whatever colors they have laying around. In my case it cost me nothing because I have a friend that does vinyl but it shouldn't cost more than the contact paper costs.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

It wasn't necessarily a warm weekend but I got a lot done on the car. I had a friend come up from Philly to help and we got the suspension and brake lines done, along with getting the oil pan resealed and new motor mounts installed.

Powder coated goodness





After we called it quits on Friday night. Got the rear suspension and brake lines installed and re-greased all the Powerflex bushings.





My roommate's 240 also sold so we pushed that out for the new owner to pick it up and make room for the parts explosion.



It's a little sad to see a clean 240 go. a fairly rust free 240 is a rare breed in the northeast.



Oil pan resealed, Finally.





All suspension and brakes done!!!!

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

Part of the bargain was that I had to help install engine and transmission mounts in my friends speed3. Simple job on these cars, only a few bolts to remove and re-install. Had it done in under 2 hours.






Lets take a minute and talk about spare parts. I didn't realize how many parts I had stacked up over my 3.5 years of owning an FD until I cleaned some stuff up and organized today. Its getting to the point that I don't want to store anything else in the garage attic because its overflowing and probably nearing the floor's limits.



This is only 1/4 of the attic



After I did some cleaning and organization I took a parting shot for the night to remember all the hours put into the car this weekend.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

Just a little bit of progress. I did the thermoswitch swap, well sort of. Pulled the alternator and yanked the old one out, put the new one in and then the wire snapped. The simplest things always turn into the most pain in the ***.

Old vs. new



and $%&#



Napa ages some of their belts to ensure the quality it the best on the market.



Finally got the vinyl laid down on the tail lights and painted them. It got really cold out as I was painting so my paint can got sketchy and gave me two beautiful little drops on one of the lenses so I hope they're not noticeable through the outer lens.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

Had a beautiful 80 degree weekend so I got to work. What I got done might not look like all that much but a ton of things got knocked off the checklist. I'm pressing for time now because I have to have the car at my alma mater's car show on the 27th since I used to be in charge of the show.

This is how the list began Saturday morning. I added more to this since and have crossed a good bit off. Let hope I can get it all done in two weeks.





Anyone here ever seen these on the studs in the trunk? I assume these are pretty rare to come by these days.





I had trouble fitting the Koyo but with some grinding on little bits of it and sanding on the fan shrouds I got it all to fit in. I just have to have the inlet re-welded AGAIN because it was sitting too high and I couldn't get the airbox to sit low enough with the hose on.



Most of the engine buttoned up. The radiator is the real key to the puzzle here.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

Today's win. My coworker had a little bit of wheel paint left over from one of his projects and I had center caps that were black and silver. We put the two together and came out with beautiful toilet bowl center caps.

Turk82

iTrader: (17)

It's alive!!!!!!

The three day weekend gave me all the time I needed to get the ride height set, the motor bits all fit back up, and get her washed and test driven.

This is how it sat when I first put it on the ground. Really high in the rear. I should have set the coils all equal before install but I was just happy to get it all installed at the time.



Video of the first start the next day. The first is from a cold start and the second is after the car was all warmed up and idled down. The smoke coming from the turbo side is oil burning off that dripped out of the Y-pipe when I removed parts.



Easter morning was beautiful so I took advantage and bolted all the rest of the engine components back on and pulled the car over to my other driveway for a much needed wash (probably 5 years without one). I left the hood off because the engine bay was incredibly dirty.










After my family got together and ate our meal I took the car for a spin around town with the hood off. The alignment is off which is expected after a full suspension job but no major issues. I only got the car into boost for a split second when I blew an intake pipe off (This genius forgot to tighten it). The car will go for an alignment this week, get another wash and then a wax, and see its first car show on Sunday.