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Time to get a little more up to speed. I thought I was going to get caught up on this thread last week, but I did that thang and ordered a bunch more parts, so we will see if I get caught up next month.
I finished assembling the long block and converted the Rx-8 transmission to an Rx-7. It was ready to go into the car. It went in one go with a lot of adjusting. I was able to get it in with the downpipe on and the AC compressor attached to the lines. It took four people and was not pretty, but it worked.
Everything was going together fine and then we went to bleed the clutch. The fitting for the hard line running from the master cylinder was stripped from removing the old clutch line that had broken. I got some brake line from Napa and bent a new one to replace. Not as good as OEM, but not bad either. I am sure someone with more skill could make a perfect one. Next it came time to bleed the clutch. At this point it was the end of the day and me and the boys were worn out so I do not have any pictures, but here is how it went down. The master cylinder was ruined. I am assuming from sitting in the engine bay with no fluid. Basically, the plunger for it was sitting cockeyed with a hole in it. I ordered a new Exedy unit from Mazmart (they are selling them for the lowest price). A friend had warned me that the Exedy units sometimes leak. Sure enough the one I bought leaked, but after taking it apart and using a little Teflon tape I have not had an issue.
(hard clutch line bent into form)
Okay now time to start the car. Anndd it does not start. We got it to start with starting fluid so I knew it was a fuel related issue. After pulling the UIM and running the fuel pump for diagnosis I realized the injectors were getting fuel but not firing.
Here’s what happened. I got the original injectors cleaned at a diesel performance shop. They were able to put them in the ultrasonic cleaner, but could not adapt them to their flow testing machine. Dale had warned me to lubricate and test the injectors before installing them, but I was being lazy and ignorant and did not listen to his advice. Thankfully my friend Mike (cannot remember his name on the forum) sold me his old injectors, which were cleaned and flow tested for a reasonable price. If I could have done it all over again I would have not even bothered to get my injectors cleaned. Lesson learned is to take them to a reputable shop that can flow test them or make sure you lubricate the bottom of them with WD40 and cycle them with 12 volts on a bench. I will spare the pictures, but I think it goes without saying, pulling the primary injectors is no fun task.
Alright, so injectors come in and the car starts and is happy. I have been driving it everywhere to break it in (nothing is worse than driving with no boost during the break in). Here are a few pics of it taken with my buddy’s Miata.
As the final cherry on top I put one of those overpriced pieces of felt under my hood. He is a comparison for how it lays.
There are a few problems with the car I am going to address. First it is leaking oil. Like the lazy noob that I am, I did not replace the copper washers around the oil cooler lines, so those are being replaced ASAP. The brakes are trash. While we were bleeding the clutch, we bled the brakes (they needed new fluid bad). I am still not happy with the brakes at all, so I ordered steel lines and a caliper rebuild kit. I have a handful of other things in store that I will update the thread on, but those are just the issues coming out of the rebuild.
You would have thought this thread was dying based on my latest activity. Work has dwindled down this month with my job, so I figured I would update the thread with what has gone on and where the car is going. For the past year I have just enjoyed driving the car. I put somewhere around 3000 miles on it and have had a blast. I added a few small things since completing the car and will update with photos on it soon.
I was not completely satisfied with the engine bay after finishing the rebuild, so I snagged a used HKS RS intake. It was in pretty bad shape, but Boosted Shine Therapy out of Navarre Beach, FL took care of it. I ditched the old HKS mushrooms in favor of some K&N filters. I am very satisfied with how it came out. I boastfully think I have the best looking engine bay for a car with the stock intercooler. (Do not worry the intercooler will be replaced with a better unit).
Now unfortunately the car has had some issues that I will be addressing. First of all it is leaking oil bad. I still have good oil pressure, but I pretty much have to keep drip trays underside the car to avoid ruining my garage. The leak is around the driver's side motor mount, so luckily it is not around anything hot that could catch fire, but it is still far less than ideal.
Second, I am done with the Power FC. I know there are some forum members who will take them to the grave and I do not blame some of them. To me the Power FC is perfect if your car is completely stock and you want to get rid of a precat or lower your fan temperature. Other than that, it is very outdated. The Power FC has a snowball effect, that I do not think many user's realize. Here is what I mean. I bought my PFC with a datalogit, commander, and Turbo Jeff mount for $900, which was a great deal. However, I had to buy a wideband (no biggie) and a boost controller to control the boost (more on this later). Those together were in the ball park of $550. Then I had to tune the car. There are very few places that will/can tune a power fc. Living in what is basically Mexico, my best option was FC Tweak and that is another $200. FC Tweak is great at what it is, but I am no tuner and would prefer to have a real tuner check my work before putting my investment on the line.
My two big problems with the Power FC are that it's boost control is not sufficient and requires a stand alone boost controller and its inability to control injectors outside of the stock sidefeeds. I am using an AEM Truboost, which does not adjust for atmospheric conditions. Whenever we would have a cold day in south Texas I would have to fiddle with the gain to avoid overboosting and then do the same when it warms up. I could have bought a more capable boost controller like the turbosmart E-boost, but that is another $600 to spend. Then there is the injector control at idle. I am on the stock injectors with a deleted air pump. With the AC off I could never get the car to idle correctly above 13:1 AFR. My exhaust would stink, even with a Bonez cat. The Power FC cannot control primary injectors above 850CC and is really only happy with the 550CC.
So basically I paid for $1650 for an ECU that does not do everything I want or a modern ECU should do. For those reasons I am switching to the Haltech Elite 2500. I could have gone with a 2000, but I picked up an open box 2500 for $1700. My car's wiring harness is pretty crusty with several patches, so I am having a custom harness built for this application. Yes I do realize that the Haltech does cost more and I will not be saving money, but the cost difference is not significant enough for me to justify continuing with the PFC. I will get better control, data, and remote tuning.
Finally, my engine gave up the goat. I busted another coolant seal. For the past two to three months I have had a difficult time starting the engine. It would fire up pretty fast, but then only run on what sounds like one rotor without applied throttle. It would then clear itself out at 2k rpm and idle fine. I was constantly getting that annoying coolant buzzer when I would start the car at idle. I thought this was a clogged or failing IAC. After a rabit hole of testing the IAC, a compression test, and a coolant pressure test I determined the rear iron coolant seals were shot. I am not too upset as I was planning on pulling the engine to fix the oil pan leak, upgrade the injectors, and install the new wiring harness.
Man, I need to update this thread. I'll keep it short. I moved back to Florida and pulled my engine and transmission. The transmission was pulled to swap the 5th gear. My car currently has a JDM 4 port Rx-8 transmission, which is great, BUT the 5th gear is way shorter than the USDM Rx-7 transmission, so me and Dale will be swapping just the 5th gear out of my worn USDM transmission.
I stripped down the engine and brought it to the Guru. I have a bad center iron. A new iron is on order from Ray. Still waiting on my Haltech wiring harness from my tuner and my intercooler from RHD Japan. A friend gave me a barely used set of 93 spec turbos, so I think I will be running those to save a little money for the rest of the already over budget build.
Last thing I cannot decide on is whether or not to get the engine bay painted. With the engine out I went over the bay a couple times this weekend with degreaser and a pressure washer. It was a little discouraging as I thought it would look significantly better, but it did not. My bay is not atrocious, but it does have a lot of paint chips, fade, and even some surface level rust. I figure, while the engine is out this is as good a time as ever, because when else will I have it out again? Then again this time last year I never would have thought I would be pulling the engine again. I do not feel confident enough in my abilities to paint it right, but I am not sure how much more money I want to keep dumping into this project, to have a professional do it. Any feedback or suggestions are welcome.
Last thing I cannot decide on is whether or not to get the engine bay painted. With the engine out I went over the bay a couple times this weekend with degreaser and a pressure washer. It was a little discouraging as I thought it would look significantly better, but it did not. My bay is not atrocious, but it does have a lot of paint chips, fade, and even some surface level rust. I figure, while the engine is out this is as good a time as ever, because when else will I have it out again? Then again this time last year I never would have thought I would be pulling the engine again. I do not feel confident enough in my abilities to paint it right, but I am not sure how much more money I want to keep dumping into this project, to have a professional do it. Any feedback or suggestions are welcome.
I'm going through this right now myself. I have my engine out, and even with cleaning it doesn't look up to snuff. Before i cram everything back in the engine bay, i cannot just ignore it. I bought some mazda Brilliant Black in a spray can mixed at my local paint supplier. It's a single stage, so it really only requires scuff, degrease, and shoot. I bought enough masking tape and plastic to carefully mask off my car, and will be pulling all the clips, wires and brackets out and carefully documenting with pictures where they went. Aluminum foil is your friend for quickly masking off wire bundles that you don't want to remove from the car. I know it can feel like a slippery slope (suddenly that master cylinder doesn't look as nice!) but i think it's well worth doing. I should be getting to it in the next few days so i can report in my build thread if it went well or was a disaster lol.
I'm going through this right now myself. I have my engine out, and even with cleaning it doesn't look up to snuff. Before i cram everything back in the engine bay, i cannot just ignore it. I bought some mazda Brilliant Black in a spray can mixed at my local paint supplier. It's a single stage, so it really only requires scuff, degrease, and shoot. I bought enough masking tape and plastic to carefully mask off my car, and will be pulling all the clips, wires and brackets out and carefully documenting with pictures where they went. Aluminum foil is your friend for quickly masking off wire bundles that you don't want to remove from the car. I know it can feel like a slippery slope (suddenly that master cylinder doesn't look as nice!) but i think it's well worth doing. I should be getting to it in the next few days so i can report in my build thread if it went well or was a disaster lol.
I'm going through this right now myself. I have my engine out, and even with cleaning it doesn't look up to snuff. Before i cram everything back in the engine bay, i cannot just ignore it. I bought some mazda Brilliant Black in a spray can mixed at my local paint supplier. It's a single stage, so it really only requires scuff, degrease, and shoot. I bought enough masking tape and plastic to carefully mask off my car, and will be pulling all the clips, wires and brackets out and carefully documenting with pictures where they went. Aluminum foil is your friend for quickly masking off wire bundles that you don't want to remove from the car. I know it can feel like a slippery slope (suddenly that master cylinder doesn't look as nice!) but i think it's well worth doing. I should be getting to it in the next few days so i can report in my build thread if it went well or was a disaster lol.
Man, I need to update this thread. I'll keep it short. I moved back to Florida and pulled my engine and transmission. The transmission was pulled to swap the 5th gear. My car currently has a JDM 4 port Rx-8 transmission, which is great, BUT the 5th gear is way shorter than the USDM Rx-7 transmission, so me and Dale will be swapping just the 5th gear out of my worn USDM transmission.
I stripped down the engine and brought it to the Guru. I have a bad center iron. A new iron is on order from Ray. Still waiting on my Haltech wiring harness from my tuner and my intercooler from RHD Japan. A friend gave me a barely used set of 93 spec turbos, so I think I will be running those to save a little money for the rest of the already over budget build. Last thing I cannot decide on is whether or not to get the engine bay painted. With the engine out I went over the bay a couple times this weekend with degreaser and a pressure washer. It was a little discouraging as I thought it would look significantly better, but it did not. My bay is not atrocious, but it does have a lot of paint chips, fade, and even some surface level rust. I figure, while the engine is out this is as good a time as ever, because when else will I have it out again? Then again this time last year I never would have thought I would be pulling the engine again. I do not feel confident enough in my abilities to paint it right, but I am not sure how much more money I want to keep dumping into this project, to have a professional do it. Any feedback or suggestions are welcome.
Welcome back to Florida!
It's a huge perk living near the Guru! @DaleClark
I'd repaint the bay while you have everything out BUT make sure it's all back together in time for DGRR 2023
Dale finished my engine and I picked up a set of 93 spec turbos from a friend. I was toying with the idea of going BNR, but these had ZERO CRACKS in the manifold. They certainly are not new, but they are not much worse and my friend sold them to me so cheap, he practically gave them to me. Dale went though them prettied them up and mounted them to the block. Peep Dale's paintless car Painted actuators and main pulley with MRO paint
I got the Radium fuel goodies in; primary and secondary rails, fuel pulsation dampener, and pressure regulator all paired with four 1000cc Evolved Injection injectors. The Radium stuff is awesome, but I have two complaints with the kit. First there are no printed instructions included, you have to find them on their website (which I ended up having to print anyways and second the rails have provisions for the stock temperature sensor, but do not include an adapter. I had to order a M12x1.5 female to -8an male fitting to make it work. Next step is running the lines to fit nicely with the modified rat's nest. I went ahead and deleted the double throttle as well as pulled the other solenoids I was not using.
Finally I have been going through the painstaking task of prepping the engine bay for paint. This is up there with swapping the downpipe while on the car and pressing new suspension bushings as my least favorite thing I have had to do to the car. It is just a lot of carefully removing 27 year old parts to find out they are broken, washing and scrubbing. It took up the majority of my three day weekend and I still have probably another hour or two of prep work to do. before after. more stuff still was removed and then washed
During my endeavor I found that my stock master cylinder had been leaking, which would explain my inconsistent braking performance. No worries as a I have a new Chip's motorsports unit, but I tore up a stud on my poor NLA brake booster while removing it. Anyone got any suggestions for fixing it?
I also did some interior work, but forgot to take pictures, will try to get an update on that next month. Still waiting on the wiring harness. V mount should be here at the end of the month Right now the car feels like a second job. Getting pretty burned out but hoping I will feel better about it, after this bay is painted.
On the brake booster studs, can't you just unscrew the buggered up stud and replace it, or is it welded/pressed into the booster from the back side?
At this point it wouldn't hurt anything so I'd get a good stud extractor tool on it and see if it unscrews. If you don't have one, here's an example of one you can probably find at a local parts retailer - https://www.autozone.com/tools-and-e...E&gclsrc=aw.ds
That's a nice tool. Two nuts and a wrench will work to see if it's pressed or screwed, in a pinch.
Agreed, but if you take a close look at that stud he's dealing with, it's chewed up at the tip end, so he probably won't have any luck threading a nut or two on it to try.
Update time! Man time has been flying by and I feel like my project is crawling. I prepped the bay for paint and Dale came over and shot it. That was a lot of work, but I am very pleased with the results. The car looks a whole lot better.
Next we worked on the transmission. My car has a 5 speed Rx-8 transmission. Yes you read the right. In Japan and Europe, Mazda sold five speed transmissions to go with their 4 port cars. The bell housing and tail shaft are different, but the actual transmission itself is the same. In fact, Mazda had beefed up the synchros in the Rx-8 5 speeds.
he 2nd and 3rd gear synchros were shot when I bought the car, so I swapped it for the JDM Rx-8 transmission in Texas. That transmission does not have an overdrive. Some people love it for tracking, I personally hate it. It killed my fuel economy and the engine would be screaming above 4500 rpm on the highway. We swapped the 5th gears in the transmissions. Now I should have very solid transmission.
Next, I'll talk about the fuel system. I went with Radium fuel rails and Evolved fuel injectors. I may start a separate thread on the Radium stuff. There is almost a general consensus that the Radium rails are the best for the FD, but there is not a lot on how to set them up. They are popular because they have provisions for a fuel temperature sensor, fuel pulsation dampener, tertiary injectors, and a fuel pulsation dampener all on the rail.. oh and they look cool. My gripe with them is that they do not really come as a complete package. They could have easily included a custom line to connect the primary rail to the secondary. The port for the fuel temperature sensor is -8 not the standard thread for the stock sensor and it does not even come with a plug, if you chose to not use the sensor like I did.
This was my first time installing an aftermarket fuel rail in a car and I definitely went through trial and error. I wanted to run the rails in series like they came from the factory. I figured this would also save the most space for the solenoid rack. I ordered premade -6 braided hose from anplumbing.com. The supply line is 17" and the return is 14". They are connected to the stock fuel hose using an -6 male to 5/8" barb adapter. 16" and 13" hose would have probably fit a little better. The line connecting the rails was a chore. Originally I tried a 4" steel braided hose, but was not satisfied with how tight I had to bend the hose, so I went with steel line. I used Earl's annealed stainless steel tube. I ordered 3' for the times I would mess up, which I did a lot. This stuff is really tough to work with. It takes a lot of strength to bend it and the el cheapo flaring tool I bought from Summit Racing, could not flare it. I ended up have to purchase this Ridgid Flaring tool, which was not cheap, but does an awesome job.
If I were to do it again, I would probably use aluminum line. I had heard that steel was the safest to work with, but the rails really do not move, so I don't think I would have to worry about a stress crack from aluminum. Overall it fits very nice with the solenoid rack
That is all for tonight. I have the engine in the car now, but will have to address that headache another night.
Originally I tried a 4" steel braided hose, but was not satisfied with how tight I had to bend the hose, so I went with steel line. I used Earl's annealed stainless steel tube. I ordered 3' for the times I would mess up, which I did a lot. This stuff is really tough to work with. It takes a lot of strength to bend it and the el cheapo flaring tool I bought from Summit Racing, could not flare it. I ended up have to purchase this Ridgid Flaring tool, which was not cheap, but does an awesome job. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001HWNS40...roduct_details
If I were to do it again, I would probably use aluminum line. I had heard that steel was the safest to work with, but the rails really do not move, so I don't think I would have to worry about a stress crack from aluminum. Overall it fits very nice with the solenoid rack
^Yeah, stainless steel tubing is a PITA to work with, and demands top notch tooling to be able to flare & bend it right. Aluminum tubing is fine for fuel lines, just make sure you get the thicker wall stuff - my car's PO did part of my fuel system with AL hard lines, and it has held up really well. Another alternative for making custom fuel/brake hard lines is the DOT approved Cunifer lines - these are a nickle/copper alloy line, practically corrosion free and much easier to bend/flare, especially if you don't have the best flaring & bending tools. You can get them here: Fedhill brake line - Where to buy brake line, fuel line, brake line flaring tools, brake line nuts and brake line fittings
Continuing with the fuel system, I upgrade to a 10 micron Aeromotive fuel filter. I like the idea of a canister or spinoff style fuel filter rather than an inline and wanted to go with the JP3/ID F750 combo. That ID fuel filter is so dang expensive though and with the amount of money I have been burning on this project I figure a $120 filter from Aeromotive will do the job. Here it is on Summit https://www.summitracing.com/parts/AEI-12317. The cool thing about this filter is not only does it filter better than the stock Mazda filter and is easier to change, but it also it a lot cheaper at ~$20 per cartridge. You will also need a 3/8th NPT male to 5/16" barb and about 7 feet (just to be safe) of high pressure fuel hose, such as Gates Barricade or Earl"s EFI vapor guard.
Silly me should have paid closer attention to the actual size of the cannister as it BARELY fits behind the differential. I mounted it with a JP3 bracket that I had to drill new holes for. I will say this was a huge PITA. I spent two hours wrestling with the fuel lines above the dif. I finally gave up and did some internet sleuthing on easier ways to slide on fuel hose and found an easy hack of rubbing petroleum jelly on the barbs and hose end along with lightly heating the hose with a heat gun. Voila! they slid on with ease.
I also replaced the fuel level sending unit with a new unit from A. I. One Designs (you can find them on Facebook). I do not have any pictures of it, but believe me it is an exact copy of the stock sending unit. My only gripe about it, is that it does not include the stock connector, so you have to cut your old connector off at the wires and crimp it on to the new wires.
09-28-21, 09:20 PM
Hell yeah!!
