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I looked through my previous post and I am pretty sure I never mentioned which intercooler setup I went with. I ended up ordering an HKS V-mount kit from RHD Japan. I was between this kit and the Greddy. The Greddy may very well be a better kit, but I had two problems with it. First, it requires you to move the battery inside the cabin. Maybe this is not a big deal, but I did not like the idea of it. Second, you have to use their radiator. If it bust, it will cost you $800 for a new one and you will be waiting. The odds of blowing a radiator are low, but I did not want to deal with that headache if I ever did. The HKS RS intake is my favorite piece under my hood and I wanted the intercooler to match it.
Overall I am very pleased with the kit. My only gripe is that the fans hang very low. I have raised the car as high as the coilovers will go and they still scrape sometimes. I would recommend going with the Mishimoto radiator instead of a Koyorad if you order this kit. I also thought the S6 A/C components would work with it, and that was not the case (I will address this more in another post).
Here are the pictures of me mounting the radiator and test fitting the condenser.
The kit comes with a divider shield that will separate the hot air from the radiator to the cold air going to the intercooler. The kit has you reuse these bolts (F285-13-363). They are not long enough so I had to come us with my own solution from the hardware store.
These are the wires you must extend for the kit. I used solder. I am not happy with it and would have used non insulated crimp connectors with color matching heat shrink instead.
So as you can see the stock AC will not work with the HKS V mount kit. What I have pictured above is the MANA R-134 condenser. I even tried my buddy's R-12 Denso condenser and still no-joy. Neither kit works because the included brackets do not line up with the condenser brackets, the fittings do not line up and the fittings are the wrong size. My project was delayed more than intended, but everything happens for a reason. JP3 came out with their Rx-8 A/C conversion kit about the same time I was doing this, so it just made sense to go with that. I ordered all the parts from them and Rock Auto.
I saw this car is person - so clean I love it. I was checking out your dual MAC valves. Do you cover that in your thread?
It was also a pleasure to meet you and your buddy.
Thank you for your time and consideration and showmanship.
Hey thanks! The rotaryexteme car was very impressive. A lot of craftsmanship went into it.
Edit: I forgot to reply fully.
No I have not covered it. Basically when I ordered my wiring harness I wanted to make it as simple as possible for the builder, so I ordered it with the stock connectors for the waste gate control and turbo pre control solenoids. I then wired in MACs because they are cheaper and more durable. This was completely unnecessary and I could have gotten away with just one solenoid.
Last edited by suzukisteve; 12-27-23 at 04:21 PM.
Reason: Forgot
Allow me to continue the story from what I remember. Here is another picture of the car with the intercooler kit installed. I ran the car without AC for a while, while I was waiting on JP3 to bring the rest of their AC products to market.
Every time I have installed an engine in this car it has never started on the first try. The first time, my injectors were rusted shut. This time the tuner who built my wiring harness, wired the ignition wrong. After rewiring the ignition the car started right up. mechanically everything in the car was running great. Tuning wise, it was an absolute nightmare. All of the wiring from the custom harness I had made was off. I had to repin I want to say 4-5 connectors. The fueling was way off. The car was running 10:1 and 7:1, so much so the catch can was filling with gas. Tuning is not something I have the patience to learn. Thankfully I have since hired Tuned by Shawn and been very satisfied with his work.
Here's a picture at a local Sonic with my good friend Mike. I always say our cars are twins. He has a '94 with '99 spec body parts, Greddy V mount kit and at the time BNR turbos. Really cool to see the cars together.
Alas the temperature in Florida was starting to creep up, so I knew I was going to need to get the AC fixed before going to Deal's Gap.
As mentioned earlier, the big problem with the HKS kit is that the S6 cars AC does not work with it. This is regardless if you have Denso, MANA, R12, or R134. The condenser brackets do not match, the fittings for the extension line is different, it just simply will not work. Luckily JP3 came out with their Rx-8 adapter kit. IMO this is the biggest improvement mod since the EFR turbo for our cars. The issue was that, at the time, they had only released the kit for the Greddy V-mount. I ordered the lines hoping they would fit, but still needed brackets to hold the condenser. In fact, the couple months I was running around without A/C I had everything installed, minus the condenser. At that point I needed to get the car ready for deals gap, so I went to a welding shop to have them weld me some brackets. 30 minutes after dropping off the condenser, JP3 announced on their Facebook page that they were releasing brackets for the stock radiator. Since the HKS kit uses the stock radiator I cancelled my order with the welding shop and ordered the brackets.
Now I do not have great pictures of the bracket, but it fits the radiator well. As you can see the lines are a very tight fit. I ended up installing a round hex head screw, to avoid chaffing with the radiator hose. So far I have not had any issues with stuff leaking. JP3 has since release HKS lines but my bastardized Greddy lines are doing just fine.
With the condenser in I did not have room for the divider as pictured in post #80. I noticed my IAT when up a little bit without it, but I did not like how it looked anyways. It made the car look like it had braces or even worse, a C7 vette.
My job sent me to San Diego. I had never been able to take the Rx-7 to Deal's Gap since I had owned it, and I wasn't going to let a move stop me this year. I packed up all of my stuff in this Penske truck and brought the Rx-7 up there before making my drive west to California.
Here is picture of me and Dale's cars getting lunch one last time at our favorite Philly Cheesesteak shop before packing up. We key swapped and I could tell that my car was driving like crap. It was running pig rich and only boosting off spring pressure. Something was wrong. I am so glad I snapped this photo. It reminds me of all the work and good times we had in Florida.
Wow what an awesome vacation! I got to nerd out for a week with rotary nuts on the country's greatest roads and most beautifully scenery. It rained what seemed like non stop, but it did not stop us from having a good time. I have been to a lot of car shows and events, but none of them compare to DGRR.
Pictured here is my car and Chris Reagan's, aka Reagan Rotary Racing, aka Crispy. This car was a work of art, easily my favorite car at the event. You could tell he put so much effort into the small details. Really cool to meet your internet heroes here.
And finally walked away with this. I don't know if I deserved it, because I certainly did not think I would win anything. All week I was battling little tuning issues. I figured out the car was not boosting, because the wiring harness builder had pinned the connectors wrong, which required me to repin. The car was still running rich, but my south Florida friends Stephen and Tito were able to make some tweaks to at least make it drivable. The car was also leaking a lot of oil.
I made it out to California and was still having drivability issues with the car. At this point me and my tuner had basically cut ties. And so I went with Shawn Christenson of Tuned by Shawn. With just a 30 minute session, Shawn was able to make the car drivable again. I have so far been impressed with his work and professionalism. I am still waiting on a dyno tune, but at least I can drive the car.
Now that the car is drivable I wanted to get it prepped for Seven Stock. I consider myself lucky I was able to attend both large Rx-7 events in one year. I needed to really fix the AC, yes all of the parts were there, but it was not blowing cold. Me and my roommate Chris tried to charge the system in Florida, before I left, but could not get the needles to balance. Looking back I think we over charged the system. Just to cover my bases I replaced the expansion valve.
If nothing else I was glad I replaced the expansion valve, just to pull the condenser. It seemed like dust or foam was always blowing out of my vents. Upon pulling the condenser I discovered that it was filthy and the foam around it had deteriorated. I cleaned it up and replaced the foam. I discovered that with this hybrid Rx-7/Rx-8 set up it requires very little refrigerant and it is very easy to add it too fast. I ended up using one and a quarter small cans of R134. My A/C since has been VERY cold, so much so that even after turning off the compressor cold air will still be pouring out of the vents.
Again, I feel very fortunate to be able to attend the two largest North American rotary meets in one year. Seven Stock was great. Not as much fun as DGRR, but there was a lot of cool stuff to see. The builds here were really impressive and I saw a lot more old school rotary stuff. I geeked out, met my internet celebrities and bought a lot of stuff from Mazdatrix and Racing Beat. Here are some pictures. I was able to meet Mr Rotary Extreme himself., very humble and friendly guy. His car was very well put together as well. Much like Crispy's it had a lot of old school parts, but everything was really well thought out.
Wow what an awesome vacation! I got to nerd out for a week with rotary nuts on the country's greatest roads and most beautifully scenery. It rained what seemed like non stop, but it did not stop us from having a good time. I have been to a lot of car shows and events, but none of them compare to DGRR.
Pictured here is my car and Chris Reagan's, aka Reagan Rotary Racing, aka Crispy. This car was a work of art, easily my favorite car at the event. You could tell he put so much effort into the small details. Really cool to meet your internet heroes here.
And finally walked away with this. I don't know if I deserved it, because I certainly did not think I would win anything. All week I was battling little tuning issues. I figured out the car was not boosting, because the wiring harness builder had pinned the connectors wrong, which required me to repin. The car was still running rich, but my south Florida friends Stephen and Tito were able to make some tweaks to at least make it drivable. The car was also leaking a lot of oil.
Well deserved and nice meeting you Sir!
Glad to assist with the Haltech.
I look forward to the next DGRR, such a great group to be with.
11-13-23, 12:26 AM
