What have I gotten myself into?
 

I have always wanted an FD. Ever since playing Need For Speed 1 on PC back in the 90s, it was the car I always picked. Fast Forward to today, the timeless styling and unique rotary motor still gets me. Bought a BB base shell from a guy in AL back in '15, kept that for a while, then kind of realized I was in over my head having no experience wrenching on Fd's, especially to build one from scratch, and decided to move on. Mistake...more on that later. Sparing the details of the next purchase, in comes what I thought was a great buy on a mostly complete, running, clear title ~85k, Single turbo VR touring.

First on the agenda--New bumper or paint existing one, remove the horrible body kit, sort out a bad exhaust leak...
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...340737bbbc.jpg

No paint under skirts. What else is hidden in the bodywork? Much, much more on that later.

Started removing turbo to check for that leak. Bolts instead of studs in the manifold. That will need some attention.https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...a9040d06c0.jpg
Looks like a cheap ebay manifold
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...9cca5f3ed2.jpg
The culprit-blown out flange gasket, and cracks in the welds and runners of the manifold
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...676206fa44.jpg

I wanted to stay single, but this kit had to go. I had all the parts left from the previous FD to put twins on this car, but their condition was unknown, and I really didn't feel like I knew enough about the twins system to reinstall in from scratch. I was in need at the right time for the Turblown EFR group buy. Elliot's kit seemed a no-brainer for simplicity and durability, and after some back and forth on 7670 or 8374 (https://www.rx7club.com/single-turbo...ht-me-1102499/) Decided on the 8374. I knew it would be a long wait, but there was lots and lots to do in the mean time.

Managed to find a front bumper that was in decent shape, easily repairable/repaintable. The engine bay was a mess of wiring, broken or missing brackets, and a cobbled together, halfway installed snow performance water meth kit.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...c5a2c1d373.jpg
Need to get the wiring sorted, find a large SMIC and duct, or V mount, relocate the battery, and remove all of the water/meth system.

Why scrap the water meth kit? Even if you aren't tuning for it, it adds a lot of reliability.
Good luck with the build!
The mechanical stuff starts getting easier as you get your head wrapped around it, the wiring is a real labor of love.

The one that was in the car was junk. No real controller, taped and spliced together wiring, tank was mounted in a place where it couldn't even be accessed to be filled. Not a very well thought out kit. I'm leaning toward a safe, rich tune, 15psi or less on pump 93 and no water meth with the new setup.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...10ad7cf76a.jpg

Yikes, that wiring is definitely rough. I can understand the desire to keep things simple. I'm taking the same route.

Sounds like you are headed in the right direction. In for updates.

Removing that water meth mess cleared up a lot of the wiring mess. Next was a battery relocation to make room for a larger SMIC. Decided on a miata battery in the passenger bin.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...cdd1760c77.jpg

After installing new upper and lower rad hoses, and the ebay FMIC out, tilted the radiator forward into the stock position, and noticed a few more things to remedy, rad mounts were damaged and bent, the ebay radiator sucked, and had no upper mounts, but this type mount was the way to go.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...1c305a949f.jpg

Problems solved. Found new sway mounts and a clean Fluidyne rad from forum members.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...133d7bd42.jpeg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...e7fc417405.jpg

It's here! After almost exactly 1 year of waiting on the group buy to wrap up, delays, backorders etc., new turbo showed up! Caution, EFR porn...
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...41d4d83f4.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...5ee4a42cf2.jpg

One thing of note on installing the turblown kit with the shorty cast manifold, everything is pretty straightforward, depending on your setup, the oil line may need an extra bend or tweak to fit, clocking the turbo can be a little time consuming, you will need to block off a ton of factory emissions stuff if you're coming straight from a stock twins setup, you will need to block off or tap into or otherwise modify the coolant line going to your throttle body, but all this is fairly basic stuff.

However, one thing they fail to mention in their directions or in their install video (which is excellent otherwise) is that you have to remove at least two of your studs to get the 8374 to fit if you are installing it with the engine in the car. I f***** with getting this thing to fit in the engine bay for a couple hours before I realized it wasn't going to happen. I took the two top exhaust manifold studs out and the assembly dropped right in.

Now the fun part. I had purchased a pettit duct and cold side pipe and (gasp) an ebay large smic to save a little cash after the expense of the turbo kit. Fitting this up and getting a seal will be challenging, but should be do-able.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...ebe054915b.jpg

Found some pipes and couplers lying around that might be useful...
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...0baee93ae9.jpg

Ended up fitting ok. Not sealed that great to the duct but we'll deal with that later. Need some different pipes and couplers to get a perfect fit.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...67c11713f7.jpg

Which style duct was that? I am looking to order as well but it states to choose the Cool Charge 2 or 3 style so I wasn't sure.

Is this the cc3 duct

This is the larger, newer style CC3. I will sell this duct, intercooler, and cold side pipe if anyone is interested, as I have a slightly different ic setup in the car now.

​​​​​​I would be interested in the duct and cold side if you were willing to sell those two. If so feel free to shoot me a PM with a price shipped to 02889. If you don't want to separate them that's okay too I can try through Pettit as well.

Next order of business, need a filter that will fit in this space. The huge K&N that comes with the Turblown kit isn't going to fit for sure.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...a461927f82.jpg

Found a shorty filter that should work well. It's an off brand. Sceptre I think the brand is? But seems well made enough, and flows well. Fit was perfect.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...d1adf6a062.jpg

Also found a remedy to the disorganized wiring mess, the missing brackets, hardware, missing bumper rebar/support, missing washer and coolant tank (yes, this car was running and being driven by the previous owner with NO coolant overflow tank of any sort in place, must've overlooked this when I bought the car). Am starting to see what a knucklehead the previous owner of the car was. Anyway, stripped all my missing parts from this loaded front rad support I bought off ebay from a guy in TX who used to run a rotary shop.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...c80f639b81.jpg

I knew next to nothing at the time about boost control, so I just plumbed my wastegate canister straight to the EFR solenoid so I could run off spring pressure until I got it sorted and got a tune. I figured the tune already on the PowerFC should be close and safe enough, since I was told it was a 15psi tune for the previous GT35. Technically, at this time the water/meth kit was still installed, and possibly functioning? Here's things all buttoned up after the initial engine bay tidy-up, and EFR install, including a minty R1 strut bar sourced from a local forum member.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...aebbd4c652.jpg

Short vid of one of the first startups after the install. Disregard the goofy commentary, I was excited to hear it run after sitting almost 2 years.