Definitely cool....got to post a video of the test....

 

yesterday I talked to my fabricator and we confirmed flange placement. Hopefully he will get together soon. Beyond that is exhaust and ducting. I’m still a ways out.

 

Cool....I'll be watching!

 

Shifter is wired in today. Wife made the shift boot.

 

That is looking great.....

 

What were the metal pins around the top for? (of the shift ****)

 

the pins are just an aesthetic.

 

got the turbo manifold back for a test fit. Small issues but manageable.

 

It's nice. I put some aluminum in mine. I'm thinking of making a matching plate for the power window/audio joystick cover.

 

the tri tone look with that offset looks amazing!

 

Thanks. They are fun to make.
I like your matching E-brake handle too. How do you remove the original? I thought about making one but wasn't sure how that all came apart.

 

I cut the rubber grip off T-800 style.

 

🤣😂🤣

 

Yikes. :P

Is that the only way to do it?

 

I like the wood shifters.... I don't know how to make them but I own a couple made by friends.......

 

its a press fit, so you can pull/twist it off, its just a really tight press fit

 

I have to laugh, I get my manifold back and actually have the turbo attached to the engine, and we're still on the the shift ****. Anyways I'm sending the manifold back to the fabricator tonight for finishing

 

The turbo looks great under the hood! What issues were you experiencing with the manifold?

 

the manifold was just kissing the actuators. so a piece of pipe will be added to extend it about an inch. the flange was inverted so two of the studs were not lining up. I am also going to need to rethink the heater pipe as it interferes with the downpipe. I think I'll bend a new one out of copper.

 

Hi Richard .. I haven't had an opportunity to read your entire build, however I do have a question that's not about your custom shift ****.

With the addition of a turbo, is there any benefit to maintaining the 6-port actuators?

 

I’m working on theory.

Something that comes up is the lack of low rpm responsiveness and torque when people remove the aux sleeves on an naturally aspirated engine. I figured that keeping the aux ports would allow for good street manners, keep reasonable mpg at freeway cruise and have a broader powerband at the sacrifice of peak horsepower. With a modern ECM, I can control when the aux ports open at what throttle position and at what psi of boost.

I read a post from Directfreak where he mentioned driving a similar setup and he was saying about losing traction at 60mph or something like that. I wish I could find that post. I thought I saved it.

Aaron Cake is building his Cosmo AP. Rx5 I think. He is keeping the actuators functional as well. Here is an older thread discussing the theory. I found this after I planed my path for my build.

https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generati...-ports-854880/

of course I may be setting myself up for failure. As I mentioned, this is based on theory. If I was building a track car, I would not hace gone this direction.

 

I think Mazda's 6-port design is brilliant in a normally aspirated engine. Since Mazda went back to a 4-port for their FC and FD turbocharged engines .. I wasn't sure if there was any benefit to keeping the 6-ports functional. I might have considered keeping the auxiliary ports closed to maintain velocity (smaller ports) .. and then the turbo would add more air/fuel volume when it spools up.

But I guess if you have both you will get the added benefits of increased port size AND increased air/fuel volume from the turbo.

I will have to do some more reading up on theory. Thanks for the link.

 

 

This thing is going to be amazing. Or well, it's already amazing. The wood shift **** and handbrake lever look stellar. Nice job!

I ran into the same issue with my turbo setup this summer, although it was the hot side of the turbo rather than the downpipe. I ran a new 5/8" aluminum "fuel" line - bought it from Speedway Motors as a spool/coil and bent it to shape. A bender is of course ideal, but I was able to do the job by filling it with fine sand and using my knee. So far it's holding up great with no leaks. Copper would work too, I suppose it's just preference and what tooling you have on hand.

Looking forward to seeing this car on the road.

 

Another option to consider!