1982 Turbo Build
 

Hi all, hope you enjoi this look into my re-build-build of my 1982 turbo FB. I haven't been super active here in the past few years and just now saw the FB build section:) Glad we have our own build section finally! Lots of my build pictures are forever trapped on my last cell phone so I don't have entire photo documentation of the re-build, hope you enjoi what I did manage to save ;)

Anyways, story time. In February 2010 I lost an apex seal on the rear rotor of the previous 303whp stock port 13B engine installed in this car. Being poor & stupid, I decided to tackle this whole deal on my own with a few forum members help along the way.

My first engine build was about to start.

I removed the engine and accessory's at my house. Upon disassembling the block I found the damage done by the loose apex seal and was required to replace the rear housing, both rotors and all three iron plates. Locally I purchased a set of like new stock port lapped S5 TII irons, S5 TII rotors, apex seals, a NA housing, oil control rings and a soft seal kit for under $800.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...7/Photo627.jpg

With all the hard parts ready, I made a big order from Mazdatrix, I ordered their how to : rebuild DVD and a bunch of new little bits and seals.

After watching the DVD multiple times I knew I needed assistance in the form of a a Puerto Rican to help build this thing right. I messaged a local rotary engine builder and enlisted his wisdom in building my new engine. My man could have built this thing in his sleep.

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iirc he told me this was the 76th stacking of a block in his life. I tried to stay outta the way and learn as the master stacked my new motor. Few hours later I gave the man a few RX7 parts and paid him $450 for his time, with a huge smile I thanked him.

Later that night, my :date: sweetheart came over and posed for pictures and drank my :beer: beer with my new motor.

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With my new shiny engine I was convinced to re-paint the engine bay. I decided to paint it semi gloss black in the VHT variety.

Before
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After tons of work
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After cleaning up all the accessory's and polishing over and over, I started putting the motor back in. After all the work I really was happy with the finished look of the engine.

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At this point I put the build away for the winter.

2012
here is pictures of how this machine sits today.
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I have a small list of things to complete before it will be ready for the street but it does start and run.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOYA8MXJ0nw

Big Big thank you to the following forum members for their help on this build, you all are awesome!

Hyperformance2k, ArmyofOne, TooShort_88, Slammed_GSL, Woundup7, Karack, Nytrate, JordanRykon, Karl0003, Upgrayedd, Kevpell18

Thank you!

Sweet

Did you figure out what was causing your high idle problem?

looks very good! i might have missed it, but what turbo are you running?

bnr upgraded turbo.

Yes working at finding the reason for the high idle. The past few weeks I have been working at finding vacuum leaks. New gaskets and silicon for all 4 block off plates, ordered a new throttle body gasket and o-rings, added pipe thread tape to the MAP sensor and also the vacuum like to the FPR, and also tighten down some of the intercooler couplers.

Today I removed the thermostat and tested it, it worked so I put it back in and sealed it. I also removed a couple hard lines because I forget to clear coat them and they were trying to rust, while they were removed I painted them xbox green and am just waiting for the clear to dry now.

Still need to ground the headlights, wire my efan, fill radiator with coolant, install seats, paint my roll bar, paint my hood, mount new front tires, and adjust the mounting location for the oil cooler and find a nicer condition under engine tray.

How's the car coming along?

updates

I got the efan wired, I feel like a duffus but it was a bad location to ground. Some times its the simple things.

I filled the radiator with distilled water and let it run for about ten mins yesterday, sounded good.

I re installed the Seats & vacuumed the carpets.

Still, I cannot get the idle to lower. As it sits, it will run fine and idle @ 2k RPMs I have used compressed air and sealed the entire intake system. Nothing leaks air except my BOV which probably leaks 2-4psi of air (considerable amount) Not sure if this is causing my high idle?/?

Looking at the PFC commander will show
-31* timing lead/trail
-10% injector duty cycle
-low 2,xxx RPMs
-volts are good
-water temp / air temp good
-knock is low

Based on the previous motor using the same ecu tune, I know I want the injector duty cycle at %5 +/- .5% and the timing to be near 0* or -1*/-2* at idle (950rpms)

Just not sure how to get to those values, Any input ?

nice build!!!

Very nice work.

Don't leave that distilled water in there without any antifreeze for long! Though distilled it's still water, and it will rust your cast-iron plates internally, especially when hot.

What happens when a rotary is run on pure water too long: taken from an engine I bought as a 'good spare' a couple years ago: I was able to salvage almost nothing off it.

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looks like a rotary murder scene...

Thanks for the heads up. Would changing the water frequently (twice per year) still result in this orange rusty poo ?

Running straight water will also cause pitting in the water jacket that can kill your engine. Just don't do it.

now all the sudden the fpr reads 0psi, GRRRRR so frustrated

This has always been one of my favorite FB's on the club!

Sorry to hear about your problems with the car.

Wish i was closer to lend a hand.

thank you

Update, I ordered a new walbro255lph fuel pump, 7 years use on the last 255lph before it decided to stop, still waiting on shipment arrive. I also bought a Greddy type-rs blow off valve because my Blitz was leaking psi under simulated boost.

Next on the agenda is going to be, installing the fuel pump, creating new intercooler piping, welding the blow off, and changing the plumbing and location of the air intake and filter.

This is looking real good. Wish I could help with the idle problem, but I don't have much experience with the PFC.
I assume you've checked all the obvious mechanical things like throttle cable, idle stop on the TB that kinda stuff? Sounds dumb, but I've been there a few times lol.

Glad to hear that your pushing on on with her.

My walbro 255 is over 6 years old, its been good to me but when it goes I'm going with the aeromotive 340.

^Timing and understanding how it all works. I have limited experience timing engines ect, oh well learn as I go along, timing is locked for now.

No positive updates other then I drove the car for a few days and it sounded amazing:icon_tup:

lots of issues left, some new issues too.
The steering is wobbly and unsafe at 60mph and the front tires are bald.
Speedometer does not read.
Headlights and re-tractors do not work and I still have some wires that I have no idea what they go too.
I suspect the hotside of the rotating assembly on the turbo is bad and will need to be replaced, I have not taken the cover off because I want to leave the turbo on the car while I track down an electrical issue which is causing fuses to blow.
Braking requires 10x more pressure then before.

This project has been overwhelming since I'm not really an engineer or mechanic or an electrician, I'm just a monkey turning wrenches.

At this point I take one step forwards and 3 steps backwards so the car has been at the bottom of priority's while I have been enjoying the nice summer we have here in Seattle.

well keep enjoying the summer while you can, it might last another 2 weeks at best (is this is a typical pnw year)

is your brake booster vac hooked up the port on the fd upper?

why do you think the turbo is bad?

speedo cable broke or not hooked up?

i can still help out with the electrical but i might be about 2 weeks from now til i can get up there.

btw i have a good condition engine undertray if you still need it. you can just have it when i come up.

79* & sunny here, girlfriend was over here distracting me from working on the car while she was outside tanning nude haha. But yeah summers ending and I'm back on the hunt for a job...

The brake booster line is hooked up both to the LIM. I have the two ports capped on top of the FD UIM, iirc the vacuum ports on the underside of the UIM are connected to the boost control and the fuel pressure regulator.

I think the turbo is bad because the previous engine ate my apex seals on the rear housing and probably spit them into the turbo blades.
I think this because when I was driving the car at about 50% throttle it was not boosting past 1-2psi when in the past this thing had very fast psi response.

Speedometer cable could be broke or not hooked up, I just know that it does not read mph any longer.

Great, if you still wanna help diagnose electrical that would be really good news. I'm sending my alternator to NJ to have it upgraded to 140amp in the mean time, should be back before then.

please bring the engine undercover tray!!!!!! omg I have been looking for one that isnt greasy and dented for quite some time.

NUDE tanning is always good!!! haha

as far as the brake booster goes, you can test if its helping at all by pulling the vac line to it and capping it off on the manifold. if they feel the same, then something isnt right with the booster and if they feel way worse than there is another problem.

you can pull the hotside off the turbo to check the turbine blades, if an apex seal went through them it will be pretty obvious. i wouldnt judge boost response as a sign of failing because there can be alot of reasons for that outside of the turbo (tune, vacuum leak, etc)

i would like to help you fix your electrical still, its a crime that this beautiful car has been off the road as long as it has. im just waiting to finish mine because i really dont wanna ride my r6 up there with a bunch of tools. lol.

and yes, ill put ur name on the undertray. its a little dusty, but no big dents and not all covered in oil.

Aaa!! You jerk you took my engine color scheme damn oh well good thing you live on the other side of the contry any way you have a great looking build and i dont know if your running a throttle position senser but maybe that could be your problem? Btw this guy is freaking amazing in gt5!!

What is the idle set at in the power fc? You have to turn the idle screw way down for the computer not to jack it up too high.

update
-waiting on delivery some fuses to replace the ones that shorted
-waiting on delivery a new fancy mooooog idler arm
-waiting on delivery misc couplers and tbolt clamps to finish the new piping set up
-polished my alternator housing and installed new alternator barring and voltage regulator
-mock fit of the new intercooler piping set up, needs welding and MOAR polished baller shine
-relocated the air filter outside engine bay (under headlight, behind bumper, in front of the fender linert

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Looking good love this build

lookin' real nice aaron!

Thanks for the words Fernando and Matt:icon_tup:

Spent some more time making the intercooler pipes, was hard work, I used a small metal saw to cut all the pipes by hand! Anyways 10 or so cuts later I have the pipes in the car, just waiting on shipping for misc tbolts and couplers to finish.

As I stated above, I relocated my air filter. I did this because the previous location was touching the radiator, I thought that having my intake pull air from behind the 175* radiator/Intercooler was hurting performance so I relocated it out side the engine bay where it would only pull ambient air temps. So i took a 3'' hole saw and cut a hole through the sheet metal near the passenger headlight assembly. Depending on if this is the final solution I'm kicking around using some abs plastic or aluminum and making a grommet bracket to permanently separate the air filter from the engine bay and clean things up here so it doesn't look like shotty uncompleted work.

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Next issue was routing the pipes from the turbo to the new hole, without making the plumbing too complicated I used two pipes and connected them with a coupler, this was a tight fit and the coupler is actually touching the radiator surround. Future revisions may be required here . What do you guys think?

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This is where the air filter relocation will sit

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Then again with the wheel liner installed, mine cracked at some point so I'm going to probably figure out how to seal it better so road debris does not fly into the filter element.

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here is a view from under the car

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same view this time with the wheel well liner installed

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Overall, pretty fun aspect of the project, I was allowed some creative freedom on my way to making this thing look good.

comment and thought or ideas are welcomed!

Before
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After
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I'm thinking a good spot for the blow off valve is near the driver side strut tower bar on the underside of the pipe, I want it close to the throttle body, all the good pipe real estate is in the way of changing plugs / adding oil / oil cooler lines / alternator. So I was thinking to have the BOV welded on the underside of the pipe all stealth like.

Thoughts on blow off valve location ?

damn man, looking real nice! wherever you put the bov just remeber that the high pressure air will destroy anything that isnt metal (wires/hoses etc)

:icon_tup:

Looking real nice :)

No BOV ;). Still having no issues with my setup and no BOV.

You were saying your BOV was leaking. At boost only? Or at your high idle too?

if you have a turbo with anti surge porting you may be able to get away without a bov... But I was getting a lot of surge on without a bov. I like to keep the bov close to the throtle body, I've the piper could be cool.

I mounted mine on my custom elbow.

Pic, if out works...

And still rocking the a/c!^ lol. Looks good.

I have compressor surge, but it's after I let off the throttle. No surge when I'm in the throttle which will really kill a turbo.

It was kinda a experiment too. Turbo still zero shaft play after 3,000 miles. Know some others that have gone years without a BOV either.

Glad to see everything is really coming together notveryhappyjack :icon_tup:

I could not tell if the bov was leaking at idle. I did plug an air compressor up to the turbo and pressurize the system and it most certainly was leaking under simulated boost 10psi. I have a greddy bov that I want to have welded onto the new pipes, I like the pressure release sound too much not to use one haha! Without a BOV.... how else are the SRT4 guys going to know to race me? LOL JK

Updates? :D

Turbo fb is driving very well. Still have a grin on my face that I cannot peel off.
I need to pinch myself too realise I have a sick RX7 to drive again.
So many people had a hand in making this happen, thank you all and I wish could have seen how happy this car has made me.

Pictures on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, I had the opportunity to show Matt 'highnitro' around Seattle and we had a little Photoshop.
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Looks good!

What was cause of your problems with the car ??

Congrats!

Wish you lived in florida bud you just missed a huge event i was trying to a bunch of rotaries to come but i didnt see many maybe next year you make the drive haha or flight

Is it all running good, now? I never see you out driving anywhere

Aaron must be too busy enjoying the car to post on here. when i got up there to help he kept blowing his 60a fuel pump fuse. after some looking around i noticed the power terminal on his external fuel pump was touching the pump mounting bracket. we moved the pump a little and it worked great after that.

Good to hear that got fixed. i remember hearing about that problem when my dad and brother helped him out.

yup, I looked at the fuel pump many times and completely missed the fact that the terminal was touching the bracket it was mounted to, doh! I even noticed the positive terminal was touching the fuel pump housing, fixed that but still missed the terminal mount fiasco. LOL I will never make that mistake again I assure you.

Engine seems to run great, I have maxed @ 5k rpms and .30 bar psi, which seems scary with the current wonder-steering.
My speedo cable is not connected so idk how many miles I have driven, probably time to change the oil/filter though.
Cars like this are never done, next up are figuring out how to get the cold idle and hot idle the same engine speed and attached the speed cable so I can know how fast I'm cruising.

Yay never ending cars

i have a speedo cable for you if you want it.

no need for that speedo cable ;)

The other day when Matt was up here he was looking over my build and we were talking about all the flaws with my car and then he made a comment

"Aaron why do you put up with bullshit ? You're a man fix that shit"

we laughed it off and continued to work on the 7, anyways since then I've been more motivated to get the car running well and as a result in the past week since Matt's comment I have fixed the following:
-tighten the wheel barrings, no more shopping cart feel.
-installed a heavy duty idler arm, no more wondersteer
-bought new tires and put them on the car, now the car only turns when I tell it too
-had a shop align the steering
-fixed my stiff brake pedal, now I have confidence in my powerful brakes again.
-plugged in the speedometer, now I know how fast I'm speeding around and how many mpg i get
-cleaned both sides of the windows and added this anti fog solution on the inside, less moisture allows me to see better
-changed the oil for the first time on my rebuild motor
-cleaned up the wiring mess
-welded the alternator side relocation bracket so it doesn't flex when the belt is tensioned
-got my headlights to work, got the retractors to also work
-stopped my fuel pump from grounding out
-did a three stage wax on the ext paint

So let this be a lesson for some of you who are a little bit lazy like I was, don't put up with bullshit any longer.

Car currently drives like I always dreamed about, it felt very sexy at 7psi today when I drove back and forth across the valley earlier today. Still timid to full throttle this, but thats ok I want to enjoy a nice driving car for a moment.

Polished and installed the driverside intercooler pipes, the pipes came out super shinny (compare to the above picture!)
Polished the turbo air intake pipe down at the bottom (also notice I revised my air intake location after driving around in Seattle rain and soaking my filter DOH)

Then I took the UIM/TB/greddy elbow off and polished those a little bit more since the intercooler pipes were blinging soo damn hard LOL I know I can get them shinier but I ran outta time today. I'm going for the 'sunglasses recommended' look under the hood :cool:

Hope you all enjoy looking at the engine bay as much as I do

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looks really nice man! hopefully soon sam can help you weld up that flange and get the other one done too!

Engine bay looks a lot better than mine lol. Very nice!

I'm actually working on doing something similar with my air intake as well. Hopefully I don't end up with a puddle sucker though... lol

I agree with what you said, don't put up with all the little annoying BS things that are broken. Stuff like that gets real annoying real quick!

my passenger side outter tie rod fell off the other day while I was driving home.
TurboGSLSE allowed me to take his off his widebody project and I had it back on the road the next day.
So much love from the local members!

Its all going on now, starter is going bad and hardly cranks over.