Awesome to know, thanks for sharing! I didn't end up going and getting it - I'll see if the buyer I have lined up for the shell needs it or not. If he does I'll buy one off someone else's part out.

Here's my answer - s2000 pinion gear fb gslse :icon_tup:


IMSA 3-piece spoiler for cheap that I'll be fixing up and repainting :egrin:
https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1362109458
He's also my Lab assistant :lol:

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1362109458

Other parts that I got in the deal (Oil cooler, two Nikki carbs, intake, rat's nest, air cleaner box)
https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1362109458

Some cheap used Tokico shocks that I paid only $1 more than I paid for shipping (and I only paid $20 for shipping!) :icon_tup::icon_tup:
https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1362109458

Yeah, good thing the search function nazi's didn't catch that one... I did a quick search and found my answer shortly afterwards.

Of course my luck would be at one of my local yards there is a 2001 4WD sportage and a '99 2WD sportage.

I think I'm gonna post a WTB in my local CL for one. : "I'll come and convert your 4WD to 2WD for FREE!!! BETTER FUEL MILLAGE. And I'll change your car into 2WD at your home or office no hassle" LOL


I see this car is gonna Free willy.

Good score on the parts Austin. Gotta love the 3 piece spoiler :)

Haha I think that would work well! "Save on gas mileage and weight! Give me your front diff and save money!"

And no "free Willy-ing" with a turbo in front driving the wheels! The pic of a garbage bag is a full GSL rear axle that I'm rebuilding to hold up to the TII engine

I have always loved it. I flaked on one for $50 last year around this same time and a local 7 buddy Jon (FunK73) got it. But now I have my own :biggrin:

1,000th Post!! Yeehaw, been waiting on that one for a while!

Go get'em Austin:nod:

Thanks Scott! I'll have to race you in your mint -SE when we hang out :icon_tup:

Well, updates will continue tomorrow but as of tonight I'll list what has gone on over the last week and a half.

03/07
Bought Racing Beat 2.5in downpipe and presilencer on the forum
Bought an Auto Meter Ultra Lite boost gauge from the forum
Bought an early 13b oil pan on the forum

03/08
Ordered almost 30 different gaskets and such parts from Atkins Rotary
Got tabs for the 7 since they're due in March and I want to drive it as soon as she's completed
Bought an S4 TII fuel pump sending unit from the forum to mount in my tank

03/09
Bought the 2 ton shop crane and 1 ton engine stand from Harbor Freight. Very cool transaction, I asked for the 1 ton crane but they didn't have it so the cashier said that they had the 2 ton. I said I'd get that one even though it was $50 more than the smaller one. 15 minutes later after dealing with some nit wit employees she billed me out. I kept doing the math and I thought it would have totaled to more. Looked at the receipt and she gave me the 2 ton for the promotional price of the 1 ton - like $90 the original price of $269.99, shweet!!

03/11
Went and bought an S4 turbo from the guy I bought the whole TII car from tonight. Will port the wastegate myself and possibly rebuild the whole thing but I'm undecided yet.

Attachment 679423

Tomorrow I'll be building up the shop crane and engine stand, then getting ready for the engine pull. Will get the wiring pictures taken and marked off, take trans out, things like that first.

Goal is to have the engine out by Thursday and mostly disassembled for the Atkins order to arrive sometime that day. Then I can rebuild it up and get it ready for install.

Should be getting many boxes of parts and goodies this week and can't wait to get this thing in and running :egrin:

Glad you're making some progress. :)

Thanks! :biggrin:

Boxes of new tools
2 ton foldable shop crane and 1,000lb engine stand
Attachment 679310

1st rotary engine on the new tools (parts 12a)
Attachment 679311

Got the early 13b oil pan in the mail today thanks to rotopower74
Attachment 679312

Attachment 679313

Also got an S4 TII fuel pump sending unit for a spare that I'll be rewiring for use with the Walbro 255 when I want to upgrade from the stock one I'll use first.
Attachment 679314

12a stock engine mount that I'll be modifying
Attachment 679315

Measurement of how much material is on the stock mount. The holes have to be 20mm further back (so ~1.62mm left of space) so I'll be welding a plate to the back for support
Attachment 679316

So today I got a lot done including:
Building up my tools for the engine swap
Pulled the oil pan off my parts 12a and took out the oil pickup tube
Got the spare S4 TII fuel pump sending unit
Got the early 13b oil pan for the swap
Cleaned the parts for the swap and they are drying currently

My plan is as follows:
This was from an email between myself and another member, which I wrote these words, and I think this is my final plan as of now.

Hey, looks good so far, also all the information you're putting on here is making my life a lot easier, so thanks for that.
What are you planning to do cooling system wise?

That's the whole point of this build thread is to help others, so thank you for that :icon_tup::nod:

I'm going to be staying with the stock 12a radiator with my 14" 650CFM e-fan with the 180*F thermostat controller for right now. Will be utilizing one of the 3 available FMOC's I have at my disposal (2 are from TII's, one is from an earlier 81-82 FB). Eventually I'd love to do a V-mount with an intercooler but I'm not there yet.

Alright, pictures are louder than words:
Attachment 679113

Attachment 679114

Attachment 679115

Attachment 679116

Attachment 679117

Attachment 679118

Attachment 679119

Well, I finally made headway towards getting this swap accomplished.

List for the day:
Got the car running and drove it to the most plausible place in the yard to pull the engine and trans out
Started with the trans and finally got that out
Got the engine out just in time to leave for a work meeting and found some goodies

SR Motorsports Flywheel - $549 on SALE!

Exedy clutch will depend on if it is a stock replacement, or stage 1 or 2 - we will see tomorrow!

Both look like they have barely been used though, super stoked about that!

Tomorrow I'll be tearing the engine down to just the keg for inspection of any porting that could have been done, and maybe swapping out for another that spare turbo but I think I'll just leave the one on there. Should be getting the big box of parts from Atkins tomorrow so I can rebuild it for install in the FB.

Very productive day and looking forward to what comes next :egrin:

UGH... I hate pulling engines on dirt... cherry pickers don't move for shit on dirt. And you scraped snow off to work on it. wow

Yeah, I completely agree. In the morning the ground was hard so it wasn't a big deal to get the tranny out. But after that, while getting the engine ready to be pulled, it turned soft all around the car and was a hassle to pull the engine out in front of the car. I didn't scrape the snow off there - it's just that the spot I picked had melted all the snow yesterday and the day before and was the flattest and closest to the shed where all the other tools are. Not a bad way to get an engine and trans out, worked just fine and a lot better than an oak tree branch :lol:

Looks like you made some good progress there. Yeah cherry pickers and dirt kinda suck, I usually find it easier to just roll the car backwards and leave the crane stationary...

The FB radiator (as long as it's the tall 83-85 one) will cool a FC engine just fine, you might want to consider something more powerful than a 650 cfm fan though..

I shoulda just left the crane where it was and pushed the car backwards. Crazy how light the thing is without an engine or trans! The suspension is higher by at least a full 1" it took me off guard this morning.

Woops, silly brain. 1800 CFM is the correct measurement of the throughput of the fan. Wow, 650 would be like a house fan :lol:

Started off looking at this today:
Attachment 679015

Tore it down to this:
Attachment 679016

Sludge in the blocked coolant passage to the intake manifold:
Attachment 679017

Figured out how to mod this spot to accept the turbo oil drain, thanks to 82transam - lifesaver!
Attachment 679018

Got my Atkins order today as well so I could reinstall some parts with new gaskets:
Attachment 679019

Went out and spent hours searching around for nuts, bolts, O-Rings, hose to redo some of the lines, and some other necessities:
Attachment 679020

Then I couldn't finish off the night without having this happen:
Attachment 679021

Attachment 679022

Attachment 679023

So the lower intake manifold is now installed with a new gasket and new coolant o-rings and one new bolt. I'll be going to get a slightly longer bolt tomorrow since this one isn't as long as it should be. I was in a hurry since I only had 10 minutes to find it.

Won't have time to work on the engine for a while but next on the list is:
Correct bolt for intake mani
Get my 1/8NPT oil filter sandwich gauge adapter installed
Drill and tap the -SE front cover for the turbo oil drain install
Grind the -SE front cover to fit with the TII water pump
Get -SE oil pan installed
Port S4 turbo wastegate to a safe size to prevent boost creep
Inspect and install turbo with coolant lines and oil lines

Looking forward to a few days off but I've enjoyed the time working on the car.

If life gives you turbo'ed rotaries...:nod:

Making good progress, you want to grind the water pump housing and water pump to clear the SE front cover - you've got it the other way around ;)

Dangit! You're always catching me in my misconceptions! Thank you though, please don't stop doing it :nod:

Out to work on the engine some more :egrin:

Awesome thread!

Good luck!

Thanks!

What I've got done over the past few days:
Attachment 678677

Attachment 678678

Attachment 678679

Attachment 678680

Attachment 678681

Attachment 678682

Attachment 678683

Attachment 678684

Attachment 678685

Progress is being made on the swap now. Hoping to finish up my turbo oil drain tonight, as well as finishing my S4 turbo porting job.
List is:
Finish turbo oil drain
Finish porting job on wastegate
Mod 12a engine brace 20mm rearward
Finish up modding the gas tank for S4 TII pump install
Mount engine and transmission in car
Rewire the ECU and harness
Fuel lines figured out
First startup
Get on trailer and bring to drivetrain shop for custom driveshaft
Enjoy :)

Goal is to be safely driving the car on the road safely by May 10th because of the following:
May 11th - window tinting day specials for MNMazda forum members and I'm on the short list of 8 allowed to go
May 17th - Aaron Lewis concert 5hrs away from me, overnight stay in a hotel with fiance, drive back
May 24-28th - Memorial Day camping, may need to drive separately

What's The Holdup?!
 

Well, it's these things:
Attachment 677491

Previous owner took apart the turbo to port the wastegate. He only shaved enough so that the stock flapper fit over the opening.
So he went from:
~14mm stock size -> ~17mm ported
I went from:
~14mm stock size -> ~17mm his port -> ~21mm my port

So I'm at about 150% of the stock wastegate port size to eliminate some boost creep. I could have gone bigger but didn't want to cut into the exhaust turbine housing any more than I already did. So I'm done with this aspect of the build.

But, he put the wrong thread bolts in the wastegate cover and busted the top downpipe bolt when removing the stock DP!
In trying to remove them the heads stripped right off the bolts. I knew it was wrong when I had to put a 1/2" wrench on the bolts to remove them.

5 Dremel cutting discs, 6 drill bits, 1 stripped EZ-Out and an hour into it I've decided to bring it to a machine shop and have them remove the bolts. Will be bringing the whole housing in today.

What I started with:
Attachment 677492

Still working on these:
Attachment 677493

Main ECU Plug #1 wiring harness and FEM-02 ready to be wired in:
Attachment 677494

Crazy amount of time into this harness so far - probably around the 15 - 17 hour mark right now and many more to go. Goal is to make it almost a plug-and-play when the engine goes in. Everything so far is labeled and separated based on where it runs and what it goes to.

^^^ why I dig on carbs...

Looking good. doing all the wiring up front will pay off in the end.

Subscribing to this thread, Going to tackle a TII project on my own eventualy.

Looking good, 15-20 hours on wiring is about right if you're going for the "it could be factory" look. It's a bunch of work, but once you're done (if you've done it right) you won't have to touch it again for a looooong time :)

Might pay you to check the bushings in the wastegate flapper too before you put it all back together - I'm running same hotside with hybrid coldside and after a year of trouble making boost low down it turned out to be shot hinge bush. After looking through a pile of housings I didn't find a single one that didn't have play in it to some degree. Now that's done it's boost o'clock.:egrin:

Takes me back to my build, good memories - keep up the good work.

Thats a good tip, right there! I'm a major proponent of "do it proper while you're in there"

Haha yeah, I hear that. But I have always loved wiring and will continue to for as far as I can see. I'm considering double-majoring in Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering since I love them both so much.

I completely agree. I want to be able to wire everything in and run the car right away instead of waiting to finish up the wiring after everything is already in.

Awesome! Keep tabs on here and I'll keep posting the progress and tricks that I learn along the way.

That's the goal! No messing around with it while it's in the car unless absolutely necessary. Had to stop though to get ready for the install of the engine to finish up the driver's side engine harness to ensure that I get all of the lengths right.

This also makes me really want to get an Rtek so that I can just plug the ECU back in and drive the car instead of redoing the entire wiring harness to run a Haltech or something along those lines.

I'd LOVE to know how you fixed this issue, both hinges on the wastegates are pretty shot and have way too much play to be allowed. Thank you for the tip, I greatly appreciate it!

I completely agree, I'm the same way. That's why I'm doing all new gaskets, fuel lines, vacuum lines, and a mountain of other things to ensure I don't have to pull the engine unless something catastrophic happens.

Well, new updates are as follows:

1. I've been sick for almost a month now. Not sure if it's a sinus infection or something more sinister, have something tightening in my chest and back so I'm going in tomorrow to find out. That's really been slowing the progress down.

2. I think I'm going to use the spare turbo that I have instead of the one that comes apart and was on the car for a few reasons:
A. There's no play whatsoever in the turbo, side to side or front to back
B. Has the coolant lines still attached
C. Appears to be in better shape overall
D. Only has one stud broken off in the back

3. Goal is to drive the car in 41 days to get the windows tinted for a steal through the MNMazda forum by Tint Pros here in Minneapolis.

4. Got the car home last night so I can get the work done faster. May put the gas tank back in and take the 12a for it's last few drives before I'm completely ready to swap to the 13bt. Plan on doing some before and after videos with the engines just for fun. Pretty stoked :egrin:

So I'm going to try to get some work done today and tomorrow if at all possible.

Thanks for the replies guys, makes it worth posting :nod:

No worries, I couldn't have done my swap without input from other people so just repaying the debt. I had to get a turbo reconditioner to replace it in the end, no other way.

I agree, without other people I'd have no clue.

I figured it would be something like a rebuild kit, there's one I found for like $150ish that I wouldn't mind picking up next winter.

Getting a little antsy now, drove the 12a powered car last night and absolutely loved it. Can't wait for the 13bt to be in and drive that under its own power.:egrin:

Modified the turbo oil drain with steel tubing, per Sean's direction :icon_tup::

http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/...ps48b31318.jpg

http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/...pse450600d.jpg

http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/...psa71df9dd.jpg

How I left the engine tonight:

http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/...pse184cbd5.jpg

List of work done:
Modified turbo oil drain and adapted to FB GSL-SE front cover
New front cover gasket
Cleaned MOP and installed new gasket, completely installed
CAS, MOP, and front eccentric shaft pulley all reinstalled

Cleaned oil pan to ready for install of new oil pan gasket but found that I ordered the wrong one. So I ordered a new one from Atkins tonight, as well as some other small things that I wanted to complete the install.

Slowly but surely, and correctly, I'm getting there.

Not bad metal working at all. Did you make the flange?

You're going to have to pack an extra set of shorts once you get the 13BT in there. :icon_tup:

No, not the end flange. That end bolts up to the turbo oil drain, I cut off the end that bolts to the front TII cover flat to adapt to that fitting. Not too hard, just took me a while to see how I should do it (with some serious help from Sean :nod: ).

I'm thinking one set of shorts per gear change :lol: That TII car, even with leading coil not fully grounding and who knows what else not hooked up or sealed correctly was STILL a blast. And a stripped-but-complete-interior-still-in-car TII is probably still heavier than an FB, so it will be a blast completely hooked up :egrin:

Is there a difference between 12a and SE front covers? I dont see a difference with the one I have I dont even know what its from.

There is a difference, in the MOP I believe. Guys run SE front covers on S5 13BT swaps so that they can use the electronic MOP's they come with. I think the guy that did an REW swap did the same thing as well.. I was going to use the 12a I have laying around but just ended up buying an SE so there wasn't any issues.s

How I Made My Turbo Oil Drain
 

Making an FB turbo oil drain into the front cover below the OMP.

Parts needed from the store:
1/2" x 3/8" NPT Bushing
3/8" NPT 2" pipe
Attachment 676000

Put the pipe through the 3/8" NPT tapped hole in the front cover and tighten it. Grind off all excess as in this picture so that the pipe is pressing as little as possible on the chain guard for the E-Shaft.

Attachment 676001

Grind off the threads on the bushing down to almost nothing. Leave just enough to act as barbs to hold it in place for welding.

Attachment 676002

Put the bushing inside the oil drain but don't weld on right away.

Attachment 676003

Line up the tighened 2" pipe in the front cover, then tighten the flange with the oil drain all the way up. Mark the relative positions with a Sharpie to ensure that they are tighened to the right spot later. Tack weld the bushing in place and remove to finish weld. Remember to grind off the welds flat to ensure penetration through the stock oil drain pipe to the bushing for no leaks.

Attachment 676004

Last pic is what mine looked like when finished.

Attachment 676005

Typed that up since I had the fix the links for the pics, moved them in my Photobucket account.

Tonight I plan on:
1. Porting the S4 wastegate on the turbo that I'll actually be using
2. Drilling out the busted stud on the back of the exhaust turbine
3. Fully installing the turbo setup
4. Modding the stock 12a engine brace 20mm rearward.

Then there's only a few things left till it's installed! :icon_tup:

Damn dude, you're going to have this installed and running before I even finish collecting the bits for my EFI swap.

I gotta get my ass in gear! (And don't slow down - keeping me motivated here!)

Haha thanks Geoff :nod: Your car will be awesome when you finish it up too, I swear the parts hunting is among the hardest parts of these projects. I'm waiting on an Atkins order I made last Saturday night and it will be here on Friday. DYING waiting for that box so I can finish the engine up and get it in.

Well, here's what I got done tonight:

How I started the night

Attachment 675919

Attachment 675920

Attachment 675921

Attachment 675922

Attachment 675923

Attachment 675924

Finished.

Got a lot done tonight and pretty happy with the progress. Should be swapping it in on Saturday hopefully and getting the driveshaft made early next week so I can start driving it! :nod:

List of things accomplished tonight are as follows:
Turbo oil drain completely installed and sealed
Coolant line from intake to turbo installed and sealed
2 new down pipe studs installed in turbo
Wastegate ported to the largest diameter the stock flapper would allow (didn't want to go all out on this one, went up about 25% from stock so it will work fine)
Installed turbo wastegate cover/backing plate
Installed turbo completely on engine
Removed clutch to view condition, then reinstalled - looks brand new :icon_tup:
Some other things probably but I forget

List of things needed to do to finish engine while removed:
Mod the 12a engine bracket
Install waterpump and housing with new gaskets and new thermostat (waiting on the Atkins order)
New oil pan gasket installed (Atkins order as well)
Then I can INSTALL!

Will be working on wiring harness mostly here, as well as removing the 12a and modding the gas tank till Friday. Hopefully by next week she can be in the driveline shop getting a custom driveshaft and I can start driving it by the middle of next week! :egrin:

Beautimous

Making good progress :)

Thank you sir :nod:

Well I was, until this happened:
Attachment 675572

Stupid snow.

So I've kept myself busy through painting my gauge pod:
Attachment 675573

Attachment 675574

And this made me feel like DivinDriver, since someone made fun of him for painting individual bolt heads :lol:
Attachment 675575

So I'm at a standstill for now, was hoping to get the engine in on Saturday but that's not gonna happen. Guess I'll have to try and get the engine completely ready for the swap with the Atkins package I'm getting today and finish up a few other things but I'm kinda bummed about the weather. MN is terrible for giving you hope then dashing it again.

Looks good, how close is the color match on that a-pillar?

Did you mod your shifter yet?

The color match on the SEM burgundy is 95-97%.


Giving shit for painting screw heads??? PFFFFT. I've painted EVERY screw I've taken off so far. ALL interior screws have been painted burgundy, and the headlight bucket screws are now matte black.

Keep it up bro - gauges are next on my list too. either tonight or tomorrow AM. Where you thinking of tapping them in? I was thinking to the stereo power harness, although I'm hesitant to add any potential line noise or ground loops into that already convoluted harness.

Really really close. Paint went on easy and even, one of the easiest aerosol paints I've ever used.

Haven't modded shifter yet, pretty nervous about that. Don't want to go through sideways and risk screwing up the rod. I'm a smaller guy (5' 8" with shoes on is what I always say :nod: ) and I thought it would bring the shifter closer to me if I just cut the tunnel - still unsure what I'd like to do. I don't have a drill press or access to one so I don't know.

I agree, really close but still a little off.

I'll do the same when I get that far. Painted heads makes it look complete. No trash meant by the comment, I just thought of him while painting the heads :)

I need to go through and rewire my entire stereo and gauge setup now so I'm unsure what I'll do. Would like to find a good place that has good consistant power that I can leech from. I'll post pics when I get to that point :biggrin:

Yeah I took the time to restore most of the hardware in my engine bay (chemical strip rust and paint heads black) and have painted lots of other little things here and there. I think a lot of us are that anal about the cars, we just don't post about it as much as DivinDriver does lol.

FYI, any rx7 shift rod can be used as the "base" shift rod for the modification. So if you don't want to risk messing up the T2 rod just use one out of a 12a trans or a NA FC or whatever you can find. You'll need to do some measuring to get it right since both the NA FC and 12a shift rod have the current hole in a different spot than the T2, so you can use the "move it 30mm forward" method...

Sweet! Maybe I'll go grab the one out of my old parts car that's only a mile up the road at the salvage yard. If I can do it to that one I'll leave the TII one alone for a spare.

Well, got a lot done today!

What the engine looked like this morning:
Attachment 675424

Drilled and tapped the water pump housing for my 1/8 NPT water temp sensor for the temp gauge
Attachment 675425

Attachment 675426

New thermostat
Attachment 675427

Got the oil temp and oil pressure gauge ready for install
Attachment 675428

How the engine looked when done
Attachment 675429

List of work done:
New water pump housing to block gasket
New thermostat
New thermostat gasket
Drilled and tapped hole for Auto Meter water temp gauge sensor
Hooked up turbo coolant line
Readied for oil temp and pressure gauges
Oil pan gasket installed
Modified engine mounting brace for 13b engine

In other words - COMPLETELY ENGINE DONE!

I could now insert the engine into the 12a car but can't yet, since there's too much snow around. Will be going in soon though, super stoked!

EWWWW tell me you have the fram filter because its keeping the dirt divers out?

All and all looking good :icon_tup:

Haha notice the dent?? :nod: Yeah, that thing is just to keep the dust out. I'll probably run the nice K&N filters when I really run the engine.

Thanks, culmination of 9 hours of hard work today and I feel pretty accomplished :egrin: