Jon_Valjean

It lives!


Next step: dyno. Thing is running pretty lean, and it's not worth me trying to tune it, I'll get an expert. Everything works well though, with the exception of a pinhole leak in the thermostat housing that I'll zap with the tig when drain the water out. I also missed that the oil pressure switch had been removed from the engine and the port covered over with black tape, so I lost about a litre of oil on the ground whilst cranking. Anyway, getting closer to driving it!

Jon_Valjean

Wow, that last update was quite some time ago.

Since the first startup, quite a lot has changed. I drove the car a short distance and the diff head fell out of the subframe, landing on the rear sway and exhaust causing a small amount of damage. As it happens, when changing a R200 diff into a R180 cradle, special captive steel bushes are needed to hold the front mounts on correctly, rather than the existing rubber bushes that failed instantly. Anyway, that was fixed pretty quickly and during that process I discovered a leak in the aluminum tank that I'd welded up. Unfortunately, since it's already had fuel in it, I really didn't want to weld it again, so I binned it and decided to completely rebuild the entire rear end with a new fuel cell in mind.

So to that end, I picked up some 65x2.5mm box mild steel and ran two new chassis rails from the subframe to the rear of the car, and welded these to a 65x35x3mm rear bar spanning the width of the car. I also made custom mounts for the rear bumper, and that now bolts directly to this bar with threaded rod.

A new fuel cell was mounted (50L) and a filler pipe fabricated to keep the existing fuel door location and fill the tank in its centre. I also changed almost all of the old rubber fuel lines for -6 AN braided hose, and attached another fuel filter.

Having attached new floor sections and rust-proofed everything, the rear is pretty much done. It's so much better than it was before, it really looks more like a production car, which was the goal. Yeah, it added about 150 hours to the project, but I feel much more confident about it all now.

I've also fixed a bunch of leaks - oil, fuel, inlet, exhaust, water - you name it, there was minor leaks everywhere, but it's all solid now. I smoke tested the exhaust and found that every single V-band clamp was leaking, so I chopped them all off and replaced them with 2-bolt flanges. FML.

It's had a laser wheel alignment and everything is good to go - running about .5 negative camber in the back and 0 up front, everything looks good and the car handles incredibly. You can flick the wheel and it goes exactly where you tell it to - albeit with a bit of guard lip rub that I need to finesse out with a hammer at some point.

I also replaced the notched belt drive with a 6PK serpentine setup, and changed the single 14" radiator fan for two 10" ones, and removed the shroud I was using as it was getting up near 100degC. It's currently cruising on a much better 93degC. The car still isn't street legal and the AFR's are a bit rich so I don't want to drive it too much - in saying that, I've done 24 kilometres in it

Dyno time this Friday, aiming for 400RWHP to start off, but we'll see what happens. Nearest competent rotary tuner is a 4 hour drive in each direction so that's gonna be fun. Will report back HP figures then, in the meantime will post some pictures up shortly as the RX7 club image server is being a dick.

Jon_Valjean

Jon_Valjean

Jon_Valjean

Very long day today, up at 0530, back home at 1930, 700 kilometres on the road towing a car trailer. Worth it though


Started the tuning off by strapping it down and setting timing and idle stuff, then started cruising at 100kph and found that it was getting up around 100degC again. Really not much else to check but the thermostat, so waited for it to cool (doesn't take long with a huge fan pointed at the engine..) and pulled out the thermostat. Seems that it was sticking a bit, so replaced it with a second hand thermostat out of a 20B the dyno operator happened to have lying about. Opens at 87 instead of 82, but it was good enough to keep temps around 94degC between pulls. Still too warm but safe enough to tune.

The result? 343HP @7200rpm at the rear wheels on 10.4 psi boost, basically spring pressure. A good 500+ foot pound of torque too. The dyno image below is in kilowatt and newton metres btw.



I also drove it the last 20km or so home, which was a bit illegal but c'mon.. bit hard not to. The car drives like a modern vehicle. I can throw it into a corner and put my boot to the floor and it finds the exit and screams away, wastegate fluttering.. it's phenomenal. There's no lateral movement in the rear whatsoever, so it tracks evenly around the twisty roads we have. There's no tramlining, no vague steering, it's point and click. And it's still very early days for this car, there's a lot more to do.

I'll pull the water pump off and see if it's corroded out, that might be causing some of the temperature issues. Then it's time to get it legal. More work ahead, but the car passed a very, very important milestone today.

Big thanks to my long-suffering friend Matt, who drove most of the way and had to stand in a noisy dyno room looking at old mazda parts for a long time today. He also did most of the initial work on the rear subframe, and a heap of panel and welding work to get it all finished, so this thanks is long overdue!

nzjavert

This has been a very interesting project and my *cough* pleasure to help Just kidding...has been epic to assist with this project and the hours I have put in is nothing compared to yours. It has been a great learning curve for both of us and really pleased that the result has been a car that could compete with cars of far greater value and pedigree Well done.

Jon_Valjean

Yeah I'm gonna go ahead and say that's the reason for the creeping temperatures. The whole housing is corroded to hell, particularly the surface the impeller sits above.

No problem, I'll just pop down to Mazda and get a new housing.. what's that? NLA and there's no aftermarket equivalent? Great.

Car is now in bits until I can find a second hand turbo FC 86-88 pump housing. The only saving grace is that the weather is lousy and I wouldn't be able to drive it anyway!

FührerTüner

iTrader: (5)

How are you making that much torque on 10psi?

Jon_Valjean

Yeah it does seem a little on the high side, I have to say. I would have expected to see closer to 400 foot pound. The engine does have a bit of overlap and the exhaust ports are opened right up, but still, I'm not really sure. It'll be interesting to see what it does when the boost is turned up.

craaaazzy

iTrader: (9)

how am I not subscribed to this build? nice numbers...though torque does seem awfully high. what size turbo you using?

Jon_Valjean

Borgwarner S300SX-66 with a .91AR.

Jon_Valjean

I've learned quite a bit about Mazda rotary cooling systems over the last few weeks, not all of it particularly good or enjoyable.

The goal here was to fix the cooling issue without resorting to swapping out the factory FC waterpump for an electric water pump, as this would cost around USD$600-700 by the time the pump, controller, hoses, housing adaptor and side-mount alternator equipment had all been purchased and attached.

I started by trying to find a replacement 13B-T water pump housing from an FC made between 86 and 88. Couldn't find anything anywhere, so plan B was to source one from an 89-91 FC, which is a little different but still usable with a bit of tweaking. I found a good example locally and bought it, complete with water pump and thermostat housing.

The 89-91 water pump housing attaches to the engine in the same way as the earlier one, however it has an 8-bolt water pump rather than a 7-bolt pump on the 86-88, and the inlet lower radiator hose pipe is at a slightly different angle to clear the electronic OMP on the 89-91 cars. It also has a 3-bolt thermostat housing and the pulley flange has a slightly larger ID - all stuff that is changeable and not really a show stopper.

So I changed it all:



I had to change the angle of the lower pipe as it hit my wastegate.



I made a new thermostat housing neck as the old one was a) plastic and b) pointing in the wrong direction.



I also performed the bypass mod, blocking up the bypass and gutting the thermostat. I welded up a stainless plug and put a nut in it, so I can always extract it later.



The new fan: a Davies Craig 16" 2150CFM unit that draws 20 amps at full blast. You have to assume the Aussies know how to cool things. This thing is a beast. I also picked up a new dual-pass radiator for better efficiency, and made a new shroud out of 2mm aluminium.



The final configuration - I took it out for a blast this morning after hooking everything up and fixing various leaks. Only a few miles from home, it started getting warm again after boosing it a little. Temperatures were creeping towards 95-96degC and I couldn't figure out what on earth could be left that would be causing the problem. Pulled over to the side of the road and checked - the fan wasn't operating. Checked the fuses and sure enough, it had tripped the 20A fuse. Replaced it with a spare 30A, and the fan fired up right away - looked at the temp gauge and it plummeted from 99 to 81 over about twenty seconds!

Drove it back home boosting in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, really loading up the engine and it wouldn't move off 81 deg! So if anything it's potentially a little cool, so I'll pull out the bypass plug I put in and put the thermostat back in. That should bring the temp up a little and still give me plenty of overhead.

In other news, the 225/50/16 tyres start spinning at 6000rpm in third, still only on 10 pounds of boost. I've fixed the cooling issue, but clearly traction is going to be an ongoing concern.

But the next step is to get certification to drive it legally on the road here, so I'll be starting that process come Monday.

Jon_Valjean

Just a quick video shot a few days ago:


Once all the final testing is done, I'll get a few more videos from inside and outside showing cornering. The car is really well sorted though, it loves the corners and hangs on even with the turbo screaming. All round an absolutely hilarious car to drive, leaves you with a big grin every time!

More soon.

Jon_Valjean

It's been a frustrating but ultimately rewarding last couple of months since I updated. I'm pleased to report that this vehicle is indeed now road legal after 15 years! But it's been a hell of a ride getting there.

Shortly after the last video, I had the car safety tested as part of the New Zealand Low Volume Vehicle standard. This is a pretty rigorous test involving a thorough inspection and test drive, along with an interview where I have to explain to the certifier what I've done, and show my work.

The car failed this first test on a few items - in no particular order, the vacuum hose from the booster to the engine was cracked, I didn't have the paperwork on the fuel hose connecting the new filler pipe to the tank to prove it was gasoline resistant, the right front wheel bearing needed to be tightened a fraction, and the rear brakes locked up before the front. Not too bad considering this was a total ground-up rebuild of the car using totally unoriginal parts in almost every location.

In any case, I fixed the first three items within a day. The last item took a month.

I don't want to undersell the importance of correct troubleshooting, but sometimes cars play tricks with you. Upon braking from 100kph to zero, full foot-to-the-floor emergency braking that is, the car would get down to about 40kph and the rear wheels would lock, and the car would start to go sideways. My initial seat-of-the-pants diagnosis was that it needed an adjustable brake bias valve to limit the line pressure to the rear wheels, so I proceeded along those lines by purchasing and installing an Aeroflow valve:



Now you can see in this blurry picture that the factory brake bias valve is still installed, just to the left of the aftermarket one there on the firewall. I did this for two reasons - 1) I didn't really know what I was doing and guessed a bit, assuming that if the factory unit is still allowing too much pressure through then the valve will take care of the rest and 2) I didn't want to have to make up new hard brake hoses before at least trying the easy aforementioned solution. Yeah, I know, you'd think I would be learning by now.

So, another day, another test drive, and the rear wheels still lock up. Curiously, doesn't seem to matter what I do with the valve - all the way in (max line pressure) or all the way out (minimum line pressure) and the rears still lock up first. So, perhaps the fronts aren't working correctly, and if they're unable to lock up first, perhaps the front calipers need to be rebuilt?

So, I pulled off the front calipers, blew out the pistons, checked for corrosion and nope, they're all in remarkably good condition. Plus, when bleeding the brakes there's a heap of fluid coming out the bleed valve so there's no issue with the master, at least on the front circuit. Figured I may as well pull the rear calipers (C35 Nissan Laurel) and check the pistons there too - OK, here's progress, the left rear piston is seized. Perfect, perhaps that's why the rear is locking up first - cleaned it all out and re-kitted it.

Another day, another test drive and it's still locking the rears first. This isn't really much fun anymore. What else - well, it seems highly unlikely that the factory bias valve could be causing this, but it's a point of failure so what the hell - I'll remove it and see what happens. I pull it apart and discover it's all gummed up with crap after nearly 40 years, so cool - it wasn't even working, perhaps that's part of the problem. I plumb up the whole system with new hard lines and leave just the aftermarket Aeroflow valve in place to limit the rear.

Another day, another test drive and nope - rears still locking first. I'm getting pretty desperate, I've already put off the certifier once telling him I'm still working on the brakes, if I put him off again he's going to think I don't know what I'm doing.

I don't know what I'm doing so I panic and replace the master cylinder with a unit out of a Subaru WRX, mainly because it's a 1" unit, it bolts straight on the FC booster and it cost $30. I was quoted $190 just to rekit my FC master cylinder so it's a no-brainer. My brain hurts as I take it for another drive and the rears lock up first again. Pedal feels good though, I do like the new 1" master, think I'll keep it if I can ever figure out what the hell is going on here.

I spend $200 on Endless race brake pads in the extremely remote unlikelihood that the Bendix units I bought three years ago but have hardly used are in some way contaminated or just not working. Rears still lock up first, but the car sure gets from 100 to 40 a hell of a lot faster.

I find a spare OEM bias valve from an Isuzu SUV and experiment by running it inline with the adjustable one. This is the result:


There's only one thing left to check. I pull off the brand new Aeroflow brake bias controller and pull it apart on the bench.



Lower seal is split, and it's covered in some kind of aluminium oxide mixed with... gunk. It's pretty clear that it's not working, and has never worked. I resist the temptation to throw it against the wall, calmly call the supplier and eventually I get a full refund plus postage. If you've read this far, you may recall the issues I had with Aeroflow fuel rails a few months back - let's just say I won't be buying anything from them ever again.

I call a local speed shop and order in an Edelbrock proportioning valve, install it, test drive and what do you know - perfect brake bias. Jam on the brakes and the fronts lock up first. Problem solved.

In the meantime while I was waiting for parts to arrive and for the local store to stock up on brake fluid for me, I ticked off another few items. I added the rest of the sound deadening on the roof and the rear floor, and put down a layer of heat resistant aluminium mesh, then underlay, then carpet.



Did a heap of reassembly for the interior and painted it a bit more. Still a long way to go, I have to redo the centre console and make room for a 7" in-dash navigation raspberry Pi device thing, but that's a job for later.



Also added some spotlights to the front. These are genuine Bosch units from the 80s, but they are on probation. I might get sick of them and remove them in the future depending on how I feel.





What else.. Oh, I also mounted the starter button in a better place. It involved taking out the headliner, which I had to do to install the sound deadening anyway, upon doing so I discovered why the car had always smelt a bit.. uh.. musty?



I took out the interior illumination light panel thing, added a spring to it and this is the end result:




Also converted the wipers to a modern hook setup using the welder.. long overdue!



And here she is in town, inconspicuously blending in with all the other cars...



I wanted to take her out for a long drive today, but as you can see from that last picture it's a bit wet out, so I'm going to wait for the weather to clear then get some good footage on the road with the aid of a 4K camera I picked up the other day. So although this phase of the build is over with, I'll post back here every so often with any major updates.

Future plans will definitely involve 15x8 Rota RKR wheels, guard flares and a paint job - may happen this year, most likely next. There's probably other stuff I've forgotten.. Oh yeah, I changed the rear springs from 6KG/mm to 4KG/mm which makes it a lot more comfortable to drive. There's more and I'm in a hurry so I'll do another update with video in a couple weeks

Jon_Valjean

The weather cleared up today so I took her for a spin. Clocked up 80km with no problems at all. The suspension is settling in well, and the engine seems to be developing more power each time I drive it. Beautiful day here in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand so here's a view looking north to the city of Napier from atop Te Mata Peak.



I'm taking her on a road trip for around 300km on Monday, weather permitting, so will grab some video footage then.

JSmall

That's mean as aye. Glad to see an update on this! You're also making me wish I was back home hahah

KYPREO

Great to catch up on this build after a few months. Congrats on getting it back on the road.

Hey, if you are interested in the EWP setup, then you don't need to go down the expensive route of replacing the water pump housing / side mount alternator / controller etc. In fact, in my experience, this is possibly the worst way to implement EWP on a street car. A thermostat is required to prevent the system from overcooling. You can modify the factory waterpump housing to retain the bypass thermostat, then just run the EWP using your ECU. This requires PWM control - simply map duty % against engine coolant temp.

I have done a writeup on how to do the EWP conversion properly using the factory waterpump housing. The kind of internal corrosion you found will not affect proper operation of an EWP system when setup as I've described.

See here:
Electric water pump ??? - AusRotary
& here:
ewp electric controller - Page 2 - AusRotary

The EWP itself can be found on eBay Australia for under $200, so shouldn't cost much for send to ship across the ditch to Napier.

chuyler1

iTrader: (1)

Quite an ordeal with the brakes, glad you finally got it sorted. Definitely share a driving video soon!

Jon_Valjean

Thanks for that info - I'll definitely look at that in the future as the supply of water pump housings is drying up. I was put off the idea of using an electric pump due to the overcooling issues so that could be a good way to do it.

It's been a while since the last update as I decided to push ahead and change the wheels on the car. I really just got sick of looking at the 16" rims, and the tyres on my family vehicle were getting a bit bald so I wanted to swap the rims from the RX7 on to that rather than buy new ones.

I always wanted a Watanabe replica style, and the nearest equivalent I could find was the Rota RKR. Unfortunately, in 15" the only ones available in New Zealand have the 4x114.3 PCD, and this car is 5x114.3.

I could get the 5x114.3 15" version out of California, but they wanted USD$350 for freight, then I'd have to pay import taxes and blah blah, by the end of the exercise I wouldn't get much change from US$1500 for the set.

I could have also picked up some 17" 5x114.3 Rota RKRs but I've never seen a first-gen on 17" rims that I liked. Apologies if yours has 17" rims, it's just the truth - I prefer them with smaller wheels, and 15" is the smallest that will fit over the FD front brakes.

So, the puzzle became, how to fit 4x114.3 rims on a 5x114.3 lug car with a Skyline rear and FC front spindles?

Firstly, the rear is no problem. I found the stash of spare parts we pulled off the A31 Cefiro in 2016 when I started the IRS conversion, and after a spot of soda blasting the 4x114.3 rear hubs were pressed back into service. Simply unbolt the 5x114 hubs from the rear hub carriers and put in the 4x114 hubs. Job done, thanks Nissan for keeping it simple!

The front, on the other hand, was a lot harder. You North Americans are probably saying "hey, no problem, grab a base model FC 4x114.3 hub, bolt it on and space out the rotor and you're done!" and I totally would have done that if it were remotely possible to find FC 4x114.3 front hubs in New Zealand. You have to remember that the FC RX7 was never sold as a new vehicle here, they are all imported and if you're going to go to the trouble of importing a RX7 to New Zealand you're not going to choose a base model, you're going for the turbo which is 5x114. I could have bought some hubs in from the USA I guess, but I did check on Ebay and none were listed for sale, which isn't surprising I guess considering most people probably remove them and bin them in exchange for the 5x114 hubs.

So, custom billet hubs it was. I picked up some 250x150mm 1040 bar and took it to a friend of mine with an amazing 4-axis CNC machine and he spun up these incredible hubs:





I fitted them with ARP m12x1.25 studs and new bearings, and bolted them on. A perfect fit. I bought the Rota RKR's in 15x0 ET0 in bronze, and fitted them with 215/50/15 front and 235/50/15 Toyo Proxes R888's all around. I don't think I'm going to have wheelspin issues in third anymore.



I also dialed in a shade over 2 degrees negative camber in the rear, and 1 degree in the front. This gives it the stance I need, and the Toyo state that the Proxes are designed to run with anything from -1 to -3 camber so that works too. Of course, I had to flare the guards as the wheels stuck out about 55mm, so that was a laborious project involving rivnuts, a grinder and some welding of the rear arches. Felt a bit wrong cutting up the car, but there's no going back. This was largely inevitable ever since the IRS conversion anyway.







So after another wheel alignment to correct the toe changed by the additional camber, it's driving really well. Unfortunately the additional camber and wider tyre/rim setup has introduced some pretty noticeable bump steer up front. This, coupled with the fuel surge issues due to a lack of swirl pot means it's off the road again until I can contend with these annoyances.

I also removed the front spotlights, their probation period was up and I got sick of them. I'm also sick of the filled-in line down the side of the car, so that's going to get ground out and returned to factory when the car gets painted, which, going well, should be before February 2020. I've booked the car into a large Motorsport event here in February called ReUnion that boasts over 350 rotary-powered cars on the track at the same time and I want it to look a lot better. Not quite sure about painting it gloss black anymore, might have to think more about that.







I also swapped out the front springs from 8KG/mm to 6KG/mm and it's a lot better. I'm pleased to report that 6KG/mm front and 4KG/mm rear is about perfect for a street-driven FB - really a joy to drive and no broken back from rough roads.

That's all for now!

Jon_Valjean

Forgot to share a couple of other things about this FB, it's school holidays in New Zealand and I've had very limited opportunity to write extensive details to unknown Mazda fans on a forum ahead of looking after the kids. Sometimes I feel like the original Drifting Dad, albeit with the right engine for the chassis.

I did do a 150-mile trip in the car about six weeks ago, which was intended to be a lot longer however the steering started binding on left turns. This is after about an hour of driving at an ambient temperature of about 10 degrees celcius. When moving the steering wheel to the left, there was a definite feeling of resistance, only slight but noticible. Upon identifying this, the test drive was abandoned and the car was inspected.

I really felt that the issue was caused by heat soak from the turbo affecting the nylon bushes in the steering column. Again, you guys in North America have no idea about all this, this is pure RHD frustration. So to counteract that, I fabricated a 2mm aluminium shield covering not only the steering shaft from the column to the rack, but also encompassing the brake master cylinder itself, which was hot enough to impart skin burns. Ask me how I know that.

Also gave me an opportunity to tie in a master cylinder brace too, you can see this in the photo - it's an adjustable thread pushing back on the end of the cylinder. Prevents movement of the cylinder under hard braking.



All this work has made a difference, in the limited time I've driven it since installation there's been no binding. But I think I need to do more, there will be more shielding and potentially air ducting introducing cooler air into the engine bay. This will be an ongoing concern. Hood vents? Ugly but maybe necessary.

What I wanted to get across in the last post but didn't really have the time to address, is that the lesson this car has taught me is that you really need to design your project to a particular wheel/tyre combination. By that I mean there's no point running huge horsepower in a small car if you can't get it to the ground. Unless, of course, your intention is to just do skids everywhere.

The car has made 343RWHP at 10psi at this stage, the sensible traction solution going forward would be to use 17" wheels, probably 9" wide with some good quality rubber. That's an option I considered, but ultimately I backed down as I felt the asthetics of a 15" wheel overrode the practical consideration of more traction. It was something I gave extensive consideration to.

I'm not afraid to admit at my stage of life (40), with two small children, I don't need a highly unstable death trap with no traction heading assways into a wall. In the real world, this car has an upper limit of traction vs stupidity somewhere around 450RWHP on 15" rims. Capable of high 10's in the 1/4 mile if I'm good enough to learn how to do it, and that's where it will remain.

I'll be swapping out the wastegate spring to a new 15psi unit shortly, that should get me to 450 at the back axle after the fuel surge issues are fixed. I hope this will be possible on 6AN lines with a Walbro 255 - everything I've read suggests I'm within limits, but we'll see. The tyres will determine the ultimate potential of the car.

This project is a long term affair, and as always I'll be updating when something of relevance occurs

Narfle

iTrader: (16)

Car looks great with the flares and wheels.

Jon_Valjean

The trip counter has rolled over twice since it's been on the road, meaning I've covered a little over 2000km, and all seems to be going well. I've had the car recertified to show the change in wheels, and I've changed a few cosmetic details.

I tracked down a centre console surround piece and made a new gauge panel:









Why are there seven holes when I only have six gauges? That's totally deliberate. I definitely under no circumstances incorrectly mentally counted my gauges and thought I had one more than I actually do. It's a hole left intentionally unfilled. Damn it. Well, I do have to install aircon at some stage, so maybe I can find a round temp switch or something, I'll worry about it later.

I also found a spoiler for sale about 180km away, so I shot off to pick it up - it's a genuine made-in-NZ fibreglass spoiler from the mid 1980s, the type of thing you could send off a cheque for and receive it in the mail a few weeks later. Definitely period authentic. Unfortunately it was green, so I had to repaint it.



Thought I'd try changing out the headlights with these aliexpress LED models...





These are on probation too, as they're almost certainly not legal here and I'll probably get sick of swapping them out every six months when the car has its compulsory safety check. You can also see I've changed the license plate back to a government-issue period-correct plate instead of the reflectorized vanity plate I had before. It's just a continuation of the black-out theme I'm going for here. Yes, it may be purple, but that will be changed to black in April 2020 when my body shop friend is free to paint the whole thing.



I've also booked it back in at the tuner I used earlier in 2019 to push it well past 10psi. I'm hoping the fuel pump will keep up with 18psi and will aim for 450RWHP, January 28th is the magic date, so I'll update the thread at that time. Happy Christmas everyone

Oh also...



I let my sister take my RX2 for a drive and it jammed in 3rd gear due to a worn selector, so I had to rebuild the entire box, which took about a week on and off. Wasn't her fault, it would have happened regardless of the driver. On the bright side, I know a lot about early rotary gearboxes now!

chuyler1

iTrader: (1)

Had the 3rd gear issue happen to my REPU last year. Used it as an excuse to swap in a 5speed.

Jon_Valjean

I was just lucky enough to have a spare gearbox from an RX-5 I acquired a number of years back. The selectors are about 7mm thick out of the factory, when I pulled my selectors out of the jammed box they were closer to 5.8mm, which allowed the syncho to explode and jam it all up. The RX-5 box has had very little use and the selectors are the same (fortunately) so I swapped them over and have no problems since. They measured 6.8mm thick, so combined with a good synthetic oil they should see me out considering I only do about 5000km a year in it.

I got a bit caught up for the whole festive season and didn't really get a heap of work done on the RX-7. I've added some 2mm aluminium between the turbo and the inlet manifold, which has helped to protect the injector wiring and keep intake temperatures down, but it's spitting in the
wind really. Every time I open the hood it's like sticking your face in a pizza oven.



Sitting at a set of lights after using the turbo a bit, you can see heat haze rising off the hood. On the way back from town the other day, the FD alternator failed, and I'm fairly sure it's due to the crippling temperatures.

I'm afraid bonnet vents are inevitable, so I picked up some vents from a JDM Nissan Pulsar GTiR. Those of you who follow Mighty Car Mods on YouTube will know what the donor car looks like.



I'm only really interested in the smaller side vents, but I might be able to modify the larger centre vent and get it to look alright, will see how it goes.

I also wired up the turn signals to the LED headlights:


In reality though, after a lot of reflection I've decided two things. One, I'm definitely calling "phase 1" of this build totally complete. So much so that I've cancelled the re-tune scheduled for later this month, I've changed the insurance to laid-up cover and I've started stripping the car down. This is because of two: the car isn't low enough.

I would have been happy to put up with a couple of annoying characteristics of the suspension, such as high-speed rear understeer caused by the factory traction arms and the incorrect lower arm angle, and low castor combined with tramlining in the front if the car was actually at a very low ride height. I'd have called it a compromise, but as it stands the car isn't low enough to be exhibiting the kind of issues I'm seeing.

I want to stress here though, this car handles very, very well. It's so far ahead of a factory car, or even factory suspension lowered with good springs and shocks that I may as well be driving a modern car. The difference between this car now and the way it was 20 years ago may as well be the difference between a Corolla and a Corvette in my opinion, there's simply no comparison. But it can be better, and until it's better I won't be fully happy, so it's all going to have to come apart in "phase 2", which will begin at some stage before April.

This is a list - by no means comprehensive - of what phase 2 will entail:

---Remove engine and box, strip car for paint. Clean and paint gearbox. Replace rear gearbox seal.

Raise front subframe as far as possible, and level steering rack. Fit power steering using Toyota MR2 electric power steering pump (already purchased) with factory unmodified FC power steer rack.

Move front strut tower rearward approximately 40mm, and inward approximately 20mm with the intention of increasing castor from 3 degrees to 8 degrees, and camber from 1 degree negative to at least 2 degrees negative.

Remove rear subframe, replace bushes and raise subframe relative to body at least 40mm to straighten lower arms. Replace rear traction arms with adjustable Hakon versions. Lower the car at least 25mm, preferably up to 40mm.

Replace all remaining vbands with flanges, because vbands leak. Machine turbo outlet to accept flange or vband clamp. Make missing shield for botttom of bellhousing. Fix minor sump leaks and install oil temp sender. Get rid of superfluous hard fuel line adapters. Move ignition coils lower in the engine bay to improve cooling. Fix battery box lid strap and carpet around box. Fix indicators not automatically clicking off around corners. Fix rear muffler knocking against body. Ducting, ducting and more ducting. Fit bonnet vents, and inner guard vents. Fit purchased ARP wheel studs in the rear before I snap the factory Nissan studs.

Relocate overflow bottle and fit air conditioning pump, fit condenser, heat exchanger and evaporator, get aircon system gassed up and working.

Underseal and paint the entire car, probably dark gloss gunmetal grey. Find some better looking flares.

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So, once again, I'll update when this all starts, but nothing is happening anytime soon. I have a house to build and other projects to work on, and wouldn't you know it, my sister just bought an RX-3 and she wants me to start work on that soon, so who knows! I'll leave you with this lovely "before" image in the meantime.

JSmall

Man. Every time I read your updates on this thread. It makes me miss home aye! Hahaha. Awesome work on the car aye. I know about some of the heat issues created by a large turbo in a RHD chassis! Heat shielding is on my to-do list ha. Looking forward to seeing phase 2 come along!