placd1

iTrader: (3)

It's truly been an adventure to date with my rotary build I started off in May of 2013 by buying my first FB. I picked up a 1985 GSL for $1000. The PO said that the car ran fine but had some hiccups with the carb. On the two occasions that I saw the car, it started and sounded good. Silly me, I never took a test drive but we'll get to that part later.
Since I wasn't going to drive it anywhere till I got some work done, plus the rear tires were showing canvas/wire, I trailered it home. Here's what she looked like when I brought her home.

placd1

iTrader: (3)

After the initial excitement of getting her home and cleaned up a bit, I got an early start the next day and tried starting her up. Tumbled but wouldn't start. Started running through my checklist of options.
Good battery? Check!
Fuel filter ok? Check!
Ignition ok? Nope!
Pulled the plugs and lo and behold, they were fouled! Cleaned them up and had another go at it. Still not starting!!! Pulled plugs again and they were fouled just as bad as the first time.

placd1

iTrader: (3)

At this point I called out the big guns (my father-in-law who's a mechanical genius) and he advised me to pull all 4 plugs and turn over the engine by hand to unflood it.
I pulled the plugs and as soon as I removed the leading plugs a flood of dark,oily liquid came gushing out. It only smelled vaguely of gasoline and I couldn't quite understand why. When I caught some of the liquid in a cup and examined it, there were bits and pieces of something in it!!! Looked like little flakes of rust but some of them were shiny bits?!?!?!?!
Kept turning over the motor by hand and the whooshes coming from the plug holes were faint. VERY FAINT.

placd1

iTrader: (3)

I didn't give up! I went down to Lordco and bought a set of fresh plugs, did a 'reset' on the carb based on my FSM and other collected bits and bobs on RX7 info.
And she started!!!!

placd1

iTrader: (3)

Idle speed was pegged at 1200 rpm. No matter what adjustment I made to the air/fuel mix screw or the idle screw it made no difference at all! So the next thing on my mind was a strip down of the carb to figure out what's wrong.
Fast forward to the weekend (cause I can only tinker around with her on the weekend, we do have to work also to support this rotary habit!). Went for a start and she started blowing white smoke everywhere!!!! The neighbors almost called the Fired Department when they saw all that smoke just billowing out from the rear of my car.
I prayed to the Rotary Gods that when she warmed up the smoke would stop. Almost a full hour later she magically stopped smoking and the idle speed dropped to 600rpm. Call me a happy camper!
After doing a battery of checks, I decided to take her for a spin around the block just to feel how she handles etc.
The video tells the whole story.

placd1

iTrader: (3)

She died on me in the middle of the street! I must admit that she died a spectacular death. The death rattle just got louder and rougher and then she sputtered and passed away. All she left behind was a steadily growing pool of coolant and oily water under her.
I pushed her back into the driveway and there she sat for almost a month. Each day I looked at her and wondered if I'd made the biggest mistake of my life buying a rotary powered car. And each day I told myself that it wasn't a mistake, but rather, a learning experience! I reminded myself that I've always wanted to own a 1st gen ever since I was 10 yrs old and saw a midnight blue FB with fat BF Goodrich tires, brap brapping along on the block. I was definitely in love when the driver did a burnout and then launched it down the street shooting flames with every gear shift!!
Nope, it definitely wasn't a mistake! But, I needed to go back to the drawing board and rethink my plan.

placd1

iTrader: (3)

What to do? Should I start looking for another engine? Should I be looking for another 12a or upgrade to the 13b? Should I remain carbureted or should I go EFI?
Should I move to another platform and try the FC or FD instead? Tons of good FCs available pretty cheap and lots of RHD FDs on the market for reasonable prices..........
No dammit! When I think rotary and RX-7 only one chassis comes to mind, the FB!
I'm sticking with the 1st gen no matter what!
So the search started for a donor 12a engine. My GSL had power everything, a great interior,rear wheel disc brakes and an LSD diff making her a great base to start with. All I needed was an engine to get her up and running.

placd1

iTrader: (3)

While scouring Kijiji and Craigslist ads daily, I came across an ad for a 1983 Mazda RX-7 with 50k on the odometer, no rust spots,mint interior and most importantly, unmolested,original 12a motor complete with rats nest,a/c and air pump!
The guy didn't list an asking price so I was immediately concerned about the cost. I phoned him up and he said that he'd bought the car for $2300 and would like to recoup on his investment. I didn't lowball him (at least, not much ) and we settled on a price that made us both comfortable.
The car was located about 120km from my location so the wife and I made a trip down to take a look at it. The dude was sketchy and the location even sketchier but when I took her for a test drive (finally driving an RX7 instead of looking at it in my driveway) I knew she was the one.
Like the ad said, she had no rust issues (even looked in the wheel wells and under the carpet in the rear) and had all original parts.
We shook on the deal and I came back the next day with a the payment and took her home.
Here's what she looked like when I first brought her into the family.

placd1

iTrader: (3)

So now I had not 1 but 2 FBs sitting in my driveway. I looked at the twins while sipping on my morning coffee and started mentally evaluating them.
The Silver GSL on close inspection had an awful lot of underbody rust issues. The Black GS had no rust, clean interior but drums in the rear. The red interior in the GS wasn't as aesthetically pleasing as the nice grey interior and power options in the GSL. And the list of pros and cons kept getting longer and longer.
Finally I decided that I couldn't keep them both but I'd make the best of the situation and strip the GSL for spares,interior,rear brakes,diff,distributor,clutch fan,coils,rear hatch,sunroof,switches and just about anything else that I could take out of her before sending her off to the great beyond (aka Pick n Pull)
So began an intensive 2 weeks (every evening after work, I'd whip out the tools and start attacking some part or the other) strip down of the Silver Bullet.
It truly hurt me to take her apart like that but she was a treasure trove of useful spares and parts to swap into the GS.

placd1

iTrader: (3)

Fast forward to July 2013. The Black Beauty is now my daily driver, shuttling me to work on a grand round trip of 12 km per day. She's a lady and quite dainty when sipping gasoline but can turn into a total bitch when you put your foot down and ask her to deliver some power to overtake a Civic driver on the highway
One problem. My previous ride was a JDM Subaru Forester XT. A 2.0l, turbo charged, all wheel drive fire breathing dragon. Thanks to Shift Performance Tuning she (all my cars are female) turned out 295HP @ 6000rpm and 15lbs boost.
Compared to that the mighty 12a was lacking a bit of punch with its 101HP delivery.
So the hunt began for a good rotary garage to do some porting. Thanks to Chris @ Eunos Ca and Eric @ Force Fed for their advice and answers to my sometimes stupid questions and Shaun @ Four Function for his patience. I decided that I wanted to do a large streetport on the 12a.
While chatting with members on BC Rotary , a lot of the guys swore that the best mechanic/engine builder they've come across is Steve Wallace out in Abbotsford. So I tracked down a number for Steve and after the first 10 minutes of the conversation I knew I'd found my new mechanic.

placd1

iTrader: (3)

Steve laid it out for me in straight terms the pros,cons and HP figures I'd get via streetporting or bridge porting the 12a. Then he read my mind and played devil's advocate and introduced the third option. A fresh 13b build using 12a irons and 13b housings, combined with a half bridge port (to maintain low rpm driveability and economy while still delivering good HP gains and power delivery up top).
I'd never considered this option and once the words were spoken , it couldn't get out of my head. The budget for the build got pared down a bit due to an unexpected family emergency, but Steve, being the kind of guy that he is, assured me that he'd make it work.
So the Black Beauty went over to Steve @ Rotary Motorsports and underwent a 2 week transformation.

placd1

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Steve documented every step of the build so that I could see everything that was done since I couldn't be there in person (that damn thing called a job kept me away!)
Front mount oil cooler was installed to get rid of that pesky beehive and as requested, I retained all my a/c components! It gets hot as hell in BC during the summer and riding around without a/c is just not an option.

placd1

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I forgot to mention that in addition to the engine build and re-re, he also installed the rear disc brakes and LSD diff.

placd1

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Smooth drive from Abbotsford to Kelowna to bring her back home. Smiled like an idiot the whole time she accelerates soooo smoothly and makes such a glorious sound. That brap brap brap is like music to my ears
Still have to get a proper exhaust system for her since I've been warned/advised that she won't truly shine until she can breathe better. So I'm saving up for an RB streetport exhaust system with dual long primaries. The exhaust that she's got at present is a single primary stock setup.

placd1

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Got my hands on a GTech Pro SS unit and decided to see what she could do. The results were as good as could be expected under the circumstances and gave me some good baseline data to work with.

placd1

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First thing on the agenda was replacing that stock exhaust system with the RB streetport setup.Came across a great deal here on the forum and picked up the full exhaust setup, lightened flywheel and counterweight and a new clutch also.
Shipping was a bit of a hassle due to the weight but it finally arrived and I could start cleaning everything up and waiting on a good opportunity to get the stuff installed.

placd1

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Spent a couple hours wire brushing the exhaust components and then painting them with Hi Heat paint. The flywheel went out for resurfacing along with the clutch.
I ordered the heat wrap for the header and spent the better part of 2 hrs wrapping that darn thing!
Somewhere in the midst of this my new number plate arrived

placd1

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Ordered and received a couple gauges : water temp,oil pressure and tachometer. Debated whether to pillar mount them or dash mount them in a 3 pod cluster. Decided to mount them on the dash minus the pod.

placd1

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Spent some time cleaning the engine bay and giving her a good once over with the clay bar. Her paintjob has to hold out for another year based on my current schedule.

placd1

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Got the RB exhaust installed, flywheel and clutch inside also. She revs much more easily now and throttle response is great.

placd1

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I was dying to know what my HP figure would look like after the work put into her over the last 2 months, so I went down to Classified Motorsports and took a shot at their dyno.
187 HP at the flywheel and 168 rwhp @ 6800 rpm

placd1

iTrader: (3)

My plan for Black Beauty is steadily evolving and I keep picking up little things along the way. My wife cringes every time a package arrives in the mail
I got a set of RB springs. The were chipped pretty badly so I sent them off to get powder coated. Also got a CP Racing strut tower brace and some new headlights to replace the 20+ yr old lights on her.

placd1

iTrader: (3)

After reading all the threads on DLFDIS and direct fire options I decided to try it myself. However I went with the MSD 6A box and three coil setup. End result, she starts a lot easier but haven't noticed anything much else.
Also got a couple pieces of under hood bling in the form of rotor shaped oil filler cap and master cylinder cap

placd1

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Once again I'm at the point where I want to squeeze some more power out of the awesome 13b 4port half bridge motor. Guess what direction I'm going in? Pssshhh! Pssshhh!
Yeah, that's right going forced induction, but with a twist! I'm going for a blow through turbo setup.
Got all the components today. Boost prepped Nikki with plenum hat, S5 turbo and manifold, FPR, fuel pump, waste gate, downpipe, intercooler and piping etc.

placd1

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The snow has started falling and she's been cleaned and parked away in my garage. She isn't coming out until spring next year. Storage insurance will tide me over until the snow melts and the roads are safe once again. Big things planned for her as soon as I take out her full insurance policy and can deliver her to Rotary Motorsports in Abbotsford.