Well I acquired this 83 Rx-7 last year. It had sit for about 10 years. I got the engine running last summer. Well I'm sick of carbs and I'm definitely sick of the steering (although the box is actually pretty good). This car had less than 100k If I remember.

So out comes the 12A, cross member, struts, tie rods etc. I'm swapping in a fuel injected 13b and 5 speed trans.

No buying expensive overpriced racing beat parts. No trying to find a GSL - SE front cover or a 13b front engine mount oil pan.

So what needs to be done: a lot of wiring MOST people fail with wiring cause they don't plan it out way ahead of time and try run one wire here and one wire there. Then they end up endlessly back tracking back and forth with wires and then it looks like . I plan all mine out and then I run ONE harness the same direction everything is going. You also have to plan out the order of events in which the swap will take place. We all know the first thing should be the dash and wiring, get that working with the 12A and then you know where you stand. Well I did the dash and the wiring during the fall when I was bored. The configuration of the wiring is the different but most the wire colors are the same. Try to hack the dash harness mates when you get the dash and get a dash to car harness out of the 79-83 your swapping from. You can then make a wire harness adapter right on the bench NO endless messing with it in the car. I'll try to get a picture of the harness adapter. I have it on my Iphone somewhere..

Well here's where we are: the 12A, 5 speed trans, crossmember and steering with box and column are coming out today. Going to try and prep the crossmember today and get the motor and trans loaded onto the subframe. Yelp thats right Im loading everything from underneath just like mazda did when they made them. I'll be able to lift the whole ENGINE etc assembly all at once bolt up 4 nuts, 8 nuts to the shocks and 4 bolts for the swap bar. Then thats done. Cut a hole in passenger side fire way. Install the grommet and wiring and plug in play baby. Things to further fab will be a plate to adapt the 13b exhaust to my 12A flange (I have the cat delete pipe from walker) Rockauto 45 bucks pretty nice. Already done for ya.

Ok time to get dirty...I'll try to take pictures along the way but I move pretty quickly and camera is the last thing I have in my hand.

 

Sweet!

Look forward to watching this, pretty stoked at your approach

 

 

 

Ok so Saturday didn't get much done Sunday got interior out prepped and painted. You'll see the famed 'adapter' plug for a 81-83 to 84-85 dash. Everything is the same but the AC wires to the blower box. It has 2 frost switches? I just swapped the blower box and wire harness. It probably could have been adapted but I'm doing enough anyway.

Cowl panel at windshield had a 2 inch rust hole in it. Its fixed, cleaned up, POR 15'ed and sealed (I use 3M body sealer- yeah $15 a tube). The pipe that goes up on the passenger side was rusted out to (the one the blower draws air from). I made a new one out of 20 gauge steel, welded it up, flanged it, welded it to the car and sealed it. I should have taken pictures but I just got busy working and solving problems. I think I might have gotten a pic of the rust holes on my Iphone LOL

Hoods off, oil is drained, coolant drained and misc stuff disconnected. I need to get the interior back in. Thats where I got this weekend. Next saturday (4/20/13) I'm running a marathon in Indianapolis. Don't know how much I'll get done this weekend.

 

Road blocks

 

A Sandblaster and some patch panels and you're good to go Cut a few access holes to get to the inside of the frame with the blaster and seal it all up with something good. Looks like you're making good progress

 

One side

 

Uh oh I think they mixed the gold paint wrong

 

Keeping brake and fuel lines together for easy assembly.

 

Where we are today.

 

Looks good, full front FC subframe up there! Probably working on the steering column mod right now or planning on it soon. Will be sweet when completed!

 

Yeah steering column, a few misc brackets for the power steering hoses, radiator and mounting brackets got painted. The battery tray got some paint too today. The S3 dash is all painted and in. The steering column is mega simple. Almost snaps together like it was made to. Started swapping the tail shafts around. Pilot bearing, throw bearing and clutch were toast in the 13b. Little surface rust on the flywheel. Hopefully drop motor in by Thursday or Friday. Electric fan and ECU wiring this weekend. Hopefully it'll be running this weekend.

 

Engine is home. Time for adjustments and hook some stuff up.

 

This weekends fun

 

Not that anybody really cares unless you say TURBO but here's today's fun. All wiring done. Ecu's wired stuffed everything in there.

 

Turbo? Who cares about a dang turbo?! NA it's where it's at. Looking great!

 

^Blasphemy!

Seriously though, looking good Mike

 

Fired it up about 3 seconds today. It starts on ATF soaked plugs, a 12a low pressure fuel pump, exhaust manifold to about 2 foot of pipe no other exhaust and no AFM. Ummm if it'll run like that. It's definitely going RUN completely finished.

 

Ok turbo 2 efi fuel pump (I had a brand new stock one) wasn't going to waste a performance bosch one on it being a NA but it lives! Here's a video (hope two 10 inch fans and a custom shroud will do the job)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater

 

I love this part of it!

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater