I have some 8x15" fronts and 11x15" rears. They're Epsilons. I've driven without PS for a while, and then got my PS pump fixed. I know the difference. You'll be happy to be back on power.

Oh right -sorry i meant stock or aftermarket steering wheel.

Damn nice Epsilons - would love to check those out.

PS back on - this car is 1000% better. How it was engineered to handle. Fills out the engine bay too, looks more substantial. I just fell in love with my car all over again :)

Looking good! Have to ask, you're building it into a widebody right? Where are the pics?? I'm supposed to be picking up a CP Racing WB Kit next week and I'd love to collaborate on how to get the thing on the car without ruining the car or the kit :nod:

A few more updates. Dropped in the motor and TII Tranny. Got a driveshaft made up for the mis-match. Quoted a length of 40.25" from flange face to centerline on the slip yoke. Pretty reasonable as far as I can see. Probably could have gone to 40.5" without much difficulty. Anyhow, next up are mods to the tunnel to accommodate the shifter. In the meantime, weather in my area isn't getting any nicer, so I picked up some center caps for my Epsilons. I really didn't like the way they looked with a sticker on it, so I made some super sexy "E" logo emblems. I'm very happy with they way they came out. I made a few spares too, so PM me if you're looking for an upgrade or a set. BTW, I can easily make the waterfall M logo emblems as well. In any size.

So, here are the pics of the latest effort.

First pic is the process of making them - with the red logo as the original version. The second photo is my finished set.

Nice man. I will definitely hit you up when i get some wheels. Could you do the Mazda logo like from the front hood?

Yep, I also have the waterfall M that would come out nicely in a circle. I also have the RX-7 that's like the side badge which I could put in an emblem. See the below page for the "MAZDA" and "RX-7" elements I have.

Mazda RX-7 (1st Generation) Vinyl Sticker

Dave

nice build. everything is so clean.

Looks good so far! Would still like to see the pics of the body kit going on the car! :egrin:

Spent a little time this evening on the TII Transmission. I really didn't like the idea of cutting the tunnel, although so many folks said to just do it. I just bought brand new rubber seals and wasn't really in the mood to cut them up or mess with the shifter boot location and top cover. So, I pulled apart one of my horrible grindy GSL-SE transmissions and did the mod like is shown here: TII trans shifter location mod VIDEO!!! - RX7Club.com. Turns out it was pretty easy, and I welded the dust cover sleeve together after trimming out the required length. Now, I just need to mill out the pin hole and trim the end off. Unfortunately, the TII transmission showed some signs of rust when I pulled off the tailshaft housing, so I'm not 100% sure of the quality of the transmission. I bought it used, and the seller didn't have first hand knowledge of how it ran. So, we'll try to get an expert opinion about it, and see where that gets me.

So, you want to see body kit... I put on the fenders and my Mariah Mode 4 front air dam. Call me crazy, but my goal is to use the Mariah front air dam with the CP fenders. Yep, that'll mean some fiberglass work, but for all that I love about the CP kit, I hate the fact that it used the SA bumper. So, I "fitted up" (yes, I use that term liberally) the Mariah front air dam with the fenders to get an idea of what I'm up against. So, here are the pics. What do you think?

Put on a front splitter & call it a day? lol

OK, more on the transmission. Here are some pics of the work I did and the differences that are relevant.

You can see the two shift assemblies side by side. The clean one is from a GSL-SE transmission, the dirty one from a TII transmission. The bolt and pin patterns are identical. The selector rods are also from GSL-SE and TII transmission. You'll need the shorter one from the GSL-SE transmission. Lastly, the dust tubes. The short one was made from cutting out a section from the middle and welding it back together.

The last part is making a mount that bolts to the bottom of the TII tailshaft housing and bolts to the stock transmission crossmember. Pics of that later.

Sex on wheels.

Bolted up the starter & transmission today. Got the transmission cross member mount figured out too.

Motor and tranny look great!

UPDATE: You will have to trim .67" from the end of the GSL-SE shift selector rod and re-drill the hole. The GSL-SE selector rod WILL NOT work unless you trim it down.

I'm not surprised about that Dave. In your pic, it looked like the rod needed to me shortened to match the difference between the 2 housings.

I really like my GSLSE, but I think I would like it much better with this set up. Ima following this project for sure.

What is the reason you are not going to use 16 inch rims?

I'm not going with 16's because I was able to get a good deal on the existing 15" rims that I have. Epsilon's are just crazy expensive for the barrels, so I'm cleaning mine up and making the most of them. They'll be awfully pretty when they're on the car for sure.

Engine & especially the transmission look beautiful.

Started the full wire tuck today and dropped the motor in!

Based on what I actually need for wiring, the tuck should go really well.

Got the crank angle sensor cover made today. Turned out great!

Ohhh, that's sexy :). I gotta make one of those too. We need to have a widebody meet when they're all done!

Fatty's on the rear

I'd was great meeting you today!!!

Nice wheels...they'll be beautiful once you refinish them.

Thanks. I've got one of the four 95% polished, it looks great. The centers are all cleaned. Three of the centers had overspray on them from a rattle can paint job. That was no fun cleaning out the paint from the insides of the mesh.

Power steering is no more. Swapped in a manual unit from a donor '85. They are not easy to remove with the motor and A/C in place. Sheesh!

Drained and replaced the gear oil in the manual unit, and replaced all the steering column wiring. Super happy!

Worked a bit more on the wiring tuck - pulling the main harness back into the cabin and out along the fender.

cool
 

That's looking good!

Dave how are you routing the wires through from the cabin into the fender? Curious where you're cutting into.

~Geoff

^ditto,

Nice build btw... I love me some wide body first gens!

Cut a hold up high in the drivers side footwell above the dead pedal. Used a hole saw for a nice round cut. I'll put some spare door molding around the sheet metal to protect the wires. It will need some type of waterproofing eventually.

Very nice.

Are you pulling a fresh harness? Extending the factory?

I've been thinkin of replacing a lot of my factory harness, noticing lots of shoddy, rusted through connections in my harness.

Just extending the stock harness where necessary. The wiring for the headlights, turn signals and marker lights is pretty close to required length anyway. Because the battery is in my driver's side rear bin, I'll be extending a few +12V wires back there and will also relocate the engine bay fusible link block with a Mazda fuse block instead. Most of my wiring is in good condition, the alternator wiring (BW and WB on connector A-02) is frail, mostly because of repeated heating of the insulation. Those wires will be replaced and tucked.

Replaced the old "Wolf v550" decal on my ECU with a more proper version today.

If your going with the wide body, would you be interested in selling the Mariah side skirts and rear lower skirt?

Much as I like the super wide-body look, I don't like it at all some times, and like it a lot other times. For the moment, the Mode 4 kit is staying on the car, so I'm not going to part with it. I still have to figure out what is best with the 11.5" wide wheels in the back. Thanks for asking though!

Dave,

I 100% hear you on the wide-bodies. Personally, if anything, I'm going for the fender flare look. For whatever reason the Aussie Group-C look just totally does it for me.

As far as widebodies tho....

Yep, seen the RES wide body - looks awesome, but I've never seen that Mariah Mode 1 before. That's very nice. I even have the same targa band and whale tail. HMmmmm.

A clear but cold day was finally here for some good outdoor wiring work on the RX7. I had recently received the upgraded Wolf v550 ECU and flying lead, and rough wired-in the harness for the engine. The engine harness only needs wires for TPS, CAS, Water Temp, Air Temp, BAC valve and injectors. I also pulled through wires for the alternator, rather than using the old factory wires. The ignition coil wires will go through the drivers side fender wall. The ignitors themselves will be mounted under the dash.

I bought a Weatherpack connector kit. A company "Vehicle Harness connections" on ebay - their username is "avilaelecinc" has nice kits and crimpers. About the best price/value, but you can also get them from diyautotune.com. Makes everything "factory new" for all wiring. You won't ever go back to anything but these once you've used them.
Basically all the wiring is tucked underneath the upper intake manifold as best as I can get it. Results are pictured below.

Looking real good Dave, can't wait to see it in person!

Build's coming along nicely Dave.

Been picking away at the wiring over the last two months. Wiring is not my strong suit, so I'm taking my time and doing it right.

Got far enough with wiring to hook up the battery and check on Wolf v550 statistics. TPos is reversed, but AirT and WaterT are spot on. Boost controller seemed to be operating continuously, so going to have to figure that out. Generally, super happy that I can power up the car and troubleshoot any wiring issues much more easily.

Did some fit-up on my 3-row Champion radiator. Unfortunately, it's just so big that it can't fit with the sway bar, and it's too close to the motor mount, and as such, the lower radiator hose won't fit. I can't get the fan in without shredding up the radiator fins, so it may have to sit in it's box until some other project. I was hoping to get better cooling than stock, but maybe there's something out there that's better than stock but still stock size.

Drove a stock GSL-SE - very stock! this weekend, and it reminds me how much power my TII motor really has when running well.

Feeling happy.

And...................................... it runs.

Super happy that the beast is awake once more. Video? Sure!

awesome dave!

exciting! sounds nice, what RPM was that idling at?

Niiiiiiiice! That sounds like a solid 900rpm idle?

And he's right - that Gilmer isn't that loud at ALL. Did you notch the teeth?

About a 1000 rpm idle, maybe a bit less. I drilled holes in the center of the grooves on the pulleys. Still need to do the alternator pulley, but it made a big difference.

Had some nice revs, but currently have an ignition issue to figure out.

That should keep that intake temp down.

Yup. :)

So where did you get that radiator? I am 0 for 2 on the eBay specials. The last one I ordered was the same design as yours only rattle canned in mexichrome, which was flaking off before I even touched it