Nah not really, there will be no point in modding the FD when there's a fire blazing 4-rotor car at my disposal . The FD will basically be my daily driver. Yeah horrible car for a daily driver I know, but I ride my bicycle to work and also have a GSX-R motorbike as a backup vehicle

The FD does need a little bit of work though, the car is completely stock, and in good condition, great body, nice interior, but there are some problems underneath the hood. The car sputters a bit when cold and does not make 10 psi boost all the way, it drops to about 4 psi at about 4-5000 rpm. The previous owner had some problems with the car, and he replaced all the vaccuum lines, the boost solenoids, and did a full engine rebuild but it still doesn't run great. I'd like to make the stock system work, but I'll probably end up making life easier for myself and do a full emmisions removal and go non sequential. I think that will solve the boosting issue and save me a lot of trouble. I'm also toying with the idea of replacing the stock ecu and engine wiring harness with a new very simple wiring harness and a standalone ecu that only uses the essentials go get the engine running right. Not to make more power, but after working on a lot of cars with standalone ecu's working on a car with a stock ecu, especially a complicated one like an FD just frustrates me!

 

Wish I lived near you. I'm in the market for an e30. Great looking FD too.

 

For someone that complains about wiring, you sure don't hesitate to jump right into it, lol. That's a beautiful FD!

 

I only complain about complicated old cracking rusty non-functioning wiring, especially if there isn't a reliable wiring diagram available (we get that here, dealing with europese and JDM stuff). I don't mind wiring a new standalone at all, it gives me a chance to use the crimping tools and connectors I bought, it's not super difficult to do, and it's pretty rewarding too


Anyway, here's a good old fashioned update:

Work continues on the engine. I did assemble the short block a few weeks ago, but more needs to be done before it can go in the car. In the past days I worked on getting the e-shaft centered in the engine and getting the end-play correct, which required a new trust bearing washer and a spacer. I also made a new oil pump chain out of 2 new oil pump chains since I'm using a larger drive gear, and got the oil pump stuff and front cover installed. Tonight I worked on getting the triggerwheel and CAS installed.




The sensor mount also functions as a OMP blockoff plate. The triggerwheel is a 36-1 wheel that I made a while ago. I did spend some time getting an accurate timing mark for every rotor. Since the e-shaft is custom made I can't really except any sort of stock pully to give me an accurate timing position. I'm not even sure that every rotor is spaced exactly 90 degrees from each other. The way I did the machining it will be very very close, but I want to make sure the timing is spot-on at every rotor, and the only way to make sure of that is to make seperate TDC timing marks for every rotor and checking timing later with a strobe. During the engine assembly I was only able to add one accurate timing mark, TDC of the #4 rotor. To get accurate timing marks for the other rotors I mounted a very long pipe on the rear counterweight nut, shined a flashlight in the trailing plug hole of the #4 rotor housing, and rotated very slowly untill the apex seal was aligned with the side of the hole. I found with a timing wheel that this position corresponds to 105 deg BTDC. So I rotated the e-shaft very slowly untill the next rotor's apex seals aligned with the trailing plug hole in exactly the same way, and added a mark 105 degrees from the aligning point.

 

Looking good mate will be up and running before you know it now !

 

beautiful, what do you have going on with the omp squirters on the housings?

 

From what I can see, your mechanical timing looks REALLY good. You shouldn't have too many issues with it.

 

Hot damn that is sexy!

 

nice to have that freedom. F%c&ing california (at least in south cal) bureaucracy !!

 

Those are vaccuum line connections, I'm using the oil squirter holes as a engine vaccuum source for the brake booster and MAP sensor (That sensor is just for diagnostic purposes by the way, tuning will be done with the TPS). Normally one would use a spot on the intake manifold after the throttle plate for that, but since I'm using a slide throttle body which sits right up against the rotor housings I couldn't do that. I'm going to try to hook 4 air lines up to some sort of machined aluminium vaccuum manifold and just see what sort of vaccuum level I can get, maybe it's better when I only hook up 1 rotor housing instead of 4, I'll find out


Yeah I tried to design the triggerwheel with absolute reliability in mind, I helped out a few locals with getting their cars up and running with a standalone ecu, and the problem that happens most often is a cas that's not really working well, or skipping. That sensor failing is the last thing you want, especially with a rotary engine,


Well here in the netherlands it depends on what sort of car you get, older cars can get away with lots of pollution, but newer cars are kinda screwed. Not the RX-7 though, all rotary powered verhicles are excluded from smog testing here , this FD being a 96' model will need a catalyctic converter and an oxygen sensor though, but since there is no smog-testing needed nobody will notice an empty cat. You do need to get the car title updated when the engine is modified after a certain degree though, but I found that the local people at the testing center pretty helpfull and coopperative, especially with a car like this. There are even a few bike-engined cars running around here legally. I'm even toying with the idea of trying to get the FC legally registered, it would probably be one of the first street legal 4-rotors ever , sound will probably be a big issue though.

 

Ive been following your build for a lil while now... Just like everyone else... The anticipation is killing me...

 

Greatest build I've ever seen, keep it up!!

 

Great thread! got me on each page excited to see the update

 

The FD is just one more thing to be jealous of! Congrats man! cant wait to see this thing done! What are the specs on the mesh wheels on the FC again? I'd love to have some

 

They are 16", 8.5J, et13. Look for BBZ RZ394's, they will need redrilling though, since they normally use a BMW lug pattern.


A few pictures of a little bit of progress, I'm also spending time on the FD , so progress is even slower as usual.


Made timing marks on the triggerwheel, mounted clutch, got the oilpan on, and yes, that transmission needs cleaning!




I still needed to fit a temperature sensor for the gauge, and since the thread size in the rear iron was a bit off I plugged that one, removed the TB connection on the waterpump casting since I don't need that anyway, machined the leftover hole a bit bigger, pressed in a machined bushing with locktide and fitted the sensor in there. The blue sensor on the right is for the ecu.

 

I can't help but wonder if the FD wouldn't be a better platform for this engine...I'll bet you've thought the same.

 

The FC will always be better :-)

 

Good answer!...but why?

 

Better looking :-)

 

+4

 

+5 , nah I think the FD would also make a nice chassis for the 4-rotor, an RX-8 chassis probably would too, but I also dig the FC, so I havent regretted picking an FC chassis for the job for one second!

 

I have been lurking this corner for the past month and finally caught up till the end (for now). I have gotta say you are the epitome of "car build threads". I am planning on the same venture you headed and will be using this very thread for reference. I'm just glad to see the path is a "little traveled" now
For some reason I'd never swap my 13B-REW in my FD to any other engine. No 20B or 26B, the FC on the other hand is another story.



BTW...I saw a purchase of an FD in your future and I'm glad to see you got your hands in a nice JDM chassis.



~Shar

 

This article reminded me of your idea for your intake...
Soup :: 2007 Yamaha YZF-R1: More And Less Of A Very Good Thing :: 10-09-2006
Seems some of the parts could be used to make the dream a reality.
xD

 

wow! cant wait to see the finished product! excellent work dude

 

bump to let down a bunch of people! Haha... how's the project going John?