Now, onto the plan for this car.

Suspension and Mounts
Racing beat springs and KYB AGX shocks have been ordered. The worn out kokico blues and stock springs have had their time. The transmission mounts need to be replaced, and I plan on installing a pinion snubber near the differential as well. DTSS will be replaced as well.

Differential
I've had this damn Turbo II differential sitting around just waiting to be thrown into this car. It's finally time to do this. I ended up buying a set of brand new TII axles off of rock auto for a cheap price as well, the mazdatrix driveshaft currently has a flange for the NA rear end. I have the T2 flange I'll just need to swap this one out. And yes, I confirmed they're legit TII axles, looks like they're being produced again.

Exhaust
Racing Beat REV II exhaust has been ordered. Wideband will be installed. The current exhaust is a Borla Catback, and a 2.5 inch downpipe and Racing beat NA presilencer, it's stupid quiet and too restrictive to meet my power goals.

The above items I plan to tackle on one go, my awesome neighbor has a lift that should make this much easier.

ECU
Power FC will be utilized with the banzai racing adapter. This will be in conjunction with the new DL-340XB Power FC interface, which replaces the datalogit with modern functionality. Plus, this can be used with the FD's PFC as well. I'll need to frankenstein an FC trailing coil for this to work, I should have a few of these somewhere. I still need a PFC as well.

Intake
I'll have to come up with an intake once I ditch the Mass Air Flow sensor.

Weight
One of the time tested and true methods of better performance is reducing weight! I want this car to weigh less than 2400lbs without me in it. I've already done a lot of weight reduction as it is, but there's more on the plate. I do want to retain the interior and functionality of most things.

Sunroof
The sunroof on this car does not work, during a highway drive in stop and go traffic, during a Noreaster while in Conneticut in 2013, the sunroof jammed open. out of frustration, I forced it closed for obvious reasons at the time, and it's been in "manual" operation ever since, as in, it's definitely disconnected somehow from the track. This is entirely my fault, and I finally need to address this. I could remove this entirely and save some weight in a critical area, but I've decided I like the sunroof, and will work to fix this.

Exterior
The car needs some paint work. Mainly the hood and sunroof. I really enjoy the current Arctic Silver color, so I'll need to get these panels painted. The rockers and fenders need some touch up, I'll try and do these myself. The rear foam wing needs to be repainted. I'd like to add a lip to the front of the car as well.

Engine bay
When I bought this car, the entire engine bay, including all components attached to the car, was sprayed with a type of bedliner. I've been spending time here and there over the years in removing this slowly. There's a lot of work to do still, and some spots the clear coat and top layer have removed with it, without removing the engine I'll need to tackle this. (If I remove the engine, we all know this car is permanently a project.) I want to clean up some of the wiring a bit and just make it more clean looking. Driver side exterior door handle needs to paint matched as well.

Interior
Just needs a good deep clean, I rather enjoy the colors and seats. Passenger side corner defroster vent is missing, so I'll need to replace this.

Wheels and tires
I'm thinking something grippy in 225s that won't kill the bank, and some lightweight wheels in 17x8 with a 35 offset. I've really been considering the Konig Hypergrams. For now, the S4 Pizza cutter wheels will have to work until I can swing wheels and tires.


I want this car to feel quick and responsive, and also be reliable for a turbo rotary. I'm aiming for 250whp and sub 2400lbs. In the future, I may try and jump up the power with a hybrid turbo or something, but I'll need to replace the rear iron with a later reinforced S4 iron or an S5 iron when that time comes, and add more fuel.

 

Congratulations on your marriage, etc. Good on you for tackling this now. I am working through getting an '87 GXL back on the road after 13 years in the garage. Fortunately for you, your car didn't sit as long. I am looking forward to reading more about this.

As for the Koning wheels, I keep coming across these wheels when searching. I would like to see a set installed first before I pull the trigger though.

I am not very knowledgeable about offset. I assume that the -5 or 35 offset wheels will push out the rims towards the fenders? I was under the impression that there is a -5 or so difference from front to back. The rear being further in. What people do is replace the rear studs with longer ones and add a 5mm spacer. I suppose that different offset wheels could be ordered, it's not ideal though.

The exact difference from front and back is on here somewhere. I was thinking 5mm though. I need to refresh my memory.

Anyway, stay motivated and hopefully this project will be net a benefit for you and your family.

 

Thanks Jeff for the kind words. The car has really sat indoors for the whole time it's been put away, however it's got a bit of wear and tear, in reality the paint really needs to be redone, it's a 10 to 20-footer, looks good from a distance only. There's no underbody rust luckily, considering this was a Canadian car too, however there's some rust spots bubbling up near the fenders. If I did repaint this, I don't know what color I'd even want, I really like Arctic Silver.

For a good wheel setup, I think 17 x 8 with a 35 offset is what I want, for a good square setup that I can equip some 225 tires on, that I can rotate tires with. I believe that's the maximum size with stock front fenders that'll fit. The 5mm spacers in the back should help the rear look more flush too. Right now I'm running 215/55/16s Yokohamas on the Turbo II wheels, and I do get rubbing when doing full wheel lock or in reverse while going up hill. The racing beat springs should help with this?

Last night I started to take apart the headliner and interior panels so I could get to the sunroof assembly. Without even removing the assembly from the car, I can already see the damage, the guides on the rails are both broken clean off, unfortunately for me, I'll have to find a replacement. Also taking the A pillars off, ever since I bought the car, the driver side A pillar was sheared in half, but it mounts to the car just fine, I'll see if I can find a replacement somewhere, if they're not crazy expensive I'll forgo it for now.

 

Examined the old sunroof rails. I was hoping for an easy fix, but they were damaged beyond what I had remembered. The sunroof never worked properly, i would have to guide the left side while only the right side would retract via the motor. Well, after inspection the left side guide was missing entirely (there were what I assume to be pieces of it), and it had looked like a square section of the rail was surgicially cut out. I'm not sure what this was about. The right side was bent pretty good from the fateful noreaster day.

Anyways I ordered an entire sunroof assembly off of Ebay. (Not cheap!). It came with a red panel, so I reused the black one I had. The original panel that came with the car had rusted through long time ago, so I had previously found the next best color without having to repaint. The red panel I'll be giving to my neighbor, who has a silver FC (Yes, my neighbor is one of us) as well who plans to paint it red, in exchange I'll get a silver panel. But that'll be down the road some.

The new panel got a clean and some new grease. I used my original motor, which seems to be fine, the gear looked like it had plenty of life left, which surprised me. I tested it out on the new track and it worked fine. Installed it without issue, and didn't break any interior pieces besides what was already broken.
I also plan to fix those rust spots along the rim as well once I get some paint.



Finally, a working sunroof!

 

Hearing about the cost on the assembly makes me glad I have an extra if needed.

Nice work getting it replaced. The good thing is that the sunroof comes out in one big piece. The bad part is getting to the bolts.

 

It honestly wasn't difficult taking it out at all, you have the remove the plastic paneling holding the headliner down, then remove the sunshades, rear mirror, sunroof trim, to get to the headliner removal. I didn't even need to remove the rear pillar plastic, I was able to loosen the headliner with just removing the shirt hangers behind the seats. I thought it would be more tedious, but, that was really the easy part. The most difficult part of it all was getting it back in, which wasn't too bad to be honest. Just aligning the leveling bolts was the toughest part, there was always one of them that didn't quite line up. And now that I look at it, I think I need to take off the headliner again so I can re-adjust one corner that's sitting too high.

 

Remounted the gauge pod, and added a wide band gauge. It's currently not wired up, but the wires are routed through the dash. I have some fuse taps I'll introduce, man I love the tachometer on the FC.


Added a new "feature" to the garage, so work has slown down a bit. However here's what's up next! Exhaust and suspension!

 

I found your post in the "what got you into Rx7s", and then stumbled into your build thread. You've been through a LOT with this car, and it's cool you still have it.

Anymore updates?

 

Thanks, I appreciate it, I don't think I could ever really part with this car. Yeah, there a ton of little issues I've had with this car early on, that I didn't really post about, but I've replaced pretty much everything just about. Right now, the car is sitting on a lift in my garage, waiting for me to find some time to wrench on it. I have a ton of plans for it, mainly for now, suspension, rear end swap, full exhaust upgrade, and I'm adding in a PFC with Xavier Borg's DL-340XB and FC Tweak. I have all the parts, just waiting to find some time.

Added a lift in the garage, been slowly re-arranging things. Also, other car projects have come up since getting the lift, of course our daily drivers have problems as soon as I install the lift... But, man putting the FC on the lift really made me realize how I should just do a full repaint on it. Not a lot of rust, in fact underneath it is super clean minus one small spot. But the paint is flaking on the lower quarter of the car, where the layer of rockguard is. All the small details show when you see the car from different angles! The fenders need some attention too.

 

Well, finally found some time to work on the FC. I had to take a day off of work just to do so, because time is apparently non-existent anymore, it was well worth it though.

Took the FC to my friend's place, he also has a lift, except he has the pneumatic jack installed, and for what I was planning on doing, doing a diff swap, having that jack I knew would be very helpful. Plus having two good friends there to help me out, it just made more sense.

The plan was to swap the diff, the axles, driveshaft flange, pinion snubber, shocks and springs on all four corners, and install my FD's factory wheels onto the FC. You may be wondering what the FD gets? Well that part was already taken care of a week or two ago.



FD with new wheels and tires. RPF1s in 18x9.5 45 and 18x10 38. 255 front 275 rear.
New wheels and tires installed on the FD, also installed a set of Tein coilovers as well. Honestly, it turned out way better than I expected. The fronts were already rolled, so I haven't had any rubbing and don't expect any. But now, I have a set of lightweight FD wheels laying about!

Enough about the FD, let's get back to the FC...

So, now I have a set of FD wheels, considering these are light wheels, and still has good rubber on them, I figured I would try to see how they fit on the FC. This also fits my initial goal of making this car as light as possible, without gutting the interior or getting real expensive.

So, first off, I removed the exhaust, and replaced the downpipe. Next up was jacking the car into the air, removing the wheels, and engaging the E-brake. Disconnected the driveshaft to the diff, then disconnected the axles from the diff. I then, as I wasn't sure of the direction I wanted to take, either dropping the subframe completely or letting it hang, so I unbolted the brake calipers, and I realized later this was unnecessary as I ended up not dropping the subframe completely.

Then, I disconnect and swap out the rear shocks and springs with a set of new racing beat springs and KYB shocks. I leave them disconnected to the hubs for now.

Next up, axles! This should be easy, so far everything has come off/out with a breeze. Remove the axle nuts, and knock out the axles! Right? Well the passenger side axle came out with two small taps from the small 3lb hammer. Easy. The driver side? 3 hours of me banging away at it with the largest sledge I could find. Yes, this thing would not come out for the life of it. A little bit of PB blaster with a small amount of heat from a propane torch didn't help, and I didn't want to destroy the wheel bearings, so I only used enough heat to hopefully draw in some of the PB blaster into the splines. This took me 3 hours of banging away until it started budging, once it moved I had to grind away material from the axle being mushroomed to the point of not wanting to pass through the shaft. This wasn't fun, and in fact because of this I wouldn't have enough time to finish all that I had intended to do for the day.



New axle on left, old on right after being grinded on.

Once both axles were out, it was time to lower the subframe. First, I removed the subframe stay/camber mount, then I unbolted the rear diff mounts, took out the rubbers and returned the nuts to the bolts loosely. I then reconnected the shocks to the hubs, this would support the subframe. I then removed the 21mm forward subframe nuts, and the 14mm nuts that held the cups to the body. Oh, I had jacks put under the subframe at this point, near the hubs, to help support it. And I realized by doing this, I didn't need to remove the brake calipers at all. Oh well.

Then, a bottle jack went under the diff, and the diff nuts were removed, slowly letting the diff and subframe lower. Two more nuts mounting the subframe to the diff, closer to the front flange needed to be removed, I think these were 17mm? An impact with a few extendos were needed, but they came out. Then lastly, the clip that's behind those two nuts needed to be pryed off. At this point, and with the help of my friends we were able to remove the diff.

Installed a pinion snubber under the bins, this will help with wheel hop. Replaced the rear flange of my aftermarket driveshaft with a larger flange fit for the T2 diff. Filled up the new diff with LSD royal purple.





The installation of the new one was just the opposite, except it took like 15 minutes total. New exhaust, was bolted up (REV II). Front tires were removed as well, and 20mm spacers were torqued up to each hub, then the FD wheels were installed, and I was out of there.




I didn't have enough time in my schedule to do the front suspension for now, and it looks like I'll need to most likely roll the front fenders as well a bit. I can do this after work this week pretty quickly.


FC with FD wheels. Fronts need rolled.


REV II exhaust and T2 differential.


Drove home, "Tested" the new diff, got a good burnout and called it a day. Finally, the drivetrain is fully swapped!

Now, after I do the front suspension and fenders, I have to tune this thing, and work out some kinks here and there. Paint definitely needs some help too.

 

The stock FD wheels go really well on the FC, especially in silver.

Are you planning on having the car repainted or touched up? I normally hate silver cars, but artic silver on the FC just works so well.
Nice job on the diff swap, must feel good giving the car some love.

BTW, I was super close to rocking RPF1s on my FD, but they ended up on my supra instead. One of the best wheels of all time in my opinion.

 

Yeah, the wheels are quickly growing on me. It was meant to be a temporary thing, but I'm really digging how it looks, and will probably keep them this way. It took me 7 years for me to pull the trigger on finally going away from the stock FD wheels, because I just loved the look so much, and wheel and tire shopping is not easy.

I want to keep it Silver no matter what, I absolutely love the Arctic Silver color. I need to paint the driver side door handle, the hood and sunroof panel either way. Maybe I get those painted, and touch up below the S4 molding trim only for, as that's where it really needs some help. That, and the fenders have some rust bubbling in the rear, might be a winter project. I have some J5 Arctic Silver paint too.

Yeah, RPF1s are some of my favorite wheels, I originally wanted PF01s, but I couldn't get the exact sizes I wanted. RPF1s were my next up choice, and now that they're installed, I'm glad I went with them. I'll make an FD build thread one of these days.




Thinking about all I've done this weekend, the T2 Diff and T2 Axles gotta add some weight to the car. Having both NA and T2 LSDs next to eachother, they're not much different in size or weight surprisingly. So if anything, i'm adding a few pounds to the car. But with the wheels, I'm now at 16lbs per wheel, as compared to 24lbs per wheel. So a total savings of 32lbs! Tires are 10mm wider, as the older tires were 215s, but they were an inch taller. Did I save or lose weight? I don't know. I also had another car in the driveway that needed a battery so I gave it the FC's battery, and threw in my anti-gravity battery that weighs a few pounds, definitely over 30lbs of saved weight. I'm thinking of getting this car weighed one of these days, I'm curious as to what weight it's at.

So hey, I saved some weight, and saved some money by not having to buy new wheels. Sticking to my FC-Guy roots!

Also, something I noticed is when the car rolls backwards or is in reverse, the rear wheels induce positive camber, and even toe in slightly, maybe a degree or two at most. Really strange, I wonder if this is the DTSS system failing? Anyways, I do have the eliminators for this too, it's on the list!

 

Front fenders are done, and front suspension is installed. The original Auto Adjustable Suspension was surprisingly still inplace, don't know if they worked at all though, at least I never noticed any change.



Realized I'll probably need to do rotors soon, but not this year at least. I think I've replaced just about everything besides interior parts

Next up, PFC install, and FC Tweak with DL-340xb!

 

Haven't really made much progress lately, been quite busy. Home AC went out, wife's daily driver's AC went out, dryer went out, and a thousand other things seemed to happen recently. Been busy fixing things that matter I guess.

I have pretty much everything prepped and ready to start converting the ECU over to the PFC. Just gotta find that time!

Anyways, I did bring the car to an RX7 car show a few weeks ago. Met some out of state folks I recognized from the forums here from a long time ago for the first time. (Yes, my FD is parked behind the FC.)

 

How do you like that REV2 exhaust?

 

It's got a great tone, and is actually quiet at idle and low rpm. You can hear the port job at idle now too, it has a bit of brap going on. It loudens up when it gets the juice though. Previously I had a pretty restrictive NA exhaust, you couldnt really hear it until 2k just about. Very quiet, sounded like a vacuum cleaner.

I'm a fan, but I knew I would be, i don't want this car to be obnoxiously loud, but I understand this exhaust system does weigh quiet a bit, that's my only caveat.

 

Sorry to hear of your AC troubles. This is August weather many have been having. Hot day funds get used in place of RX7 funds.
Thanks for the report on the exhaust. I am not a fan of obnoxious braps myself, either. It's funny that you mentioned the vacuum cleaner sound. It is what initially had me so fascinated by the rotary engine, even an N/A.

The cars look great BTW.

 

Thanks Jeff, yeah luckily everything is now fixed and pushing some cold air, or hot air if it's a dryer.

I can try to get a good video of it idling sometime. I took one, but there were too many other sounds as well, which doesn't make a good exhaust anaylsis video. I had a 91 vert with the full racing beat NA exhaust, it was a bit louder at lower rpms (tastefully), but, it was NA and no turbo acting as a filter. I honestly really liked that setup for an NA. Big difference between both turbo rotaries of mine, both have 3 inch exhausts, the FD is MUCH louder, with an early RB catback and high flow cat too. The FC's RB dual mufflers and resonator really quiet things down.

 

Drove the car this weekend, even took it to a car show! Still have a lot of work to do on the car, but figured if I drove it, it would help motivate me to get some work done on it. Definitely need to replace the DTSS system with the eliminators, and my wide band is all of a sudden not working, and i'm now hearing what sounds like something knocking when the car is idling. I'll have to put the car on the lift while it's running, I'm not seeing anything obvious for now. Anyways, it drove great! Much faster than I remember it being. Still need to swap out the ECU.

 

Reinforcing what I had mentioned about the DTSS eliminators needing to be done. The rear passenger wheel seems to toe in when moving at slow speeds, I haven't noticed anything weird or unusual when driving on the roads, my guess is it's doing something when it shouldn't. I'm just going to eliminate the DTSS when I can. The car needs a good wash and a good clean of the interior as well. I can't really get over what it feels like to drive this car, for most of my ownership it's been just sitting in an undrivable state. But now, it not only drives major-problem free (it's not perfect), but it's actually fun to drive and somewhat quick too!


Here's a picture of it out and about.


Went to a car show with it, it's not a show-car in the slightest, but it makes a good talk.


Typically the FD is my go to (in this picture there were 3 red FDs and a turbo 1st gen).

 

I own an FD and a turbo2.
The crowd favorite is always the FD.
My personal favorite is the FC.

I think there's something special about that late 80s styling and tech that ticks all the boxes for me. A lot of people disagree, but that's the subjective nature of taste.

Your car's looking good, excited to see more progress on it, and I'm glad you're enjoying it again.

 

You're totally right. The crowd goes wild over the FD, each and every time, there's no doubt about that. Every red light I pull up to, someone is asking me about my car. I always get thumbs ups, waves, and pictures taken. With the FC, it's no-where near that level of attention, but I prefer to drive it, simply because of how long I've had the car in a non-running state. I feel like I'm driving a piece of history with the FC, while the FD still feels very modern (in a good way!) to me. I'm a big sucker for 80s styling regardless, so there's that too.

Thank you, I wish I had more time to enjoy it, it's been a busy summer, and the other projects have been getting in the way.

 

The first thing that I noticed with bad DTSS bushings was the car was very unstable over expansion joints on bridges and highway speed. Second was the set of rear tires that I burned though in a couple months of daily driving. I was not confident with my skills to replace so, the car sat for 10 years+. Being older and perhaps less cautious, they were fairly simple to do.

[QUOTE][[color=#222222]But now, it not only drives major-problem free (it's not perfect), but it's actually fun to drive and somewhat quick too!/QUOTE]

These are very fun cars to drive. Amazingly my N/A is only 2 seconds slower in the quarter mile compared to my daily that is a 2006 with 250hp and a high compression engine. I had to kinda relearned how to drive the 7 again. My daily has gobs of low end torque, the Mazda does not, adjust as necessary.

On the winding roads though, nothing I have driven compares.I mean considering, most of my cars have been FF Honda's.

Put some miles on this car, have some fun and be safe out there!