86 GXL to Turbo build.
 

So I bought this awesome 1986 GXL a couple months ago. The previous owner was a rotor head and had the car freshly painted about a year ago, powder coated some BBS wheels from a convertible and put them on as well. Other than a cone filter, it was stock.

I live in NW Florida, and I visit my hometown in Texas a few times a year. Well this car has been for sale outside of an automotive garage since before I left for basic training in summer of 2012. I always thought that it was a nice looking car and that one day I would probably buy one. I was currently driving a 2005 Subaru STi, which was a fun car, but the motor on it decided to poop on me in winter of 2013. When I was going to my friends house on Christmas day, I saw this car again and decided to finally stop for once and check it out. I was pretty surprised at how clean this car looked after sitting here for over a year and a half. It was for sale at $3500 and had 90k miles or so on it. So I jotted the owners number down and went on my way for the rest of the day. I ended up calling him the next day and checked the car out right before I left to go to Florida. I didn't buy it then, but I got hooked on buying another RX7, I should mention that I also used to own an 81 FB that was bridgeported but had wiring made of twizzlers. Anyhow, no other RX7 I found yelled at me "soul mate" like that 86 RX7 in Texas did. So, I decided to risk it all and buy it and drive a 30 year old rotary 750 miles back to where I lived. 2 days after I bought it the alternator pooped on me, as S4 alternators LOVE to do, so I replaced it. I had a reputable shop where I personally knew the owner check out everything else before I went on my road trip, and everything was good... so they said. 100 miles into my trip the fuel filter clogged with rust and I had to stop in 20 miles past houston. I had a classic car shop take it and replace the rust filled gas tank and fuel filter, while my girlfriend, who was following me in case this would happen, took me back to Florida. After the shop was done with it a couple weeks later, I ran back there to pick it up and it was awesome. I got it home and happily ever after, right? LOL NOPE. But that's my story of coming across and getting my car, which I love dearly.
TL;DR I got an old FC3S GXL and drove it 750 miles back home.

Now to a few weeks ago. I installed some ISIS Pro HR coilovers and the car rdrives amazing! Yes, its stiff, but I'm a young whipper snapper so I can handle it. And I got rid of that massive stock steering wheel that was not tall people friendly and replaced it with an NRG wood grain wheel, which I really like so far. I also took it to an exhaust shop in town and had the gentleman there make a 3" single exit exhaust from the header back. It looks and sounds really nice, well sounded nice. A few days after my exhaust I blew an apex seal coming home. I heard a much louder backfire than normal and knew that this motor was done for now. So I nursed it home and now she sits there. :(

Now to last week!!! My plan eventually was to do a turboII swap on my own, but hey I need my car back cause my girlfriends civic just isn't cutting it! :lol: So I contacted Fris at Lucky7Racing in California about having a TurboII motor built and ported. Well he got me an imported motor and started on it last week. :) It should be a couple weeks until it is finished then he is shipping it here and a local RX7 mechanic is going to do the install and wiring for me. I'm scared of wiring and don't have a garage, so I'm not going to attempt at doing the install.

Here's some pictures of my car though.

Well just cruising through the threads and saw no one posted yet . Have to say its a clean 7 you got right there . I see a t2 lip lookin really good on it . Great find . Have to give a lil Texas love even though you in Florida now . I'm in Austin

I'm from right outside Austin! I haven't posted anything else since because I haven't sat down at my computer to upload the pictures I have of the motor build. The motor will be shipping out to me next week and should be installed the week after. I'll upload the pictures today though!

Update! Lucky7Racing finished my short block and should finish up putting everything else back on and have it shipped out this week. Here are some pics of the streetport and assembly because they look so awesome! :)

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Welp, I guess I should update this thread.

I received the motor a few months ago and got it all installed. I had a cooling issue for a couple weeks, which was fixed by just going back to a mechanical fan. I got it tuned fairly decently on my Rtek 2.1 for break in, and the front iron cracked right by the water inlet/outlet passages and started gushing coolant from there. So Lucky7 covered it, but I didn't want to pay shipping to get it rebuilt. So my friend, Nativebeggars, who's built quite a few 13bs and a 20b is going to rebuild it for me since I'm currently deployed until January and Lucky7 is going to just ship him a port matched iron in good condition.

Buuuuuut, since I'm deployed I'm making a bit more money than usual. Soooo, upgrade time too!!! I bought a TurboII tranny in good condition and I'm also going to purchase a new Exedy Stage 2 clutch, Mazdatrix driveshaft so the tranny works with the NA rearend, and then an FD alternator with dual sheave pulley!!! I also have the Brembo calipers and discs from my blown STi and I'm going to custom fit them when I'm back home.

I'm mainly going for reliability currently, and power is on the back burner. I'll upload the few pictures I have available to me right now and will try to upload more later. All the good ones of the swap are on my phone, but here's how she sits currently.

More pictures. The engine bay picture is before I got braided oil cooler lines and put the clutch fan back in.

Speaking of which, when am I supposed to be getting this iron?

They ported it today, so it should ship out Monday.

Goooood tell them it will be THOROUGHLY inspected before I use it.

They know m8!

Just going on pictures here (i hate reading lol) Looks good!!!

Very nice. Good luck, you might not be slower than a honda for long. :lol:

His seal kit is on the way and his motor is getting an Aaroncake TIINA style paint job on the motor since his car is that deep red and black.

Yeah when it runs finally I'll change it to "More torque than your brother's best friend's cousin's Honda that beat 4 FD Rx7s and 2 new 5.0s"

A lots been done since my last update. The engine is finally together and in the car. Also, the stock turbo decided to give out, so I went ahead and bought a freshly rebuilt knightsports rf320. I've been tuning the car steadily and its starting to pull pretty well. 13 afr idle and cruise, but in boost its 10-11, so a little rich.

I bought some new wheels for the car as well. 17x8.5/10. Handling and braking is much improved over the old very wheels. I also ordered new OEM style brake rotors, braided brake lines, new MC, Hawk HP+ pads for the front and HPS for the rear. I should receive all of it this week, so this weekend shall be brake overhaul! I'll be inspecting the calipers as well.

This is probably the most boring update in history due to 0 pictures, but windows phone problems. I'll upload many pictures once im home and at my computer! I am very happy with my car now though. Everything important works currently! :)

I figured out how to embed on my phone. So here are some pictures. I hope these aren't going to be massive and take up the whole screen.

http://imgur.com/4jdGPTj

Side shot with the new wheels

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Shot of the cockpit.

That's all I have on my phone. I'll get more when I'm home!

Cool build man!

Thanks! It's been a long road, but it's finally decent.

Man it looks a lot better than decent it looks down right great!

Haha thanks a lot man!

I installed the oil catch can that I had laying around yesterday. Hooked it up to the oil fill tube and then hooked up the other nipple to vacuum. I plugged the line that used to run to the oil fill from the charcoal canister. Not sure if that was the proper thing to do. Should I run the charcoal canister line somewhere else? Or remove it completely? Any input is appreciated :) Also, here's a picture of the catch can. Please excuse my crude mounting procedure. I will fab up a proper mount this weekend if time allows.

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Tge line that runs from the back of the UIM to the vacuum spider for the oil injectors popped off and I cant get it back on due to the size of the line I ran to the nipple above it. I'm already running 2oz per gallon of premix since I had some other issues with the omp and injectors not working. I think I'll just plug that middle nipple for the spider for now, and this weekend remove the spider. I'll probably remove the rats nest as well, since I have no use for it anymore now that my catch can is installed and that there's 0 emissions on my car. Hopefully this goes smoothly! :)

Bro if you need any help call me!

Installed my Greddy Profec B boost controller that I had laying around. Now hits 14 psi at 4k and holds it all the way to redline. Just need to pull some fuel from 4500 to 6500 rpm from 12 to 14 psi. It's at a flat 10 afr now, and I'm shooting for 11.

Update update updaaate. My knightsports rf320 blew immediately after I changed the oil and knicked the compressor wheel and scored the compressor housing pretty bad as well. There were fine metal flakes in my intercooler piping afterwards, but the engine was running fine so I think I lucked out. Just going to clean out the intercooler and piping and peep inside the exhaust ports to check the rotors and seals out.

Since I need a turbo rebuild with a new compressor wheel and housing, I decided to get a T04S housing with a 60-1 wheel. The housing is pretty big. 4 inch inlet with .7 ar, so I'm gonna have fun fittin this hot momma. Now since I have a larger compressor wheel, I went ahead and ordered a P-Trim turbine wheel so this turbo wont be a turd.

G-Pop shop is going to do the rebuild and machine work to fit the new turbine wheel. I decided to go ahead and do the 360 degree thrust bearing option as well. The customer service there is great so far. They even remembered my name when I called a week after my inquiry call. Made me feel like a special snowflake. :)

Now that my turd is down for a few weeks, I'm going to install the PBM subframe risers and diff mounts along with a good bit of little shit that I've been to complacent to install. I'm looking forward to seeing how the turbo will perform though. Hoping to hit 400 to the wheels with water/meth injection! :) I'm gonna be a big boy Ma!