bigdv519

iTrader: (3)

Hi guys/gals,

Nothing too fancy here, just a simple daily driver project. I dont have any immediate plans to turbo swap this vert or anything. I haven't daily driven an RX-7 for over 3 years so thats pretty much my goal. I want to do some of the basic intake/exhaust mods. I want a clean interior and a clean exterior also. If I could, I'd also like a clean engine bay, maybe with some powder coated parts or polished manifolds. I also plan on doing some of the reliability mods, ie: new oil cooler lines, thermowax pellet, maybe an upgraded radiator one day.

I picked up this vert from a local guy. Its in pretty straight shape and doesnt seem to have ever been in a major wreck. Theres some localized rust that will be taken care of and documented in this thread. The convertable top needs to be replaced and I will also document that. The interior is blue and is currently in the process of being replaced with and all black interior from my parts car.

The biggest problem with this car is that it seems that the original engine (S5) was replaced with an S4 (86-88) engine. The engine does run and idle, but it is in limp mode from not having an electronic oil metering pump plugged into the harness. Also the throttle positioning sensor wiring was modified to work. Some of the crimps have come undone and wires are exposed now.

So, as of late, I have a replacement engine harness, to swap out the hacked harness. It's been cleaned and degreased.
I also have the full black interior from the parts car. Also have a much better convertable top from the same parts car.

The new (used) donor engine (S5) will be getting picked up soon, maybe in a week or so.

The to-do list (in no particular order) as of now is:
---Replace engine.
---Swap interior
---Swap convertable top
---Clean up rust
---Bring the car to drivable condition (tires, brakes, tuneup, etc)

Here are some pics.

Stay tuned for updates.

bigdv519

iTrader: (3)

Moar pics.

As you can see in the last pic, I've already completed the black interior swap on one door.

vrracing

iTrader: (1)

Very nice. If you're swapping out the interior I suggest painting them with SEM Landau black. You'll be amazed at how fresh and new it'll look.

bigdv519

iTrader: (3)

Update:

So far, the S5 donor engine and trans have been picked up and brought home. This engine has great compression (over 105psi). I think it was either recently rebuilt ot a Mazda reman.

I've already pulled out the S4 engine from convertable. The engine bay was getting cleaned last night and most of the brackets and engine bay components still need to be cleaned. I found some rust on the frame rail and it needs to be addressed. I will be keeping AC and PS for this car.

I have the donor engine sitting on a cardboard now and I'm stripping it to the bare bones to get everything cleaned. I plan on painting the engine and the manifolds.

Well enough talk, here are some photos. Note the hack job by the mechanic who swapped the wrong engine into this car.

Also, I have already recieved my Racing Beat headers and I am going to header wrap them. I also have recieved my rx7.com underdrive main pulley.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

nice project! i just got a vert and i love it. its staying pretty stock too, i like it how it is

cab91089

iTrader: (3)

Nice project, it reminds me of mine.

bigdv519

iTrader: (3)

Update:

So far, I have removed most of the components of the dirty engine. I didn't open the engine up, remove the front cover, nor remove the oil pan.

All the manifolds have been brushed clean, and painted. Some of the brackets have also been painted and most bolts have been brushed clean.

I free'd up the 5th and 6th ports in the lower intake manifold. I had to completely remove them and I cleaned the shafts with some emery (sp) cloth. I also cleaned the "barrel" where the shaft rotates. I verified, by mouth, that both actuators work. I was able to blow into a boost gauge 2 lbs of pressure, nearly turning blue in the face. The actuators open before I turn blue in the face so I guess thats good enough right? I hope so.

I also verified the VDI to be working.

I ended up wrapping the Racing Beat headers with some black header wrap I had laying around. While installing the headers, I had a lot of problems with a couple of studs. I ended up stripping a couple and tossing them in the garbage. I have so many other housings laying around that I just sourced a few from those.

So everything has been painted or cleaned...the headers are installed...and the lower intake manifold is installed.

Here's a couple of photos. Hopefully I will be able to put the motor in today after work. And if we are lucky, turn it on.

bigdv519

iTrader: (3)

Pre-Halloween Update:

This is turning into a much longer process than I originally thought. I just dont like the idea of putting dirty parts back into the engine bay. I'm at work today so theres not too much going on with the car today.

I got the motor in, finally, a couple of days ago. I didn't have any of the rubber motor mounts so I ended up using the UHMW ones that I had on my drag car. I noticed that under this convertable, the big convertable-only cross member is missing. O.o I have the other one off my parts car, but I havent taken it off yet. Thats on the list. There was also a smaller bracket that is located near the first u-joint right at the tail-end of the transmission. Well that bracket was also missing. I sourced one of of my parts car.

I'm putting in the engine harness and at the same time, fixing little things here and there, ie loose connections on the harness, cut wires, etc. I think I might re-wrap the entire harness with some fresh tape and looms. The injector clips are broken and arent holding onto the injectors so I think I'm going to have to zip-tie them in place since I dont have any other clips. I used the zip-tie method on a couple other cars without any problems. Hopefully none this time around either.

Here is a couple of recent photos. I will update again soon, hopefully with this sucker running.

MATTHEWLMORIARITY

Just picked up a 91 myself.

winx909

Nice

winx909

Bump

bigdv519

iTrader: (3)

Update:

Well I have good news. I was able to finish up the last tid bits today and I got this baby to roar to life. It's running straight headers right now and sounds great. I love it.

As always, I ran into a couple of little hiccups here and there: not plugging in the vac live for the stock fuel pressure regulator, leaking hose clamps, trying to turn on the car with the ecu completely unplugged (haha). But it is finally running.

The AC and power steering haven't been squared away yet, but they will be soon.

Tomorrow I'm off of work and I will have some time double check the timing, and set the idle correctly. I will also double check the brakes since they weren't stopping properly when we first drove the car with the S4 engine.

Also I need to bleed the clutch hydraulics.

If I'm lucky, I will also pass by the tire shop tomorrow and pick up some new tires. I have two in storage so I will only need to buy two others.

bigdv519

iTrader: (3)

Update:
Well the car is idling correct now. I had originally bypassed the coolant lines that run to the throttle body and BAC valve. I forgot that the thermowax in the TB will never get warm and get out of "cold mode" so I went ahead and deleted the thermowax. Now the car idles good and I was able to set it pretty darn close to 750rpms.

I pulled a couple of codes, one being code #26. This is for stepping motor of the Metering Oil Pump. I went ahead and checked the resistance per the FSM and it seems to be out of wack. I might source another electronic one or get the RTEK 1.0 for S5 N/A to delete the Metering Oil Pump and hook up an S4 mechanical one. I'm still in the air about my options though.

Since I'm at a stand still now, I'm working on the interior again. Hopefully I can have the passenger door done today. Theres more nick nacks that need to be taken care of. I finally pulled off the convertable only brace from under the car, its clean now and needs to be installed. I also swapped out the stock NGK wires for some Ultra Wires. They add a nice touch to the engine bay. I also have a red powder coated front sway bar that I'm going to install sooner or later.

I'm also taking advantage of time at work and I'm buffing and polishing my TII rims (saw blades). I picked up the polishing kit and I will hopefully have 2 rims finished tomorrow.

Dr Octagonapus

GL. Nothing better then a white fc

bigdv519

iTrader: (3)

December Update:

After the last update, I was still diagnosing the metering oil pump being bad and sending the car into limp mode. I was driving the car around the block and it died on me and didn't want to turn back on. Smelled like it was flooded.

A couple days later, the engine still cranks like normal, but no start. Def flooding. After cranking, with the key back to "on", there is a humming noise coming from the engine bay. Closer investigation shows the "humming" noise coming from the lower intake manifold. I suspected the primary injectors were humming so I pulled the EGI fuse, and low and behold, the humming stops. I guess it seems like the injectors are firing without the engine being on.

Maybe something is goofy somewhere with a ground or my ecu. I havent had time to fully investigate it, but I will as soon as I have some more free time. Until then, I have swapped out the bad metering oil pump and replaced it with a working unit. I've also done a little bit of work on the passenger side door (replacing jacked up harness, replacing window regulator).

I've done a little work on polishing the stock aluminum 7-bar saw blades. They are not quite done yet, but they are looking much better. Will post photo's of the rims soon.

Hopefully I will have another update before Christmas. Maybe it will read "Finally running good".

cab91089

iTrader: (3)

Still is coming along nicely

onefastrx712a

iTrader: (1)

so where is the update? Did you get it running?

cab91089

iTrader: (3)

Its been running since November, hes been trying to work out problems with the bad S5 electric OMP and swapping it over a S4 mechanical one. Ive found out by reading over the past few years that the S5 OMPs are sort of common failures since nothing electrical can last forever and cannot be rebuilt. I like your idea of swapping on the S4 one and goodluck

stevensimon

iTrader: (11)

running stock s5 computer with s4 omp will cause the car to go into limp mode. make sure to run the correct rtek if you plan on moving to mechanical omp

bigdv519

iTrader: (3)

***Update***

Well it still isnt running.

I found a good deal on another electronic S5 oil metering pump, so I painted it and put it on the car. Even though the car still didn't turn on, I checked the codes, and the code for the oil metering pump is gone!! Whoop whoop, success!!

But it still doesnt turn on. :/

The emissions harness that I sourced from my parts car looked pretty good when it was first installed. But, there was one wire that broke later and I jumped it with some extra wire I had laying around. It was the wire at pin 2B on the center plug. It was a shielded wire, as in, it had some kind of electrical shield around the original wire. I'm no electrical expert so excuse my lack of jargon. The FSM shows that wire to be heading to the Air Flow Meter. I thought it was my problem, but it doesnt seem like it now.

I put the harness back in the car to attempt to crank it, and also attempt to re-create the mysterious humming from the primary injector area.

We cranked it and cranked it, and strangely, the humming is gone now.

But it didnt turn on. We figured it was flooded so we pulled the EGI fuse again to unflood the car, and it still doesnt turn on. But we don't smell any fuel. Hmmmm...fuel pump?

There is a yellow 2 prong plug in the engine bay that we used to jump the fuel pump. I didnt hear the pump turn on nor hear any fuel flowing in the rails like we usually hear.

Now heres where it gets interesting.

We go under the dash, near the steering wheel to jump the relay for the fuel pump. It clicks, but one of the wires is cut. Theres some more non-Mazda wires running around under there too!! Looks like someone did some kind of bootleg hack job under here. Theres a wire tee'd in from another wire near the fuse box, theres wires running to the ignition, theres a red wire heading to the center dash area....all kinds of bootleg looking stuff.

Thats all going to have to come out and I will replace all the bootleggedness with the wires from my donor car since those are all good and stock.

*Interior swap*

Since were swapping the blue interior anyway, we figured we might as well start pulling out the seats and carpet now, to make room while we are working on the car. Oh boy did we open a can of worms.

It seems as though the car had been flooded (with water) about 3 to 4 inches, mostly on the passenger side. Not only that, the blue carpet we were pulling up was installed ON TOP of the original blue carpet. Yank!!! Its all out now. Some towels soaked up the remaining standing water.

Since the wires under the dash are all screwy, (wiggle wires and idiot lights cut off), and we are going to swap the dash (blue for black) anyway, were going to pull out the dash to make more room for swapping over the good wires.

With the new year, there is newfound inspiration to get this thing running right, that way we can start working on the 10th AE Drag Car. (Look for a thread on that soon). So far, in the first two days of 2012, we've worked on the car every night. Tonight we will be going for 3 for 3.

Here's a pic of the interior and some of the rust damage that will will have to take care of.

cab91089

iTrader: (3)

If it isnt running then why does it say you got it to roar to life? lol. I have the same problem with the P.O hacking up wires. It took me hours to fix some of the wires.

bigdv519

iTrader: (3)

I must not be explaining myself correctly. I bought the S5 car running with an S4 engine, but running like crap.
I pulled out the S4 engine and swapped in the correct S5 engine. I painted everything and got it looking real good.
Since I bought the car, it has been in limp mode.
Limp mode is fixed but then the primary injectors were humming.
Now the humming is gone, but the fuel pump isnt running.

***Update***

We worked on the car for a few hours today.
We pulled the black interior out of the parts car.
Now that we had the dash out of the 89 car (this thread is about the 89), I was able to fix about 4 little hack jobs. I sourced the correct plugs and got everything looking the way its supposed to.

After we got everything looking good, we tried cranking the car without the dash but the fuel pump still isnt turning on. We tried jumping the fuel pump directly from the battery but still nothing.

I tried jumping my other fuel pump that is still inside the tank of my parts car, and that one didnt run either.

I guess now I'm looking for a fuel pump.

The journey continues...

***EDIT***
WHOOO HOOO!!!
My buddy helping me found an old Walbro fuel pump in the garage and we tested it and it works!! Looks like were going to swap it in tomorrow.

cab91089

iTrader: (3)

No you explained yourself fine. I thought that once the s5 engine was swapped in the car it started but didnt drive but like you said it is because it is in limp mode until you fix the problem with the OMP. Being that it starts I figured you meant it idled too meaning that it runs. At least to me thats what it seemed like sorry if I was wrong. Couldnt you just eliminate the OMP and just run premix?

bigdv519

iTrader: (3)

Oh the S5 engine has run, but only in limp mode.

Also, I could've run premix but I would've still had to have a working S5 OMP plugged into the harness and tucked away into a corner of the engine bay.

***UPDATE***

Today we opened up the gas tank and this is what we found.

The last picture is of a gas tank I had sitting in the garage. Its not the best gas tank, but its much better than the current one. We are going to use that one instead with the Walbro fuel pump we also found yesterday.


Not too much talking today...these pictures speak a thousand words. Remember that this car was last registered in 2001.

cab91089

iTrader: (3)

Alright I got you