'90 FC3s 13B Turbo Build
 

Alright, I've been on this forum for some years now, searching, browsing other people's cars and mods so I've decided to make my own build thread.

Base car was bought as a complete NA GXL from Columbus, Ohio for 750$. Transmission was making horrific sounds, lights were pulsing, but worst of all the oil lines for the cooler were replaced with what seemed to be garden hoses. I decided to drive it home which is 1.5 away, on the way back the oil lines popped off 3 times, once spraying oil all over the bottom of the car and rear wheels, lets just say I actually hydroplaned on my own oil, good stuff.

I got the car in January of 2012 and since then been working on it, and got a chance to drift the car for the first time at the last three Club Loose Midvale events. This is a budget build, I'm a college student and have a part time job at Sunoco, so don't expect huge power and great looks, just functionalitty and some reliablitty.

Here's the current state of the car

Engine:

-s5 Turbo engine sold by Calin Gogonea (2RotorSpeed, check out his build thread)
- BNR stage 2 turbo
-Rtek 2.0 ECU
-HKS primary and Greddy secondary injectors, 750cc and 1000cc
-Aeromotive FPR and gauge
-"HKS" eBay air filter
-CXRacing intercooler and piping
-AEM TruBoost, AEM water temperature, AEM air fuel gauges
-XS Racing 3" exhuast, with 2.5" flanges, some BS right there
-Deleted emissions
-FD alternator
-Modified emissions harness
-Corksport SS oil lines
-Ford Escort elecric fan
-Koyo N-Flow radiator with Koyo 1.3bar cap, with distilled water and water wetter
-Royal Purple 20w-50 oil with RP oil filter
-Moroso coolant over flow, eBay oil catch can

Drivetrain

-ACT clutch
-s5 turbo transmission
-s5 turbo driveshaft
-s4 turbo differential
-s5 turbo axles
-Royal Purple tranny fluid with NEO Synthetic diff fluid

Suspension/Handling

-Corksport rear camber link
-Corksport DTSS eliminator bushings
-Megan Racing Street coilovers
-5Zigen FN01rc wheels 17x9 rear, 17x8 front

Brakes

-Stock! :icon_tdow

Interior

-Stripped interior
-Unknown steering wheel
-Some sort of a delrin shifter
-RJS 4-point harnesses
-Harness bar
-Simplified rear harness
-Eliminated sun roof

Exterior

-Carbon fiber hood
-Terribly paint matched fender

This winter I'm planning on finishing removing sound deadening, painting interior white, new deep dish steering wheel, and relocated battery in the back. Definitely need to dump some cash on new brakes. New exhaust, current one wont let me boost past 10, and leaks all over the place. As for suspension I'm looking to get knuckles and Mazdatrix angle/bump steer kit. If income permits, will do bushings as well, but they seem fine for now.

Here are some pictures of the transformation

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More stuff to come over the next 6 months :nod:
Will have more detailed pictures in the future, this is all I could find

Where is the build? lol
But I really wished I would have bought some black FN's when I had the chance...

I didn't take any pictures during the process as I didn't have a build thread, but I'm doing a lot over this winter so I'll make sure to be detailed

Here's what I got done tonight

New wheel came in, its a SportLine Racing 330mm deep dish, 130$ off Amazon, seems rigid and quality made, came with a horn button but no bolts:scratch:.

I eliminated most of the wires from the rear harness leaving behind lights, fuel pump and hatch lock wires. Because this isn't daily driven, I removed the defrost relay and along with its wiring

As for the sun roof, I decided to shed some weight and removed the opening mechanism, lid portion comes off easy after unscrewing a few bolts. It's held level by a rear step lip and a bent lip on the front of the opening, later I am going to make two brackets across the opening to bolt the lid making it removable, i saw this done on another RX7, maybe a forum member, can't remember who though

Next week, I need to pick up some dry ice and pound the deadening away before I weld a harness bar and fix rust holes, If I have time will paint the interior as well


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This was taken before harness was done, now its wrapped in braided material and neatly tucked along the corner of the car

Also the bolts you see sticking out the transmission tunnel are my custom crossmember mounts which have been cut from a manual chassis, need to weld those in permanently. Owner before me let the manual tranny lay on the automatic crossmember, unmounted :lol:
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And here's a bag of wires

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Ordered an engine start button, so I can get rid of the mess below the wheel

Let me know how you like the wheel when you drive it a bit. I'm looking for a good steering wheel for my fcs

nice build i like the front mount it looks good! cant wait to have my swap finished !

Looking good :nod:

Got to drive the car a bit around the block, wheel feels good, quality is very similar to MOMO wheels, doesn't bend, good wheel for 130$

Nice. I need to get my car running again.

Looks like a fun car

Ordered Mazdatrix tie rod ends with rack spacers and Abercrombie Motorsports knuckles! Going to swap my steering rack, as this one makes metal to metal noises.
Also found out that one of my couplers got cut somehow and leaks a little. Will post steering setup when done. also decided to buy some cheap rotors and pads for the front as the ones I took off today where f*cking embarrassing.

which ends did you use from Mazdatrix? I'm waiting for MAX to get my knuckles done, but it seems that Mazdatrix has a pretty inexpensive bump steering kit

I ordered the Super Angle Kit, comes with rack spacers too. going to see how well the wheels clear with the knuckles and see if I want to run spacers too or not.

Very nice man, good luck with the build!

Looks good so far!

loving everything about this

Abercrombie knuckles and Mazdatrix kit should be getting here this week, will do alot of updates!
Deciding if I want to rip the front harness apart, clean it, and rewrap.
I'm planning on going to a event in PA an a few weeks, really want to see how it drives with steering mods, snow better hold off!

Over the last couple of weeks I finally got around to installing the Abercrombie knuckles and Mazdatrix steering kit. Also found used aftermarket rotors and pads with around 1000 miles on them, will be picking those up those up this weekend. Here is a picture of the progress so far.

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Baller :nod:

nice good luck

Looks sweet dude.

Alright, I have officially dug myself into a deep hole.
Once I got around to installing new rotors and pads, I found that 2 out of 4 pistons on the driver side front caliper were seized, spent some time trying to get them loose and decided to buy refurbished ones instead. That's all fine but as with every project comes many problems and the brake line fittings were completely rusted and seized WOOT! As of now my brake lines to each corner are removed and I'm waiting on a set of SS soft lines. Lots of work and money I barely have spent but it better be worth it in the end!

Snowball effect...


Atleast its going to be done right!

like

Lots of things have changed since my last updates.
Decided to do a cheapo L-mount setup in hopes of reducing some lag and cleaning up the bay. Brakes are almost done, waiting on poly coated spool of brake line. Bought new crush washers for all oil lines and got new injector seals from Mazdatrix. I have all the bracketry figured out for the radiator setup and will install everything once the bay gets cleaned and painted. Also working on cleaning and simplifying the front harness as it was soaked in oil. Got abunch of parts on the way so it should only be about 3 more weeks till I get to drive it! Here are some pics of the current situation.

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great!

Long time since my last post, winter slowing things down and Im trying to save up for gas and entry fees for upcoming season. i made some progress with the IC setup though. Here are some pictures of mocked brackets and how everything should kinda look like, I have a load of stuff to finish and need the car to be done in about 6 weeks.

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Looks awesome, keep up the good work.

Finally nice weather to work on the car!

Engine bay clean up and painted
Wiring organized and cleaned off from oil spills
Finished making a strong support for radiator and IC
Replaced oil line crush washers
Replaced steering rack o-rings
Relocated battery to the back with a kill-off switch
Ran new brake lines throughout the car

The IC will get an electric fan and will duct the bottom for the radiator

Here are some progress pictures so far

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Awesome progress man, keep up the good work.

Sweeeeettttt!

Coming along nicely, keep the updates coming

Got some more work done to finish off little bits.

AWR racing camber links installed, will run about -.5 instead of -3 degrees I ran last year.
All fluids filled and wiring finalized.

Car started on the 4th try after sitting for 6 months filled with Marvel Mystery oil.
Pretty sure this engine has been rebuild before being shipped to US.

All that's left to do is get it aligned sometime next week and get ready for a drift event on the 12th.

Going to leave a few pictures of it as of now

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Proper rear camber ftw.

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great build cant wait to see it finish

Car drives as of now, got an alignment appointment tomorrow and a drift event on Sunday, will update with more detail after I know everything works well.

Finally! Got to drive a Clubloose Midvale event. Car felt so much better than last year. Got an alignment, -.7 rear really made a huge impact on the amount if grip in the back. Abercrombie's knuckles are the best investment I made over the winter, new IC setup really improved the response and I had to problem moderating the throttle. Water temps haven't gone past 194 during a run and dropped within 10 seconds back to 187, IC hasn't heat soaked, however, it was only 60F ambient temperature, it WILL get a fan during the summer. Here are some pictures and a short video toward the end of the day, I had close to no tread left on the tires.


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I like your build.
Its a Dope Fc!

Sweet build. Definitely going to be following. I plan on doing a drift set up as well. A lot of time n wrench to get it running healthy I see

So toward the end of the event and after I noticed to feel that the clutch is starting to give up, engagement point was crap and I knew that the disk wouldn't have much left in it since it is used and has slipped before. In a hurry to make another Midvale even in June I started to gather everything to replace the clutch kit and resurface the flywheel. Went to Harbor Freight to buy a 3/4 drive breaker bar for the 54mm socket to remove the flywheel bolt and I have to say the breaker bar is pretty insane, rated for 750ft/lbs I do not see that thing failing anytime soon. I ordered a Spec stage 3, 6 puck sprung disk kit. Got the flywheel resurfaced by NAPA for 50$ and just waiting for local Mazda dealer to transport rear oil seal sometime next week. I got blue thread locker for the flywheel nut to be safe and made my own flywheel holder and puller out of spare bolts and metal.
Picture update for now

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Finally got the time and tools to install the clutch.
Bought moly grease for the shaft, bearing, and fork lubricant.
Installed a new pilot bearing seal.
Replaced the rear oil seal. (in the pictures you'll see oil track it was leaving on the rear iron)
Replaced and greased the throughout bearing.
Tightened the flywheel nut with the 3/4 drive beaker bar I bought to the factory marks and used a 250ft/lbs torque wrench to make sure I was above the minimum range, I also put blue thread locker on it.
Tightened the pressure plate bolts and voila!
Will put the tranny in with everything else to run the car this weekend as I need to break the clutch in on Tuesday in one day! Next drift event being on the 16th of June.

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So curious....I know you said that the radiator/temps haven't exceeded 1xx, but doesnt it seem like the way that the radiator is placed along with the intercooler set up have a much poorer air flow causing it to have a higher chance of over heating? Maybe I'm not seeing something or maybe I am just wrong with my thought(s).

The only thing blocking air to the radiator is the stock oil cooler, and a taurus fan is pulling air, its ice cold water and oil. Intercooler gets less air, but still doesn't seem to get hot at all, I run 10psi which is a little more than stock and the IC is way better than the stock top mount. Temps are great so far.

[R]
[A] [INTERCOLLER] <--------Air
[D] <--------Air
[I] <--------Air
[A] <--------Air
[T] [O] <--------Air
[O] [I] <--------Air
[R} [L] <--------Air

If that makes sense

Haha yeah. Makes sense. Pretty interesting tho. Just looking at it from the pics makes it seem not as "air" efficient so to speak.

Better view

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I heard the factory manual (or common sense) recommends to drain the transmission before you remove it, or before you put it back in. I'd hate to know what will happen if you don't. :blush:

Yeah, common sense, I used a metal pan to capture the oil, made sure it's very clean so I can reuse it and not waste a fortune.

Haven't updates this in a while, so here it goes.

Clutch is finally broken in, however, I found more stupid sh*t wrong with the car. Whoever did the 5 speed swap in this car completely f**cked sh*t up. The clutch pedal is missing the assistant spring, letting the clutch master return the pedal, not good. From last drift event I guess I bent a rod that's part of the tie rod end so I had to replace that in a hurry for an event that happened this past weekend.

Here's the picture of the tie rod damage and its replacement.

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And a pic from the recent event.

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Got something to work with during the winter.

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How's the new clutch setup?

Its great, no slips

where at in ohio are you? im in the north east