So i found an add on Craigslist for a 1990 gtu with a turbo swap that needed little nick knack things to run. So i drove 3 hours away to view the car. Whoever put this motor in the car, possibly longs turbo as i bought parts from him to complete the project i'm just not 100% sure, did an extremely professional job at it. so i'm like yeah turbo looks clean, and rebuilt, has a jdm rebuilt motor, owner said it was rebuilt at the time with only 2,000 miles on it from a donor car that his friend wrecked that may or may not have been built by longsturbo, dont know, if so Long i didnt rebuild the motor and she pulls nice to me. I'm like yeah i can finish putting her together and get her running sweet. So the voice in my head that i call God said, look inside the car. drum roll..... WTF, an automatic?! I was like you got to be freaking kidding me. Who the hell wants an automatic turbo rx-7. Then the voice in my head i called God said, you do idiot!!! you already own a turbo driveshaft, just find a 5 speed transmission and use the parts from your wrecked gxl to complete the swap! So i jumped that hurdle, and continued looking on the inside. lots of parts in the car but i never saw any turbo electronics, no ecu, no afm no map, just leftover motor and electronics from the na. I said freak it, i'll buy the car.
The couple of weeks it took me to return to the car were spent, daytime at work, night time eBay, and Craigslist part shopping. A buddy of mine on the forum found out that longsturbo had a 5 speed turbo trans, score!!! We met and at the sound of an automatic turbo he said, i think that was the first rx-7 i built 8 years ago! I wouldnt doubt it but i just have zero proof of it. i also got an rmagic n374 ecu from him, seeing as the car only cam with an s4 na ecu and an n351 ecu. I found a map sensor with a broken nipple on eBay for $14 and an n370 afm on eBay for $49. i finally get the car back to house and start tearing into it. That voice came back and said, look in the fuel tank, what do you know, an na fuel pump. Back to eBay again, found a used aeromotive 340 glh for $65. Car had the jdm engine harness in it. i removed it in favor of the na harness, i like having my windshield wipers. Yeah the windshield wipers were truly the only reason i took the jdm harness out ,i didnt go any further to find any other reasons why, this to short, extend these wires, never came into play. got her wired....wait WTF my accelerator cable is to short?! i took the bracket off my na motor, made the 90 degree bend the opposite way, bam!!! now she fits nice. It eventually snapped cause of age, it never felt right from the moment i first started the car but i never knew it was already starting to fray at the start of the insulation. Then i find out the s4 cable is shorter than the s5!!! Couldnt find the oe bracket so i got another s4 cable, gas pedal was light as a feather! i had to floor it to get full response where as before 40% throttle was full response. so now she should crank.Turning over by hand i got two puffs. i wasnt worried, she sat for eight years. got out the marvel mystery oil, took the upper intake off and poured into the four ports and turned for five minutes by hand for 4 mornings before going to work. every morning puffs and compression strokes got stronger, she went from 2 puffs and 4 whistle notes to 5 strong puffs and 1 low cough on the rear rotor. so i spun it until i thought the weak side of the rear was pointing toward the intake and let the rest of the mystery oil spank that seal. 5th morning turned by hand first two revolutions the whislte got weak the third a weak puff, the 5th revolution i got my 6 strong puffs! She's alive!!!! first crank 10 seconds nothing, second crank, instant 3,000 rpm rev she was breathing. While the intake was off i had a mechanic at my job fab up some block off plates and i installed them and left the bac on , i eleminated the rats nest and cat and i had a 3 inch downpipe from the turbo into a 2.5 inch pipe starting where the cat used to be into a 2.5 random muffler that my old boss welded up for me. The exhaust came after the 5 speed swap. Now i havent found the answer to this here so i may or may not be the first but continue if you would like to know what an automatic turbo fc can do.

 

So all i ever heard by friends and reading the forum was, ohhh the hold button is a sham, it never works, your car is to old. Well.... maybe i have the prototype cause it worked great! it felt like the car had 4 gears and an overdrive gear. from a dead stop i placed her in low gear and made the hold button light up. Full 10lb spool of the turbo she flew through first gear, amazed the hell out of me! She revved just like my 5 speed does now. Now the let down, i tapped the hold button she came out the gear, i slipped her into second pressed the hold button again so it would light up, the spooling turbo was to much for second gear, she couldnt hold the trans would slipp and the engine would immediately rev pass 8000. i can get you off the line but after 40 it was a no go. Ohh wait! She holds third gear! while cruising on the highway i could press hold to make her drop into third gear and she would let the turbo spool and engine rev and redline at 115 with awesome acceleration. Many a race were won in my automatic doing70-80 rolls and gunning her to 130. At 115 depress the hold button for her to shift down and hit it again quickly to hold rpm and she let loose, once again making the automatic fun. i drove the automatic for two months. boosting and allowing the trans to slip would cause trans fluid to leak out the dip stick but other than that the trans never slipped under normal load and cruised around with better gas mileage than my 5 speed, but i get the lead foot with my 5 speed and stay up in the rpms and boost. Now to find my sd card for pics of the project

 

Pre-loading must be fun with that car and auto trans lol

 

"Location: Sedgefield" "possibly longs turbo"

Are you around charlotte?

 

It was but I've got the 5 speed now. The best way to describe it was like a 5 speed with no 2nd gear. I finally got pics loaded on my laptop, I just need them on this site now.

 

Nope, Greensboro, an hour away

 

check out type sx racing on facebook for pics and vids