Karius

iTrader: (3)

Oh where to begin. My brother and I bought the car about 3 years ago. We drove it for a year before we started having overheating and hard starting issues. Pulled the motor and found out it had broken a coolant seal wall on the rear iron. Fast forward to now and due to some money circumstances the car sat in a garage for the last 2 years. After a long deliberation between me and my brother we decided to go with a turbo swap because it the cost wouldn't be much more than just rebuilding the na motor. We did acquire a 87 turbo II parts car along the way and decided to just use the drivetrain out of it. And after about a month of searching for the right engine we found one. So here we go.

How she sat back when she was running NA.


When we picked her up to come home.


Pulling the drive train out of our parts car.



Had to rebuild the driveshaft. NOT FUN


JDM Engine



Parts parts and more parts

Karius

iTrader: (3)

Progress so far on the engine. We got it up on the stand and began to swap out the RHD harness for the US NA harness. The swap is very straight forward and with some help from a few threads on here it was no problem. Also deleted all the emission. Only have a few things to finish up on the engine before it will be ready to put in the car.







Going to be working the rest of the week to get the rear end swapped over and have the engine in trans in the car while waiting on a couple of parts to be finished up.

Sudowoodo

iTrader: (1)

Looks sick. I like the arc tmic. I just did an s4 jdm tii swap into my s4 GXL. I used my NA harness though. Works well. Didn't have to swap any pins on the ecu either since I have no emissions or PS. If you have any questions with your swap you can pm me. I may be able to help.

Karius

iTrader: (3)

We are hoping the IC hold pressure. It got smashed in a few places on the way over from japan. If not we will just use the stock one off the parts car until we get a front mount.

Karius

iTrader: (3)

Progress from today. Engine and trans in. Finishing up all hooking up everything and then swapping out the rear end tomorrow.

vrracing

iTrader: (1)

I didnt see mention of doing a compression test on the JDM engine. When we bought ours the vendor explicitly stated they'd done a compression test and it had passed with flying colors. The reality was that the front iron was rusted thru letting water into the front chamber rusting the rotor and the seals. Google "Tiger Japanese" and you'll see our experience was not unusual.

Being wiser and poorer for the experience , I would strongly suggest doing a compression test before putting any more effort in it if you havent already.

Good luck!

Jim

Karius

iTrader: (3)

Thanks for the concern. A compression test was performed prior to me buying the engine. The vendor actually had a video of it and was the only reason for me buying. Of course they used a piston engine gauge but numbers turned up to be excellent. After receiving it I didn't remove the spark plugs and look inside. No orange or coolant in it. You can spin it by hand and hear all three intake, compression and exhaust strokes on both rotors. Also while going over the engine things seemed odd. Like it had just been rebuilt or just very well maintained. None of the rubber hoses were hard or cracked and the gaskets for the emissions equipment where still flexible and came off in one piece. Also the engine is sealed with grey sealer. Doesn't Mazda use orange? So I believe that with the like new compression figures and physical condition of the engine it's been rebuild recently.

Karius

iTrader: (3)

Managed to get quite a bit done today. Almost have everything finished up in the engine bay. Swapped out the rearend and axles. Still have to do fuel pump, Wideband, boost gauge, and exhaust. Then I'll have a first start up vid.

Karius

iTrader: (3)

Engine bay done. Started hanging the exhaust only to notice that the inside hangers on both mufflers don't quite fit all the way on the rubber hanger. Any one else have this problem with the RB Rev II?

Karius

iTrader: (3)

So I'm a little worried. I hooked up the battery and was tightening the cables down and the main body harness sparked and almost caught fire. I pulled off the cables in a hurry and smoke was everywhere. Checked the harness best I could and it blew apart the electrical tape but none of the wires I could see were burnt. Going to pull it off tomorrow to check it better. Any ideas on what could have caused this? We have already had the battery hooked up before with no issues.

archaphil

iTrader: (1)

Main chassis ground comes to mind. But I am not sure. You are now going to want to check all your relays and fuses. Grab a 6 pack and a multi meter and get cozy.

Karius

iTrader: (3)

Pulled the wiring harness out and checked it over. Stripped back the electrical tape where I thought they spark came from. Found nothing. Taped everything back up really good. Inspected the rest of the wiring to find a hole in the rubber boot for the starter wire. Checked the terminal and the starter and it looks like it grounded on the side of the starter through the hole. Taped up the terminal really good and put it all back together. Finished up a few other things and then cranked the car over a few times with the EFI fuse pulled to get some oil circulated in the engine. Plugged it back in and went for first start up. Cranked and cranked and cranked. Come to find out I had the fuel lines on backwards. Fixed that and cranked some more. It fired up then died. It continued to do this for a few tries. Then I had my brother put his hand over the holes in the stock intake duct for the bov and vac lines. I forgot to get plugs for them. This time it started right up and idled just fine.

We taped up the holes for a temporary fix just to have the car idle so we could check over everything. After the smoke cleared because of open down pipe, we checked over everything and it looks good. It's idling a little high around 1100 rpm. I think the cable is too tight. The coolant temp isn't working. Might just be a bad sensor. And the fuel lvl isn't working. Ill have to check the float later cause I changed out the pump and it could be stuck or something. Also after putting the shifter back in the trans won't go into 5th or reverse. Not sure on that one. Any advice would be appreciated.

Besides those few things. It's looking really good. Cant wait to have it on the road soon and Ill post up a vid tomorrow.

Karius

iTrader: (3)

After a little research and toiling. I figured out the finial issues I was having. The coolant temp sensor just wasn't hooked up. Not sure how I missed it when I did the wiring harness. The fuel lvl wasn't working because I didn't carry over the ground wire for it when I replaced the pump. That was quick rewire fix. Good thing I hadn't thrown away the stock pump yet. So I just cut the original ground wire off it. The trans was an absolute PITA! Turns out the when we drained the fluid from the extension housing the detent ball that sits behind the plug and against the return spring/plunger fell below the plunger and was keeping it from moving. And come to find out the Haynes manual doesn't explain how to put it back together. So after fooling around with it for like an hour I finally got it and lets just say the shifter works great now.

Last night we finally got everything finished up. Installed the AEM boost gauge and decided to take the car out to put gas in it. Lets just say running open down pipe isn't all that fun. My brother was diving and took it pretty easy but it felt like the car was missing some while under light load. I think it was just the little bit of two year old fuel we had in the tank. Filled her up and made it back home. Probably going to run some injector cleaner in it and check the plugs to make sure that old fuel didn't foul them out.

Only think left is we are waiting on our fabricator to tell us to bring to car over so he can make the test pipe we need to finish the exhaust.

Aeromotive 340lph stealth pump


First fill up!

Karius

iTrader: (3)

Took the car out on Saturday and put over a 100 miles on it. Absolutely no issues! Can't wait to have the exhaust finished. Open down pipe is so loud. Also my brother in buying all new suspension parts. Tokico shocks and RB springs and sway bars.

vrracing

iTrader: (1)

Gratz! Glad to hear all the magic smoke didnt leak out!

Karius

iTrader: (3)

Got our JDM Yellow fogs in to today. What a PITA that was. I have had these since before the original motor blew. Got them off here from Japan2LA. Guess he is no longer on here though. Anyway they look sweet.

Karius

iTrader: (3)

Almost completely wrapped up. Our brights were not working so I ordered a new CPU. With both side by side it looks like Mazda did a complete revamp of the board with newer components. Plugged it up and not only do the brights work but so does the door chime and security system. Also bought a new battery tray as the other one disappeared. Tomorrow I'm taking the car to work to put on new tires and do a state inspection. Then it's off to the drag strip to see what it will do in the 8th. For now enjoy some nice flames.