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After years of fantasizing about owning an RX-7, I finally gave in July 2015 and bought one. A few weeks prior I had almost purchased a white S5 GXL, but hesitated and lost it to another buyer. Full of regret, I scoured Craigslist for another prospect until the lord answered my prayers. Not thirty minutes from my house was a black S4 GXL for sale - completely stock, 68K original miles, second owner. I caught the ad less than an hour after it was posted, and contacted the seller immediately. He was a very friendly older gentlemen, retired, and explained that he had the car since the early 90's and didn't drive it much anymore. He and his wife planned to move to Florida, and he decided to sell the car to someone who would continue to take care of it.
I met him and immediately fell in love with the car. It was super clean and authentic to the 80's, complete with a dealer-optioned car phone, Mazda handbook, spare keys, full documentation of its history of maintenance. The cool grey interior and leather seats were a welcome sight, as I'd seen my share of horrid blue and burgundy interiors in these cars. All of its features worked, from the power windows to the sunroof. It admittedly was in need of some upgrading, namely the tired suspension and clutch. Nonetheless, I was finally ready, so I decided to buy the car and not look back.
I convinced Bernie Sanders to take a picture next to the car, for future keepsake.
Once I got the car back home and garaged, I set out to plan my next moves. My first goal would be to get that 13B engine running as smooth as a baby seal. The car ran well enough with no serious issues, but the idle was a little rough at times. My first wave of online purchases included:
- K&N Air Filter.
- NGK Spark plugs and wires.
- Fresh oil change with factory Mazda filter.
- Coolant flush/fill.
- Bosch oxygen sensor.
- Mazda thermostat.
- Mazda temperature sensors..
The oxygen sensor really cleaned up the idle and got that thing purring healthy. I took it for a few spins and was smug and satisfied with myself until I gave it a good strong pull through 3rd gear. The engine was suffering from the dreaded 3800 RPM hesitation!
After researching this issue I followed some instructions to clean up the electrical grounds around the engine bay. I also got a hold of a friend's digital multimeter and adjusted the throttle position sensor. This cleared that problem up right quick! The engine now pulled smoothly to redline, but would occasionally slip under heavy throttle due to the worn stock clutch. Sigh...
Later, I scooped up some 15" BBS convertible wheels (complete with center caps) for $200! Nice! These were a nice economic alternative to the ugly stock GXL wheels and gave the car a classy Infini-style aesthetic.
I had gone about cleaning the engine bay with a rag and a bottle of Simple Green. Worked wonders, and I even lightly sanded the upper intake manifold and some other pieces to give it a nice, metallic sheen. Removed the unsightly and useless sub-zero coolant bottle on the passenger's side corner. Sprayed down some of the exposed connectors with GUNK contact cleaner and a toothbrush.
When you're stressed, giving your car such a meticulous manicure can be surprising therapeutic. Especially when your local community-supported radio broadcasts regularly play strange and obscure tunes late into the night.
After much contemplation and research, I decided on a suspension set-up. On my limited budget, I decided I would skip going the cheap coilover route and go with a robust shock/spring combo. I found a full set of brand new Tokico Blue shocks, and some Tanabe GF210 lowering springs for a total of $450. Excellence!
Had a more experienced friend help me install them. After many coffee and smoke breaks, we got the old crap suspension off. Jeez, these original shocks were completely blown. I pushed the rear ones down with one hand and they never came back up. The new setup was perfect, dropping the car about an inch lower.
It was now a completely different car. It handled incredibly and I could really feel the feedback between the car and the road.
I also picked up a radiator cooling panel and a generic front strut bar. Ebay can be hit-or-miss with these things, but you could say I got lucky. They fit nice and snug.
With the GXL's auto adjusting suspension thrown away, the sport/comfort control module on the center console became obsolete. I had also grown tired of burning my nuts carrying Wawa coffee between my thighs, so I went and bought a neat little LRB cupholder insert. I intended to paint it black, but upon the first test fit grew fond of the aluminum look of it and left it that way. I found some scrap black denim and lined the bottom of the cupholder with it to cover the exposed gray carpet underneath.
The car now handled true, but still lacked in power and sounded like a glorified vacuum cleaner. The next step would be a catback exhaust upgrade. Intent on keeping it dual, I was torn between Apexi or Racing Beat. I love the look of the large blunderbuss cannons that are the Apexi N1, but figured the Racing Beat system would be more suitable to the look I was going for with my particular car. I picked up a used RB catback for around 400 bucks. It had a few dings and wasn't shiny brand new, but it fit nicely and sounded awesome, even with the stock cat and manifold! The car had a noticeble gain in torque at the low-mid RPM range.
Around the same time, I had also picked up a handful of aero parts. Behold, the quintessential S5 tail lights! I had also looked into lips for the front bumper, much to my dismay as an S4 owner. I finally settled on a Mach 1 Mustang lip, which fit exceptionally well with a little bit of modification. It really filled out the front of the car, which was surely lacking before.
With the end of winter, and weather starting to look up, I felt it was time to tackle something I had been long putting off in reluctance - the clutch. It was a severe bottleneck to the car's performance. I was tired of nursing around the weak, slipping clutch disk. I figured it would decimate all, after I put about fifteen grand in it or more. If I had to, overnight parts from Japan...
A few carts worth of transmission seals, bearings and the like, and a Stage 1 ACT clutch kit. Enough power to stay grappled to my little nonturbo 13B and all its might, but still able to be driven smoothly through town.
I also went and bought a Racing Beat header while I was at it, figuring I'd be tearing down the whole rusted mess of exhaust manifold and precats anyways. Instead of buying a presilencer, I wanted to keep the factory cat, so I had a welder friend of mine fabricate a small extension pipe to fit between the cat and the new header.
It took weeks to get everything done, as I took my sweet time to try and do it all right. I had never taken apart a drive train or done any of this kind of labor before, so I spent as much time reading instructions and looking up pictures as I did wrenching bolts and the like. I wrestled out the transmission and spent a day or two cleaning the gunk out of it.
With the new clutch in, I bolted on the new header with a fresh gasket. I also took a look at my 5/6 port actuators and gave them a good cleaning, until they moved up and down with ease. I reassembled the drive train, reconnected everything, and filled the transmission with synthetic Royal Purple.
It now shifted silky smooth as opposed to the crunchiness of the plain old gear oil. I spent the week breaking in the new clutch. It was perfect, clamping hard but could still be slipped for smooth transitioning. I chased a Scion FRS up the Delaware river for miles and had the time of my life. I later went and replaced all of the clutch hydraulics when the slave cylinder took a git. The car has been dead reliable to me since then, and I take it everywhere.
My current goals now are to set up an RPM switch for the 5/6 port activation. I recently picked up a ton of aero parts as well, including an aluminum JDM Turbo hood, Turbo side skirts, GTU wing and a Shine Auto Rear Diffuser. They all need paint, which I hope to do myself when I get a proper work area set up for it. I will update this thread as things roll along. Anyways, thanks for reading!
Thanks. The cupholder is a nice interior mod. It's pretty shallow, perfect for a 12oz coffee or a soda can but I wouldn't trust it to hold a water bottle. You'd probably have to cut the carpet underneath the center console to get a deeper fit.
Right now I'm waiting on actuator gaskets, as one of them wasn't properly sealing. I blew smoke through the vacuum line and saw it escape between one of the actuators and the engine.
Pic 1..post 1..did you just race that contraption in the parkin lot?..
If so the Trophy girl is kind of old and looks manly.
..and that must be the FuggSport shifter pictured with the trans..lol!
I'm sure it's already on your list of things to do, but ditch the fuel pulsation dampener for a banjo bolt. While you're down there. Every bit of perishable rubber needs replacing.
Why not do a turbo swap? if you've got money to burn, a reasonably stock setup really ups the enjoyment factor of the driving experience.
Don't get me wrong, the N/A is an impressive little hamster wheel and is extremely reliable when cared for appropriately, but it does get a bit underwhelming after eight years.
Can't wait to see how your build progresses, it's a very clean car!
I'm sure it's already on your list of things to do, but ditch the fuel pulsation dampener for a banjo bolt. While you're down there. Every bit of perishable rubber needs replacing.
I've heard mixed things about the banjo bolt. I check the FPD often for gas odors, I think it's holding up okay. It would be smart to replace it, though. By the time it shows symptoms it could be too late.
Originally Posted by Acesanugal
Why not do a turbo swap? if you've got money to burn, a reasonably stock setup really ups the enjoyment factor of the driving experience.
Don't get me wrong, the N/A is an impressive little hamster wheel and is extremely reliable when cared for appropriately, but it does get a bit underwhelming after eight years.
Can't wait to see how your build progresses, it's a very clean car!
Unfortunately a turbo swap isn't in my budget right now. The original build still runs very strong, and I enjoy daily driving it. When it tires out and needs a rebuild, it will be a strong consideration! Hopefully that won't be for another 200k miles
For now, I'm focused on these auxiliary ports firing up properly. I have an Intellitronix RPM Switch I'm sorting out, and will probably use the stock EGR solenoid and eliminate that useless system while I'm at it.
It seems my RPM switch is faulty; it won't send 12v to the solenoid I set up. I spent all week troubleshooting it and gave up.
In the meantime, I tried something else.
I had tapped a small barbed outlet into my air pump. I also stuffed a metal socket tightly into the ACV dump hose/silencer to prevent any significant pressure drops.
I ran a vacuum hose from the air pump outlet directly to the aux ports, then ran the engine and slowly revved it up. The pressure started to push the actuators open at around 2500 RPM. Too early.
So, I inserted a barbed plastic coupling in the middle of the vacuum hose, and drilled a small hole in it to relieve some of the pressure.
I ran the engine again - this time it came on at 3000 RPM.
I bored out the hole a few times and eventually got it to activate the aux ports close to 3800 RPM. They come on nice and steadily.
I went for a long spirited drive and it worked great. The car now pulls consistently to redline. I am going to leave it this way for simplicity sake.
Took the FC out for a 2-hour, 100-mile trip last weekend. These cars definitely love the highway. She purred along the whole way without any issues.
Last night I took the Shine Auto Diffuser and mocked it up against the rear. I thought it might look pretentious on an N/A car, yet it looks both humble and bad ***.
I'm not too happy with the exhaust, though. They sit too low and awkward. I may go through and replace all the hangers. I want them to sit flush against the rear bumper as best as possible.
Thanks man. I know it's not the most exciting thread, what with some of the awesome race cars being built in other threads. I'm glad people can still appreciate a tastefully stock FC.
Little update. This project has been slow. I finally got the RPM switch functioning properly which I'm very happy about. At 3700 RPM the solenoid switch activates the auxiliary ports flawlessly. The car doesn't feel starved of power at high RPM anymore.
I figured I'd get into the habit of running some premix to supplement the factory OMP. Got some of this in the mail:
Aside from that, the car has always had this jolting effect when I get on or off the gas. In reverse, it acts real shaky. I think I may need to look at my differential mount. They seem to be an Achilles heel on these cars. Over the winter I intend to lower the subframe, try and finagle the mount off and inspect it for damage. I also want to install a pinion snub for extra support.
Hell, while I have the subframe isolated, might as well try and install the new poly bushings. Should feel like a brand new car afterward!
Great thread. Your definitely making the car better. I'm not a cupholder guy for some reason but that's just me. I like the cooling panel. I've seen that one before. Who makes that? I can't quite make out the name on it. I really like the BBS wheels especially on a dark paint. I found some 16x7 RS BBS wheels for my new FC but a nice refurbished set of S5 turbo wheels are cheaper and I like them so that might be the way I go; haven't decided. Those RB catbacks are nice but yea they hang funny and it's definitely worth the effort to fit them tighter. I'll be picking up my new S5 in a couple of weeks and can't wait to do some of the things you've done.
Thank you! The cooling panel I bought on Ebay from a seller called VBParts4. LRB makes cheaper ones but they don't come painted. Just make sure you get one with the air duct if you're keeping the stock intake snorkel.
I took a look at that FC of yours, it's really nice man. Be sure to make a build thread for it so I can stay updated with it.
International vacationing and other endeavors have set me back financially, so the FC has been sidelined for some time. I did get to swapping out my stock cat with a gutted Bonez hi flow unit. It's loud, the exhaust note is off, and it smells awful - not worth the little gain in power. It did, however, afford me to try to internally steam clean my engine.
I had long ago removed the AWS solenoid for the 3K warmup system. This left a convenient vacuum line directly past the throttle body that I had capped off. I ran a hose to it and had a friend insert the other end into a gallon of distilled water as I ran the engine at high RPM. The engine gulped it up quickly, so we let it drink in intervals with breaks in between so it wouldn't stall. There was a ton of steam and backfiring. I'm surprised no police came. It seemed to do a good job though, and I'm going to make it an oil change ritual from now on.
It's been awhile, thought I'd update this as I've made some progress on the build. I sourced myself some new parts over the past couple months, although I've been moving around and travelling quite a bit so the car had been patiently waiting.
Mainly what I was able to get done over the holidays was all the prep work to swap the S5 intake manifold. I'll still be using the S4 LIM. It was a very involved process prepping everything and I'm not entirely finished but feeling very good about it so far. Managed to do a ton of deep cleaning under the old manifold and replaced the sketchy fuel rail pulsation damper with a nice banjo bolt. Blocked off the EGR. Modified the rats nest to fit with the new manifold (had to bend and cut a few of the hard lines). By far the worst part was having to grind the top of the rear iron, as the metal debris initially got everywhere. I ended up placing one of those magnetic trays for bolts/screws next to the grinder and it actually attracted 95% of the metal dust. Good tip for anyone considering this mod. Redrilling the hole for the rear stud was tricky as well, but with enough patience I got it to fit nicely. Definitely helps to have a trusty Drexel and high power electric grinder.
hoping to have it all back together when I get home from vacation in australia. I found an old standalone haltech E6k (dinosaur I know) for fairly cheap with a good harness and most of the necessary sensors. It's my first time messing with a tune able ecu so I'm pretty excited. Luckily I have a very knowledgeable friend and plenty of resources to help figure it out. NA should be fairly straightforward to tune but will yield some nice gains by superceding the shitty AFM and factory TPS.
Wow great little build you got going. Love the look. I love in NJ and haven't seen to many clean examples like yours. I'm 7 less now and been looking for decent S5 but can't find anything but convertibles which I don't want. If your ever thingthi of selling I would love to try my luck at getting it.
The for sale section on this forum has some excellent cars for sale. I'll hopefully never have to sell my car as it's been a companion to me though rough times. If you keep checking craigslist you will have some eventual luck. Try searching based on year (1986-1991) instead of listing name and you may find some hidden ones.
It's been a few years since I updated this thread. Much has changed for the car but mechanically it is still relatively stock. It ran beautifully and was my daily driver for some time. After some research I decided I wanted to put it on a standalone ECU: potential power gains, better fuel economy, easily sourced sensors, diagnostic feedback, and tunability for future mods like nitrous or a turbo. I started out tinkering with an ancient Haltech E6K found locally for a bargain. It's DOS based, but it is known as a competent and simple ECU. Thought it would be cool to run this retro gem with an old IBM laptop to match. This took me months to figure out and ultimately I couldn't get it to connect. Assuming it was kaput, I sprung for the newer Haltech 750 Elite. I later found an error in my wiring, the E6K was likely not getting switched 12V to turn on. Oh well. I still have it and may use it in the future to tune my lawn mower or something.
Anyways, the Elite 750 took me about a year to install. My first time doing this sort of thing, so I took my time to do everything right. The harness came out very nice with FR F6 split loom. I did my research to retain the A/C, the tachometer, etc. I've just gotten it running again this past few weeks. It was running terribly because of the old gas leftover in the tank, and overly rich to the point of flooding. My exhaust looks like the inside of an old chimney. The engine got so washed with fuel I lost compression, and thought I blew an apex seal. I took out the plugs and injected some two stroke into the holes, turned it over by hand many times and cranked it for awhile to blow out the excess fuel. I had to repeat this process two or three times until I got the base map stable enough to idle properly. I tried a few different styles for the timing map, but had the best luck with the table made by Bumpstart. All I changed was -5* at idle like the factory settings. The Haltech base map was helpful to start but the fuel and ignition tables were way off in my opinion. The injection angle settings were also very strange. The car started to idle way better when I switched from 420*/330* to 270*/330*. I found a factory base fuel VE table for the stock 460cc NA injectors and copied those values. The car still felt like it was on the verge of flooding itself, and started to breathe much better when I leaned out the map overall. Pulled out so much fuel that I'm suspicious my fuel pressure is way off target. I'm waiting on a Radium FP gauge now so I can verify where it's at. I got the car idling at a crisp 750 RPM, but it would die when putting into first gear. My wideband was also reading ~18-19:1 so I have to figure out if the sensor is bad or I have an exhaust leak somewhere. Hopefully can get all this squared away and get to dyno tuning it.
The car is currently on jack stands and I am going over the brake system, painting the calipers and installing some speed bleeders. I had swapped out my brake booster for a dual diaphragm one from a Subaru forester I grabbed at a pick-n-pull yard. Neat little mod for a bit firmer pedal, just had to reroute the large vacuum line.
Also got some CSA star wheels from a guy for next to nothing. Same dimensions as the stock wheels. Thought they looked rather period correct and was lucky enough to find the center caps for them. I made a project out of them and refinished them the old fashioned way. From 180 up to 800 grit, buffed and polished with rouge. I was impressed with the results. Also there is an Etsy seller who makes the OEM style Mazda center logos like on the vert wheels. Hoping to make it look like super stock factory wheels. I will run these until the tires go bald and may then size up to some 16 or 17 inch wheels later on.
07-27-16, 07:29 PM
Akaviri's S4 NA
