And finally an engine bay pic. I am not happy that it was somewhat ruined by rust water. That is tough to clean.





I added the cooling panel in front and realized that there could be more front end damage that I ever realized. The driver side of the panel did not sit flush I had to screw it down in place. Probably not a bend panel, that is the side that had wreck damage. That side sits about a 1/4" or more lower than the passenger side, unfortunatly.

 

One of the last projects that I want to try to do before the cold sets in is, the end links. I save the old ones and want to go with no stock urethane or other.

I started with this rusty mess, a bench vise and and two sockets.



I left them sit in evap-o-rust for a week.




I have been repeatedly soaking then with industrial paint remover. I will sand and paint these with chassis paint and fill them with the bushings. Kinda surprised that the fronts are the easiest ones to find, so far.

I will slowly start removing OEM parts and start the modding process. I will go slowly so I can see,hear, and feel the difference.

I wanted to replace the three Cats with the down pipe and a high flow cat. I need to find a good one that is about 20" long. I have been waiting on RX7.com to open, with no luck. I will hold off until spring and I then will start looking for something else.

 

I finally took the car on the highway for third gear pulls. It seems to be running very well.

I have about 300 miles or so on the car before that on two lane highways and back roads. I almost got smoked on the back roads by a dump truck. I thought for sure that I would be upset being behind it. I slowed way down and let the truck get ahead. I had more trouble catching up than expected....

So, from the feel of it, I can push this car much harder in the corners. Maybe then I won't get smoked by a dump truck.......

 

Wow, your car looks great Jeff! Thanks for sharing some pictures, excellent work! But, there's always more work to be done!

 

Awesome update! It's really coming along, and you're leaving no stone unturned.

It's obviously a labor of love. Keep it up, love seeing the progress.

 

There is always more work, for sure. I have attempted to be thorough but still missed the mark, in places.

 

I had the car out today with about 30 miles of kinda lazy driving. I need to get the gas out before the end of the month. It seemed like 10 miles or so of easy driving was needed before the car warmed up and felt like it was at its best. I will probably move to 10w 40 for the oil when my stash is gone. Nothing can be done for the trans and diff though?

I need to check the rotors with the scope after this tank of gas to see if they look any better than before.

I also need to order the link bushings. The front are rear are the same part. I was a bit worried there for a second. 😂

 

How's things going Jeff? Any updates?

 

Paging @Jeff76 lol. Any updates?

 

Thanks, I am here. I have been lurking and trying to lend a hand on posts here when I can.

I have less than 400 miles on the cars since last August. I need to put more miles on the car before I pass judgement. I have a bunch of cash saved but I really can't spend much of it on the car. I have some things in the works though and will be posting in the next month or so.

 

Some updates here.

I have a growing exhaust leak at the front cat to the manifold. I need to see if the manifold will tilt just slightly, that should close the gap if possible? I have a Mid-pipe from racing-beat to get the three Cats off the car. I just need a metallic substrate Cat with an air hose attachment that is about 18" long. Any ideas here? RX7.com is probably still not an option.

My clutch is sucking the fun out of driving the car. It slips pretty bad with aggressive driving but if I baby it, it does pretty good. I really want a RX8 box soon!!

I have a leaking front driver tire that needs fixed.

Also, the radiator is the car is inadequate for hard driving. Is the Koyo rad, double row good enough or should I mod a T2 one? Over cooling could be an issue?

Also, I forgot to add, the radiator is inadequate to hard drive this car. Is the Koyo double row good or should I try to mod a better t2 one to live more in the higher RPM range? Over cooling could be an issue?

I pushed the car around a tight bend and the car to bounced off the pavement briefly, twice at the rear tires. I have a set of progressive lowering springs, any ideas on shocks? I might be stuck with adjustable KYB, those are only adjustable one way, I believe in compression?, unfortunately.

I am starting to see why people put nice tires and rims on a hoopty. The tires are not great. I could probably find some racing tires in 15's... I will probably go up to 17's for better tire choices.

Two things that were never addressed are new bearings and a rubbing sound coming from the driver rear in reverse. I need to check the bushing or the insert for the rear steer delete isn't moving. I have a spare set of front and rear knuckles/hubs and might wait until I replace the bearings in another set. Rebuild the spare set in the rear with a little longer wheel studs and get a small spacer for the rear wheels.

If the is anyone out there needs some extra cash, my races in the front pair need replaced, let me know.

Also, the rad in the car is inadequate for aggressive driving. Is the N/A Koyo rad good enough? Or should I get a T2 one and mod it? Over cooling could be an issue with the T2 one?

 

I ened up buying the standard Koyorad. I will post pics when it gets installed.

The other big issue besides the clutch was the ill-fitting leaking exhaust. I had bought the Racing Beat race pipe last year in hopes of finally getting a Bonez. Little did I remember that They also sold the race pipe with silencer, too. I will never likely see a Bonez so, I left the parts store converter on there. I added the new pipe with high heat header wrap with some wire wrapped around it.




I chose the wrong gauge wire as it was to thick. I think that I went 14awg, 18 would probably work better. 14 was very difficult to form and wrap.

When I sized up the pipe with the cat it was 3 inches short. I bought a 3" extender and bolted it all together with metal gaskets.





The good, the bad and the ugly:

The ugly is this:




The pipe came pre-scratched, deeply and already rusting.

The good:
The engine seems to run smoother with the new exhaust. I am not sure how to explain it but it is a real side effect. It does seem to have a bit more pep, too. That is possibly not true but I am not super concerned either way. You can tell how much better the car is expelling exhaust. It is hard to explain, I can hear and feel it. The back pressure is also good, thankfully.

The bad:
The exhaust is louder now. It does have a deep note and isn't raspy with stock mufflers and y-pipe so, that at least is a win.

All of the sound seems to come from the rear of the car. If the sound dampening was better at the rear, there could be some sound from the center section, I suppose that I will know eventually.

Now for the future updates with the exhaust. I want to get a custom y-pipe made with bottle type resonators. It seems that some prefer the Vibrant in that spot, others like the Borla, I am leaning towards the vibrant ones due to the low frequency knock down. Any ideas here would be helpful, thanks.

I will the decide on mufflers based on how the resonators sound. And if it isn't quiet enough, I will put the ultra quiet resonator and a new custom pipe before the cat.

Now, before I get to far ahead of myself, I still need a metal substrate cat, first. I can not find a metal cat with an air pipe. I might have someone weld something up or do the pipe delete and add a RPM switch to open the 5th and 6th ports. Any ideas here would be helpful, too.

 

I also put in the newly recapped ECU, courtesy of paid services from @professionalpyroman , thanks.

I have developed an always on brake idiot light. To be continued....

I also reset the TPS while I was in there, using the one volt method at the ECU. I might have a flaky TPS? I have been testing it after every drive and it is never the same. Or maybe the mechanical aspects of the throttle body is causing issues?

I had some time to pull apart my extra engine. I built this contraption with the auto trans bell housing and the starter to test compression.



I tested both rotors to about 105 PSI after some lube at the rotors.. This keg might run without a rebuild? I did have the lower coolant plug out and a very small puddle came out very clean. I will probably do a full rebuild and crate it up for storage, if the coolant passages look good. etc.

Replace your motor mounts everyone!!!





I have a counterweight if needed.




And Another Pile of Parts




Some of this will be cleaned and powder coated and stored away, some will get sold or given away. It would really be nice to have a complete spare engine with restored accessories, etc in storage. Ultimately, I will likely go with a Renesis setup and sell the current engine, intake, accessories, etc. Time will tell, I suppose.

The stripped keg that needs the openings stuffed with rags.




I could go a bit further with the tear down. I will just keep it that way until I feel like making a decision. I need to get an engine stand and adapter at some point, too. I can probably rent the hoist if I don't have the space to store one. I need to purge some parts, soon.

Now it is time for the rad swap....

 

My $0.02 on the tps would be to check the range of it and make sure there is a linear resistance the whole way. As far as adjusting the tps, I'm more inclined to recommend the light method. That gives you feedback that the ECU knows that the throttle plates are "home" so it can try to idle. It looks like the plates are closing good and completely from your picture. If you are using the thermowax cam on the throttle body, the engine will need to be hot to adjust, or you could just wire it out of the way while adjusting the tps. Also check and make sure that thermowax cam pushes all the way free when hot. If you're driving around and it doesn't get out of the way once warmed up, its gonna drive you nuts. The screw on top of the throttle body is a bump stop. Don't touch it if it hasn't been messed with. Its to stop the throttle plates from slapping against their bores. The idle adjustment is elsewhere.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I did try the two light method with not much luck, probably my fault. The 1v method worked best so far, I also adjusted the idle air mix to match the timing, too. It idled strong and where it should have on the needle. I did have an occasional dip in idle and got itchy to "fix" it. I readjusted to the two light method made it worse. I am now trying the 1v method again. The adjuster on top of the throttle body was messed with 20 years ago, that ship sailed. I will need to wait until I get the final exhaust setup before I will start messing with the fuel trim pot. I remember reading how these issues were solved that way, with your help. I may need to replace the pot, if there is to much glue. I will just need the value and then try to find something.

I will try the two light method again, they are always connected under the hood. It just seems so imprecise, a quarter turn past where the light goes off? How do you measure that accurately? I need to read more, I am probably missing something. I think there is may a click that I will listen for?

I tried the 1ohm method many years ago and with my minimal skills then, it never worked. I should try again for giggles. The car as it sits, already runs way better than it ever did back then thanks to helpful posts from members.

I thought that I tested the TPS already, just thought that maybe the mechanism is sloppy, not allowing it to return to the same position every time.I cleaned the throttle body pretty well considering that I did not have a ultrasonic cleaner, I will check the thermowax. I also forgot that the BAC was a bit sketchy, too!