Juiceh

iTrader: (4)

Yeah I know. I've read plenty of horror stories about other shops and I am very thankful to have a trusted shop so nearby. It also makes starting big projects a little too easy. My FD shell and 20B are already there. They are just waiting for this car to get done. If this car gives me more problems though, I may end up posting up pics of a shiney metal cube. Its not A-specs fault either, they have done great work. I think this car is just cursed, every time its almost done something decides to take a ****. Like the oil return line from the turbo. The car probably hasn't even seen 10 miles of moderate street testing by A-spec and the line started to leak. Thats been fixed with a nice steel braided line though.


Thanks bro! Not sure on the wastegate lines. They were part of the turbo kit. PM Zero R(Sean) and ask him, he should be able to give you all the details you need.


Thanks! Comments like these keep me from cubing my car!

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

Well, eventually you'll run out of problems---just replace old parts with new ones! At least that's my motto

hondahater

iTrader: (2)

couldn't agree with that statement more. If you think you have problems. Try having a project since 99'

ColdSeven

this story is almost erie to me because it seems to be my exact expierence with my GXL Jspec build and swap started it the end of july and i think i've had about 4 weeks total of problem free driving with it just a head ache but I feel im a pretty die hard FC guy and i can't part from it i just replaced my second tranny and second slave cylender and i know it sounds insane but it took a buddy and i 6 hours to swap them both out and no it's not inexpierence it just is a very tempermental car and she just throws us a lot of curve ***** for some reason.

well i agree with goodfella's motto eventually ill have no more parts to replace and then i can enjoy driving it

Juiceh

iTrader: (4)

Well I know you guys will be disappointed with this post. No numbers yet. I just got home with the car. The car needs a little bit more break in time before we can really goto town with it. So right now I am driving it untuned and out of boost for a couple weeks. The twin plate clutch needs a bit of time to get used to as well. I need to take it somewhere to get an alignment as well. So much work was done to the suspension its just totally out of whack. A-spec doesn't have an alignment rack either, but I think 99% of shops don't. Probably better I get it aligned before it gets tuned for big numbers and I go WOT and go careening out of control due to the alignment. A couple minor bugs need to be worked out and I need to tweak the EDFC to my liking. The car also needs a washing BAD! LoL Its not even funny. I'd take a pic but its dark outside and I am too lazy. Even with the car filthy and running untuned I still managed to get harassed by a ******* minivan full of 16-17(maybe even 18) year old girls that wanted me to follow them somewhere so they could "blow me". I dunno if that was a joke or not. I played along until they turned and I drove off, cause I don't want to goto jail.... Call me a ***** if you want but I ain't being nobodies bitch, nor do I want to make someone my bitch.

On a small side note, I bought a new car this week! See sig! I think I have too many cars...

Juiceh

iTrader: (4)

TID pics! Sean was upset I had this coated. It hides the nice alluminum work. He has a pic of it uncoated, I'll get that and post it at some point.

88t2romad

I know exactly how you feel!! All my installs (GT35R, microtech...etc...) have been finished, I'm just waiting for the tuner to fly up! Staying in vacuum is pretty lame.

Juiceh

iTrader: (4)

Staying in vacuum is pretty hard to do too! hehe I've hit a couple psi, only just enough to hear that turbo start to shrill and hear the BOV open. Such sexy sounds!

SomeGuy_sg

The 929 MC looks nice :P Actually the whole engine bay looks sweet Was it tough getting the 929 MC in there ? Why a S5 booster ? is it bigger ?

Juiceh

iTrader: (4)

The only brake booster that will work with a 929MC is an S5 TII brake booster. It would not work with the NA S5 booster so I had to swap in a S5 TII one. The 929 MC is almost a direct fit on an S5 TII brake booster, you just gotta rebend or fab some new hardlines for it.

Juiceh

iTrader: (4)

Delays delays delays.... yeah, there have been more. I can't even remember them all anymore. Here are a couple that I can think of. I had a strange idle problem, where it would idle high for no reason until I stuck my foot under the gas pedal and lifted it up. I had bought a ported & polished(supposedly by BDC) throttle body off the forum a while back(so long ago I don't even know who I got it from and all PMs have been long gone) and I had A-spec throw it on while the car was apart. That turned out to be the culprit. Damn thing had to be yanked back off, completely dismantled and thoroughly cleaned. Then, my headlights broke when my EDFC just stopped working and the suspension was stuck on full stiff while I was driving on a bumpy road. It was about 5-6PM and the headlights just dropped down. I had to race home as darkness was falling. I damn near totaled the car when some dude pulled out in front of me, I had to slam on the brakes and came about 4 inches away from hitting him.

Anyway, everything is fixed.



I'm picking up the car again today. I'll post up dyno sheets tonight. Maybe some videos if I have time too.

383 rwhp @ 12ish psi. off of the wastegate spring, very conservative tune, 93 pump gas. Thats where it is at right now. The turbo is not even close to its full potential.

The guys @ A-spec are concerned about the health of my engine. The pulses on startup aren't anywhere near as strong as they are on the engines that Sean builds. His engines produce pulses so strong you can hear them through the building. My engines pulses are damn near non existant, could that be from the RB exhaust?. The engine has compression in the high 90's on all faces but the vacum is a little weak at idle. It always starts though.

My engine may be down on power due to the last shop that had it on the dyno not knowing wtf they were doing, and I think the dumbfucks detonated it a couple times. I was there when they had it on the dyno, it was "misfireing" I heard it, but I've heard videos of pinging engines and it didn't sound the same. The 3mm seals may have saved the engine a painful death. So I dunno. I may be pulling this engine at some point and just dropping in the 20b I have.

I'll probably just run it off the wastegate spring for the rest of the summer, the wheels and tires are probably not going to be sufficient for more power. Whenever RXHeven's widebody kit is done I'll be throwing that on with some big fat wheels and cranking the boost to the roof.

I'm sure Sean will be glad to give me my car back. LoL, I think he hates my car as much as I do!!



I have been debating my engine situation for a while.

Question for everyone:
Should I pull the motor and get a built TII engine with all new parts?
or
Drop in my 20b as is(stock), with the 500r with the largest hotside available??
(would require new ECU, and a few more things of course.)
or
Leave the car as it is and just enjoy it for the summer?(haven't really got to enjoy the car for 2 years)


*edit*
I forgot to mention. I have some very cool(and rare) JDM goodies coming for the car.

Alex Rodriguez

iTrader: (137)

nice bro

patman

iTrader: (3)

I'm not sure the sizing on the 500r, but i think it is too small for a 20B. I had an af61R on mine, which was fairly big for a 13b, and it was too small, ended up getting a 42R. Also it is really a decent idea to rebuild the 20B before you put it in. It works fine stock, but those exhaust ports are unbelievably small, and I dont like to run much boost on 3 piece seals. Also if you want to convert to 20B, you will have to rip all that **** out of your engine bay and start over, because much of it will not fit.

My advice is rebuild the TII engine and have a sweet 450hp vert, and put the 20B in a FD where it belongs. I wish I had waited a little while and done all this work on an FD instead of my old TII (100k miles last week), now I am going to have to do it all over again in a couple years when I get tired of this chassis....

Juiceh

iTrader: (4)

Well, I was thinking the 500r with something like a 1.12 a\r(or something similar undivided) would probably work pretty good on a stock port 20b. I'd just drop the 20b in as is and use the 500r because I'd want to do this as low cost as possible and quickly to just get it done(I want to start my next project ). The 20b engine is good, it came out of a running car. I don't think I'd have to worry about pushing much boost with the 20b to hit my moderate 450rwhp goal. This 20b I have was originally intended to go into my FD shell, but I think I may be going with a short crank 3-rotor for that. Thats my next project.



I may just shelve the 20b FC venture until my FD 3-rotor project is done. The car drives pretty damn well as it is right now. Its pretty sweet with the RB exhaust, the guys @ A-spec swear this is the quietest single turbo car they have ever built. Its kind of weird ripping down the street, the shrilling turbo is louder than the exhaust. The car just screams down the road. It just sounds different than any other Rx7 setup I've ever heard before, I like it! I think I foresee a big brake kit in the near future though, need more stopping power!! Sean thinks that we are having a little bit of surge issue so we are going to be throwing another Tial BOV into the mix. I never thought I'd have a surge problem with a 50mm Tial BOV and the anti surge compressor housing.

More to come very soon!

Juiceh

iTrader: (4)

On my way home from work on the highway Thursday night. I was enjoying the cruise home. Occasionally boosting a little to clear some traffic but mainly cruising. I get to a section 1 mile from my exit where there is usually a cop hiding so I keep my speed at the limit. I round the corner see that it is clear and start to accelerate to the usual 65-70mph cruising speed(typical traffic flow speed here) when all of a sudden I lose all power and there is a very strong fuel smell. I throw on the hazards and quickly get over from the left lane to the right shoulder across 3 lanes kill the engine and come to a stop. I pop the hood and search for the fuel leak. Engine bay looks fine, not a drop of fuel anywhere in sight. I walk around the car and see what looks like a fuel stain on the ground on the passenger side. I looked under the car and it appeared to originate from the driver side firewall area and seeped down the side of the road by the passenger front wheel. When the tow truck driver put the key in and turned it to be able to turn the wheel fuel literally poured onto the bed of the truck. Somehow I managed to split a fuel line! How the hot exhaust manifold didn't ignite any of the vapors after I pulled over is a mystery to me but damn am I glad it didn't happen. I don't have a fire extinguisher yet! That was the next thing on my list of **** to buy!

The car was fixed by Friday morning.

This could have been catastrophic. All I could think of at the time was how everything I have worked so hard to do for this car and all the time I have waited to get it to where it is today could have been gone in a matter of seconds since I had no way to extinguish a fire.

I will be purchasing a Halotron fire extinguisher in the next couple days. There is a somewhat local vendor to me. I may see if I can setup a GB on them. I'll be buying one for all 3 of my cars.


I've been spoiled by my new Solstice GXP. The stopping power that car has is amazing. For the power my FC is making I should have brakes that should be comparable to the GXP. But, unfortunately even with the 929MC, fresh reman calipers, powerslot stock size rotors and Hawk HP+ pads my FC doesn't even come close. I've ordered a BBK for the FC so hopefully that will bring the brakes up to snuff for the power levels I'm at.

Syncro

iTrader: (1)

This thread makes me want to hurry my Turbo'vert project

hurleysurf24

iTrader: (3)

you and i have several of the similar parts and problems

Nickatina7

i am doing the same auto to manual swap on my car. the trans mount is my next step. do you have a picture of the mount that you can show me?

oakridgerx7

i am doing the exact same thing, pics please!

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

That is some pretty damn good power at only 12 psi .

I say drive the car and enjoy it for a while, the 500R on a 2 rotor is capable of far exceeding your 450 rwhp goal. Keep the 20B for the FD

classicauto

iTrader: (3)

WOW, thats a close call!! Glad it worked out the way it did...

Nice numbers for that boost level too, that thing should really wake up with a few more pounds........

I vote for driving it for the summer and installing a snowperformance WI kit in the fall, follwed by 25psi in the spring

The 20B? Well, just drop it off at my door. I'll be home all week

Congrats on getting it (and keeping it) mobile!

Juiceh

iTrader: (4)

Well, I've lost my confidence in this engine(Sean never had much confidence in it), its pulling **** for vacuum @ idle.
Heres a screenshot from a little walkaround video I made, this is vacuum @ idle a few days ago. I'll redo the video and post it once I get the car back.

Compression is way lower than I want(90s on one rotor and Sean said 70s on the other), but it always starts up, and it does pull pretty damn good and will shred some rubber when that turbo kicks in. I think rather than run this for the rest of the summer and risk premature failure and potentially taking out my turbo with an apex seal, I'm gonna just fix the problem before it happens. So, I dropped the car back off @ a-spec yesterday for a built 13bT.. Should be about a month for them to get all the parts and build the engine to the specs I want etc. When I dropped the car off it was pulling even less vacuum than the pic above. The new engine will be an interesting build. Details will be posted later. This is truly a case of not doing things right the first time...

But this should fix all that.

Oh, I finally caved in and told Sean to just ditch the AC when they pull the motor. I guess as long as I can put the top down I don't need AC. He probably still thinks I'm a ***** for keeping my PS.

Nickatina7 & oakridgerx7
Next time my car is up on a lift I will get pictures of that for you guys.

Yeah, considering the health of the motor, the power its making is pretty damn good at that boost level. The 20b will remain on course for the FD. I wanted to leave the car as is and just drive it for the summer, but I think this is the right choice to make.

Yeah, it was close. If you look at the pics where the gas stain was you can see that the gas ran off the shoulder of the road to right underneath the exhaust manifold... Scary really. WI\AI + high boost are planned, but not until I get the widebody and wide wheels put on now. LoL no 20b for you!

It was short lived, but Thanks!!

At least this will give me more time to shop for fire extinguishers....

Juiceh

iTrader: (4)

Well, I had a few deliveries over that last few weeks. Things are about to get nuts....




Wheels for the new Widebody:




Tire Rack Heat Cycle stamp:











Lots more pics comming soon.



*EDIT*
Oh yeah, still haven't got a fire extinguisher.... I gotta do that!

limbar85

iTrader: (21)

jesus! what size tires are those! and are those minis or regular 6 pots? either way...SO PRUURTY!

Juiceh

iTrader: (4)

Brakes are 6-pot Minis. With Endless CC-X(ceramic-carbon-metallic) pads.

Tires are Yokohama Advan A048
Front Tires: 295/30ZR18
Rear Tires: 315/30ZR18

Rims were ordered a month ago and should take a couple more months before I get them.