nicdchris

iTrader: (1)

Now is as good of time as ever to throw what I have into a 'build thread'.

I bought this car out of a field behind a barn in February and have spent every weekend since working on it.



$200, ran when parked, seized engine, 5 speed base model S4. All stock, sans radio and alternator which were missing. Last licensed in 99, tire's date code said 92.

Sunroof was broken, fairly minor dings and dents, all glass was good.

Interior was a little less than spectacular, I can't really say the sunroof 'leaked' as that would imply it held any water to begin with. That, and a bird had gotten into it at one time and never escaped.

I got it on a trailer and got it home. Filled all three sides of the rotors with ATF and cranked on it with a breakerbar... nothing.



waited a week, same thing. Nothing.

Engine pull time!




We pulled the engine, tore it down and discovered that the reason it was parked was because of a coolant seal failure... a bad one. This let water into BOTH combustion chambers and pretty much ruined the entire engine. Not good.






I sourced another 'running when pulled' engine that had only a season of racing on it from a fellow autocrosser in the area who rebuilt the engine, raced it, then pulled it for some reason or another, he threw in a bunch of odds and ends he thought I might need and sent me on my merry way for a measly $600 with a 'runs good, promise!'

(13b in the trunk of my civic.jpg)

I was a happy camper. I had everything I needed to start my build and get my feet under me for my before-next-spring goals.

I got the engine installed and had to troubleshoot a few more... minor problems. We all know what happens when fuel sits in a tank for a couple months... some of us even a few years... but the fuel in my tank had hit puberty. This was not good.

I jacked the back of the car up, and pulled the plug on the fuel tank... Nothing.

I pulled the fuel pump hanger... the tank was 3/4ths full.

The fuel pump hanger assembly was covered in this vile goo that resembled the bowels of hell itself. I grabbed the pump, and couldn't let go. Horrible!

So, I poked a screwdriver up through the goo in the tank (I like to think of the goo as anti-rust-flakes) and got that bad boy to drain. 12 gallons of "fuel" later I was out of cans, half high on fumes and tired of that game, so I called it. I stuffed the plug back in it and put 3 fresh gallons in it and let it sit.

I then pulled the fuel lines, held the MAF open with a screw driver and started making sure the fuel system was going to work for me.

It wasn't.

My first issue was getting the gooed-up fuel pump to even fuel. It was obviously taking power, but it was neither humming or pumping.

So I pulled it, tore it apart and cleaned the pump mechanism as best as I could, hooked it to power and BAM! we have humming and spinning.

I then placed it back in the tank, and tried again. We have fuel.

i then got fuel to every point I could check in the fuel system (to rail, through rail, through return and back into tank) and decided to fire it up to see if it would run...

Sans coolant.. or any part of the cooling system.

We checked compression, compression tested very good, we shot it full of oil for good measure and cranked it with a breaker bar over9000 times till we had something that resembled oil pressure.

We checked for spark, had spark and we shot the intake full of starting fluid, held the maf open slightly and turned the key...

it ran for 2 seconds, then died. Perfect!

Installed the rest of the intake, cooling system, filled it with water and tried again. Ran fine as long as it had a supply of starting fluid or fuel.

No fuel from the fuel system.

Checked all the fuses, checked to make sure the pump was pumping, checked power at the injectors and... no fuel...

hotwired the secondary injectors and could actually hear them spray, and it would run as long as I fed it fuel through the injectors... Not good.

Pulled the ECU out, pulled it apart and there was a bad circuit in it (see: toasted solder joints and cooked resistor)

TO THE JUNKYARD! where a single FC awaited (I called around and everything)



I replaced the ECU from the car pictured and my car started and ran.

Time for a test drive...

blame

nice story man, can't wait to hear how the first drive goes

-sean

nicdchris

iTrader: (1)

I backed down the driveway slowly and anxiously.

The car wouldn't idle for anything, luckly my half-assed brake bleeding had left enough air in the lines that it would stop good, but pressing the brake pedal would give me just enough room for heel-toeing the throttle while stopped.

I crept down the street, up to the first stop sign... the first time the brakes had really been used in over 13 years... and they worked.

I turned onto the main-drag of my small town and got it up to the speed limit. A few small misfires, a bit of chugging... and a whole lot of transmission whine.

I'm not talking "oh the syncros whine a bit when you jam the gear selector into first" i'm talking "OH JESUS MY EARS ARE BLEEDING. DOES THIS THING HAVE STRAIGHT CUT GEARS IN IT??" I couldn't hear the engine over the transmission... and my mufflers are gone.

I limped it over to the fuel station, popped the filler door and let the fresh fuel flow.

And boy did it.



I drove it right back home, for some tuning and cleaning. Upon arriving back home I noticed that it idled... poorly, but it idled. I tore the moldy mouse-infested back carpet out and cleaned up as best as I could.



The next week on craigslist, something amazing happens. An ad pops up with a 'downpipe and silenser' for an FC rx-7... Replacing the cats with a pipe and silencer sure seemed like a good idea to me, and for $80, how could I go wrong? No emissions where I live, and even if there was the car is 25+ years old, so what does it matter? Plus I like that whole "shooting flame" thing.



I send the picture of my new go-fast part to my rotary-loving friend (flight_of_pain?) and he messages me back to look up the Racing Beat website to see if it's a match... it is. Booyeah.

So after installing and removing the cats, I just had to go out and see how much better it sounded.... and it was alright, a little rattly and tinny around 2900-3000 rpm, but it would do.

And the cats were in perfect condition... this thing just paid for itself.

So Easter Sunday comes along a few and dad says "hey! since it's just you and me going to grandma's and you haven't given me a ride in your car... lets take it!"

Hey, he's paying for fuel, I can't complain.

I installed a magnet on the filler plug of the transmission to see if it was rust-particles or what in the transmission making noise, and left on our adventure.



50 miles of screaming transmission there, 50 miles of screaming transmission back. (49.9 either way) and lo-and behold, my transmission is junk.

Great.



I called around for a transmission, all my friends wanted too much, didn't have one or only had turboII stuff. Not good. So I went on a pilgrimage for a self-serve junkyard with a 5speed transmission (the red car was automagic) and I found one, on my way from my apartment to the shop that my car is stored in. Neat.

$75 and 5 hours later, I had a fancy new transmission. Installed.

Now it just whines like a fat kid with no donuts. Bonus!



That just about gets me up to current. The first autocross of the season is next week and I need to bleed the brakes again, change the fuel filter (haven't done that yet...), and fix the crankcase ventilation properly. I'll take a few more pictures and post my cute audio system sometime next week.

I'm afraid they won't let me run. My front suspension has a tiny bit of "up-down" play in it and my windshield ... isn't quite one-piece anymore...

That and the brake rotors still have rust on them.

Here's a video. http://youtu.be/YEZkeAJ9GFs

And yes... those are Honda Accord wheels. Don't judge me. I'm $784 in (including fuel), still need to sell the cats and the long-tube racing header (RB) that's never been used...

MIDNFauciUSN

iTrader: (8)

well congrats on the tranny. my wife would beat my *** if i brought an exhaust system inside the house

7speed

I love the way this is all written and the story. It actually makes it seem like there's a personality behind there as opposed to people just posting up pictures and a mod list. Needless to say, subscribed.

dara321aaa

Wow. Can't say I'm not jealous. Great find. Keep up the good work.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

I've dealt with a couple of "finds" like yours...here's some advice.

Strip the ENTIRE interior out immediately.
If a bird got in, no telling what else crawled up and died in some body cavity.
Thoroughly clean/sanitize/delouse and then reassemble.

Not only will you end up with a minty fresh cabin (even if it looks like hell it doesn't have to smell like it too) but you may expose wiring/rust issues you didn't know about.

I would definitely consider rewiring the fuel pump at the same time.

This may seem like a diversion to your main goal ("drive the car", presumably) but it's not really.
What you're really doing is establishing a base line condition of the car.
Projects like this tend to suffer all sorts of weird problems as they morph from yard art to functional cars and the diagnostic tree can be Ponderosaesque ( a word I just made up)...literally, almost anything could be at fault.
You want to "pre-eliminate" bullshit little problems that can cause endless hours of straw grasping, draw a line that says "Beyond here, all is good".

It's a detour that can save a lot of time down the road.

JerryLH3

iTrader: (11)

You rescued an FC for pretty cheap. That's cool.

I do agree with clokker. With something that sat that long neglected, there's no telling what may be hiding in the innards of that thing, as you've already discovered with both the engine, transmission and fuel tank.

flight_of_pain

I am going to refer to this one as "deliverance," I was truly expecting banjos in your video.

Good job rescuing an rx from a slow agonizing death.

Isaac

nicdchris

iTrader: (1)

Well, I've raced, replaced the windshield (finally) and had a few problems, here and there.

I picked up some 280zx turbo "snowflakes" that need refinishing. Had great tires on them, so I'll take them off and throw them on my accord wheels and try to get them sold.

I'm going to sand them, primer them, then paint (or have them painted) a nice dark metal-flake color. Something you wouldn't even notice was 'not black' until you really looked at it. Should look pretty good when I'm done.

My problem is lugnuts. I haven't even seen if they'll bolt up and I've already realized that they require "magical" lugnuts.

Since nissan and toyota use a similar nut, but different pitch/diameters...

>i'm going to have to use toyota lugnuts to put nissan wheels on my mazda
nice.

I've also got some vacuum leaks to fix and gaskets to replace, but the daily driver needs about $150 thrown at it before I get too carried away. I have until the 7th before tires, nuts, wheels and vacuum leaks need to be fixed... looks like I'll be doing my 'friday-before-race-weekend' ritual, again.

Rambling. No pictures. I'm sorry.

sharingan 19

iTrader: (16)

Great find, way to get another fc back on the road.

nicdchris

iTrader: (1)

autocrossed in the heat this weekend after getting some 280zx turbo snowflake wheels mounted with some fancy, used starspecs. Ran into a little problem with the waterpump slipping in the later runs of the day, when the clutch in the fan really started to lock up.

Also ran into some SERIOUS problems on hard, sustained left hand turns where it seemed to not pick up any fuel in the tank... It has 3/4th a tank of fuel... but the low fuel warning light is on, intermittently and the fuel cup and baffles are in place still (checked when i had the fuel pump out for de-gooing)

Also pulled .94 g's on right hand turns and 1.01 on left hand turns with racingbeat springs, tokico blues and no-name camberplates. Still need swaybars, but I'm not sure if that'll help much on our SUPER rough autocross course.

Any help for my two problems (not keeping up with that volvo in front of me is a serious problem) is greatly appreciated.