Coinshark's 89 RX-7 GXL Restoration/"Build"

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Old May 26, 2015 | 02:47 PM
  #26  
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Originally Posted by driftxsequence
Could ask them to pop it open since there was no concrete evidence if the 91s came with LSD. They dropped the GTU/GXL models and just called them package A B C.
I asked, they said "we have no way of doing that". I removed from my watched items due to sketchiness.

Anyways, I found a clutched 88 diff from a member here and ftp lenses. Since I'm not looking to drift clutched will do just fine. Hoping to get the header sand blasted and ceramic coated before the weekend. Crash bar brackets have been fixed, painted and reinstalled. New rust free nuts and bolts all around. NO MORE SQUEAKS! Now to hunt for something else to "fix".
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Old Jun 15, 2015 | 09:36 AM
  #27  
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Ceramic coated the header and after some long hours and many busted knuckles my header and rest of the exhaust are finally fitted. RX-7 sounds so nice now at all rpms. I even got to drive my wife around in it for a little bit. Also, I managed to score a sweet welding "sunburn" on one arm. Looks pretty awesome. Shocking what a difference in sound the header made. Even my butt dyno felt an improvement Video to come when it stops raining.

On a side note, the flange on the pace setter header didn't fit fully, but with a touch of my grinder it fit right in. Wonder if anyone has come across that issue besides me.
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Old Jun 15, 2015 | 05:27 PM
  #28  
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Toss up as new video of the exhaust, the old one is private now

Looks good man!

Edit:I Should learn to read, I see you say video is coming :P
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Old Jun 22, 2015 | 09:53 AM
  #29  
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Awesome weekend. Hope everyone had a great father's day!






One day my wife will let me buy paint for the hood and headlight covers.






Last edited by Coinshark; Jun 22, 2015 at 10:03 AM.
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Old Jun 30, 2015 | 08:52 AM
  #30  
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Well, Sunday's autocross went okay I guess. I was up against 2 S2000's and ended up beating the one of them. It was a hollow victory though.

Something is up with the fuel sending unit or something. In left hand bends the engine would "be running", but cut out until it straightened out. After some research it looks like I need to open up the tank and do some inspecting.
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Old Jul 2, 2015 | 01:42 PM
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Well, I took the fuel sending assembly out of the tank and inspected it. Sock was clean, terminals on the pump looked good, connectors on everything looked good and the baffles in the tank still looked new. Gonna do some more reading and see if there's any other common issues with fuel.
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Old Aug 4, 2015 | 09:00 AM
  #32  
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Coworker's 65 falcon and my rexy




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Old Aug 4, 2015 | 07:32 PM
  #33  
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Ha! My friend has a G-body he's restoring, and I've always wondered how my FC would look parked next to his. My curiosity is sated. Both cars are beautiful by the way, hats off on how clean both are. When both cars are running again, I'll post up a pic for comparison, haha
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Old Aug 21, 2015 | 02:03 PM
  #34  
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Throttle body modding anyone? I think so. Was feeling mod deprived last night so I cleaned up the garage a little bit and pulled the TB and part of the intake. Clean it all up then port and polish. Probably will end up taking the entire intake manifold of to clean and port+polish. Needs some attention so may as well give it some.


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Old Aug 30, 2015 | 10:14 PM
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Lookin good. I'm rehabing a 250k 90' Was an auto though, so first mod is a T2 drive train.
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Old Aug 31, 2015 | 09:02 AM
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Well, I've been slowly removing all the intake manifolding and the rats nest of a vacuum manifold. I can actually read the 13B on the housings now! After several hours of degreasing. I'm struggling with deciding whether or not to pull the engine out or not. It has 163k on it but, I am not sure if it's ever been rebuilt or not. She smokes a bit under high vacuum aka after WOT to partial throttle. Sounds like the control rings. A good place to start would be a compression test. In the mean time I'll just continue to clean and fix leaks. Also, I have some pineapple sleeves and fresh vacuum lines on the way.



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Old Aug 31, 2015 | 12:57 PM
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Little compression test never hurt anyone...

If the results come back good, you may as well leave the engine alone, because you've already ordered aux port sleeves, and lets face it, any kind of worthwhile porting would render those sleeves useless. Unless, you're pulling it to facilitate swapping the trans and getting better access to those God-awful AC compressor bolts.

Last edited by sharingan 19; Aug 31, 2015 at 01:00 PM.
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Old Aug 31, 2015 | 01:06 PM
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Originally Posted by sharingan 19
Little compression test never hurt anyone...

If the results come back good, you may as well leave the engine alone, because you've already ordered aux port sleeves, and lets face it, any kind of worthwhile porting would render those sleeves useless. Unless, you're pulling it to facilitate swapping the trans and getting better access to those God-awful AC compressor bolts.
No? Never had a compression test on it. Maybe you're thinking someone else? lol. Porting? Streetport most likely but, more so open it to replace oil control rings. As far as the sleeves, I don't know why porting would render them useless since they just make for better/smoother flow. Don't know I'm still a rotary NOOB!
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Old Aug 31, 2015 | 01:29 PM
  #39  
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I wonder if bridgeporting the 6th ports and then machining the sleeves to length would do anything?
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Old Sep 2, 2015 | 01:57 AM
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Originally Posted by Coinshark
I wonder if bridgeporting the 6th ports and then machining the sleeves to length would do anything?
NO NO NO Do not bridge the 5/6 ports.

A Half Bridge is fine (secondary ports only), and if you're staying n/a a full bridge is generally recommended by those who have tried both.

To address my previous comment, I meant if the engine is coming apart you're better off ditching the 6 port irons altogether as their timing and port volume are inferior to 4 port irons in every way.
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Old Sep 2, 2015 | 10:52 AM
  #41  
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Originally Posted by sharingan 19
NO NO NO Do not bridge the 5/6 ports.

A Half Bridge is fine (secondary ports only), and if you're staying n/a a full bridge is generally recommended by those who have tried both.

To address my previous comment, I meant if the engine is coming apart you're better off ditching the 6 port irons altogether as their timing and port volume are inferior to 4 port irons in every way.
I wouldn't bridge them lol. I'm not planning on opening up at this point so sleeve inserts will work fine for the time being. However, when I do open it up, I will most likely ditch the sleeves and things. Which means I can ditch the rats nest! As far as the 6 ports being inferior... That's not the vibe I've been getting from the threads here but, hey, I'm still new and trying to read up on everything still. I worked on replacing all the rubber vac lines on the vac manifold with silicone last night and did some more degreasing.
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Old Sep 3, 2015 | 12:40 PM
  #42  
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Sleeves cleaned thoroughly and inserts green loctited in. I think depending on my wants I may delete the sleeves when I do in fact open/rebuild the engine. Until then I'll try the sleeves out.
<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-odhQSUwPz3o/VeiEEB12_5I/AAAAAAAAAz4/7VlzKUQpYYs/w1255-h710-no/IMAG0169%5B1%5D.jpg" />
Rats nest has been cleaned, mapped properly and silicone replacement lines installed.
<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-liARiy74uWQ/VeiEBhmMEsI/AAAAAAAAAzw/-HzFUeIf6AQ/w1255-h710-no/IMAG0168%5B1%5D.jpg" />

I've decided to get grey powdercoat for the intake manifold pieces instead of polishing them. Hopefully I'll be working on that later today. Last night I worked on porting and smoothing out the throttle body. All of the hard edges have been smoothed and bored. Will take pictures of that later. Thank you dremel. Thank you.
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Old Sep 4, 2015 | 07:56 AM
  #43  
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I think it looks great. Just need to see it all bolted up.
<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-K7yeQE4xkLU/VemTZFxaJ3I/AAAAAAAAA0o/xT_bMBG3hGk/w1255-h710-no/IMAG0172%5B1%5D.jpg" />
<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--vurA7asocU/VemTbPwgSKI/AAAAAAAAA0w/5LH4r-756Z8/w1255-h710-no/IMAG0174%5B1%5D.jpg" />
<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-rWdLOvJxkR8/VemTe2x_uRI/AAAAAAAAA04/IGkocpE0Uwo/w1255-h710-no/IMAG0173%5B1%5D.jpg" />

PS: Why cant everything be as easy as powder?
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Old Sep 6, 2015 | 01:00 AM
  #44  
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Lookin Good!

That rat's nest is a beast, the only time ive ever touched them has been to removed them, lol along with the emissions components, lol.
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Old Sep 14, 2015 | 11:59 AM
  #45  
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Well, it turns out the previous owner or whoever decided to work on the car installed the sleeves and actuator rods backwards or... reversed I guess. So, the 5/6th ports weren't opening at all. Maybe it'll make a big difference having them function again!
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Old Sep 25, 2015 | 08:53 AM
  #46  
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Well, here goes.

After everything was cleaned, ported and polished I began reassembly. As I was installing the metering oil injectors, the two on the lower intake broke of in the holes. Threads had been chased after powdering the manifold. Maybe the metal just thought, "I'm too tired to do this again." Well no big deal until I saw that they are roughly $50 a piece. Took a couple days to stew about what to do before deciding to block off the metering pump and premix the gas. Ordered a block off piece from Banzai Racing in Indiana.Their shop is maybe 2 hours from me but, our mail system takes a week to deliver the two cycle oil and block off kit. During this my coworker and boss had been planning on going to a drag strip for a test n' tune. It was my coworkers birthday that day which turned out great. I had planned on going anyways but, really would have liked to run my car. Instead I went along and took some pictures and videos for them. Yesterday, I got my package from Banzai and I had a friend come over to help me with little odds and ends. Installing the intermediate intake, I'm pretty sure I had it on 3-4 times before it was finally set. HAHAHA. Everything went back together very smoothly. Tracing vacuum lines was a pain but, the diagram I printed out was a God send helping with that. We put the radiator back in with the shroud after flushing the engine and it of all coolant. Started filling it with water wetter and water until it wouldn't take anymore. Now, I need to burp the system and top it off. After that, I'll put the hood on, figure out how much gas I have in my tank and add the appropriate amount of premix, and then double check every little thing. HOPEFULLY, I'll have enough time over the next couple of days to get it ready for autocross this Sunday. After that, I may drive it a few more times then take the rear end out to get ready for the LSD unit I have ready for it.

Birthday boy's 65 Falcon
<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-rpId7fVHCxE/VgVPLy5smxI/AAAAAAAABOA/PcUAzwHxwfw/w1123-h746-no/DSC_5959.JPG" />

Boss' truck
<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-H4ZaBFWzM-k/VgVPLvsb9iI/AAAAAAAABN4/HsDQSLMRm5w/w1123-h746-no/DSC_5964.JPG" />
Looks are deceiving. He was having issues with his wastegate and still running 11's. Should be in the low low 9's. PS: it's a cummins compound turbo diesel. 1300+/- hp and lots of tq.
<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-IKU3yj8TCd4/VgVPLtGYb_I/AAAAAAAABN8/rcxBLe0mPeo/w1123-h746-no/DSC_5977.JPG" />

Gotta enjoy the little things.
<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-MYy_O0Na4V0/VgVPNxT-ulI/AAAAAAAABOM/qJaD1754jhQ/w1259-h712-no/IMAG0207.jpg" />
<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xOIteLfKpGE/VgVPOD6T7xI/AAAAAAAABOQ/KS79WSP6xrw/w422-h746-no/IMAG0208.jpg" />

So, close.
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Old Sep 30, 2015 | 01:04 PM
  #47  
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Well, I am chasing vacuum leaks now. Did not make the autocross because of them. Went around spraying and found a couple. One injector o-ring got crushed and was leaking fuel as well as causing a vacuum leak. Replacing ALL of the uppers, lowers and o-rings. Remaking the ACV gasket and lightly right stuffing. Maybe it will run again before snow flies...
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Old Oct 2, 2015 | 04:00 PM
  #48  
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So, I bought a cigar yesterday. Lit it and smoked through a vacuum hose to reveal a monster vacuum leak. It's exactly where I thought it was and didn't want it to be. The lower intake manifold to the engine. Turns out In the rush of trying to get it done for the autocross I neglected to thoroughly clean off the old paper gasket which caused it to not seal. New gasket on the way. I also received the stainless brake lines I purchased from a member on rx7club. Those should stiffen my brake pedal right up. To be continued when that gasket comes in.
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Old Oct 3, 2015 | 08:23 AM
  #49  
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Originally Posted by Coinshark
I also received the stainless brake lines I purchased from a member on rx7club. Those should stiffen my brake pedal right up.
Unless your old hoses were bulging under pressure, any improvement you feel will be due to fresh fluid and bleeding, not the construction of the hose.
A new set of OEM rubber hoses would feel exactly the same as braided to 99% of the people under 99% of conditions.
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Old Oct 3, 2015 | 12:48 PM
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Originally Posted by clokker
Unless your old hoses were bulging under pressure, any improvement you feel will be due to fresh fluid and bleeding, not the construction of the hose.
A new set of OEM rubber hoses would feel exactly the same as braided to 99% of the people under 99% of conditions.
They were starting to crack.


Also, you are right. Most people wouldn't feel a difference. I'm not most people though. Construction of a hose however, does make a huge difference. Even coming from a newer speed protégé with not so old OEM brake hoses, ss braided lines don't expand like OEM rubber replacements. Makes a great improvement on pedal feel and response. But what do I know anyways.
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