[QUOTE=Customisbetter;11427842]Well the weld will be mostly in the temperature of the coolant which is not too hot. What you really need to worry about is the height of the weld. It can't be too tall or the compression from reassembly will crush the weld and leak. Also you might want to check out Rotary Evolution's Coolant Savers. He was banned yesterday but he should be back soon...

dude. this looks good. really good!! this will probably be the solution ill go for.

right. sent a mail to rotaryevolution. hopefully he has them in stock and can get them to me soon. in the meantime i have a bunch to do so ill just crack on.

on a lighter note, my steelies came today. ill be sending them off next week for widening. yummy =)

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and yes, i do stick my pinky out when i take piccys. cos im posh of course :gay:

hmm.. im getting worried again. this solution that rotary evolution is offering seems more like a prevention and not a cure. after reading a fair bit on the matter i would definitely use this product, but it seems like im still screwed. i really dont want to weld if it means that theyre just going to blow sooner or later. ugh this is, to use one of clokkers expressions, a right royal PITA....

How hard is it to source irons in your landskap?

the s4 is so unusual here im sad to say. not like in the states where there seems to be a lot more of these. ive been living in stockholm for 6 years now and iv'e only seen three fc's and now i own one of those that i saw!:D
its a bit of a double edged sword really cos its a unique car here but theres not much out here in the way of parts or spares.
i just received good news though. there is a specialist here in sweden that i emailed yesterday and he has both housings! my rear housing only had a little crack and was pushing out but i'm not taking any chances.
i must say i feel relieved i was really starting to worry there! :scared:

Lucky you.
I figured the next we'd hear would be about your newly planned Volvo engine swap.

Hahahaha nah man i would never rape my car in that manner. I have the Rb exhaust and flywheel on the way so i was determined to fix my six port come hell or high water! I was at the carage now and just cleaned a bit. Work tmrw then the whole weekend Will be dedicated to cleaning everything in readyness for the rebuild. =)

i know i said i would resume cleaning on saturday earlier. i thought i would just go home and chill.,,,
weeeell..... i couldnt hold myself so after i had done my errrands i went back and did a bit of cleaning on the houses that hadnt betrayed me. the white spirits had done theyre job nicely and with a bit of scrubbing with my copper brush it soon looked quite nice! im not a perfectionist but i definately scrubbed more than i really needed to. the brake cleaner and air pistol got the rest of the crap out that i couldnt scrub out. then i got my drill and a wire brush and went to town on the outsides of the rotor houses. i was racing against the clock (daylight) so i didnt go all out either but they turned out faiirly nice too!

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when i removed the engine those 13b marks werent even visible because of the copious amounts of dirt and grime covering them.

there was one thing i was wondering about and that was these exhaust ports. there is a funny bit of metal in the way and i just wondered what it was? i would obviously have to remove it for porting and i dont see that that wouls be a problem but i just thought i'd show a pic of it just in case theres something important im missing. (by the way i have cleaned this area since taking this picture).

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oh yeah, and i was going to sand the insides of the rotor housings, rotor faces, and surfaces that would require a seal with a flatblock. i have 240 grit sandpaper. is this still too rough? will a light sanding do? they looked to be in very good condition. no scoring or discoloration anywhere..

jesus christ ive been trying to get a clear-cut idea of what i should do when porting. i have read quite a bit but it seems that porting depends quite simply on what other mods i have and what i want and so on and my head is spinning..
from what i understand i would only need to port it to the template and then taper it towards the round hole for the header. am i being stupid now? im not chasing power on this car (thats what the skyline is for) but a little bit extra power and better flow wouldnt go amiss... im asking because i was thinking of doing it this weekend..

Why don't you email one of the Rotarys- Evolution or Resurrection- and ask them?

The metal in the exhaust port is a diffuser...not sure whether or not you want to keep them.

I'd spray your nice fresh housings with some sort of paint before they start oxidizing.

Aaahh THATS what a diffuser is.. I read about them and rotaryevolution wrote in another thread that they could be taken away. I geuss ill just grind them out and port according to the template. Whats the worst that can happen? *famous last words* =p

And the paint is a Good idea. I just want a light colour so i can see leaks if im that unlucky..

No piccys today. Not sure if bags of freshly cleaned engine parts are so exciting to look at.. =) The gentleman I spoke with for the rear and intermediate housings suggested that I do some lapping and balancing which I have decided I will do. A man thats been fixing rotarys since I was six years olds advice is worth taking. Just waiting for my flywheel to arrive then ill be taking the whole lot down to him (a nice 3-4 hour drive each way) and get some tips to boot =)

sorry for the lack of activity over the last few days, ive been working because this guy called bill keeps sending letters to my house asking for money =)

good news and bad news really, i received my flywheel yesterday and it was in really good condition. thanks to goran for packaging it so well!

...and then the bad news. the relationship has broken down at the garage i share with three other guys and the person who has his name on the contract decided quite spitefully to give me an ultimatum to remove my car and all my stuff within two weeks.
im trying to see this as just a 'slight' hindrance but its obviously going to cost me money, time and effort to move all my stuff right in the middle of my project. i have not been able to find anywhere else to put my car but i can have it outside my friends garage for a couple of weeks while i sort out the rest.
im considering just asking the fellow who is going to lap my irons and balance the drivetrain to put together the motor for me considering i dont have anywhere really to work on the car anymore and then i hope my friend will be able to let me use his garage for a day to install the engine.
i feel a bit sabotaged but i am determined to finish my car by the summer. update soon and wish me luck! looks like im going to need it..

Well, good luck.
Too bad about all the garage drama...I thought Swedes were supposed to be easy going and taciturn.

thanks clokker. in general they are quite easy-going and its quite easy to avoid conflict but it seems i met a bit of a special case. it was foolish of me to go into this arrangement without knowing him as i know him now and trusting him far enough to not draw up a simple contract but you live and learn eh?
its probably for the best anyway. i need a garage that's warm in the winter and now i know how to make sure this wont happen again.
ill be going down to leave my engine in on saturday so ill have a much better idea of how im going to solve this =)

It's a shame your situation is so discombobulated because sending the engine out for assembly is one of those "cloud-with-a-silver-lining" situations.

An empty engine bay is the ideal playground for all the support work that's so difficult with the engine in place. Cleaning up the electrical in particular is much easier when you can crawl in and manhandle the beast directly.

Of course, this is best done under cover...which you don't seem to have, so...

yeah a proper spanner in the works this.. im hoping that with the right amount of planning and preparation. i should be able to maximise the time i have to work on the car inside. im not sure that cleaning up the electronics would be a speedy affair for me because i basicly suck at it. saying that theres not much im 'good' at either. i will mostly be leaning on my stubborness and refusal to fail in this =)
i reckon i should get away with the power steering, a/c and air pump delete in a day as long as i have all the stuff i need for the job and then another day for the installation of the motor. with an extra pair of hands i might get away with it..
as long as i get the car rolling i have all summer to find somewhere else to tinker :nod:

Well then, it's fortunate for you that no "electronics" are involved...we're talking wires and connectors here, basically, plumbing with electricity.
You need not know anything about the wires except where they plug in.

-Disconnect everything (one plug at a time), clean contacts and pack with dielectric grease...plug back in. Don't ignore the main engine fusebox and spark plug wires.

-Remove every bulb from it's socket. If socket is clean, grease bulb base and reinstall. If bulb or socket is corroded, clean/replace.

-Clean/sand every ground point, assemble with grease (seeing a trend here with the dielectric grease?).

-Rewrap any frayed, crumbled, oil soaked sections of the harness.

As long as you're not pruning the harness of unused circuits you don't need any electrical knowledge, all the above is pretty mechanical.

Even this basic level of attention can save you a lot of grief down the line.

you definitely took the edge off of my fear of the whole electronics thing! i actually have the whole harness out so i should be able to make short work of that. the rest of the deletes i should be able to do outdoors too right? i dont need to lift the car for them and i still have to wait a week for my motor to be ready so it will give me somethiing to do =)
im starting to feel better about this already! must say i was feeling a little discouraged by the whole garage thing..

just good news for this update..
yesterday consisted mostly of driving cramped up in a little nissan micra westwards through some the most english weather ive experienced in sweden. yes, grey clouds and cold, pissy rain.
nevertheless, i had music and good company so it went relatively quick. met the chap who had the irons for me and he invited us to his workshop to go through the parts i had taken down with me and discuss what we would be doing with my poor old 13b.
to say impressive would be putting it lightly! the aforementioned gentleman is a real enthusiast. i dont think ive ever met anyone who has put so much enthusiasm, time and energy into ANYTHING like this guy puts into rotary engines. i look forward to seeing his personal restoration projects come to fruition. his inventory was extensive (he even had a couple 20b's) and after talking with him for a half an hour i was assured that i had come to the right place. he was very pleasant, polite and knowledgeable and gave comprehensive advice as to what i should do to attain a nice, tight motor. we ended up chatting for four hours! i left him knowing that id left my engine in the right hands. he had a couple of engines to build first so it will take a few weeks but i have other things to do so my hands wont be idle =)
the other good news is that i managed to solve the situation with the garage! i found another place that is better than the last and with a proper nice fella so i will be able to continue working on my car without any unnecessary drama.
i will be focusing on moving my stuff over the next couple of days then i can back to working on the 7. yay!:bigthumb:

Congratulations on both fronts.

Another Little update so that you know im still Alive hehe. All i can say is that over the last couple weeks i have both Lost and regained my Faith in Humanity. Moved garage today so now ill be able to get cracking with old Betty again. Updates with Pictures soon!

Ah, the ebb and flow of the build thread...

ah indeed dear chap.. ive tried to make good use of my time by making some of that stuff that rhymes with honey.. seems like when your a rx7 owner you always need more. worth every penny tho

It's been nearly a month...wake up!

Yessir! I should have actually received my Engine this weekend but as i havent had any correspondence from the gentleman that is putting it together i can Only assume that he's a Little behind. He did actually forewarn me that he had two race-motors to build before mine so its cool. The main reason for my inactivity has been a little outbreak of chronic lumbago ive had for the last three weeks which, if you havent experienced it, sucks immensely. I have been on a steady diet of painkillers and a couple visits to my chiropractor (who is luckily my next door neighbour) has pretty much sorted it out. I havent had pain for the last couple days which will make possible the 8 hour drive back and forth to pick up my engine possible and also the installation of said keg =) hopefully next week ill have a very nice tight 13b in the garage and I can get my ratchet out!

Back still on the fritz or has the lingonberry harvest slowed you down?

My back has decided to behave itself for the moment and Swedish summer is in Full swing. Many a Lingonberry has been picked but i have mostly been keeping myself busy at work and just waiting for my motor to arrive. It was also a little bit of an unsure situation with the garage i had moved to because i hadnt had any concrete confirmation that i would be able to stay but i spoke with him last Week and its official! Got somewhere to work on my car. Yay! Its midsummer this weekend which is quite celebrated here. Everybody exept for Me and probably some other poor souls get friday (and i Think monday) off. I ought to be able to pick up my Engine on monday or tuesday and im starting to feel the excitement =)

At this rate she'll be ready to drive just in time for the annual Return Of The Glacier.
Or, as we more southernly sited folk call it, August.

hopefully sooner than that! i have the whole week off next week apart from 8 hours on wednesday and....as long as everything goes to plan (famous last words) i should be able to start her up by the end of the week. saying that, what i want and what i get are, in general two completely different things =)

Yup. My previous post and clokkers prognosis were completely accurate. Im gna have to wait till next Week for my motor. The gentleman that is rebuilding my motor has alot on his Plate so im more than happy to wait. I would much rather have quality than speed anyway. I have mostly been drowning my childish dissapointment in skateboarding and danish Beer. Update soon!

back in business..
 

finally got both keys to the new garage yesterday which was restricting my access a fair bit and went down today with my trusty buddy joel to get something, anything done..

Attachment 668047

as you can see, this pile of assorted crap consists of my A/C pump, condenser and radiator, and my steering servo. i used the radiator as a makeshift tray to lift up everything i had removed, and was quite satisfied with the weight i have now removed. that combined with the weight i have removed by putting the rb lightened flywheel which approx 5-6 kgs amounts to a nice weightloss in my opinion!
we had started removing the harness but it got too late so we called it a day. any tips for removing the harness from the headlamps when theyre closed? i got a bit stuck there..

once ive got that removed ill be cleaning the engine bay. tomorrow, not next month :D

went down to the garage straight after work today. me and my buddy managed to solve the headlight problem by creating another one. typical..
then we proceeded to block off the power steering in true "bonde meck" style. loosely translated this means farmer mechanic =)

it ended up looking like this...
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then once we had got the harness out of the way we gave the engine bay a good scrubbing and a twice-over with a high-pressure washer which came out quite nicely. because the engine bay is white, i soon found myself in the evil circle of thinking i was finished and then seeing that spot i missed. when i finally convinced myself it was clean enough, it looked like this..

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next ill be cleaning up the harness and putting it back in its rightful place. one things bugging me though, am i going to get a bunch of flashing lights telling me things arent working when i start her up later? :ponder: if so, are there any preventative measures i can take while everythings nice and accessible? *warning* i really really suck at electronics. just being honest

The body harness (driver side) can be installed and tested before the engine goes back in.
Lights, horns, signals should all work.

My brother just got himself a 1996 Civic hatchback without power steering(it's got a B18c swap) and I hate driving it. I'm 180lbs and going from his car to my FC with power steering makes me realize how easy it is to steer the RX7. Is it really that big of a difference? Or does it have to do with his steering rack ratio? Reversing and moving slowly in parking lots SUCKS in his car.

looking good! seems like we are both sitting at the same stage. :icon_tup:

I resisted the first time but am no longer able...
In reference to you pic of the depowered rack...you did a horrible job quite nicely.
I especially savor the three matching sets of hose clamps, a nice touch.

Might I suggest a spacer to replace the banjo, with the bolt screwed down onto it?
I assume you've drained the fluid and removed the seals, so there's no pressurized fluid to contain...basically, you're more concerned with crap getting in than stuff leaking out at this point.

Just a standard pipe (copper plumbing, maybe?) of the correct diameter and cut to the right length to mimic the banjo fitting (10mm or so), should serve nicely.
And look a bit less like you fell in love with the John Deere catalogue.

Of course, I understand that you're busy waiting for the new engine so you may not have the time now.

^I was waiting for this post. :lol:

@clokker
you should never resist my dear sir your advice has been invaluable to me during this project and you gave me my first laugh of the day today over my coffee. john deer.. :hahaha: good to know i can check the harness before the motor goes in and i think the idea with the copper piping instead of the banjos is great i will be doing that instead it would look a lot better. (saying that im pretty sure that i forgot to turn the steering wheel full lock in both directions a few times before i tightened them up so ill have to check that)
concerning the power steering rack, you sent me that link with the mazda mx5 steering rack removal guide. when you wrote "remove the seals" did you mean that i should take off the whole steering rack as it showed? i didnt think that the work involved was worth the gains it would yield so i decided to just block them off as in the pictures above. have i been a lazy bugger now?

@ryan2949
im not sure its hard to say really. i gave it a test once i had tightened everything up and it wasnt a pain in the ass or anything to turn the wheel. saying that, i dont have a motor in right now, and i will have 9 inch wide wheels up front later so im assuming that i can expect a bit more resistance then. i weigh about 200lbs and when i tested it it was both on the garage floor which is really smooth and the asphalt outside and the difference was unnoticeable. basicly it remains to be seen how much fore-arm training im in for :nod: one thing i can confirm however, is that the feeling is waaay better than before. with the power steering it felt spongy and late kinda. now it feels so much more solid so im glad i did it. wierd with the honda because its a light car even despite the engine swap. maybe it is as you say with the steering rack ratio...

@eli_rx_oli
cheers man! hopefully i can keep my pace up it slowed down a bit the last couple months =9

so i decided to pull my finger out of my bum and go to the garage after work today. we had absolutely gorgeous weather so i opened up the garage doors, put on some tunes and got cracking on the harness.
even though i have a phobia of car electronics, i found the entire process of cleaning and re-taping the various cables and wires quite therapeutic. i got the most of it back in place and by the time my grumbling stomach reminded me that i hadnt eaten for twelve hours and that i should go burger-hunting, i had it looking somewhat presentable..

Attachment 667750

am i right in assuming that the hose i have indicated with my shaky red arrow is a part of the a/c that i dont need anymore? please say yes. im rather starting to enjoy the whole weight reduction thing. so much so in fact, that im considering maybe putting her on a proper diet. only thing stopping me is that it would be a shame to ruin the well preserved interior, and i does seem that stripping an rx7 depends on ones goals in terms of streetability and im not sure if im ready to get my earplugs out just yet. one things for certain however, that bloody back seat is strictly for decorative purposes and is looking more and more like weight to me... :naughty:

i had hoped to get my motor this week but after a enjoyable chat with the chappie who is rebuilding it i was informed that it wont be ready for another two weeks so i will be using this time to prepare the car as much as possible before its much anticipated arrival, redeem my recent inactivity on this thread :rolleyes:, but mostly try to contain my boyish excitement...

ya man you got it thats for the vents...THROW IT AWAY.. IN A FIREY PIT OF DEATH!!

Sorry, but no.
That's the return from the heater core, the other end plugs into the lower radiator bung.
My understanding is that occasionally it gets nippy in the Aryan Nation...a heater might be a good thing. Or maybe your sealskin longjohns keep you warm enough.

As for the "weight plan".

Personally, until I hear the words "carbon fiber hatch" and "Lexan all around", I think most people are just dicking around. Gutting the interior is a minor savings compared to the OEM glass and hatch, if you can't be serious, a loud uncomfortable cabin is just posing for penance.

i intend to keep the heater even though i will keeping her garaged during the brutally cold winter months. i wouldnt have a problem with driving it in winter if it wasnt for the snow. the last couple of years we have had so much (last winter we had snow on the ground for about 5 months) that im considering sorting out a licence for heavy goods vehicles so that i can get some of that "snow ploughing money". they get payed very well and the 7 has turned into a right golddigger =)
sealskin longjohns hahaha its a bloody good idea mate!

apropos weight saving, i would be inclined to agree with you when it comes to the interior. it is in really nice condition in my opinion considering its a 27 yr old car so it really would be a shame to chuck it. i have had a look at lexan glass and its rather expensive! (which by the way doesnt surprise me anymore) i found it for 1000kr per square metre (149.30 dollars at the going rate) and thats for 1.5 millimeter thick lexan :eek:. they have up to 12mm thick which is over 3 times the price. the weight savings i would acheive make it worth the money though and i would need to shed some pounds once i put on the much heavier widened steelies.
my 7 has a aluminium bonnet if thats what you meant by hatch. this i realised when i nearly threw it through the ceiling when i was going to remove it for the first time..
right. bacon and eggs consumed, coffee inbibed, time to go work out then its off to the garage. im off work for six days now. yaaaaay!

oh shoot ya clokker your right! my bad meerkat

no worries mate clokker got 7s on lock down =) i appreciate all input its nice to be able to babble on about my car to people who actually are interested in cars instead of to my poor colleages at work whom im sure are on the brink of strangling me if they have to hear me pondering out loud about it hehe:lol:

Rear hatch= rear glass and surround.
It's quite heavy, unbolt it by yourself and see.