Ice Racer/Rally Rx7 build
10-06-10, 06:30 PM
#1
Ice Racer/Rally Rx7 build
I\'ve had this car for a long time so here it goes.
Sold my 240sx for more money than I bought it for (thank god for the fast and furious movies) and bought an rx7 along with some toys for it.
only have a few of the two together
I am the 3rd owner, the 1st owner drove it and the rear rotor went out on it and it sat in their backyard in South Carolina until that person sold it to the guy I bought it from in boystown area Chicago.
I bought it in the spring of 2006.
it didn\'t start out to be a rally car but its making its way that way now as the years move on, its had a crazy life and lots of changes. Gotta love this chassis.
it started out as this to me:
it had knock off crappy beat up \"racing\" seats and with a smokers grey interior but working ac, ran kinda crappy but had this motor rebuilt on it with about 55k miles, and yes that is some home made vent he cut in the hood.
The guy I got the car from didn\'t know sh*t about mechanics but he managed to put an aktins rebuild but the car hesitated (bad grounds)
ran fine for a while and did some work to it:
PIAA yellow fogs
Atkins streetport
3mm apex seals
Tokicko blue shocks
tanabe GF210 springs
Ported and polished throttle body
momo wood/aluminum steering wheel
battery relocated
Centerforce clutch
Racing beat aluminum flywheel
12a tranny mod (shorter 1st, 2nd, 3rd gears)
Manual steering rack
Air conditioning removal
Air pump removal
ACV removal
Racing beat header/presilencer/cat-back
S4 clutch type LSD 4.10 ratio
Weight reduction (lol)
5th/6th port & sleeves removed
Dual alternator pulley mod
Battery relocation
Audi A6 dual electric fans
NGK plugs/wires
C-Wings GT3 fiberglass hood (functional scoop)
15x6 OZ lancer rally wheels (made by enkei FYI)
205/50/15 avon M500s in the rear
205/50/15 dunlop direzzas in front
wiperless hatch
then after several months later I decided to fix that hood with something lighter, was planning on a molded FC turbo scoop hood but I got this hood from the same guy because he didnt like the way it looked with his body kit.
and then this happened that winter
Sold my 240sx for more money than I bought it for (thank god for the fast and furious movies) and bought an rx7 along with some toys for it.
only have a few of the two together
I am the 3rd owner, the 1st owner drove it and the rear rotor went out on it and it sat in their backyard in South Carolina until that person sold it to the guy I bought it from in boystown area Chicago.
I bought it in the spring of 2006.
it didn\'t start out to be a rally car but its making its way that way now as the years move on, its had a crazy life and lots of changes. Gotta love this chassis.
it started out as this to me:
it had knock off crappy beat up \"racing\" seats and with a smokers grey interior but working ac, ran kinda crappy but had this motor rebuilt on it with about 55k miles, and yes that is some home made vent he cut in the hood.
The guy I got the car from didn\'t know sh*t about mechanics but he managed to put an aktins rebuild but the car hesitated (bad grounds)
ran fine for a while and did some work to it:
PIAA yellow fogs
Atkins streetport
3mm apex seals
Tokicko blue shocks
tanabe GF210 springs
Ported and polished throttle body
momo wood/aluminum steering wheel
battery relocated
Centerforce clutch
Racing beat aluminum flywheel
12a tranny mod (shorter 1st, 2nd, 3rd gears)
Manual steering rack
Air conditioning removal
Air pump removal
ACV removal
Racing beat header/presilencer/cat-back
S4 clutch type LSD 4.10 ratio
Weight reduction (lol)
5th/6th port & sleeves removed
Dual alternator pulley mod
Battery relocation
Audi A6 dual electric fans
NGK plugs/wires
C-Wings GT3 fiberglass hood (functional scoop)
15x6 OZ lancer rally wheels (made by enkei FYI)
205/50/15 avon M500s in the rear
205/50/15 dunlop direzzas in front
wiperless hatch
then after several months later I decided to fix that hood with something lighter, was planning on a molded FC turbo scoop hood but I got this hood from the same guy because he didnt like the way it looked with his body kit.
and then this happened that winter
10-06-10, 06:33 PM
#2
and that led to primer:
so that leads to Honda OEM Grand Prix White, aka s2000 pearlescent white
only 900 dollars for everything, labor/parts because I had it done by a friend of mine at school who was going through the auto body program.
updated with S5 tails in the process, even had the moldings painted
and then the summer hit...
time to sharpen \\\"Snow White\\\" up
new interior, got rid of the gray and I\\\'ve always been a sucker for the red **** carpet interior in it so I swapped from gray/blue to red/wood
got the wheel from my friends dad who is a big euro car nut and its a real momo wheel that was attached to a momo hub that matched some benz models and the shift **** was made by another friend of mine\\\'s uncle
and ran like this:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hN5XoCaW34[/youtube]
The car runs great and kicks *** till next fall around late October and blew up the atkins rebuild, broke the rear exhaust diffuser apart and it was rattling around in the port along with cracked housings around the sparkplugs.
I part out the motor to fund me buying a running S5 NA motor along with some other misc rx7 parts
my closet turned into an engine \\\'build\\\' room, painted some stuff before dropping it in
and if your eye is good enough you can catch the solid mounts dangling on the passenger side... but there are also made solid trans mounts which was free because I had yet another friend who machined them for me for a 6 pack of beer
engine bay gets painted to match the rest of the car, very few blue is left...
ceramic coated the header before dropping it in, keep the heat in where you want it.
so that leads to Honda OEM Grand Prix White, aka s2000 pearlescent white
only 900 dollars for everything, labor/parts because I had it done by a friend of mine at school who was going through the auto body program.updated with S5 tails in the process, even had the moldings painted
and then the summer hit...
time to sharpen \\\"Snow White\\\" up
new interior, got rid of the gray and I\\\'ve always been a sucker for the red **** carpet interior in it so I swapped from gray/blue to red/wood
got the wheel from my friends dad who is a big euro car nut and its a real momo wheel that was attached to a momo hub that matched some benz models and the shift **** was made by another friend of mine\\\'s uncle
and ran like this:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hN5XoCaW34[/youtube]
The car runs great and kicks *** till next fall around late October and blew up the atkins rebuild, broke the rear exhaust diffuser apart and it was rattling around in the port along with cracked housings around the sparkplugs.
I part out the motor to fund me buying a running S5 NA motor along with some other misc rx7 parts
my closet turned into an engine \\\'build\\\' room, painted some stuff before dropping it in
and if your eye is good enough you can catch the solid mounts dangling on the passenger side... but there are also made solid trans mounts which was free because I had yet another friend who machined them for me for a 6 pack of beer
engine bay gets painted to match the rest of the car, very few blue is left...
ceramic coated the header before dropping it in, keep the heat in where you want it.
10-06-10, 06:34 PM
#3
So now I have measured and cleaned a bunch of good condition stock parts, I have a full set of FD corner seals, and about 1.5-3 sets of in spec corner and side seals as well as a few in spec oil control ring carriers.
I have my RA o-ring kit aka soft seals
so with the good housings in the build I cleaned and sandblasted them, there was nearly no visible wear and the motor pulled from had several water jackets busted on the rear iron and both sides of the center iron. Motor made about 78psi on all faces still. shocking.
then primed them with ceramic high heat stuff
and painted them!
but I forgot to take a picture but its a ceramic high heat paint with a bright blue (an ode to the car that was originally blue)
current engine build specs:
pineapple racing large streetport intake/exhaust
s5 irons
s4 housings
s5 rotors
FD corner seal springs
RA 2mm Classic Apex Seals (maybe even seal springs too)
gasket/port matched intake manifold
P&P Throttle body
AL Flywheel
Premix
FD S6 Alt
Turbo exhaust inserts
you all know what that is
its porting templates!
so I got more practice lapping and began practice porting, fun mistakes happened and etc.
looks like this:
and the housings are now painted!
front cover is primed and I sanded off the 13b mazda on the housings, looks cool.
thats the engine build table, so thats what the engine will look like, black and blue sandwich plates
soft seals for rebuild from rotary aviation (more aircraft grade RE stuff)
and the good/reusable hard seals/springs, rotary aviation apex seals
there is an excess of seals and springs and within spec from tearing down sooo many motors.
I should probably just build a 2nd motor....
(half bridgy mayhaps?)
I have my RA o-ring kit aka soft seals
so with the good housings in the build I cleaned and sandblasted them, there was nearly no visible wear and the motor pulled from had several water jackets busted on the rear iron and both sides of the center iron. Motor made about 78psi on all faces still. shocking.
then primed them with ceramic high heat stuff
and painted them!
but I forgot to take a picture but its a ceramic high heat paint with a bright blue (an ode to the car that was originally blue)
current engine build specs:
pineapple racing large streetport intake/exhaust
s5 irons
s4 housings
s5 rotors
FD corner seal springs
RA 2mm Classic Apex Seals (maybe even seal springs too)
gasket/port matched intake manifold
P&P Throttle body
AL Flywheel
Premix
FD S6 Alt
Turbo exhaust inserts
you all know what that is
its porting templates!
so I got more practice lapping and began practice porting, fun mistakes happened and etc.
looks like this:
and the housings are now painted!
front cover is primed and I sanded off the 13b mazda on the housings, looks cool.
thats the engine build table, so thats what the engine will look like, black and blue sandwich plates
soft seals for rebuild from rotary aviation (more aircraft grade RE stuff)
and the good/reusable hard seals/springs, rotary aviation apex seals
there is an excess of seals and springs and within spec from tearing down sooo many motors.
I should probably just build a 2nd motor....
(half bridgy mayhaps?)
10-06-10, 06:47 PM
#4
ported the exhaust housings and put in turbo exhaust inserts, nice and flow friendly
ported vs stock port with the inserts out
cleaned up, inserts in
much better than this:
they put those in the NA ones for noise suppression, more like exhaust restriction...
megasquirt is on the way as well as some rebuild gaskets.
spring break 2010~!
(my room/engine initial assembly room)
fully assembled in the kitchen/living room (small place)
and yes my roommates and I like to party...
Megasquirt2 vb3 w/ goodies for ignition and fuel? hrmmmm okay lets give it a shot
but the engine is in the car mounted up fluid filled and etc.
but the body harness is shot which makes things impossible at times...
so with coincidentally I needed a new gauge cluster I decided to finish the wood theme...
Fuel level, h20 temp, oil pressure, tach, wideband. (KISS - keep it stoopid simple)
sicc, right? I thought so :P GO WOOD OR GO HOME LOL!
ported vs stock port with the inserts out
cleaned up, inserts in
much better than this:
they put those in the NA ones for noise suppression, more like exhaust restriction...
megasquirt is on the way as well as some rebuild gaskets.
spring break 2010~!
(my room/engine initial assembly room)
fully assembled in the kitchen/living room (small place)
and yes my roommates and I like to party...
Megasquirt2 vb3 w/ goodies for ignition and fuel? hrmmmm okay lets give it a shot
but the engine is in the car mounted up fluid filled and etc.
but the body harness is shot which makes things impossible at times...
so with coincidentally I needed a new gauge cluster I decided to finish the wood theme...
Fuel level, h20 temp, oil pressure, tach, wideband. (KISS - keep it stoopid simple)
sicc, right? I thought so :P GO WOOD OR GO HOME LOL!
10-06-10, 07:09 PM
#6
long story short I have a history of bad luck with electronics so I decided to go this route instead. (and STILL with a bad body harness)
Mikuni 44 PHH racing carb
current engine bay:
current driving condition of rally vehicle.
2 KC 100W spotters and 2 KC 100W fogs, turns night into day and makes it seem that God is coming down your street.
next step/pre ice racing season work:
turbo drivetrain and brake swap from this donor car:
BEFORE-ish
AFTER
powder coating rear suspension, powdercoating front LCAs, powdercoating rear wheel uprights, reinforce diff, poly suspension/diff bushings.
started on it already but I have ALOT more work to do including replace bearings/bushings:
mount studded snow tires on factory turbo wheels
(pics soon to come)
but most importantly REWIRE CHASSIS! clean up the gawdy engine bay wiring as well as remove the useless wires that are in the car doing nothing.
its nice to save money when you know how to do everything but it sucks how much time it takes up...
I have uploaded photos of events I take this car to on this site:
https://www.rx7club.com/members/fidelity101-69042-albums-rallyrx7-1946/
Mikuni 44 PHH racing carb
current engine bay:
current driving condition of rally vehicle.
2 KC 100W spotters and 2 KC 100W fogs, turns night into day and makes it seem that God is coming down your street.
next step/pre ice racing season work:
turbo drivetrain and brake swap from this donor car:
BEFORE-ish
AFTER
powder coating rear suspension, powdercoating front LCAs, powdercoating rear wheel uprights, reinforce diff, poly suspension/diff bushings.
started on it already but I have ALOT more work to do including replace bearings/bushings:
mount studded snow tires on factory turbo wheels
(pics soon to come)
but most importantly REWIRE CHASSIS! clean up the gawdy engine bay wiring as well as remove the useless wires that are in the car doing nothing.
its nice to save money when you know how to do everything but it sucks how much time it takes up...
I have uploaded photos of events I take this car to on this site:
https://www.rx7club.com/members/fidelity101-69042-albums-rallyrx7-1946/
Trending Topics
10-06-10, 07:26 PM
#8
besides, I thought this was rx7club.com not 240sxclub.com
the rear suspension lower control arms make great for gravel traction, very predictable.
I'm sorry I cant afford to put a fancy 3rd gen rear suspension in it but I'm driving the **** out of anyways.
regardless, I didn't plan on making this a rally car when I sold my s13, I just really wanted to get into rotary so I figured a base model s4 NA would be a good place to start.
10-07-10, 11:36 AM
#14
no worries!
I still kinda miss my s13, it was a fun car.
I wanna buy another one and V8 it, I could never do that to an Rx
Michigan. I aim for stage rally within 5 to 10 year frame (thinking realistically) since I still need my racing license for rally america aka rally car now (gehy)
I just do Rallycross through SCCA and I live 5 miles away from ice racing in the winter. didn't have the engine ready in winter (was still acquiring parts) so I wail'd on my DD
I'd just like to compete in sno*drift and LSPR
a whopping 150hp audi wagon:
but awd is nice...
teaser "rally" video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovOBYsoXZdI[/youtube]
more of a test mounting and etc with the camera, better videos to come soon.
I still kinda miss my s13, it was a fun car.
I wanna buy another one and V8 it, I could never do that to an Rx
Michigan. I aim for stage rally within 5 to 10 year frame (thinking realistically) since I still need my racing license for rally america aka rally car now (gehy)
I just do Rallycross through SCCA and I live 5 miles away from ice racing in the winter. didn't have the engine ready in winter (was still acquiring parts) so I wail'd on my DD
I'd just like to compete in sno*drift and LSPR
a whopping 150hp audi wagon:
but awd is nice...
teaser "rally" video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovOBYsoXZdI[/youtube]
more of a test mounting and etc with the camera, better videos to come soon.
10-07-10, 08:22 PM
#19
You can use virtually any 5" light with the CF bezel. I have no idea who makes it.
yeah I need more brap so I may mount the other go pro behind the exhaust and use that engine note for the audio for the frontal camera video.
that and not mount it on the hood, the fastest I hit was prob 60 in the vid, better one to come.
I keep getting questions about the lights and I will get a close up pick later but...
I paid 350 dollars for that light assembly with 5 15x6" 5x114.3 wheels with worn *** gravel falken azenzies on them, so now I have 2 sets of tires that I get to roast(the other set being the 4 lug wheels/tires), any drift day coming up?
gotta love craigslist...
they are mounted on with 2 hood pins in the front and one custom 2 dollar home depot special made out of L brackets bent into place and screwed/bolted to the hood/fixture in the rear coming out of the vent.
the fixture itself is carbon fiber, came off a 1st gen DSM rally america car which turned into a street racer mini evo build.
there are 4 bolts with springs mounted on tabs to the bezel that you can actually adjust the angle of your lights too, its ******* professional haha.
oh and an easy way to connect them it to use a trailer hitch hookup 4 prong, wired up to toggles (more switches in center console lol) I just need a 10mm wrench to take them off the rear mount and it takes under a minute to take on and off.
no joke, working lights, REAL CF bezel, 5 wheels/tires for 350. I knew I would have regretted not buying them so I did.
I also want to go to the drag strip and see what I run, even though I have my raised springs on I still have new shocks, I want to aim for a 14.5 in the 1/4 the car got lighter since last time, better suspension/tires/power/skill so I think I can do pretty good. If I was a better driver I could have hit 15.0 in the 1/4 last time.
that and not mount it on the hood, the fastest I hit was prob 60 in the vid, better one to come.
I keep getting questions about the lights and I will get a close up pick later but...
I paid 350 dollars for that light assembly with 5 15x6" 5x114.3 wheels with worn *** gravel falken azenzies on them, so now I have 2 sets of tires that I get to roast(the other set being the 4 lug wheels/tires), any drift day coming up?
gotta love craigslist...
they are mounted on with 2 hood pins in the front and one custom 2 dollar home depot special made out of L brackets bent into place and screwed/bolted to the hood/fixture in the rear coming out of the vent.
the fixture itself is carbon fiber, came off a 1st gen DSM rally america car which turned into a street racer mini evo build.
there are 4 bolts with springs mounted on tabs to the bezel that you can actually adjust the angle of your lights too, its ******* professional haha.
oh and an easy way to connect them it to use a trailer hitch hookup 4 prong, wired up to toggles (more switches in center console lol) I just need a 10mm wrench to take them off the rear mount and it takes under a minute to take on and off.
no joke, working lights, REAL CF bezel, 5 wheels/tires for 350. I knew I would have regretted not buying them so I did.
I also want to go to the drag strip and see what I run, even though I have my raised springs on I still have new shocks, I want to aim for a 14.5 in the 1/4 the car got lighter since last time, better suspension/tires/power/skill so I think I can do pretty good. If I was a better driver I could have hit 15.0 in the 1/4 last time.
10-07-10, 08:32 PM
#20
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I'm actually really interested in the parts, what exactly did you use for the light assembly brand wise, where could I get one?
My brand of choice would end up being Hella. Could you please send me the information on the light setup, I am really interested in it.
My brand of choice would end up being Hella. Could you please send me the information on the light setup, I am really interested in it.
10-07-10, 09:42 PM
#22
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very nice man!! i love it. but what did you do to teh suspension to make it driveable on gravel? i took mine on the gravel and anything over 25 felt like it was gunna rattle the car apart!!
10-07-10, 09:55 PM
#24
front is set at 3/4 and the rear is set 4/8
still rattles a bit but thats more because your driving over lots of rocks, the smoother the surface the less it needs the softness.
I have adjustible mazdatrix endlinks all around and a front strut tower bar but I have not installed them waiting till I do the drivetrain swap and I need an upper rear. but I'm a bit afraid that it will make it too stiff for off road because of the flex in the chassis when navigating bumps and dips and ruts.
