Jared's RB-7
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Hello,
I suppose since this is official "day one" of me actually making an attempt to do this swap I should probably start documenting my progress. I had recently come to a stopping point with my '69 510 that I had been working on for the last year and apparently the word had gotten out that I was bored and needed a new project. I received a random text that there was an FC chassis a friend of a friend was trying to get rid of and was free for the taking. Myself being a Subaru and Datsun guy (weird mix I know) I was skeptical about the idea of a Mazda yet very excited about the idea of another obscure project. I decided to go take a look at it and upon arrival I realized that it was overall pretty clean. Additionally, the interior and engine were removed to include all four rotten tires, which wasn't really an issue. We bomb back over to my house and grab my spares and swap out the wheels. Shortly after, a phone call was made to the local towing company and the RX-7 was picked up and on its way to its new home. Attachment 615698 A couple days went by and I was contemplating on what engine to put in this beauty. I tossed around the idea of a LS, which bored me and I mildly entertained the JZ craze, but again didn't excite me by the unavailability of a decent transmission and commonality of the engines these days. I then decided that it needed something a bit more interesting and felt the desire to dive into some uncharted territory. I knew of an RB25DET swap in a S30 that was potentially for sale, so I called the friend and made an offer on the swap. To my surprise, the offer was accepted and another phone call I had a truck lined up to seal the deal. After I got the engine home and got it set up appropriately on a stand, I stripped all the stuff I assumed I wouldn't be needing and made an overall assessment of the purchase. Attachment 615699 |
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I was able to fit the engine in after work on Friday. I was able to use the Engine Hoist and a Transmission Jack to wiggle and shimmy the engine and transmission into the appropriate location. Surprisingly, the engine fit a lot better than I anticipated. I carefully rested the engine on the powerstering rack and crossmember just to get an idea of what I needed to move around. The mounts that came with the swap were installed to get an idea of what I was working with.
Attachment 615690 Attachment 615691 The following day, with the help of my good friend Clint, the car was raised up and measurements were taken to find the center of the engine and then held in place. A couple sections of DOM Tubing was bent in 90* towards the end and a couple other pieces notched. His Shopping Cart Tube Bender and Notcher suit the job very well. Attachment 615692 3/16” Mild Steel was then cut and bent in various shapes to make the engine mount pedestals. The provided Engine mounts already had the bolt pattern, so of course those were also utilized. I didn't have a plasma cutter, so I had to revert to the basics and use a DA Grinder to cut the plate steel and a Jig saw, yes a Jig saw for the engine mount to crossmember sections. Keep in mid that this is all just tacked in and there is quite a bit of cleaning up to do to include the welding. Attachment 615693 Attachment 615694 In the end, this is the addition to the crossmember that was created and I think it will do just fine. I was able to install the steering rack prior to removing the engine all of the way. I will need to lower the rack about 1” and it looks like the steering rod assembly should have no problem clearing the mounting assembly that was made. Attachment 615695 Attachment 615696 Attachment 615697 |
Interested to see how this goes. Looks like a solid start.
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So far the Engine has been fitted with the correct aesthetically desirable 13* angle. An added benefit is that the Transmission sits properly upright in the tunnel with the engine slanted as normal.
Also, a rendering of the RB-7 has been mocked up. Ideally, this is the direction that I intend to take the vehicle. Attachment 615045 I have been working with a couple people so far in terms of getting support with the build. I have received an intake plenum, throttle body and fuel rail from Plazmaman. The quality of work with these parts is literally insane. I did a little test fitting with the manifold on the engine while mounted and there is plenty of clearance between the plenum and the shock tower. Attachment 615046 |
this is pretty interesting
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More pics of the manifold and fuel rail I failed to post yesterday:
Attachment 614988 Attachment 614989 Attachment 614990 Attachment 614991 I also did a little test fitting to see how much clearance I have when the engine is sitting in the RB-7 with the Plazmaman Manifold. It looks like I still will be able to tub the wheel wells. Attachment 614992 Attachment 614993 |
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I would like to give a big shout out to Chris over at Natural Aspirations. He has been a crazy amount of help with this build so far. In the past he has offered guidance for the CA18DET powered 510 I built in addition to tuning the vehicle with Nistune. So far, Chris has facilitated the purchase of a 6262 Comp Turbo that is to come with a Billet wheel, Billet center section and triple ceramic ball bearings. Additionally, Five o 1200 cc injectors will fuel the fire. The supporting Waste Gate and BOV are by Turbonetics. Here is a pic of the Wastegate and BOV. Photos of the injectors and Turbo to come…
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I was messing around with bend tech software this weekend and was able to come up with a roll cage design that should do the trick to facilitate amateur hour on the slide track. The software is pretty neat; the ability to print off a master materials list, cut and angle steps to include templates are all available in .pdf format after the export is complete. The dimensions are close, but not final. I will do another verification prior to actually cutting and bending. If all goes well I should be able to start in the next week or so. The tubing will be .090 1.5” 1025 Mild Steel.
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Below are pictures of the Comp Turbo, Injectors, BOV and EWG that will be used in this build.
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Nice photos man... Oh, and sweet build too!
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Originally Posted by S2-13BT
(Post 12038516)
Nice photos man... Oh, and sweet build too!
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I recently started working on the roll cage over the weekend. I used .095 DOM to fill the cabin to include mocking up the sparco seats an S13 dash. The lower bar naturally wont be there, but it is keeping the upright portion vertical while the floor plates and boxes are being installed. “A” and “B” pillar dimple die gussets, door bars and rear bracing is coming up next and then it’s onto the tubed front end.
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dude what are you doing. that dash. reminds me of a gallardo
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Originally Posted by lastphaseofthis
(Post 12047813)
dude what are you doing. that dash. reminds me of a gallardo
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I have been away for a bit due to work, but I had a couple days over the last couple weekends to catch back up.
I was able to get 90% of the roll cage finished up. It is all tacked in place except for the halo to front drop down bars, which are fully welded. The four corners are boxed in with 1/8” plate steel. It took a couple bars to get the symmetrical offset from A pillar to rear halo while keeping close to the roof line. I still need to install the upper door bars with vertical mounts, gussets along the A pillar, door bars and rear halo. Attachment 612236 Attachment 612237 Attachment 612238 I also thought it would be a good idea to cut off the front endo for a tube front end. I was pretty surprised as to how much the removed sections weighed. Attachment 612239 Attachment 612240 The floor pans were cleaned up in the cabin and in addition to mounting a wilwood reverse swing pedal mount. A speedway steering column was also mounted into the cabin via the roll cage horizontal bash bar. Attachment 612241 I then was able to make some tabs along the lower windshield area and installed some nutserts to properly mount the dash. I had to trim a little out for the drop down bars on the cage. Overall I feel the dash fits pretty good to include the steering column and wheel placement. Attachment 612242 |
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I stuck the front fenders back on along with the stock bumper to see what kind of clearance I have. Look like there is enough for a intercooler and radiator.
Attachment 611700 I had some scrap DOM tubing laying around, so I used an existing 90*, measured and added a 15* offset to account for the front fender line that comes forward off of the shock tower. Attachment 611701 Passenger side Attachment 611702 I need to run the stock headlights, so I extended it far enough so that I can still use the classy pop up lights. Attachment 611703 The wheels also arrived this weekend. Sponsorship support by Cosmis provided wheels in 18x11 +8 and 18x9.5 +10 Attachment 611704 Fitting four wheels with tires in a Datsun 510 is pretty interesting. Attachment 611705 Mounted and ready for installation Attachment 611706 Goals this weekend included over fenders, brakes, axles, wheels. BC Coilovers showed their support by building a full custom set of custom valved coilovers for the RB-7 Attachment 611707 Cutting out the rear with a angle grinder, which was followed by a lot of hammering the under metal up, welding and seam sealing before the over fenders were installed. Attachment 611708 Back to the Future Attachment 611709 Here is ol @vaderwerks on IG exercising his talent with black caulk Attachment 611710 Pre riveting of the over fenders Attachment 611714 |
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I hung the comp 6262 turbo yesterday. I might actually stick it behind the strut tower for a more equal length.
Attachment 611632 Attachment 611633 The turbo is as big as Devins head. Attachment 611634 |
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Today I worked on the engine mounts and converted them to an enclosed type. A new transmission mount was made and a spherical steering shaft mount was welded to the firewall. Its nice to have full steering now. Easy on the welding judgment… Ha Ha I am workin with what I have.
Attachment 611629 I also started filing in the cross member and getting the steering rack mounted properly. The intent is to seal up the firewall and finish welding in the cage tomorrow. Attachment 611630 Attachment 611631 |
Subbed for this sexy thing.. cant wait to see it done!
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I decided to paint the car this weekend so I can get the windshield on and start the wiring and plumbing portion. I still have a ton of stuff to do like mount the radiator and intercooler along with figuring out what to do about the manifold situation.
Here are a couple photos of the prep and paint portion. Five cans of primer and three quarts of the finest of rustolium gloss white were applied with a Harbor Freight HLPV spray gun. In the end, its at 20' or 20 mph the "race cars" all look good, right? Attachment 611310 Attachment 611311 Attachment 611312 Attachment 611313 Attachment 611314 Attachment 611315 Attachment 611316 Attachment 611317 |
this looks so good.. makes me want to pull the rb out of my buddys 240sx and put it in my FC
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This weekend I mocked up the Radiator and the Intercooler. Both parts were provided by Mishimoto, which I am blessed to have been provided a sponsorship. The radiator is a dual row and the Intercooler apparently flows 1250 CFM, so we will see how they do in the near future.
Attachment 611016 Attachment 611017 Attachment 611018 Attachment 611019 Attachment 611020 Attachment 611021 Attachment 611022 Dash, handbrake and tentative switch panel was installed along with brakes and rotors. Attachment 611023 Attachment 611024 I also installed BC Racings custom built coilovers on the RB-7. I am really stoked on the sponsorship deal they were able to work out. Attachment 611025 A villans angle kit and coils make the car sit really nice now. Attachment 611026 |
what size fenders did you use in the rear?
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Awesomeness!!!!!! although it has no spinny triangles a good build is a good build, Nice work! I live a town over from those Villans dudes and had the chance to meet Nate and Jason last year. Solid dudes, and their company seems to be making nice stuff.
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Originally Posted by Cuzzynz
(Post 12077699)
what size fenders did you use in the rear?
Originally Posted by 13bREW
(Post 12077741)
Awesomeness!!!!!! although it has no spinny triangles a good build is a good build, Nice work! I live a town over from those Villans dudes and had the chance to meet Nate and Jason last year. Solid dudes, and their company seems to be making nice stuff.
Yea, Nate and the villains crew make some rad stuff and the customer service is on point too. The knuckles I got for instance were modified very nicely and the paint they used was of good quality. The machined LCA extensions were of great construction and accuracy to include the hardware. |
Man brotha I'm jelly of the ebrake setup . Lovin the build man . Keep it coming
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Originally Posted by unek87
(Post 12078345)
Man brotha I'm jelly of the ebrake setup . Lovin the build man . Keep it coming
If you are looking to get one, twistedimages on IG makes them. |
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A little update to what has been done… My schedule has been insane lately, but I have been making attempts to keep hammering away at this car to completion. I have wiring, plumbing and some minor aesthetics until the car is able to fire… At least I keep telling myself that.
Ok, so my good friend Gino, owner of vaderwerks vinyl co., stopped by with some neat stickers to put on the car to aid in brand representation for the sweet parts I have been getting for the build. Attachment 610779 Attachment 610780 Attachment 610781 Attachment 610782 Attachment 610783 Also, I found that the OBX manifold fits extremely well. The way the plumbing on the manifold couldn’t have been any better, which was desired due to the engine mounts on this engine. Also, in addition to the amazing price on these manifolds, they have a lifetime warranty. I think that’s pretty rad! One thing I will have to do is drill all the holes maybe 1/16” bigger and weld on a new EWG flange. Overall, fitment is pretty spot on! Attachment 610784 Attachment 610785 Attachment 610786 |
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Over the weekend I dove into the project of mounting the racepak and haltech pro platinum ECU I got through Chris at Natural Aspirations. I also started figuring out what to do with some of this wiring, but I will post pictures later about that. I used the mounting plate that was included. I used a couple pieces of flat stock and riveted it to the bottom of the plate and added the ¼” ABS contour cut section to the front using a 90 degree bent piece of flat stock. More photos of the mounting assembly if anyone is interested… Anyways, here is the end result.
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Today I was fortunate enough to be able to break away from my normal schedule and work on the car a bit today. I wanted to get the manifold to mount up a little better and retrofit the correct external waste gate flange and further get a dump tube fabricated. Sean over at Empire Fabrication really hooked me up with getting this whole external waste gate setup sorted out. He cut the existing oversized flange and fabricated a 50mm dump tube for the waste gate. The welds, height and placement couldn’t have been done any better.
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I started wiring last weekend and my goodness… I didn’t realize the extent of what I am up against and it’s going to be pretty time consuming for one guy. I was able to get everything I needed to routed and in the correct direction. Also, I was able to mount the Haltech and prep for the cables to be run from the Racepak to the ECU.
Attachment 610142 Attachment 610143 Attachment 610144 Attachment 610145 Also, I welded up the head light housings last weekend to help with the wiring. The front end is growing to be more and more, but I really cannot build anything until the bumper arrives. Anyways, here is the progress: Attachment 610146 Attachment 610147 Attachment 610148 |
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Over the last week a bunch of progress was made with the car.
The two row Mishimoto radiator was replaced with a three row, which required a bit of modification to the front end. I was also able to move the Mishimoto intercooler back and down a bit to accommodate with the new radiator space requirements. With all that welding going on I figured it was a good time to install the hood pins and start the initial front chassis harness routing. The lights are now operational with the help of a friend. Blinkers, high / low beam and hazards are good to go including the brake lights. Attachment 609860 Attachment 609861 Attachment 609862 Next up to bat for the car is finalizing the engine harness, which entails a bit of housekeeping and new wiring with the added air temperature sensor and boost control solenoid for the haltech pro plug in setup. I was also able to get the -4 AN oil feed and -8 AN oil drain lines made up for the turbo in addition to running some -3 AN lines for the brakes and proportioning valve. Attachment 609863 |
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A bunch of stuff arrived for the car this weekend. A box of K&N fuel, oil filters, AEM intake filters and a bunch of AEM 3” tubing made its way to my doorstep. I can’t thank the people over at K&N enough for the opportunity to use their products on this specific car build.
Attachment 609807 Attachment 609808 I also spun over to empire fabrication in Simi this weekend to see if Sean, the owner, could school me on some fabrication. He was able to make something pretty rad from some sheet aluminum in a matter of a few minutes. Talk about talented. Here he is measuring out the Mishimoto fans and the radiator and quickly gathering ideas to run with. Attachment 609809 Here, after the break lines and overall dimensions were figured, he is shearing the material for those perfect lines. Attachment 609810 Another sweet tool over at Empire is the Pulmax. This machine was used to shear perfect circles in the material for the fans to pull air from. They turned out awesome! Attachment 609811 Here, the press break was used to create the 45* and 90* bends to fit the outsides of the Mishimoto radiator and hold the slim fans. Attachment 609812 A bit of fitment verification goin down. Attachment 609813 Lastly, here he is throwing down some dimes with his eastwood tig 200 to mount it onto the radiator. This I feel is a better design with all the vibration that is to bound happen than to bolt a shroud onto the radiator. Attachment 609814 The end product turned out awesome and with a great amount of clearance. Attachment 609815 I was also able to make a fuel pump hanger this weekend with the help of my buddy Clint. I used the stock hanger, -8 bulkhead fittings and some 5/8” straight tubing with a single flare on the end. The pump is a Bosch 040 submersible pump. I think she came out pretty nice. Attachment 609816 |
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During this week Sean from empire fabrication was kind enough to come over and work with me. We ended up turning some fancy AEM intakes straight sections and bends into front mount intercooler charge pipes. I didn’t anticipate how short these throws ended up being, but I am really excited as to how they turned out; its almost as if this RB25 engine was meant for the FC chassis. He was even able to mount the turbosmart race port BOV for me.
Misc AEM Intakes tubing parts. I failed to get a picture prior. Dude was working too fast… Attachment 609764 Sean throwin bends around to see what will work best. Attachment 609765 Looks like a 90* and a 120* are pretty much a plug and play. Those AEM tubes sure are fancy. Attachment 609766 Sean is suggesting a custom charge pipe setup here. We ended up going a different route with this side. Attachment 609767 A 120* and a 90* again look to be a perfect fit. Attachment 609768 Full Lock on the drivers side shows that there is plenty of room. Attachment 609769 Tig welding with a eastwood 200. Attachment 609770 Attachment 609771 |
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Final products of left and right.
Attachment 609757 Attachment 609758 Mounted. Attachment 609759 Attachment 609760 Attachment 609761 Attachment 609762 Attachment 609763 |
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My buddy Gino over at vaderwerks found some time and wrapped some body parts for the car for last weekend. Fenders and spats are from Shine Auto. Naturally, I was stoked to install the body parts and did so along with starting an initial shakedown for the first start.
Attachment 609611 Attachment 609612 Attachment 609613 With my friends Gino’s help, we ran all the Teflon Steel Braided Fuel lines with AN PTFE Fittings and plumbed in the Cold Start and PCV plumbing system. Attachment 609614 Attachment 609615 I ended up re-routing a lot of electrical wires, changing out the water pump, idlers, timing belt, thermostat and spark plugs. The windshield was also replaced over the weekend. Oh, here is the first start. http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...C119F860ED.mp4 |
Here is a video of the Haltech base map being cleaned up:
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Looks awesome. what numbers are looking to put down
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A video of the car that a friend, instabaeth on Instagram, made of the car over the weekend:
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I have had a bit of a break from work and got some stuff done on this beauty. Mounted Skirts, Bumper, Rear Visor and got it all one color.
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Originally Posted by Gregory Casimir
(Post 12099043)
Looks awesome. what numbers are looking to put down
Shooting for somehting around 4-500 hundo. We will see what happens when she gets on the dyno over at Natural Aspirations. |
Awesome build! but what kind of drive train setup are you running if you dont mind me asking?:blush:
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Originally Posted by 2jz86
(Post 12150208)
Awesome build! but what kind of drive train setup are you running if you dont mind me asking?:blush:
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So I took the car over to a good fired Sean who owns Empire Fabrication in Simi Valley couple days ago. We were able to knock out a turbo back exhaust and a beefy bash bar from start to finish over the course of a couple long days. The exhaust is tig welded and made of 3" Stainless Steel turbo back using Deeds Engineering CNC'd exhaust hangers, bushings, and Billet V band Clamps. I think it all came out rad. The next thing is to install the LS2 coil packs and a tune over at Natural Aspirations.
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Wow! Great build
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Inspiring build. The RB was a great idea for a swap. The car wouldve looked excellent without graphics , but I gotta say, it looks legendary and unique with them. *sniff*
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Originally Posted by Akaviri
(Post 12179605)
Inspiring build. The RB was a great idea for a swap. The car wouldve looked excellent without graphics , but I gotta say, it looks legendary and unique with them. *sniff*
On a similar note, it would be nice to make up a mount kit for those who wish to do a similar swap. There isn't one kit out for the RB to FC. |
Been following this build on Instagram for some time now, turned out real nice man!
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This is just an insane build!
For your chassis harness, did you just use like a 21 circuit painless chassis kit? If you did, does it have enough circuits to run all of the lights and rad fans, fuel pumps, as well as leftover for an interior blower motor? I haven't gone through my car yet to figure out what circuits i'm trying to protect but I am trying to get a good idea of how well that kit was able to be adapted to the FC. I need to run all the lights plus have at least a blower motor in my car in order to pass state safety inspection. Oh and if it wasn't the Painless kit, which kit did you end up going with? |
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