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I have the same power steering pump in my renesis swapped FC and it also came from a V50. Took me a second to find the darn thing on the car, they really hide them well. I think those fittings are fairly common in power steering applications and I believe they use the oring as a backup seal in case a bit gets past the flare. I've been using
on the pump as well as the power steering rack without issue. I have read that those Vovlo pumps come in different thread sizes depending on the year, so I'd double check the thread size if you do order fittings for it.
So like a few others in this forum, I tripped and fell down the rabbit hole that is finding a suitable master cylinder upgrade for the car.
Brake fluid reservoir meant for a straight and level brake master cylinder, and ideally isn't ***-ugly
lmao, yes have we met? ive been in that rabbit hole too.... i've had my eye on a 96-98 Mazda MPV master, its not ridiculous
try this link, it lets you search for stuff by attribute https://www.opticatonline.com/search...on=usa&pt=1836
i've noticed that Mazda has the same diameter for basically everything, unless it has ABS then they step it up.
the other one that has interested me is the JDM base model S5 master. its typical Mazda, in the US the S5 just kept the same master as the S4, unless its a turbo. but in Japan, they got one that LOOKS like an S5 turbo, but uses an S4 style flange, so like picture S5 tank on an S4 master. if it had ABS, it got one like our S5 turbo. the problem is that its mirror image, so the ports are on the wrong side, and its expensive!
The angled reservoir on my Subaru MC does bother me a little bit. I try not to think about it, but it bothers me that "level" on the reservoir is not true level. It also makes the spark plug wire nearest the shock tower a bit hard to remove without unbolting the coils.
I'm happy with everything else about the swap though. As much as the lines are a bit snug due to the exit on the drivers side, it lets you neatly tuck them mostly out of sight under the coils.
This Toyota option is interesting though. I'm interested to see if that pans out.
I have the same power steering pump in my renesis swapped FC and it also came from a V50. Took me a second to find the darn thing on the car, they really hide them well. I think those fittings are fairly common in power steering applications and I believe they use the oring as a backup seal in case a bit gets past the flare. I've been using these fittings on the pump as well as the power steering rack without issue. I have read that those Vovlo pumps come in different thread sizes depending on the year, so I'd double check the thread size if you do order fittings for it.
Yeah, they really hide the bastards well, took me a good minute crawling over the car. Thanks for the heads up on the fitting! I'll look into it
Originally Posted by j9fd3s
lmao, yes have we met? ive been in that rabbit hole too.... i've had my eye on a 96-98 Mazda MPV master, its not ridiculous
try this link, it lets you search for stuff by attribute https://www.opticatonline.com/search...on=usa&pt=1836
i've noticed that Mazda has the same diameter for basically everything, unless it has ABS then they step it up.
the other one that has interested me is the JDM base model S5 master. its typical Mazda, in the US the S5 just kept the same master as the S4, unless its a turbo. but in Japan, they got one that LOOKS like an S5 turbo, but uses an S4 style flange, so like picture S5 tank on an S4 master. if it had ABS, it got one like our S5 turbo. the problem is that its mirror image, so the ports are on the wrong side, and its expensive!
It's amazing how frustrating such a small thing is. I think I've spent way too much on this endeavor and probably would have had an easier time with someone just boring out the stock FC master cylinder to size...
Ironically, the mirror image puts the ports exactly where I'd like them to go, but that sounds excruciating to source
Originally Posted by WondrousBread
The angled reservoir on my Subaru MC does bother me a little bit. I try not to think about it, but it bothers me that "level" on the reservoir is not true level. It also makes the spark plug wire nearest the shock tower a bit hard to remove without unbolting the coils.
I'm happy with everything else about the swap though. As much as the lines are a bit snug due to the exit on the drivers side, it lets you neatly tuck them mostly out of sight under the coils.
This Toyota option is interesting though. I'm interested to see if that pans out.
Well have I got good news for you. Parts arrived
Box said Wagner, so it was a pleasant surprise to see Aisin markings. Perhaps they bought up old stock to resell. Fine by me, I'm going to call this effectively Toyota OEM
M10 inverted flare ports! No idea what the plugged side port is meant for but not a big deal to me. I have a Y block off a Mitsubishi Pajero or something that will resolve the front brake line matter. Although it would be mighty convenient if that plug was another M10 inverted flare port... I'll find out later. Should be working but took my lunch break to run for the package when I got the notification
I'm not going to fix what isn't broken, but as soon as I have a reason to work on the brakes again in that area I'll consider picking one of those up. Neat find!
This is going to surprise nobody, but I gave up on trying to make it to Sevenstock. I wasn't getting enough sleep, progress was inadequate, I had to compromise on things I didn't want to, and the final nail in the coffin came from a specific online vendor based in Nevada taking 2 business days to get my order out the door, at which point I found out they shipped it from Ohio and it wasn't arriving until next week. So, missed opportunity, but also that means I can go back to appeasing my fetish of bodging parts off the wrong car to fit mine. Apologies to anyone dying to see this disaster of rust and unpainted fiberglass break down at Sevenstock.
First off, no, the plug on the side of the master cylinder was not an M10 port, it's not even close.
Pictured is the Y block I mentioned. It's off a 2000-04 Mitsubishi Montero Sport. It's exceedingly tight in this area, so I'm glad this thing forks both outlets out to one side. For anyone keeping track, this setup involves:
1986-1991 Mazda RX-7 booster clevis and proportioning valve
1999-2004 Subaru Legacy brake booster
1999-2000 Lexus RX300 non-traction control brake master cylinder
1993-1996 Toyota Camry brake fluid reservoir
2000-2004 Mitsubishi Montero Sport brake fluid Y-block
Custom bent tubing between the master cylinder and proportioning valve
Custom bracket to space the proportioning valve away from the booster vacuum supply
A side note about the RX300 master cylinder - apparently there are a total of 4 master cylinders for this generation (99-03). Starting in 2001, they switched the design to where there is only 1 master cylinder (maybe traction control became standard?) but it's different from either master cylinder available from 99-00. It has a pair of M10 inverted flare ports in the same spots, but it looks like the plug is gone, the side port is at a different angle, and the pushrod depth is different. It's probably also usable for the RX7. Then in 2003, it changed again with a rod going into the booster instead of the other way around, which likely makes it useless for mating up to the Subaru booster. Small wonder I managed to just stumble upon the one I did.
And yet another side note about the Camry reservoir: Originally, I had a 1997-2001 Camry reservoir on the setup, but I couldn't find an off-the-shelf replacement. What I ended up buying was a reservoir from a 1993-1996 Camry, which looks completely identical and uses the same fluid level sensor and connector. I don't know what the difference is, but both bolt up to the RX300 reservoir without issue, use the same fluid level sensor connector, and look identical, so I don't really care to find out.
Also, the stupid brake fluid level sensor connector. I thought this was going to be a walk in the park, but it seems like the part number was banished off the face of the Earth. Here it is: Sumitomo 6189-0493 (Toyota P/N 90980-11207)
All you're going to get is a bunch of Alibaba results on Google, so no thanks. According to the Toyota wiring repair reference, it uses "2.3II" terminals, so I bought a set of Yazaki 090II terminals. They fit. The OEM Toyotas are also stamped with Yazaki's logo, so no sweat off my brow over the mismatch of brands. I'm just going to recycle the damn connector body and move on in life
For the power steering arrangement, I abandoned the Volvo pump in favor of the Mazda 3 unit j9fd3s mentioned in a different thread. Part of the reason I wanted to switch was due to the potential fluid incompatibility, but after scratching my head endlessly over where to put the damn pump, I decided I wanted it in the storage bin behind the driver. Knowing I was going to need a ton of fluid for the 10 foot lines, I looked up how much a gallon of CHF11S was compared to Dexron III. I decided the price difference was enough to warrant buying yet ANOTHER pump from the junkyard.
This is off a 2004-2009 Mazda 3 and takes Dexron III ATF thankfully, so cheaper fluid and no incompatibility issues with the RX7's rack seals. The later year Mazda 3 and Mazda 5 pumps are pretty much identical, although specifically with the later year Mazda 3's the number of wired connections is different. These pumps are very comparable in size and weight to the Volvo units, but the overall height stack up is absolutely atrocious. There was no way this was going to fit in the bin as is, and I toyed with swapping over the Volvo reservoir, finagling the hoses, etc. Time for yet another pump? The MR-S pump was looking increasingly attractive given the pump reservoir was a single unit instead of the remote arrangement on the Volvo and Mazda units, but there weren't any MR-S's in the yards near me and people on eBay want a fortune for them. I looked to see if there were other designs of reservoir for the Mazda/Koyo unit to swap over, but couldn't really find anything. In the process of doing so, I stumbled on the 2012-2017 Dodge Charger pump:
It's pretty much a nearly identical pump on its side. The bolt pattern for the reservoir looks suspiciously similar to the Mazda's, but I could also just....
Viola, it fits the bin miraculously. And with the battery relocation being in the neighboring bin, the run of monster 8 gauge wire required to feed the pump doesn't have to be too long. It will be annoying as hell to access those plugs with them being at the bottom, but this is about the best I can do from recycling other people's trash.
Now, taking inspiration from Chrysler is a surefire way to inherit Chrysler reliability, but with the bottom of the remote reservoir above the pump and the return also being clocked vertically, I don't really see a reason the pump would have a fit about this. That being said, might as well see if there was any reason the Chrysler pumps got recalled...
I... Go figure. The pumps didn't fail, but they will apparently set the alternators on fire. Lovely.
For the electrical connectors, they are the following:
Smaller 4-pin: Yazaki YESC 1.5, female 4-pin 2 row Type A (Body P/N: 7283-5543-10 - this was from an old catalog, so this P/N might be superseded already. I wouldn't know because Yazaki's website is complete garbage)
For your standard install, you don't need anything outside of the big 2-pin, smaller 6-pin, 2 x 9.5mm terminals, 1 x 1.5mm terminal, and several YESC 1.5 blanking plugs. I opted to get everything because I think getting the speed sensitive response working would be a giant headache I'm willing to experience. In future. Not now.
Last Mazda pump related tidbit: the pump outlet is an M14x1.5. It also looks like that O-ring'd power steering specific fitting, but I haven't verified because the stock Mazda application uses a banjo bolt instead.
For the Volvo pump, I didn't investigate it too far after I decided to switch pumps, but the giant 2-pin is an Aptiv (FCI) DCS 9.5 and the 6-pin I have no idea. It's a Yazaki design, and the bizarre oval wire seals lead me to believe it's part of the SSD family or tangent to it.
Last edited by pzr2; 11-04-22 at 07:40 PM.
Reason: missing info
I also jumped ship from the Taurus to the Contour/Mystique 3G alternator because the mounting of the Taurus was starting to present more headaches than the financial pain of getting another alternator. By the way, don't fall into the same trap I did. You're specifically looking for 93-97, not 98-99 despite it being the same generation. 98-99 they switched to the 6G alternator design, which is computer controlled or something, and I haven't researched how you would make that work on our dumb-as-bricks charging systems. Would be cool if I could given they only use 2 wires, a TE Econoseal J that would match the rest of the car better, and doesn't need the weird 1-pin connector I still can't find. Speaking of, it also gave me the opportunity to validate my recommendation all those years ago for what the electrical connectors were:
The 3 pin is a TE 282545-1, and the 1 pin I only know of a pigtail, Pico 5747PT. Stud is 6mm so you can probably fit most 1/4" lugs on there.
Right now I have 2 stock FC alternator mount spacers and a standard M10 washer in there and it's not quite enough yet. I'll figure out the exact spacer dimensions once I've 100% got the pulley spacing figured out.
Speaking of... I'm not too happy with the one I bought. I'm going to have to have this one lathe'd to fit. Didn't realize my alternator had the inner lip that would cause problems. Strongly considering making a replacement out of aluminum in the future.
Last scrap goblin related adventure, I started attempting to fit the Nissan Quest/Mercury Villager fan I've had for ages. I forgot to get a picture of it before I started hacking, so here's a stock photo of one:
It's really close in dimensions to the RX7's radiator in size, so it would have been ideal if I just cut it to fit. But between not being able to envision a neat way to cut the shroud to fit and knowing these fans work better with a bit of extra space from the core, I looked to see if I could somehow recycle the original RX7 fan shroud. Frighteningly, one of the outer diameters matched almost perfectly with the RX7's fan shroud so I abandoned all caution and started mutilating it.
Hopefully that gives an idea of what I'm trying to do. Will update when I've figured everything else out and document it.
Also, I tried 3D printing some interior bits. Complete brain fart forgetting the ash tray, oh well.
Prints were done fast and shitty because I am apparently bad at measuring and I always have to make fitment prototypes out of PLA. The real one will be made of ABS and hopefully won't look like hot garbage.
OK serious answer, I've been extremely busy with many other things. The main distraction is that a friend and I are trying to setup a machine shop for both supplementary income and access to machinery for our other projects. We picked up a Tormach 1100MX against literally every other machinist friend/past coworkers' suggestions, and all the assembly and configuration has been both expensive and confusing. Tormach really needs to hire more competent people for their instruction manuals.
Also spending a lot of time on small QoL knick knacks along the way
Main thing that should come out of this is being able to CNC brackets, mounts, adapters, and whatever other things I might need for the RX7 to finish it. Example:
I finally got the pulley back relieved on a lathe to fit the Contour alternator. Also turned some spacers to locate the alternator on the water pump housing. The next step is to get a tensioner bracket, and while I originally planned on adapting a 91-ish Toyota Camry alternator bracket to work, I'm thinking it'd be less headache to just mill something from scratch.
The other thing I've been cooking up is that fan shroud. I attached it to an aluminum strap as my first attempt, but boy is it fugly. Also doesnt really clear enough yet on the test jig (AKA the other car I'm procrastinating working on). I need to do some more trimming and come up with a better strategy of affixing them together. I would like to hot air plastic weld them together, sand the joints, and paint it, but have no idea if nylon, let alone glass filled nylon, plays nice with that type of welding.
Last disjointed note is I finally got my hands on the P/N of electrical connector I thought was used on the brake fluid level sensor on the Toyota reservoir. Turns out I made the classic goof of not checking the keying. It's Sumitomo 6189-0321 / Toyota 90980-11207. Handily enough, Corsa Technic just started carrying that P/N. Sometimes I get paranoid their employees live in my walls.
That's about everything. The car has mostly been languishing in my garage while I'm at the shop. As a bonus, heres some sort of vintage automotive engineering magazine set I picked up from an online auction as a late birthday gift to myself. I suspected it might have something on the FC from the issue year range and was right
Tormachs are an OK machine. The machine I've build it similar sized to the 1100 series they offer, and there isn't a whole lot I can't do on it. You'll be super happy you got the ATC option if you're planning on doing any type of production work. I'm assuming you're using Fusion360 for your CAD/CAM?
Tormachs are an OK machine. The machine I've build it similar sized to the 1100 series they offer, and there isn't a whole lot I can't do on it. You'll be super happy you got the ATC option if you're planning on doing any type of production work. I'm assuming you're using Fusion360 for your CAD/CAM?
Yeah, I realize we did go into Tormach ownership with some pessimism over the quality of machine we'd be getting, and setup/assembly hasn't really assuaged any of that. But I can also recognize it's more than capable of getting done what we're looking for and it fits our circumstantial constraints (price, availability, being able to squeeze it through a standard door opening, ceiling height, power draw, footprint, etc.). With any luck, it'll get to a point where it will pay for itself, which might free up the budget enough to get a bigger shop for more capable machines. I still have that Yang lathe collecting dust in the back of my garage that I'd eventually like to put to use.
And yes, we do use Fusion 360 for CAM. I don't have a lot of patience for it as a CAD program though, so if I can, I'll go home to use Solidworks. I know the main gripe people have with Fusion 360 is how it handles assemblies, but as a manufacturing engineer, the way Fusion 360 handles revisions, document control, and engineering drawings drive me up a wall.
I'm a solidworks guy myself, and I'm pretty keen on the CAM they offer standard with the base lisense. It's all based on the HSMWorks software, which I believe is what Fusion now uses as well. Suffice to say, if you were interested in jumping into solidworks CAM, it should be quite comforatable for you if you're used to Fusion. I can't say I've delt much with Fusion outside of the parmatric modeling, nor do I plan on it. haha.
Let me know if you need any tooling. I've built up a colection over the years, and would be happy to share the wealth. We all know the machine is the cheap part of starting a functioning shop .
I'm a solidworks guy myself, and I'm pretty keen on the CAM they offer standard with the base lisense. It's all based on the HSMWorks software, which I believe is what Fusion now uses as well. Suffice to say, if you were interested in jumping into solidworks CAM, it should be quite comforatable for you if you're used to Fusion. I can't say I've delt much with Fusion outside of the parmatric modeling, nor do I plan on it. haha.
Let me know if you need any tooling. I've built up a colection over the years, and would be happy to share the wealth. We all know the machine is the cheap part of starting a functioning shop .
Hahaha... yeah...
Machine's been operational for barely a couple days and there's already a couple chunks of carbide in the idiot bucket. I appreciate the offer but I already felt terrible blowing up my friend's end mill. I think I would just give up on life if I destroyed something I borrowed from you
That being said, at least it has had zero problems chopping up aluminum. Made a sample piece for the shop next door that's expressed interest in us making parts for them. Excited to make parts for my RX7 eventually!
Hahaha... I was hoping I was going to fly under the radar for a little while longer. That little throwaway comment of "hopefully have the machine pay for itself and the shop rent" has consumed my life for the past couple months. Getting up to speed with all the business, legal, operational paperwork, and relentless canvassing for work has been something of a full time job. It's evolved into a desire to make this the full time job for both my business partner and I, so we're taking it very seriously. We had a production run of some customer parts and have more on the way, which is good news, but has also torn me from the RX7. I don't anticipate this will let up any time soon, especially with us having to scramble to find a new shop space before the lease is up, but we were slated to have a gap where I could slip in some parts I had sitting in queue meant for this project. Then I might have had some physical parts to show for it besides cad models, but this will have to do for now.
Don't take the janky geometry of that last one too seriously, I'm still trying to work out how that one should look before solidifying the design.
The black Turbo-II is on the precipice of being evicted from its current storage space, so all its parts have been dumped at my garage wherever they will fit. That's been a factor discouraging me from working on this project (the arctic silver car I mean - it gets really confusing when you have 3 of the same car), but the shop relocation will present a new opportunity to make things happen. The current plan is to settle into a lease with as much space as we anticipate needing for the duration of that lease (~3 years), so I'd like to put this car in the unused space. I've expressed a desire to make and sell RX7 parts to my business partner, so it's purpose there would be a "test fit jig", which will definitely be true, but secondarily a perfect opportunity to shore up the pipeline of measurements on car->cad->cam->machining->deburr->inspection->install. Given how much other crap I have to do with running the machine shop, I don't think I'll have the time to work on the car between pressing cycle start during production runs, but it certainly doesn't hurt to have the car only 100 feet away after the day's work is done. If I'm not able to work out an arrangement where the car can be at the shop, at least I'll reclaim all the space the CNC lathe and manual mill is taking at my home garage once they're moved to the shop. Either way, I'm hoping to have more of an actual update in a month's time.
Bit later than I expected to check in, but not going to lie, closer to midnight each day is probably going to be the norm rather than the exception.
To fill in the gap since the last post, it's been full steam ahead with the machine shop venture. Quite a few random, odd jobs to keep busy with, complicated by trying to not have the Tormach screw up said odd jobs from being the limpest noodle of a machine.
I had also dabbled with printing some fit check pieces and started a coil-on-plug conversion for the Civic to see if that would resolve its latest propensity to not start, but I wound up absolutely clotheslined by other work and it's been parked in my backyard for a couple months now
The main issue was a big derailment that came from the lease at the old shop ending and the entire industrial space hunting and moving process being way, way harder and more arduous than any of us could imagine. But we finally found a place we are happy with. It's a bit small for a machine shop and we're paying out the nose for the usable floor space of a 2 car garage, but I now have my own office, it's in a nice part of town, we get 480V 3 phase service with a transformer that steps it down to 240V for a separate panel, it's fully air conditioned throughout, and best of all I'm less than a mile from a Costco (which I'm thoroughly abusing. Seems criminal a burger and fries is like $15 when you can get a slice of pizza, hot dog, and soda from Costco for $3.77 after tax. Hopefully this doesn't put me in an early grave, I'm there nearly every lunch).
It's been disappointingly slow to get set back up, especially since we've got people poking us to get back to producing parts for them. A good problem to have, but nonetheless stressful. We had to get the Tormach back in action and tooled it up with the tool holder mount C-clamped to a computer desk until we had the time and funds to go buy something solid to screw it to.
(Yes, I know the finish is garbage, I was in a rush and had the stepdowns on the surfacing operation very coarse, so the scalloping is horrid. Customer said this was a one-off to get a car back on the road, but might be a thing they move to production with, so I might have another swing at it in the future)
Had to take a slight intermission to service the workhorse doing all the moving and the daily. I'm still in the middle of cleaning those tools on the floor and filing them away back in their respective boxes, no bully pls
Tip for Toyotas of the last decade and technically this one, too - 5k mile oil changes. Ignore whatever Toyota says. They already made the "lifetime" ATF mistake.10k mile oil changes have simply not worked out, especially in older engine designs that have been retroactively moved to 0W20 like the 1GR. The 2AR in the Camry is a first year implementation, so they set the maintenance reminder to 5k miles, and you can definitely tell with how clean the valvetrain is on this engine. This engine is pretty happy at 160k miles besides that VVT-i gear failing. There's a TSB for it and all, she got the updated P/N that should hopefully fix it forever. Gotta detour to complain though, that cursed timing chain tensioner is a pain in the *** with the window being behind the frame rail. Not helped by my dumbass dropping a socket down in there. I got it out eventually.
While I had the little bastard alternator from the 4Runner out, I started eying it as a serious contender for switching the RX7 to instead of the Contour alternator. There have been some things about the Contour units that have been bothering me:
-I don't exactly have a lot of confidence in Ford/Motorcraft of this era
-3G alternators are dime a dozen, but the exact model and year range Contour this housing has to come from is not really that common
-While back-relieving the SBC pulley to fit this alternator, I found it's got a fair bit of... slop? in the design. The rear bearing is a slip fit into the housing and relies on the entire shaft assembly tilting down slightly in order for the outer bearing race to contact. I don't know exactly why this is the case, but I don't like it. I verified this happens with the 3G Taurus alternator I have as well. It meant I had to relieve the pulley a fair bit more than I thought I had to, and makes me question how this is going to affect the belt longevity
-I have a kit to rebuild the alternator, and the availability of these kits is a big plus, but after watching a video of how these things are serviced, I'm not super keen on the expected longevity of the alternator with these parts
-This alternator is huge compared to modern 130A alternators. I would like to implement this swap on all my other RX7s, and the alternator causes some consternation with hood vent and strut bar clearance
-The pettiest issue I have is I also think this alternator is ***-ugly
As far as I know, this particular alternator out of the 4Runner is identical to basically every other alternator from a GR powered Toyota/Lexus, so with the number of RAV4s, Camrys, and Tacomas that exist, these parts are dime a dozen. I can't remember the last time I've ever had a Toyota fail an alternator on me - Denso OEM is really hard to beat. Add to the fact that this alternator just looks aesthetically and size-wise much more similar to the original Mazda unit off the RX7, while still kicking out 130A, this seems like an obvious choice. The only issue is the mount ears do not fit the water pump housing, so you'd need to adapt it with a mount similar to what people have been doing with Taurus alternators, I've not looked into how you'd get the pulley off, and I have no idea if there's some complications on running this alternator "dumb". My assumption is that any alternator that requires 4+ pins are computer controlled to some degree to stabilize the voltage output, and I don't know how I'd make it play nice in an RX7. Research for another day. Part of me wants to develop a whole new accessory drive using everything taken off various GRs plus a custom machined crank hub pulley, move into the 21st century with a spring belt tensioner, multi-rib belt, etc. so the alternator pulley would be a non-issue, but that also means that's NOT happening any time soon. An alternative option is the alternator out of the Camry. 2ARs, with how many wound up in hybrid Camry taxis, are likewise dime a dozen, so there would be plenty to go around. The alternator is 100A has slightly different mount ears, and the pulley is meant for a thinner belt with less ribs since the 2AR has the PS pump on a separate belt loop from the water pump/AC/alternator loop. Less friction, and also from what I saw, the loop is short enough that I might be able to transfer it to the 13B and actually keep the belt instead of having to go rooting for a different, shorter belt to suit.
Anyways, back to the shop: one of the most exciting developments that came from this shop move was simply the 3 phase service. The previous location only had 240V single phase service, so I finally have an opportunity to power and run the CNC lathe I've had stuffed in the back of the garage this whole time. I rang up the exact same people that moved it here in the first place, and the team lead mentioned he remembered this machine and how much of a pain in the *** it was to stuff in the back corner of the garage. Luckily the new shop had plenty of space to negotiate the lathe into place and a tall enough roll-up door that he could just drive the forklift in with.
Unfortunately, the worst case that was in the back of my mind came true. This machine uses late 90s Mitsubishi controls, which stores the parameters of the control in memory that isn't persistent after power is cut from it. A small lithium battery is supposed to maintain this data, but according to a friend, they typically fail within 2-3 years. I've had this machine parked in my garage getting broiled by Arizona summers for nearly 4. Not only had the battery died and all of the parameters been lost, I got some deja vu of ***** Honda ECUs by the control failing from electrolytic caps leaking. (Never ask a woman her weight, a man his income, and a Honda owner if his P28 is on his desk instead of his car)
The flipside is that not all hope is lost. I have both physical and digital copies of the original parameters, plus a friend familiar with board repair that's willing to help. The caps plus a linear voltage regulator that seemed a bit crusty were only $30 to buy duplicates of, so not at all a huge setback. They're on order and shipping in from Mouser, with phenomenal timing according to said friend, apparently there are some capacitor shortages or something of that nature? In the meanwhile, I've taken some time to start dabbling with some ideas for RX7 parts that have been on the back of my mind.
One of my biggest gripes with the engine mount arrangement on the FC isn't actually the monumentally insane decision to bolt it straight through the oil pan, but rather the wretched puck style of rubber isolator it uses. I've probably thrown away close to 8 engine mounts that have torn in half, this car included. I think part of the root issue is the fact that they are mounted in a V-configuration that causes the rubber to experience a shear load that inevitably results in sagging and tearing. On the to-do list is to make engine mounts that use a more typical style of enclosed bushing. I think American muscle guys call these mounts spool-type or something? This would essentially change the load the bushing experiences to one that's strictly compressive, and if the bushing disintegrated, at least it wouldn't result in the engine jumping clear out of the bay.
In the spirit of DIY (ignoring the part where this is billet aluminum machined by a tens of thousands of dollar CNC machine that most people don't just have lying around), I figured at-home polyurethane casting the bushings was going to be the move rather than find a rubber bushing that was the approximate size I was looking for. I took some inspiration from SuperPro's Volvo S80? engine mount bushings which have this cool turbine impeller cutout design that's used to make the bushing more compliant. Changed the number of cutouts from 6 to 7 just because it tickles my RX7 impulses.
I still haven't finalized the design of the bottom half of the mount due to some confusion over the possibility this whole mount is meant to be cocked over a bit. It kind of seems like the engine mount is swept backwards? The witness marks on the back of the mount seem to suggest so. Going to make designing this bit a bit complicated if so. I've been meaning to dig out my other engine mount brackets to see if this is actually the case, but forgot which box I left the extras in. If I can't figure it out in a reasonable amount of time, I can always shelve the mount design and use the brand new Mazda Comp mounts I have on hand.
The other thing on my mind has been wanting to design my own coil-near-plug bracket to suit IGN-1As. I've got some gripes with existing designs:
-Not a fan of just sticking them in the original coil locations. Might as well get them closer to the plugs if you can
-Don't like the idea of drilling/tapping the frame, and having to add extra slack in the leads to account for engine-to-frame relative movement
-Coil brackets that bolt to the top of the engine don't really work with FC intake manifolds, NA or turbo. You pretty much need the FD UIM or some stubby Weber/EFI ITB setup that keeps the top of the engine clear to use this design
-I'm also not keeping the stock AC/PS bracket, so anything that bolts into the original bolt holes meant for the compressor is a no go. I also want this design compatible with builds that have AC
-I also don't really like having to use spacers to stack 2 coils under a single bolt. I tried flipping through some articles on vibration loosening of hardware and can't find it, but I read somewhere that having more elements that can transversely shift under a bolt will cause the bolt to more easily self loosen with time. I think? this is the rationale behind why a spring lock + simple washer actually results in bolts loosening faster than just a simple washer under a bolt in a Junkers test. Will need to dig into this further at a later time
Since I'm already redesigning the engine mount bracket, It was relatively trivial to add mounting provisions to bolt a bracket onto it. So I have the coils situated right next to the spark plugs, bolted to the engine, but out of the way of everything else in a relatively underutilized space. Yes, this area is a pain in the *** to service anything in, so the coils are meant to be installed onto the bracket off the car and dropped into the car as a unit. All the electrical connections are unified into a single 16-way connector (I've been tending towards standardizing on using Sumitomo DL090 connectors on everything just because RX8s and FDs have a lot of them and they're still in production. Won't mean jack if I do go through with using a Toyota/Denso accessory drive, but oh well), and the bracket attaches to the engine mount via 3 studs you slip the bracket onto. That, plus the spark plug leads, are all you need to remove in order to get this assembly in and out.
It's been on my mind whether I should design this bracket assembly to include rubber isolators to protect the coils since they're bolted straight to the engine, but sort of doubt it's super necessary on a rotary. I've been planning on calling Pantera EFI but I have a pretty awful sleep schedule from being a night owl, and during the day, I tend to forget with all the other work going on.
Alright, that's a general overview of everything since the last update. But stuff in the past is not really in the spirit of a daily update, so today's update: I made it my job today of wrasslin' the 3D printer into finishing parts. Not really making nice looking ones, just... finishing them. Seems like 90% of 3D printer ownership is figuring out how to make the little gremlin not mess up in increasingly spectacular ways.
Not too pressed about how garbage this print quality is for now, since these are fit check pieces for when I go to machine these later, but eventually I do want to have the printer make usable parts in the future.
Hopefully this gives some indication on where the coils sit. The leads are going to be super, super short. I'm probably going to have to do a bit of arcing things around so there's enough slack in the leads.
Also I'm on the same page as you - top of to-do list is to have a mockup engine on a stand so I don't have to flop these housings around on the office floor. The actual engine mount bit this bracket bolts to is currently on the printer, so hopefully I'll have a chance to show how this all should look tomorrow.
10-17-22, 08:39 AM
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