farnell121

Herro errybuddy! Been excited to finally post this thread, after 8 months of getting everything pieced together I have finally begun my project! I have NEVER done engine work on a car, much less a rotary engine. I have changed out an air compressor before, and some minor less impressive stuff than that, haha..

Anyways, before I say where I am at, I must tell the story behind my acquiring of my dream car...

I got this baby from a good friend of mine, without him, I would NEVER have gotten so interested in rotaries and I would've probably not even have had the motivation to start ANY kind of car project! So thank the 'Baker' for making this all happen! He has been 'working' on this project for a loooooooong time now, I believe about 8 or 9 years, but hadn't gone anywhere with it. He had the '86 GXL running and the only mods he had done was a Momo shifter and a Bride steering wheel. (He had an Audiobahn system but had already gotten rid of it by the time he sold it to me)

He planned on doing a turbo conversion, but never got around to buying the engine. Just talked about it and kept putting it off. At the time he was living in New Mexico and was in the military, idly taking part in the race scene over there. One fateful evening, he was plastered... Surfing the web... Credit card within reach... After browsing the web all night, taking shots, he came across it... A '91 JDM Turbo II, the front clip of one that is. He fell in love, instantly, and had to have it... HAD-TO-HAVE-IT.

A week later he received a letter in the mail, it was written in Japanese and he had no clue what da heck it meant. He thought it was a joke and talked about it on and off for the next week. A week later, he was contacted about coming to pick up the car he ordered, and had no clue what they were talking about. And then, he realized what he had done.. His subconscious had bought the clip for him, and he seriously didn't know he had done it! He checked his email, he checked his bank account, and apparently bought this thing directly from Japan, and had it shipped to Canada. You know you have a drinking problem when...

He eventually moved back home to good ole Alabama, hauling the clip back with him. He dropped it off at his moms shop, and that is where it has sat.. He eventually had two kids, which hindered him from ever doing anything with the clip. He continued to drive the '86 GXL around until one day it blew a seal. When the engine died, it had about 270k miles on the odometer!! What a trooper!! And when that died, it sat there for 4 years, until I came along.. When I worked with him, he had hyped me up about rotaries, pounded information into my head, turned me into a rotor nut!

Then, last Christmas, I had about $500 to spend on whatever. I was browsing the auto section of Craigslist, and I found it, the body of a beautiful '86 GXL, and the seller wanted $500 for it.. It needed a little TLC, but I instantly fell MADLY in love, it even came with the Haynes manual!!! I contacted the seller, wrote about 3 paragraphs explaining how he needed to sell me the car, I would take care of it, I would get it running, I would treat the car like a goddess.. And yes, all of you guessed it, (wasn't that obvious, was it? lol...) I got a call from my friend an hour later; "Collier, you ******, you responded to my Craigslist ad with the sappiest story ever! And you're the only person out of 100's of offers I've even considered! Come over and pick up my car before I convince myself to not sell it again!"

And that's how I got her. After I bought the GXL, he then made me an exploding offer on the Turbo II clip for $400!!! When I found out he paid about 10x that, I offered him a little more, and creamed myself having everything set into motion! And now it has begun, I have started my journey into the ways of the rotor, everyday coming to these forums and browsing posts, reading the Haynes manual, watching the old Cosmo rebuild videos... And so far, I have never had so much fun in my life!!!

Here are the pics I took of the car almost 7 months ago, before I even started to remove the engine, it almost feels like it was yesterday. *sniffle, teardrop*

farnell121

Besides all that, it came with ported and powdered manifolds for the N/A engine, and a Tachometer cluster with turbo gauge and odometer reset to zero. And came with JDM taillights!! I'm almost tempted to rebuild the old N/A engine with the ported manifolds after I get done with this project, who knows!? I may even sell them on here!!

Here is also a picture of the JDM clip, before and after salvaging it! That thing was a **** to work with. It had snakes, wasps, dirt dobbers and more living in it, but suprisingly all the oil hadnt been drained so everything was well lubricated!!!

Thinking about parting out the rest of the clip, but I am definitely keeping that bumper, LOL!!!

farnell121

And for my last post, to update where I am at in the project, we managed to lift the engine out of the old body using nothing but a chainhorse, cinder blocks and a large pipe. We basically pulled some Egyptian engineering to maneuver the clip around lol.

We got the engine from the GXL put to the side, and got the engine out of the JDM clip and somehow managed to get it onto a workbench. We began disassembling it, running into problems along the way, (the counterbalance nut and counterbalance gave us the most difficulty!!) but today managed to get everything broken down, one rotor cleaned and all the housings looking shiny like new!

From here on out the next thing on my list is to clean the other rotor, inside of the water jackets and the ports, then paint the housings. I'm SUPER EXCITED!!!

beefhole

iTrader: (29)

Oh god... he got drunk and bought half a car from japan!
I've been drunk some nights and ordered some stupid little parts before, but an engine?! From across the world?! Love it.

farnell121

Yeah, I love it too, he paid all the import fee's and shipping and towed it back here, and ended up selling it to me for 1/10 the price. I feel for him though, so when I get it all up and running again I'm gonna let him take it out on the track. He has 5 kids now and was trying to sell one of them to get his car back LOL

markmazda

Sounds like a great start on a great project! Try to find a local rotary specialist for the details the manual don't include.

farnell121

There is no rotary specialist for like 200 miles from here, LOL. There was ONE rotary shop not too far from here, talked to the owner and he had about 30 13B's and a couple of 12A's lying around. But when I went back there a month ago to get advice they closed shop and had sold the lot... I've called so many import shops and talked to many people to even find an individual but no one will touch this engine or knows anybody that will.

It does motivate my to get really good at rebuilding and possibly start up my own shop. There needs to be a local rotary shop, srsly!!!

farnell121

Right now I am thinking about getting a Master Rebuild kit from AtkinsRotary. But it seems cheaper to just buy the Gasket Kit, Apex Seals with Springs, Side Seals with Springs and the Eccentric Shaft gaskets. Comes out to be around $700 versus $1200. Any thoughts?

psiturbo

iTrader: (-1)

That is crazy how he bought the car. Hopefully he has been able to balance out some of his drinking issues.

The car sure needs some tlc, but you got a good deal and one hell of a project to work on.

Kudos!

southsidecox

iTrader: (52)

let me know if you want to sell the parts car front bumper,what type is it? im near Gadsden and have a ton of s4 na drivetrain,body,electrical parts etc. if you need some down the road,of course you will its a 7 ha!!

southsidecox

iTrader: (52)

damn I hope your not discarding that hood either

farnell121

From the clip, no I need the turbo hood, and Im keeping the N/A hood just incase I decide to do a 3rotor conve r sion or if I decide to mount the intercooler up front. Im definitely keeping the hood! And I may be able to part with the bumper from my N/A body, but I am also keeping the bumper from the JDM clip, that thing looks waaaaay sexier than what I have!

I will be parting out little things from the turbo clip I dont need, and also have a whole N/A motor with powdered and ported manifolds that havent been added yet, so there is that. I will make a parts thread when I know for sure what I wont use.

Also he has evened out his drinking since then, I hope... He did just remarry a couple of months ago and now has like 5 kids and just hit 30 years of age... I do not envy him and am glad he sold me his cars, otherwise theyd NEVER get worked on!!! I was finding barbie dolls and mcdonalds toys all throughout the engine bay LOL!!!

clokker

iTrader: (2)

I'll bet Rotary Revolution/Evolution are having a good chuckle over your dream of "getting really good at rebuilding and opening a rotary shop" but we'll just chalk that up to youthful exuberance.

I find it simultaneously revealing and disturbing that you have yet to mention anything about the car except for the engine.

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

he should get drunk..again..and order the other half..lol!

farnell121

Heh heh, maybe I am thinking way too big. But there's no way of knowing until I get to that point, eh? My friends also have an '88 Convertible sitting at our garage too, so there's also that project to tackle next. But seriously though, I cant find a shop ANYWHERE near where I live, I'd have to drive 200 miles in any direction at least.

Ok, so what I know about the body so far is that it has rack and pinion steering, front and rear vented brake calipers, Momo shifter (found the original shifter in the glove box yesterday), Bride removable steering wheel. Also in the trunk where the spare wheel sits has rusted out in the bottom. It has rear bins behind the front seats and all the carpeting in the back was replaced a few years before I got it. The original transmission is still in it and seems to feel fine, but theres no way of knowing without connecting it back up with the N/A engine and testing it.

This past weekend I started polishing the manifolds, already have the exterior part of the rotor housings and middle & end plates polished. The Hitachi turbocharger is a bit rusty, and so that is gonna take a lot of work and disassembly to get it looking clean again.

I also tore out the front carpeting and the driver and passenger seats this past weekend, they were mildewing pretty bad and I'm planning on stripping it down pretty bare anyways. My goal with this is to strip out most of the weight that I can, maybe add a lightweight roll cage since we have a spot welder and tube bender. I wish I could restore it to new but it would be cheaper for me to just get it as bare as possible and go for weightlessness.

Also, as far as painting the engine, I saw a post where a guy won an engine in a contest, and I HAD to have mine painted just like the scheme his was. Im going for red rotor housings, black middle and end plates, and all the text on the engine in white outlined in black. Trying to decide what color I should paint the accessories, and same with all the screws. Taking all suggestions on a good looking scheme!

samjaza78

I one how you give us a bunch of common things about the car besides the question, but nothing mechanical. Are they 4 pot callers or standard? What do all the fluids look like? How are the suspension bushings and the drivetrain mounts?

TRUST me, it takes a lot more than engine work to rebuild the car.

nepopolus

yeah i have already spent over 3000$ on fixing/upgrading my gxl's suspension and repainting it myself. And it was a 900$ car with a 20k mile engine from rotary resurrection lol.

farnell121

Well, I am a TOTAL n00b when it comes to this, I, have my stepdad helping me out since he has restores several cars in his lifetime, Im completely learning as I go, so forgive me for being so unknowing! Anything youd like me tp take pictures of lemmie know! I believe they are 4 piston calipers, but whatever was on there seemed kind of rusted. I will need new shocks im sure, the body and engine had over 2h0k miles before my friend stopped driving it.

Now the JDM engine had oil still lubricating it, only thibg that looked bad was the fluid in the water jackets. Nothing looked dry rotted or anything which is good. As I, stated, my stepdad is helping me along with much of the mechanical work as I am learning so much.

I do circuitry repair in my spare time and repair traces and components on boards for a living and computers have always had some similarities with the mechanics to a car to me. This is all a huuuge learning experience, and a great deal of fun for me, so I really do appreciate all the concern about my knowledge! :P

This weekend or next, whichever I go back there to work on it, I will take much more pictures of the wheel wells, what I can under the car, more detailed of the interior and whatever anyone else suggests. I n00bishly say I wanna open a rotary shop and start working on them all the time, but you guys will learn me some stuff and hopefully after a few years of tinkering with these cars Ill know if I have what it takes.

It all starts out as a curiosity before it becomes an obsession ;D

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Well, you seem like a reasonable person.

When I buy a old(er) used car, the first thing I do is put it up on stands, remove the wheels and overhaul the brakes. This gets you up close and personal with all four corners of the car and you can look over most of the undercarriage at the same time.
Since you've already pulled the engine, I'd go ahead and drop both front and rear subframes too.
You don't have to replace stuff at this point, the idea is to clean/lube/anti-seize everything and know it's installed properly.
You also learn exactly what you have, what condition it's in and basically how it's assembled.

As for the interior...

I have no idea what a "lightweight" roll cage might be.
Cages weigh whatever the material/design spec makes them weigh, there ain't no "light" version that's functional/acceptable.

Secondly, every time someone says they're gutting the interior to "add lightness" my takeaway is that there's someone too lazy to fit the interior properly.
I guarantee you that the 50 odd pounds you may remove won't make a damn bit of difference to the perceived performance and will ruin the driving experience.

farnell121

As far as 'lightweight', that would be the last addition to the car, my stepdad was talking about a really lightweight and durable one that you could hold with one hand but it would cost over a grand..

What I have planned for this car is something that could be thrown against a V8 and still hold its own, maybe not on the drag strip but around a track. I want to drop as much weight as possible because I want to take advantage of the engines weight and almost perfect weight distribution.

I live in Alabama so I've already planned on not making this my daily driver, thus not keeping the air compressor or air lines, stock seats, spare tire, shorter exhaust, etc. Even dropping 50lbs here and dropping 25lbs there will lead me closer to my goal, because dropping the weight will theoretically help with my acceleration as well putting less load on the engine.

I'm no expert (fekkin obviously...), but I want to go towards more of a track car versus something I use on the street. We have an '88 coupe which is gonna be my next project, and I am gonna do what I can to get that restored as close to factory as I can.

So in any case, gutting the interior isn't a big deal to me, I'm going to save everything though just in case I would like to restore it at a later time. Also, I have been told parts are becoming more rare and to get the car back to stock would cost me way too much as this is just an every other weekend project. I was told just the rear carpeting cost my friend about $600 in almost new condition, the S4 taillights adding almost that value. I dunno, don't think I am ready to tackle a restoration project. I feel if I can learn mechanically how the whole car works and get this project out of the way, it will severely help me in the projects to come.

It's already a light car, with a light engine, whats so bad about trying to maximize on this? Thoughts?

Also another question came to mind.. When working with the exhaust system, can you gasin more horsepower by making short exhaust piping that ould outlet under the passenger door? My stepdad talked about the car maybe having a chamber that would reverberate the gases to hold horsepower, and that this may only be on N/A models? I'm having a hard time understanding how the exhaust system functions on these rotary powered monsters. Again, thanks for the input!

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Stop what you are doing immediately.

First thing, go up to your friend, loudly exclaim "Fabulist!" and slap him smartly across the jaw.
Nobody has ever paid $600 for a used rear carpet or S4 tailights.

Second thing, if you think you're getting on a track with V-8s, then welcome your new best friend, the sanctioning body.
Your new Bible, their rulebook.

You'd best be sure you build something that will be allowed on track in an appropriate class.

AGreen

iTrader: (11)

You don't want to dump the exhaust out the side. Especially without a muffler.

I build my own exhaust systems for all my cars. Frankly, most companies want way too much for pieces of pipe (in my opinion, of course). I built my turbo convertible up with 3" exhaust, splitting off to 2x 2.125" duals with mufflers on each side. The bumper is set up for dual exit, so I think it looks silly to leave one bare. Anyways, the car was unbearably farty like that. It just sounded terrible. I tried driving it once with just a downpipe too, and that was deafening at anything over idle. So what I ended up doing was just dropping in a 3" resonator that I made from an Ebay special fart can, and the noise went down to a nice low grumble that is very reasonable. It also robs ZERO power from the car.

Also, most tracks have a dB limit, so keep that in mind when wanting to straight-pipe dump the exhaust out the side.

Back on track though, you seem to have gotten a killer deal on that car and clip! Build it up nicely and you will enjoy it more. I've taken the time to make my convertible quick enough to my liking, but at the same time I've kept it civil on the inside and out. I have cruise control, a full interior, air conditioning, power steering, and can still wax an Evo X's ***.

farnell121

Well, sorry, I didn't explain properly. I want to go against 'a' V8. My friend is building an '03 Mustang and he challenged me to a track race. I'm not gonna go full on I JUST LEARN ROTARY NOW I CHARRENGE ALL FOE on anybody, lol. If I was to start racing on a track for sport it would be after I learn my vehicle very well and manage to keep my self control on the street first. Gotta go without getting lots of speeding tickets and going around the track by myself :P


Well, I've heard having shorter exhaust (even with muffler) can give you horsepower gains, but heard that N/A rotary engines don't respond well to an exhaust that isnt set up right, kind of like a 2 stroke motor. I'm just looking for the best gains and to bring out the best sound of the rotary. If I was going to spit it out the side I would also get an OEM looking bumber without the gaps for exhaust. I want the car to look as OEM as possible from the outside, changing very little.

But yeah, I don't care if it is loud sounding but I dont want it to be extremely annoying or anything.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Nothing you learn on the street is applicable at the track.