Tru, many (dare I say, most?) FD guys are either spoiled or lazy and when it comes to fit and finish on parts, and they have a tendancy to blow things out of proportion if everything isn't perfect. I will say however that they tend to pay a decent amount for just about every part so....:dunno:

That being said, some of the rotarworks parts (cough...v-mount) are thoughly documented failures of both design AND execution.

If something is advertised as bolt-in, it should, period.
I appreciate that RW provides a selection of budget parts that at least provide a good starting point, (I'm buying the RW coolant tank myself). This is not an issue for talented fabricators such as yourself, but for people that lack the skills/resources to properly correct blantant design/manufacturing errors themselves it is understandably infuriating to have to pay someone to partially fab something you budgeted to be bolt-on.

The v-mount is a perfect example, Tuscanidream bought the "kit" and then had to pay at least (judging by the quality of the work) another $1k to have it worked over by a shop into something acceptable. He could have just taken the car down there and had them build the setup from scratch for a lot less than what he ended up spending had he known (hell, I got mine done locally for under 600 and most of that was labor).

Wow, that looks dangerously close to a rant, how'd that happen :scratch:

Anyways, back to the topic at hand...Why did you weld the coolant tank to the thermostat neck? space? Also, compared to the original piece it seems like your entry to the tank is a little higher up thus making the tank sit lower why is that? If anything I would have thought you'd want it to sit higher so you could have avoided having to weld that access port on the side

it runs beautifully now. i picked it up probably 3 weeks ago now and it was a haggard horrible nightmare of a mess. just put in a few methodical hours a week and now it is a dream to drive.

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/cel-code-13%3B-pressuer-sensor-981168/

honestly. this vmic stuff is a first. was really just a wing it type deal. the tank was welded to the elbow because it seemed like the easiest thing to do. there isnt much room to play with laterally or longitudinally. i had a quickly dismissed thought of just making it solid with the radiator but that would have caused flex and cracking on an already somewhat delicate piece. the port coming out the side instead of the bottom was just for ease. only needing one 90* elbow to mate the ast with the radiator. the ast itself is low in the car because i have the panspeed dropvent hood and it probably wasnt the best choice to go with since it killed any space that i had with the stock hood. im sure on a car that didnt have the turbo so high and forward, the hood so low and the engine 12" longer than stock, a more normal looking or even prefabbed ast would have been a lot easier. but im happy with it regardless.

Ahhh, I forgot all about the Panspeed hood (looks badass btw). That placement makes perfect sense now. I have the sexy style hood and I've got my fingers crossed about the AST fitting, hopeing the neck on the outlet is shorter than stock.

I'd mount the coolant overflow on the rearview mirror if it was needed to run a 20b :lol:

updates!
so i decided that my ball joints have pissed me off and being the king that i am, i cut decapitated them

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/IMAG0048.jpg
then i felt bad so decided to make them feel a little bit better by making them taller
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/IMAG0049.jpg
then welding back together.
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/CIMG2163.jpg

no harm no foul right?
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/CIMG2165.jpg
right?!
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/CIMG2164.jpg

and then some more random stuff

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/CIMG2168.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/CIMG2169.jpg

only thing left that i need is a vband clamp. i broke mine. the nut seized on the bolt for some reason. the tee part of the bolt spun out of place and then after trying to be really gentle and slow and back the nut off.. it broke anyway. stupid chinese garbage.

also tried to take video of it humming along but stupid camera died as soon as i pushed record so that will have to wait till this weekend i guess.

brother came over to look at my work. he sent me this video. sorry for the poor quality. thought an iphone 4 would have better quality?

oh well. here it is
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...h_IMG_1216.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...n/IMAG0058.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...n/IMAG0059.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...n/IMAG0060.jpg

off to the dyno on wed to get tuned and then cornerweighted on saturday.

actually thinking i have a chance to make the feb 18 event in vegas now. excited

Dude im jizzing about the FC man, planning on doin some drifting?

yep! vegas pro am

Nice work on the ball joints

looks like i broke my links rearranging.

hood pins are backwards, but overall, badass! can't wait to see what this thing does on the dyno.

people keep telling me that. it doesnt bother me.

i too am excited to see dyno

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5..._VIDEO0003.jpg
just starting to tune. horrible exhaust leak from egt port being open


http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5..._VIDEO0007.jpg
things starting to smooth out

hopefully in the next few days we will get some actual dyno time in.

sweet ride bro i like your style

starting to load the engine more and more

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...h_IMG_1283.jpg

today netted in 250hp and 200lbft at 4500rpm(rev limit) and 3psi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeRq36VjEWQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ushjg...ature=youtu.be

Not sure why I havn't seen your build thread yet lol

Glad to see you finally got it on the dyno... so exciting!

I hope mine will be running again by May.

Let me know when you get some pics of the dyno charts, I'm curious to see how your torque comes up.

Torque is pretty instant and the curve is amazing. 100ftlb right off idle, 200 by 3500 and 300+ by 5500 and I never saw the top of the curve. Pretty sure I'm stalling the compressor too.

You can pull a lot of fuel out, too. Moar!!

Yeah afr's are around 10.5-11. I don't have any more time to mess around on the dyno so it will have to get me through the February event as is.

Lucky... I can only dream of February events over here... nothing really starts until April... even if my car was ready.

well locally there are no feb events but vegas decided to start pro am early this year.

http://files.myopera.com/bluelion198...n%20-%2012.jpg

Just fell in love with first gen Celica on valentines day that thing needs a rotary in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I need one and will have one soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tDEb...7bAUAAAAAAAAAA

last weekend was a blast. went to u-drift on friday to do a shakedown. few problems arose. went to karacks shop and spruced it up a bit and drove all day saturday at vegasdrift with basically 0 issues besides blowing up tires.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...W-Version2.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...95048693_n.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...75949191_n.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...99129468_n.jpg

Pretty awesome drifting, just wish the camera was better... my ears were killing during some of the footage lol

Still, I would like to see a dyno sheet when you're all done and get a solid tune :nod:

i need to find a tuner that knows whats what before i can post anything. the tune is horrible right now.. like 10:1 afr's at 3k rpm. 11.5 at 5k. 9.8 at 7k.. etc...

Haha, sounds like my experience trying to tune my last year on the streets doing 3rd gear pulls :blush:

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/IMAG0084.jpg
aero finally came in so i can start on the beauty/body work.
(aero is from hotline and fits very very well. this pic is of it just set on the car, no mounting done yet)

have a few drift events under the belt with the new setup. still ironing out problems but its seasoning well.

last weekend i had a few set backs. blew the heater core coolant port cap.

had an off course that netted in losing exhaust hangers. took exhaust off and ran open dp for rest of the event. was amazing sounding.

backing up my driveway though, the dp flange caught on a raised lip in my cement sidewalk and it wadded the dp up, so that needs to be rebuilt.

list of other things needed:
mr2 pump bracket built and pump plumbed and installed
redo rotor 3 coil mount
floor mount the seat
repair and reinforce broken intercooler mounting tab
build bash bars
find second job

started putting stickers all over my car

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...IMAG0172-1.jpg

should be finished with it today.

should i do the hood blue too or leave it black?

now presented in full color

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/IMAG0096.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...IMAG0094-1.jpg

not bad for 80$ worth of supplies

sticker? whats that?

If you don't mind me asking how did you order from HOTLINE? All I see is a 'store website coming soon' on their site. Also what did the kit run you cost wise?

+1 Vote for a blue hood.

the blue is vinyl i bought from art supply store

i just messaged justin on FB

I love how it looks in blue! I can't wait to see some videos of it sliding now... good quality, not like the last ones lol

yeah maybe now that it looks slightly better, more people will feel inclined to film it.

had a photoshoot yesterday, these are some of the preliminary shots.
this car is so brutal on the streets.. twice i had to stop and reattach body panels

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5..._4717-edit.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5..._Version_2.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5..._4689-edit.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/DSC_4685.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/DSC_4680.jpg

the engine doesnt really look pretty anymore but thats ok. this is a track car. no garage queen here.

so with a newfound power and super lowness something happened. i killed the clutches in my diff. the chassis has over 200k on it and im sure still the same oil that was poured in it by some cute japanese girl that was 19 at the time.

after a few embarrassing moments of high centered car or 400hp and not able to even do a doughnut, i had enough. my internal conflicts were great though. weld the stock diff? rebuild it? install an expensive kaaz unit?

i decided to rebuild/shim it. after looking for a bit i couldnt really find a write up so i decided to go about learning and fixing it up myself. ive never been inside a clutch type diff before but here is what i learned.

i used this write up to ease my diff removal
http://www.norotors.com/index.php?topic=3272.0

after diff is out of the car, and you pull the cartridge out of the case, you will have this oily mess on your kitchen table
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...f/CIMG2649.jpg

take note of a key feature; alignment marks of some sort
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...f/CIMG2650.jpg

take off the ring gear and expose these little bastard screws that hold the diff together. make sure to use the correct size screw driver, the screws will strip easily. also a trick i learned is to put a pair of vice grips on two opposing ends of the diff. this will keep it from spreading open and make it easier to remove the screws; do this when re-installing screws too, or you can use a bench vice.
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...f/CIMG2652.jpg

first peering inside
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...f/CIMG2653.jpg

clutch pack out of cartridge
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...f/CIMG2655.jpg

make sure to pay attention to how the stack goes. dont want to redo this sloppy messy job because you put something in backwards

check out how torn up these things are
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...f/CIMG2658.jpg

the springs show wear too. i just put the worn spring in the center of the two other not worn springs.
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...f/CIMG2666.jpg

i also slammed a few cokes so i could build some shims
first design were these; i made 4 total
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...f/CIMG2661.jpg

but after the reinstallation kept buggering up, i clipped off the ears and it made it an easier job to put together. the shims go on the outsides of the clutch pack, between the springs and cartridge
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...f/CIMG2668.jpg

reinstalled
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...f/CIMG2669.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...f/CIMG2670.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...f/CIMG2674.jpg

put cartridge back in housing and put everything back together. tomorrow i will find out if this worked or if im going to have to tear it all down again.

Yes! a writeup with pics, finally. Thanks.

Do you have a way of measuring break away torque without completely reinstalling the pumpkin? I've read some threads on the miata forums and they are shooting for around 90 ft/lbs keeping in mind that readings typically drop a least 10 ft/lbs once the shims and clutches settle in. Considering that the FC is significantly heavier I'd imagine you'd want at least 100-115 ft/lbs breakaway (once settled)

Car looks awesome, now hurry up and get some good footage of you drifting... I really want to heal a clear sound of the engine :nod:

I suppose you could install the axles outside of the case and put a tq wrench on it. ill measure after i get it on the ground today.

Probably won't be any vid till mid Junewhen Vegas drift round 3 happens. Sound distorts with go pro. Also I am.going to retune on Vegas and ill post results then.


Next episode will be installing and wiring electric Mr2 steering pump

i may have posted this elsewhere but whatever
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/DSC_4973.jpg

last night i changed my clutch hydraulics because with the car running it was hard to change into reverse and no amount of bleeding would alleviate the issue. also had an issue with the starter sometimes not catching the ring gear or grinding noises.

after i changed both master and slave for the clutch, i climbed underneath the car to find that i was missing a starter bolt. thought that was the issue with the starter but then i noticed that the engine was seperated from the bell housing about 1/4 inch and i was missing 2 bellhousing bolts and the remaining were relatively loose. also noticed the engine was skewed a bit, upon investigation, i found the drivers side engine mount under the car was loose. replaced bolts, tightened everything down again and reinstalled starter.

after cleaning everything up, i tried out the starter and clutch. easy to shift into all gears and it starts correctly. making me think now that the shifting issue was the trans input shaft was not lined up with the e-shaft so it was binding and causing hard shifts.

just upkeep and maintainence so far i have had to replace turbo to mani bolts(heat cycle of turbo loosened them and two fell out), repair broken ic tab(probably broke due to loose engine mount). replace transmission bolts. rebuild diff. replace clutch hydraulics. rebuild down pipe. replace 3 exhaust hangers.

very nice on the build cant wait to see more pics or vids when complet

was having high idle issues and determined that a good spot to start was the throttle body so last night i stripped it of all of the overly complicated junk and cleaned it up and reinstalled. have yet to try and run it with the new setup but it sure does look better.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/IMAG0038.jpg

worked on ducting today. first time trying it out. i think it came out ok

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/IMAG0073.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/IMAG0062.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/IMAG0043.jpg

so one day i was having fun with the car and then i noticed a really funny noise

i took video of this rattly clanky wtfy sound

today i decided to finally dive in and figure out this mystery. with velma giving me felash and daphney being silly and dumb, i pulled the trans expecting a shot clutch and fuktup pieces..

i found no such thing. clutch was perfect. a little dust and thats it.

argh..
so then i thought possible exhaust sleeve?
and pulled the turbo off

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/IMAG0219.jpg

then i noticed instantly.. center housing sleeve looked wacky and when i stuck my finger in there, it was pretty wobbly but no ability to pull it out.

oh and it also looked like this
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/IMAG0213.jpg

compared to the other sleeves
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...s/IMAG0215.jpg

so.. a quick call to karack and we decided that the only real not hillbilly way to fix this mess is to rebuild a perfectly good running 20b.

eff..
velma go away

Better than it blows... and you have to source parts and then do the rebuild. You can now rebuild with a very good starting point.

true. im not saying i feel lucky cause i know it could be way worse. its just frustrating to have basically a throw away part be the reason i have to tear down my otherwise perfectly running car. there is a lot of summer left i was hoping to enjoy

Sorry to see that. If it makes you feel any better, I've only drifted once in the last year... and will only be drifting one or two more times this year due to similar reason... well in my case is an overheating and poorly build car by my haha.

Can't wait to see this back in action again! Good luck.

How on earth did that happen? What does the 20b sleeve look like on the inside?

I used n/a rotor housings on my build which have those stupid wings in the exhaust sleeves. My aging builder forgot to swap them out so I had to air chisel/grind them out. A gear oil soaked rag was forced into the chamber after the a large portion was chiseled out and it caught most of the shavings from grinding the port smooth afterward. I was skeptical but the engine runs great and pulls 20+ vac