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So I have been fixing up/rebuilding an S4 T2 with my dad and I wanted to post the work that we have accomplished.
Quick back story of everything so far. I purchased a 87 S4 T2 with 72k miles on the clock, it also came with a rusted body. (frame rails, floor pan, etc) So I picked up a solid NA body for cheap to swap everything over. I didn't feel comfortable trying to tackle the rusty body work. We have swapped over all wiring, T2 diff, brakes, motor, etc to this new body. Now we are in the process of tearing down the motor. Previous compression test indicated a bad apex seal on the rear rotor. Photos are pretty much in the order of what was done. We will start tearing the motor down once I receive my 54 mm socket for the fly wheel. Will post updates, any advice during this process will be appreciated!
Here is the first RX7, I believe this was the first day I owned it. Parked next to my G35.
Here is a photo of some of the rust damage from the first 7
Floor pan had rusted out so previous owner drilled in a plate.
Original interior
New RX7 shell. It's from a base NA model.
Interior and wiring removal of the new shell.
Installing some interior I had collected
Motor is installed in new shell for transport. (Was moving down from Dallas back to Corpus Christi)
Interior nearly done. Need to get a black trim piece, and some different seats. May try RX8 seats down the line. Also need to figure out better door panels. (Can see sad old rusty 7 in the background)
Purchased some SVT cobra wheels from my buddy for dirt cheap. Don't look half bad!
Now living in Corpus. Pulled motor with my father this weekend.
Stripped the motor down. Now waiting on the 54mm socket for the fly wheel. Nervous about the condition of the motor.
Photo is of motor after being cleaned some.
Last edited by cactuscactus; Apr 30, 2022 at 05:15 PM.
If that's a moon-roof I see on the rusty Rx7, you have a rare piece there! And your other Rx7 is a non-sunroof model, which is also pretty rare.
Excited to see more updates.
Yes it had a moon roof. I sold off the body to some nice kid for like $600. Hope he can do more with it then I was able to. But yes the NA has no moon roof.
Rare? Interesting. Well I bet I am crashing what any value this 7 would hold by swapping in a different motor etc
So we were able to break the motor down this evening. Took some quick photos of all the dirty components, will take better photos hopefully tomorrow if I get time to do some parts cleaning. Front rotor had a busted apex seal. Front Iron had a little grooving I believe from this. Show kind of in photos. Also noticed both rotor weights are too far off. It had a B rotor and an E rotor. Both rotors looked fine. Except one had bad bearing wear, I will take photos of this tomorrow. I believe it might be from the mismatched rotor weights?
The rear rotor
Center Iron
Front Iron, you can kind of make out the little grove that wore in
Housings. They have some wear on the outside chrome, but it seems to be less than 2mm. The black mark in the middle of the first housing photo is just an old seal. Forgot to clear it off before the photo.
Motor has been rebuilt and reinstalled. So far I have put about 20 miles on the motor so far. It's not running so hot below 3500 RPMs. I have checked TPS, vacuum leaks, timing, new fuel filter and lines, cleaned injectors. Still trying to figure out what the issue could be. Going to keep putting more miles on the build hoping things might smooth out over time?
Posting a photo of before and after of this nasty motor.
Looking forward to updates. Seems like a great project so far.
That wear mark on the housing is typical. Hopefully you inspected everything per the FSM before reassembling. The FSM has an allowable limit for that spot (among other spots).
I also highly doubt stuffing a turbo motor and drivetrain in your NA chassis will decrease the value. Origianl T2s are pretty hard to come by these days, so I'm guessing you'll have no problems selling it if that's the plan.
