Did you notice the front end a little higher after changing the struts and saggy mounts? .. . . I changed the rears on mine and the rear did come up a bit ..

I was wondering if/when I do the fronts, the cool rake will go away.

My AGX's were 10+ years old and the bushings were all toast. When I changed the rears I gained some height.

Now it's time to do the fronts.

 

The fronts gained about 1cm in wheel gap when I replaced the mounts, and then over a few days it settled in and ended up more/less where it was before. Here's an older picture from last summer of the side profile:



I'll have to check again next time I back it out of the driveway, but I think it's in the exact same place now. I should measure rake too, come to think of it.

 

Here's whats going into the car. No, not the 750cc Honda engine:







I've mentioned a few times that the plan was always to go turbo. Recently I was even getting to the home-stretch of acquiring all the parts to turbocharge my NA block. But then I had an opportunity to get a full TII drivetrain swap for a good price, so I jumped on it. I may relay the full story soon, but for now I'll just say that the price was hard to beat. The engine was tested to start and run and comes with a 60 day warranty (not that I'm likely to be done installing in 60 days, but nice to have).

The parts yard owner told me that it had "head work" done. I presume this means that it is a rebuild and the housings are new. Whether that is a good thing or not depends on who rebuilt it. The non-factory RTV on the front cover lends credence to this theory. Also notice that there is no boost-controller, which is good, since it means the previous owner wasn't running more than the factory 7 psi.

S5 engine, so it has the reinforced dowel casting. Not that I plan to make crazy power, but good to have:



Spray paint courtesy of the parts yard. Not sure why they needed so much of it:



Why spray into the pilot bearing? I mean, I already have the new one and didn't intend on reusing the old. But still, come on.



The engine is seemingly stock, although the previous owner did leave this Blitz blow-off valve. Not sure if I'll be using it since it's pretty crunched, as is the pipe to which it mounts. I have an HKS knockoff in the basement somewhere, although I may just go to the stock recirc valve to avoid police attention.

I also got the diff and half-shafts, although the yard wasn't able to free the half-shafts from the diff. On the upside I got basically the entire rear suspension and brakes for free:



On the downside, I sense lots of heat and hammering in my future. I don't know how I feel about those TII axles I see for sale on eBay, and apparently when you order the part on Rockauto they send you the NA part. We'll see how I fare removing these and I'll go from there.



The differential is a Series 5 TII, so unfortunately is the viscous type. Since I don't drift, I doubt I will notice too much of a difference. Also, the TII transmission and driveshaft.

What's cool about this development is that I am able to avoid the whole "parts chasing" problem of turbocharging the NA engine. Almost every part outside of the block itself is just a little different, and therefore incompatible from NA to TII. For example, I would need multiple tubes, the compression elbow, the tube for the BOV, throttle body, OMP rod, OMP, custom oil lines, custom coolant lines, etc. This is now a nearly drop-in swap (mechanically speaking).

The next little while I'm going to carefully inspect everything for issues while I work on freeing those axles. I'm slowly compiling the list of things I still need to acquire (the biggest being Turbo II hood, so anyone looking to sell one in southern Ontario, PM me). Also a standalone ECU is basically a requirement since I don't want to chase down all the stock TII electronics, but I've been working on that for awhile and have a good plan to balance cost and features.

Until next time

 

Normally my attitude with this sort of thing is "If there are no obvious problems, send it." But given the cost and scarcity of these parts, some basic testing on the TII engine is definitely warranted. I had already intended to bolt up the transmission on the garage floor and install a starter so I could check compression, but over on GRM infernosg pointed out that I should also pressure check the cooling system.

First thing to do was pull off the water pump housing. Which entailed also removing the water pump, air pump, and all the pulleys:



Everything came off without too much of a fight. Whatever car this engine lived in likely did not see a Canadian winter. All the bolt heads are a bit oxidized and a few are rusty, but the threads are beautiful. Might have to do something about that plastic thermostat elbow. Aluminum replacements are $130 shipped or so, which seems like a lot. But unfortunately my aluminum S4 neck has a different bolt pattern, and I'm a bit nervous about running 32 year old plastic in my cooling system.

I also had to remove the oil metering pump for clearance. I threaded the bolts back in, but that is something else I'll need to address. In the short term I will probably just block it off and premix my fuel. In the long term, I'll probably look for an S4 TII front cover and use a bicycle cable to actuate the mechanical OMP. I have some spare S4 NA covers, but I would need to make a custom turbo oil drain setup, so we'll see about that later.

With those off, I had access to the main water passages on the front iron:



Then I whipped up an adapter plate to let me pressurize the system:





The notches in the corner are to clear the nub on the front cover and the CAS casting. It's not pretty, but it does the job. Used some RTV to get a good seal:



Then I went and plugged any open coolant hoses on the engine, before assembling my testing device. Compressor air wand connected to hose:



Air supply hose teed in with gauge and barb on adapter:



After that, I chased down leak after leak. Leaks from the wand tool, leaks from the hoses I'd plugged, leaks from the heater hose itself, etc. I probably spent 30 minutes stripping the engine and 30 building the adapter, only to spend 4-5 hours chasing leaks. But after finally tracking down the last leaks, I was able to pressurize it and test. Anyone trying this themselves, make sure to turn down the reg on your compressor. You don't want to pump 120psi into the system; nothing good can come of that. I pressurized it to 14 psi:



After 15 minutes:



After 30 minutes:



I left it for about 40 minutes with no drop before calling it a success. As soon as the starter arrives I can test compression, and if nothing is grossly wrong then in the engine goes.

Until next time

 

Cool score. You may already know this but just in case you don't. The Torsen diff from the FD swaps right in to the TII rear. Looks like they can still be found on Ebay for around $300, or less sometimes Mazda RX-7 FC3S FD3S TWIN TURBO Torsen Helical LSD Rear Differential 33-0031 K-5 | eBay Kicker is if IIRC one of the stub shafts is different on the viscous LSD so you'd have to sorce one. Looks like Mazdatrix still has them for $153.


As for the half shafts I bought some TII ones from Summit Racing when I did my Rx-8 rear end swap. I think the brand is CSI. They have around 9300 miles on them. So far so good. With the rear calipers being non-existent most of the time, that's a killer score as well.

 

I'd actually read about the torsen swap. It may be something I end up doing, but I'm going to see how the VLSD feels before I end up spending on it. If the VLSD feels fine and locks up properly, then I'm not going to worry about it too much


I bought some Rockauto half-shafts on closeout sale, $45 a side or something. I'm slightly skeptical, but for that price and at stock-ish power levels I'm not too worried. I'm still going to try and free the OEM ones from the hub, but they're putting up enough of a fight that I might not be able to remove them. The yard used a hydraulic press to try and free them and the end of one axle just started to mushroom slightly. It isn't fatal (hasn't nearly reached the threads), but I'm guessing they have a pretty stout press, so these axles are not going to come out willingly.

The brake calipers got a quick cleaning and then wrapped up and placed carefully into my "unobtanium parts" box. I needed like four sets of calipers just to get all the hard parts to rebuild my last set, so getting an extra perfect set for basically free was really cool.

 

For some reason it says you had posted but I couldn't see it earlier. I was thinking though that after replacing my VLSD with the Tochigi - Fuji Super LSD that came in the RX-8 and functions similar to the torsen if I noticed a huge difference. I mean it is a little different but I'm not sure how to explain it. Also I did the DTSS eliminators around the same time so not sure how much affect that is having as well. This is on a street car so I've not been pushing it to the limits in a while. I think if it was me and if I had the extra cash I would buy an FD unit while they're relatively cheap and throw it in a box as a just in case back-up. May not be worth the trouble of actually replacing it right now if the VLSD is good.



I have a hub with from my parts car with an axle stuck in it. Much sledge hammering or my 10 ton Harbor Freight press can't get it out. I'm at a loss as to what to try next.

 

Yeah, I posted it this morning but it's only appeared now after you responded. I knew it definitely posted though, since it updated the "last post by" section with my username. Weird.

I don't know how the viscous feels, I've just heard people say that the lockup isn't as instant as with a clutch-type or torsen. And the difference between my old NA open diff and the current NA LSD is quite noticeable. I used to spin a wheel leaving the driveway every time, now I can feel a slight slip and then it grips right up.

Until I have some actual experience with the VLSD, I'll withhold my judgement on it. The only other thing that concerns me is that apparently it wears but is non-serviceable. The Torsen doesn't wear, and at least the clutch type is rebuildable. This is all theoretical though until I actually drive it, since mine might be just fine.

 

I want to say in tight corners it feels like it rotates better once accelerating out. Feels more hooked up. Also my VLSD had over 300,000 miles on it so It may not have been doing the LSD thing anymore.

 

The axles arrived earlier than expected, and to my relief, they are in fact TII axles. I'd heard stories about people ordering TII axles but being sent NA axles. The easiest way to tell is by the diameter of the shaft:



NA shafts are much thinner. Putting it side-by-side with the OEM TII shaft, it's the same. There are some obvious quality issues; the edges seem to be a bit rougher on the differential flange, and there is some surface rust already out of the box. But for $45 apiece for brand new axles, that's nothing to complain about.

The only thing that concerns me a little bit is that I may be detecting a bit of play in the outer CV joint. There is axial movement on the inner CV on both these and the factory axles, but it feels nice and smooth. Both these and the factory axles have no radial slack, so that's good. On the new axles though, the outer CV has a tiny bit of axial movement in excess of the factory. It's hard to tell if it's just a minor variation (since there IS movement in the factory shaft) or if it's some sort of quality control issue. I may be imagining it frankly, but I might pick up some new clamps and pop off the CV boots to check the joint before running these. Even if only to add better grease than the factory probably used. Both new axles feel identical to the other.

The starter is supposed to arrive today, so if that actually arrives on schedule then I just need to bolt up the transmission and do a compression test.

 

I received the starter on Monday, and bolted up the transmission in just a few minutes. However, I realized I didn't have the necessary hardware to mount the starter, since it uses one really long bolt for the top fastener. Only one place to get it:





Having borrowed the fasteners I needed, I went to do the test. Some of the photos may be dark since it was stormy out and I was in the garage. This is what it looked like at 10AM:



The starter I ordered is for an automatic Rx7. Drop in fit for Turbo II transmissions, but has a 2kw motor instead of the stock 1.4kw:



I connected it with a jumper pack, and just connected the trigger wire straight to the positive alligator clamp. Then whenever I turned the switch on the jump pack it would power the starter. Held the throttle all the way open by pulling the throttle cable and clamping vise grips on the end:



Zip-tied my compression tester to the engine after removing the Schrader valve:



Front Rotor:


Rear Rotor:


Cold engines tend to be a bit higher than hot engines, but I'm getting around 110-115 psi on each face. No major variations between faces or between rotors.

So in other words, it looks like we're good to go as far as installing this engine. This doesn't eliminate the possibility of issues presenting when hot, or blowing smoke from blown oil control rings. But it does mean that the engine is healthy enough to install and run.

Until next time

 

The following is unrelated work on my mum's Miata, so if you're purely interested in Rx7 content, skip this one.

I had planned to do some interior work on my Rx7, since the Turbo swap still requires some parts and I'm on a budget. Meanwhile I also got some more interior pieces I needed from the same car that I got the drivetrain. But things went a different way starting yesterday morning just after the compression test; here's the floor pan of my mum's NC Miata:



We've been chasing down some leaks, and it looks like we finally got all of them. Now it was time to address the "surface" rust...



Yup. I did that with my finger, by the way. You know the drill. Cut it out:



I don't have spot weld removal bits, so I used a chisel and hammer. Unfortunately the rust extended along the floor underneath the seat mount:



So I had to cut a little further. Then the flap wheel abraded all the rust and broken spot-welds from the bottom of the seat mount. I treated the bare metal with phosphoric acid just in case, before using weld-thru primer on the area:



Then time to cut a patch panel:



And weld it in:



I drilled out the factory spot-weld holes in the seat mount, and re-used them when welding in the patch panel. I basically just started from the side where the panel fit was closest, then used a hammer to contour it to match the OEM seat mount. I don't know that much about bodywork, but it seemed logical to sort of just start from where the panel "wanted" to fit and then massage it into place progressively from there. All my experience is from Youtube videos or fixing my own floors, so don't use anything you're about to see as a guide.

A professional would probably be ashamed of these welds, and also would probably have ground them down before applying seam sealer. I am no professional though, so they just got cleaned thoroughly and primed again before sealing:





Then I turned my attention to the rear of the floor pan for a bit. The original plan was to clean and POR-15 the rusty spots on the floor, but the area with the holes was beyond that. Luckily the rear of the floor wasn't as bad as it looked. Spent awhile scraping, brushing, and degreasing:



Forgot to take a picture after the vacuuming. The next photo is after using the phosphoric acid in the POR-15 kit:



There weren't any soft spots (from above or below), and this area is significantly more complicated to repair. So for now it's getting the POR-15 and a watchful eye. If things worsen, I need to get a spot-weld removal bit set and take out the rear seat mount to see what's underneath. I'm hoping my mum gets years of enjoyment out of her Miata before that becomes necessary.

 

POR-15:



This stuff is interesting, it's really tough once it's cured. Never having used it before, I was concerned that it wouldn't be any different than regular "rust" paint. So far it certainly seems to be as tough as people say. I also poured a bit into the seat mount holes and then ran a tap through the threads before it was completely hardened. I can't really see under there, so I'm hoping it spread around decently. Also POR'd the bottom of the patch:



And then applied rubberized undercoating once it was cured:



I've heard people say that the rubberized undercoating accelerates rust. I don't really buy this; most rust starts from the inside, in this case from a leak. All the water collected in the low-spot and rotted away the floor starting at the welds. The rubberized undercoating just reduces noise and protects from stone-chips.

And that's about it for now. I did get a bit of work done on the Rx7, but I'm going to write that post when I'm not exhausted from hours of grinding, welding, and painting. Until next time

 

The latest parts (and almost the final parts) of my long quest to have an interior that is all one colour were the seat belts and door seals. The seat belts are self-explanatory, but you don't think about the little things like door seals until nearly everything else is done and you're seeing it stick out like a sore thumb:



In this photo, you can also see the only place that the vinyl dye did not work well on the interior. See the tiny flake by the door handle? I'll be addressing that in the near future. Everything else (other than the skidplates that get beaten up every time you get in or out of the car) has held up perfectly.





Along with the drivetrain, I was able to purchase the seat belts and seals I needed. This was especially nice since I couldn't even find the part number for this seal. That means I couldn't even buy it new from Mazda if I wanted to. Before installing anything though, they needed a deep cleaning. I clamped the belts at their full length, then soaked them in hot water with laundry detergent:



Sure, they look clean. But after 20 minutes:



It took about 5 passes before the water kept coming away clean:



Then they were left to dry for a day or two. The seat belts are a bit of work to replace, but I did it in under an hour. If you're careful, you can work out the bottom b-pillar trim by loosening the bolts that hold the rear storage bin deck in. If you actually remove the rear deck, this job becomes quite a bit longer.



It's two small trim screws for the guide, and a 16mm bolt for the retractor. Actually, all three seatbelt bolts are 16mm. Weird...



Going to have to sit in the car a few times and pull the belt across before I figure out which way it's supposed to face. It's surprising how much of a difference one part can make:



The new seal is also visible in this picture. Like I said, big difference.

To be continued.

 

While the maroon on black interior has grown on me, it was originally a compromise. I had most of the black interior I needed, but no seats. My maroon GXL seats were in nice shape, so I just decided to roll with it and install the maroon insert into the hybrid dyed / factory black door cards. I briefly considered reupholstering my seats in black, but I ran into two problems:

1. They're in nice shape. I usually only dye / alter interior parts that are in poor shape. For nice parts, it makes more sense to resell them and just buy the black parts if they are available.

2. They're not quite perfect, so I don't want to invest anything into them. The adjustable headrest irks me for some reason I have yet to pin down, and I slide around through turns.

So it was fortuitous that the car I got all these other parts from had a reasonably O.K set of seats. These are the later style with the fixed headrest:



Torn and a bit gross, but hey, they were cheap. I thoroughly cleaned them, and they looked a bit better. Still not going to use them yet due to all the tears though:



The sliders were very rusty and completely seized, so they went to the scrap metal bin. Then I wrapped the seats up very well and put them in storage for later. I want to reupholster them, but right now the turbo swap is the priority.

I also got these for a super good price:



I already had a 99% perfect set of S5 tails, but the other car had a 100% perfect set. No scratches, no nicks, nothing. They look new.

I was able to flip my old set for a profit, which covered over 1/4 of the cost of the Turbo II drivetrain.

I think I have a photo of the car somewhere, but this car was absolutely ruined in the crash. It was hit so hard on the passenger's side front that the driver's side doorframe was skewed. How bad was it? The red paint on the blowoff valve:



is from the shock tower hitting it. Meanwhile the tube got completely crunched inward:



So that's going to need addressing. Even the intercooler was hit hard enough in the crash to snap the rivets from its bracket:



I can still use the intercooler as-is, but I have a S4 TII spare I could use too if it fits.

Anyways, that's about it for now. Until next time

 

Hey man, she's really coming along man. Seat belt soak, I like that idea. All those little things add up.

 

The seat belt soak never ceases to amaze me with the amount of dirt that it pulls out. It also helps them retract a bit faster too, if you use fabric softener.

 

This isn't much of an update, but I found a neat solution to a problem that's been bothering me. This is not a fix I recommend anyone trying, purely on the basis that it shouldn't be necessary. This is me changing a sensor calibration to compensate for a problem, not a mod that anyone should be doing on their own cars.

The hesitations I have been fighting on and off for awhile have come back with a vengeance, especially in the heat. I noticed that as it was getting hotter, my AFRs were appearing leaner. The logical assumption at this point would be a temperature sensor. However, I have checked them all and they all measure out fine. There are two intake air temp sensors and one coolant sensor (well, one that the ECU actually cares about for enrichment) and the readings were all normal. One weird thing was that AFRs at idle seemed about right (12.5 - 13.2), whereas under any load AFRs went >15, and at cruise AFRs were ~14. So this was something load dependent.

I also have no way to tune my ECU at all, and the stock FC ECU can't really measure it's own AFRs to compensate (or even throw a code, at least for S4s). A standalone is in the plans for my turbo swap, but until then I needed to find a way to richen the mixture. I figured the only way to do this was to mess with the MAF reading, similar to what an Apexi S-AFC would do. So that's what I did:



Removed the MAF sensor. The blue silicone is from the last time I removed that cover, to see if this one had been messed with (like my last one). At the time I found nothing unusual. After cutting the silicone and popping the cover off:



What I wanted to do was reduce the spring tension slightly on the MAF flapper door. The intuition is as follows:

Same volume of air can open door more easily => Door being more open tells the ECU that it is flowing more air => ECU meters fuel around the assumption that there is more air than there actually is => Richer mixture.

I did some searching and found others had done this (usually out of the erroneous assumption that more fuel = more power), but the pictures were long gone. Mazda actually made this very easy though. I used a bit of paint to mark the original position, then pushed that little tab away from the toothed wheel and rotated it a few notches. Then put the cap on and reassemble, and now the MAF will trick the ECU into richening the mixture.

My first attempt resulted in lots of popping, so I had gone too far. Moving a couple notches back had the hesitations come back. I settled somewhere in the middle, around four notches "richer" than the original position. Now the AFRs are about 13.5 when crusing, and 12.5-13 under acceleration. Idle AFRs are a bit fat at 11, but the MAF adjustment is global so I can't do anything about that other than use the trim pot Mazda put near the airbox. And even at "full lean", the idle trim resistor still only gets it to about 11.

So now what I've basically done is trade the hesitations for a slightly gassy idle, but it's a trade I would make 10x over. The car drives so much differently. It's way easier to take off at a lower rpm, it revs smoothly (although I can STILL feel the secondaries come online at 3800rpm), it free-revs way faster, and it accelerates much harder. I even had to learn to shift differently, since blipping the throttle now results in a much more immediate increase in RPM.

My personal theory on this is that the MAF itself is worn out. I don't know if this is the real cause, but I noticed a lot of scratching on the carbon trace underneath the wiper in the MAF. I'm wondering if the scratching can cause the resistance to change significantly, which causes the ECU to see less air than is actually flowing. This would be consistent with my symptoms, since at idle the AFRs were fine and the MAF isn't moving a lot around idle, hence receiving less wear on the carbon trace. When it was cold out in the winter / spring, I'm guessing the enrichment from the IAT sensor helped mask this issue.

Anyways, like I said it's not really an update. Once I have a standalone though I intend to run speed-density and just ditch the MAF altogether. It would be nice to be able to simply press a few keys on my laptop to alter AFRs, so I'm excited to have that tuning flexibility at my disposal. Also, took a picture freshly washed:



And that's about it for now. Until next time

 

One more little fix I have been meaning to do for awhile is the front sway bar bushings. They were replaced a few years ago when I did a complete polyurethane bushing swap. But there's a bit of a problem:



They're too big. I think what's happening here is that "base" models like mine got a smaller 22mm bar, whereas Turbo cars got a 24mm bar. I'm guessing this isn't so much an NA / Turbo difference as a 4 lug / 5 lug difference, but all the references I found say that it's Turbo IIs that got the bigger bar, so we'll go with that for now. I also say "base" in quotations since I still have no idea what spec my car was from the factory. My car lacks the original harness for the rear wiper, which according to the Mazda factory manual qualifies mine as a "low grade" model. Base '86 models had no sunroof, but mine has a sunroof. Meanwhile mine did not have the power steering or AC from the factory as indicated by one of the info sheets I have from the original purchase. The car came with no side decals (still has none), but the original sheet says "GX". Then Canadian models had slightly different options from US models anyways, so who knows.

This presented a bit of an issue finding a new bushing, since the Energy Suspension kit clearly comes with the 24mm one. I don't want to get OEM ones since they're rubber. So I went and found some generic 22mm sway bar bushings, and Amazon had them at my door two days later. Removing the old ones only took 5 minutes, so here's the comparison:



About 2mm wider in the direction parallel to the bar.



Also 2mm wider in forward / back direction. This looked like an issue, but the bracket actually fit okay.



And then it's about 4mm taller, which will turn out to be an issue for fitment. After installing, see the following:



There's no binding so it's okay for a couple test-drives, but I'm going to have to pull it back out and cut the excess from the bottom of the bushing. Luckily it's a flat side, so it shouldn't be too difficult to cut down the 4mm and reinstall.

After that I found that the rear-passenger side tire was low at 20psi. I guess I have another bead leak, so I'll have to bring that to a shop and get it sealed. At least it'll match the bead sealant on the driver's side rear now.

The single biggest difference I have made to the handling though (bigger than the bushings even) was the MAF fix. I tested this out before the above repairs, so I can say this with certainty; The whole car feels entirely different. Since the rear of the car responds so much throttle inputs, the entire car is faster now. Not just in a straight-line but even through a corner since the new throttle-response and acceleration changes how the car handles. The car is quieter, there's less NVH from the drivetrain, and if I'm not paying attention I suddenly find myself speeding. As much as the hesitations felt occasional it's clear I was down on power at all rpm. I already loved the car (obviously) even with the occasional hesitations, but now driving the car is sublime.

It's weird, screwing around with the MAF sensor calibration is without a doubt the single best thing I have done to this car. All it did is help restore lost power, and it's a night and day difference.

While I accumulate funds and parts for the Turbo swap, it's nice that I've finally fixed the biggest issue with the car. Until next time

 

I pulled the bushings today to cut them down. It only took about 5 minutes per:



The hardest part was keeping the cut at a consistent height. I didn't have a good way of doing it in one slice, so I had to carefully keep the razor blade parallel while working my way around the outside. I probably spent twice as much time cleaning and chasing the gunk out of threads:



Cleaned on right, of course. It's not strictly necessary, but all fasteners on this car when I purchased were either rusted, crossed, or loose. I try to take the extra time and give the threads some love. Then I put it back together with Energy Suspension grease. The stuff that came with the bushings was O.K, but I find the Energy stuff has more staying power:



A much better fit. I may end up installing aftermarket sway bars in the future, but I know most of them differ from the stock size. I really want to get everything 100% dialed in on the current suspension setup before I try adding under / over steer, so that's not happening for awhile.

Until next time

 

get yourself a 5 gallon bucket of evapo-rust. got a rusty part? toss it in the bucket and the next day its nice and new.

 

You know it’s been a slow week when you’ve read the whole thread, great documenting and nice car, I know if I would’ve had that hesitation for that long I would’ve thrown out the ecu and Maybye the car 😂

 

The bolts weren't rusty so much as full of dirt. That grease gets on everything, and then suddenly there's sand in the threads. Most of the time was spent with brake cleaner and the thread chaser. I have used evapo-rust before though, with great results.

Thank you!

What, so someone else can fix and enjoy it?

 

The BOV and tube that came with my TII engine were crushed pretty hard when the car they came from was wrecked. I posted photos above. Now I mentioned possibly wanting to go back to the stock recirc valve, but that also necessitates finding the stock tube from the turbo to the intercooler. Then I have to get the valve itself and I really didn't want to add to the list of parts I have to chase.

There was an identical Blitz BOV (including the tube!) on eBay, but it sold while it was still in my watchlist. Also at $200, it wasn't exactly cheap. So for now I decided to fix what I have:



Used lots of heat and a puller to pull the biggest of the dents out of the tube. It was a bit challenging, but if you strategically heat the parts of the tube you want to flex, you can slowly pull it apart with minimal damage. "Minimal" however, includes the fitting for the BOV peeling from the body of the tube. Apparently it was brazed on. I used a chisel and a file to separate it completely:



Then ground away all the bronze and pounded the tube round again:



Round enough to seal, anyways. Then into the electrolysis bath to remove any rust:




After that I used a wire brush to clean the inside of the tube. Tedious work, but for some reason Blitz decided the inside should be painted (?) and all the heat from welding had compromised it. Had to scrub it all out. Then it got a coat of engine enamel, baked in, and installed:



Ugly, but it should be functional. Long term I want to find a different solution. In the meantime this will let me aim my wallet at other parts. Speaking of which, I pulled the flywheel for resurfacing. A lightweight aftermarket unit would be nice one day, but the stock one is fine for now. Pulled out the ludicrous 54mm flywheel socket and impacted it off. The electric impact wasn't enough, but the pneumatic made quick work of it:



Local transmission shop did it for $80, and only three hours turnaround:



Nice and clean under here. Beautiful zinc coating on all the freeze plugs. A slight leak from the rear main, but I was going to replace that as a precaution anyways:



That's it for now. Expecting another part in the mail shortly.

Until next time

 

you got me there, currently in the middle of a rebuild on a car I have never even driven I don’t have very much room to talk now do I