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Hello everyone, I'm starting to work on the RX in earnest so I thought I would start a little build log. Thanks to those that have helped me so far with parts and information, we're still really early in the learning stages of just exactly what it is we've gotten ourselves into.
So far we picked up a partially prepped car from a team that folded. The more I dig into it the more I want to just tear the whole thing apart. I'm not going to take pot shots at the previous owners, since it's hard to do quality work when your team is falling apart, it's more that a lot of things just aren't done the way I would have done them, so out they come.
Here's what i think we have so far: Pictures from the day I picked it up in Wisconsin:
My truck and the car
The car in the previous owners driveway
That night when I got it home and stuffed it in the workshop
Since then we've mostly been poking around. The front hubs felt loose so we took them off, left one is basically shot. Didn't have any grease, had been hacked at pretty good for some reason. The car had gotten turbo brakes, so that was a bonus, but we'll be replacing the hub bearings and possibly the left front hub if we can't clean it up well enough on the lathe. Here is the car sitting in my workshop now:
I've mostly been messing with the seat the past few days. The slider rails are mounted on an incline and I don't think it's going to pass tech for chump car, so that will be coming out, probably going to ditch the corbeau seat and go with something else. More to come on that.
A little bit about me:
I'm a powertrain engineer at GM. I have spent the last 4 years of my life working on the dyno development and vehicle calibration for our twin turbo V6's (LF3 and LF4) in the cadillac CTS and XTS VSport, as well as the ATS-V. I recently came back from working at the proving grounds to pontiac to do more early engine development on some new projects. Since I'm not driving fast cars for my day job anymore this is probably going to fulfill the racing itch for a little while. As you may have noticed I have a solstice GXP sitting in the garage, that's been my toy since 2008 when I bought it. Now that I have a 3.5 year old daughter it doesn't get much road time, but I'm still holding off requests from the wife to sell it. Hopefully next year my daughters booster seat will find it's way into that car for some fun rides in the summer. She's already asked for me to put a seat in the race car for her
Anyway, let me know what you guys think. Point, laugh, cry, whatever. We'll see how this journey progresses in the coming months. First chump car race I think we'll make is @ gingerman in late august. Hopefully make a few track days @ waterford hills before then, and maybe some autocrosses.
Finally, tonight I started cleaning up the rats nest of wiring in the car. I'm going to add a toggle switch for the hi / lo speed wiper functions. Does anyone know if this car has an internal return switch on the motor? Would be nice to wire that in as well... I tried it by wiring what I later figured out was probably the intermittent relay signal wire and just popped a fuse... So any help on that would be nice!
Another few things. They did the emissions delete, but the PCV system isn't hooked up to anything... Who thinks we need a catch can?
Some pics of the engine compartment.
Things i know I need to hook up:
Some kind breather hose out of the oil fill neck
Oil level sensor - wired to LED
Coolant level sensor in radiator - going to use a transistor to wire this into an LED so that it will light up when the sensor can't find ground anymore through the coolant
Oil pressure sensor
Coolant Temp Sensor
Brake Fluid Level Sensor - Wired to LED
the 5th and 6th ports are wired open... With like bailing wire or something. Is there a cleaner way to do this?
There looks to be an oil leak @ the back of the engine... not sure if it's the pan gasket... rear main seal or what. Any thoughts on that?
Oil cooler lines seem to be leaking. What's the best way to clean that up? Is there some crush washers I can order?
the 5th and 6th ports are wired open... With like bailing wire or something. Is there a cleaner way to do this?
There looks to be an oil leak @ the back of the engine... not sure if it's the pan gasket... rear main seal or what. Any thoughts on that?
Oil cooler lines seem to be leaking. What's the best way to clean that up? Is there some crush washers I can order?
There is a write up for an electric pump motor and msd rpm activated switch that you can use to get these to open up instead of using the factory airpump/acv/exhaust pressure. rotaryressurection has a thread on his website i believe
take some brake cleaner and clean the area. if the leak isnt the pan, then you know its time to drop the trans. could be the rear main seal, could be the front seal on the trans?
again clean with brake cleaner, see where your leak is coming from the stock lines are notorious for leaking with old age. It may be a copper washer but its also possible it has a hole.
List of little things I dug into tonight. Sorry no pics. too busy working.
Tore down the new hubs that 87 t-66 sent me and they look pretty good. Gotta finish cleaning the bearings out to see if I am going to replace them but they felt fine before coming apart. Races look pretty good (a fit signs of wear on the right front hub inner race but nothing major).
Re wired the dash, wired in the wipers to a 3 position switch w/ both high and low speed.
Wired in a new oil pressure sensor to work with our aftermarket gauge
Got the parts I needed to get the fire suppression system done, so that's all together
Test fit the Wink rearview mirror, going to weld in the tabs for that and the window net hopefully next weekend
Thats about it for now. Was really hoping to wire in some warning lights for the coolant level and brake fluid level, but it doesn't seem like there is a float in my brake fluid reservoir anymore?
Also, on the coolant level sensor... is there a way to check that thing with the engine off? It seems like when it's cold it's not grounded (no continuity from the wire to the chassis / engine block? Any ideas?
Good lord it's been almost a month. Have been working on the car just haven't really had time to post an update. Even now it's almost 2am on a thursday night.
The more I dig into the car, the more I find things I don't like. We were playing with the hubs, found the left front didn't have any grease at all, so we re-packed the fronts, checked the rears.
Some pics... front hubs are together, rears seem ok.
Repacking the hubs with some high temp grease
Bled the brakes tonight with super blue because I had it laying around.
Have been playing with the seat and it's just not going to work, my head was almost hitting the interior roof panel and way to close to the top of the cage for my own comfort, so I snagged a seat from a guy I know who sold his corvette and no longer needed it. Got it mounted today, welded up some spacers for the left side of the floor pan because it slopes down away from the trans tunnel.
Chumpcar requires 2x2" 0.125" thick plate or 2" dia load washers for all the seat mounts going through the floor. I used the 2x2" plate method on the right, and then welded some spacers to the plates on the left.
The spacers are a 0.75" x 3/16 wall tube (3/8" inner dia) to act as a bushing and then a 1.5" x 0.125" outer tube to help spread the load through the plates. Plates on top and bottom of the spacer are 2x2" 0.125" thick and then there is another 0.125" 2x2" plate underneath the floor at all 4 mounting bolts.
fancy welding table
seat in the car
We removed the factory brake lights, added these so that when we get rear ended we can still race.
The battery + line didn't have a fuse on it until it got to our dash so I added a 150A breaker.
Also moved the dash up closer to the driver so I could actually reach everything strapped in the car.
before
after
Other little odds and ends:
- wired aftermarket oil pressure and coolant temp
- hooked up the fire suppression cables
- flushed the coolant (had glycol, not allowed for racing)
- drained the oil, oil cooler
- new 20W-50 oil, filter
- installed cables to act as door pull handles
- installed tow straps
- compression test - 75PSI stone cold on both rotors... not very promising
- - will have to see how the engine tightens up once it's warm, 1st auto cross on sunday, we'll see how she does
- wired the oil level sensor to a warning light
- hooked up the crank case vent line to the throttle body inlet
- re did the heater core block offs. Previous owners used vacuum plugs that were basically shot, did the pex pipe plug method
- drilled a few holes in the thermostat to help us bleed air out of the block when we fill the cooling system again
K... going to sleep. that's enough for now.
Last edited by sodamninsane; 06-19-15 at 12:59 AM.
Man this monthly update frequency is lame. Got tied up doing some things around the house, went out of town for 4th of july, etc etc etc.
On the bright side, we took the RX7 to an autocross in late June before I went on vacation. I added a harness bar to the cage since the new seat's shoulder holes were way too high for the current cage, even though you sit lower in the car with the new seat (yay HANS compatibility).
harness bar welded in
In the driveway pre-autocross test drive
waiting in anticipation
K now the bad news. Car is pretty down on power at high RPM, see thread here.
Something is just not right on the fuel delivery side. So more trouble shooting on that to come.
Also from the autocross, fuel is leaking out of the area where the pump bolts into the tank, any suggestions on that one? Not a major firey death issue, but it seems like some of the slosh is coming out and running down the front / sides of the tank under high G maneuvers.
Car balance was good, did some tire pressure tuning even though we really didn't have any power (couldn't get out of first gear), maybe hit 45mph. I've spent a few hours in the past weeks since the 4th trying to trouble shoot the engine issues.
Up next we've gotta rip everything back out, paint the cage and then get er to a track day to do some higher speed driving. After that I think we'll be ready for our first race end of august.
05-20-15, 11:57 PM
Sodamninsane's Chump Car
the stock lines are notorious for leaking with old age. It may be a copper washer but its also possible it has a hole. 
