Hello from sunny NorCal! My son and I have taken on a new project that is sure to keep us busy for the next 30 years... He purchased an 1989 RX7 GXL NA for next to nothing. The car is fairly straight, only some minor door dings from years of parking in crowded bay area parking lots. The engine is toast, and the trans feels very loose as well, so we decided to start looking for a TII swap. My son found a 91 JDM donor car, and we purchased the motor, trans, and drive line. He is probably going to get the rear end as well. We are currently researching which direction to go with the ECU. It came with a Knight Sports ECU, but I cannot find any information on whether or not it will work in a USDM NA swap. At any rate, we are considering a stand alone ECU, and have narrowed the choices to either the FC Power or Haltech Elite 1500. We are hoping the ECU we have will work. If not we will have to bite the bullet on the much more expensive route. His goal right now is a something in the 350-400 whp range, but that may change once he gets a taste of how much it costs to make those ponies. My goal is to just get the thing back together, looking sharp, and running. The upgrades can happen later when his wallet gets a lil thicker. I don't have any pics to post right now, but will take some and get them posted up soon.

 

Time for an update. He found a deal on an AP Engineering Power FC with the harness for an FC. He also picked up the rear end and axles from the JDM donor car. He ordered a USDM TII harness, which arrived today. Unfortunately, it appears the seller was kind enough to send us a JDM harness. So now I guess I will try to figure out how to make the JDM harness work...

I am hoping to get a chance to get the engine compartment painted this weekend. There was some cancer under the battery tray, so I am going to seal it up with POR 15 and then repaint the whole compartment much like locoelectrician and his son did. It has been over 100 degrees every day this week, so I have zero interest in working on anything in the garage right now. Hopefully it will be cooler this weekend and we can get the painting done.

 

Here are some pics of how it looks today.

 

I finished the dual igniter trailing coil pack mod. Only 29,999 more tasks to go! Also, here are some of the parts we have gathered so far.

APE PFC and Commander

Apexi downpipe

POR 15 for the rust under the battery tray

Polyurethane motor mount from Banzai Racing

We were missing a flash to pass lens...not anymore!

A sweet aluminum radiator from koyorad

Complete dual igniter coil pack mod. Thanks Banzai Racing for the awesome how to write up!

Silicone radiator and TMIC hoses

 

If that is an AP S5 PFC you need a stock trailing coil

 

DOH!

 

Looks fun. We put a big dry erase board in the garage and it helped quite a bit to be able to look at it and see what’s crossed off and what’s not.

 

sounds like a nice project for you and your son. i can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

This looks like its going to turn into a great father/son project. Look forward to seeing the end results.