Thank you!

Thanks for your thoughts! I agree on the heat shrink being a better alternative to electrical tape. However, the electrical tape has held up for over 5 years now. It also has techflex split look over the top. When I get to the point I'm able to do twisted wiring I will look into incorporating raychem.

I'll keep #2 in mind. Instead of using a wire holder to hold them all on the strut tower I may find a method that bolts and allows me to keep them separate. I've seen them before, but don't know their actual name. However, from my understanding you should really only experience cross fire if there are two holes/bad wires allowing the jump to happen.

Thanks for taking the time to read the thread!

 

amazing thread!!!

 

Update 7/4/2020
Happy 4th of July! The car has just re-rolled over 500 miles and I did a compression check on it. I’ve been doing compression checks every 250 miles and plan to until 1000 miles. So far so good! I’ll post some pictures of the results below, but a pretty even spread slightly above 100 is good to me! These are S4 Turbo rotors so I’m thinking that’s pretty good. In slightly sad news, my driver side door handle broke. I ordered some billet aluminum door handle inserts from JDL Manufacturing as well as two brand new door handles from Mazda. I plan to retrofit the aluminum handles onto my old door handles and keep the new units. New units are the only way to get the black “gasket” that surrounds the handle assembly. In more slightly bad news, I’m slowly losing coolant from the reservoir. I’m not sure where it’s going, maybe it’s filling in some air bubbles? I’m not seeing coolant anywhere so either it’s filling in air bubbles or it’s immediately burning off (which may point me to the turbo rear water banjo). I plan to keep an eye on the reservoir and act accordingly if it continues to go down. I took one of the above posters' advice and separated the spark plug cables. I understand the risk is reasonably low to experience cross-firing, but I’d rather completely eliminate the risk than have a low risk. I ordered some spark plug separators from Jegs; I was a little shocked at how expensive these things are, but they turned out really nice. One more purchase I made was a super rare Mazdaspeed Lower Control Stiffener. It’s currently at powder getting the same treatment as the rest of my MazdaSpeed bars, so I’m excited to get that back in and on the car. That completes the collection of MazdaSpeed braces that they offered (I think). Hope to have another update shortly!
Until next time!

Here are the results of the 500 miles compression test



Here are the spark plug separators



Here is the new MazdaSpeed Lower Stiffener




Here are some shots my friend grabbed from a recent event

 

Dang, that's a sweet pickup to find one of those Mazdaspeed lower arm bars. I just got around to installing an Infini front bar on my FC. Didn't bother refinishing it yet, because I don't know what color I want to go with.

As always, everything is looking great. It's always reassuring to see good compression numbers, too.

 

This is an awesome car. It has been a long time since I had a true project car... love that people are out there still building stuff. Perfect color too

 

wow dude this came out soo clean great job!

 

car looks great!

for the wires there are 3 things to be aware of, i'm early in the research, so they are more like google search terms... the Japanese tuners are really really crazy about this kind of stuff

1. inductive crossfire, its when the induction on one wire can fire another, which will break stuff. Ford has a few bulletins about it.
2. RFI, i think Radio Frequency Interference, the spark frequency can cause problems with ECU's and radios an such, its a bigger problem on Corvettes and airplanes that aren't metal
3. Spark Leakage. this is the one that i have had a hard time finding, i think with a piston engine you need to be making a TON of hp before this is a problem. basic outline is that the higher the combustion chamber pressure is, the more energy it takes to fire the spark plug. electricity is lazy, and it will just go to the easiest place. so there is a point where the electricity will skip the spark plug, and just leak out of the wire/boot/coil etc.

check out this wire set, every car they work on gets one https://www.rhdjapan.com/revolution-...d3s-kouki.html

 

Update 7/14/2020
I think this will be the last update for a while. Let’s start with some good news. I’m pretty sure I fixed the coolant leak. I pressure tested and found the gremlin (hopefully the last one). While I was doing all that I replaced the 1.1 pressure cap with an OEM .9. I really wish companies would make anodized black .9 caps, but I guess there isn’t a big market. My new OEM Door handles and the JDL door handle inserts came in. The plan is to use the brand new OEM door handles for now, and retrofit my old ones with the JDL door handle inserts. All of my stuff ended up coming back from powder too. The calipers look amazing and I’m excited to get those fully back together. I tried to order brand new bridge bolts, but they are even NLA in Japan. So I will try and restore these bridge bolts as best as possible. I still plan on new pistons, guides, hardware, and sealing kits. I don’t consider the calipers high priority, so I may just get the stuff when I have excess funds. I finished up my hood scoop blocker and got it on the car. I ran a stream of Mishimoto rubber along the outside to seal it up. It worked out rather well. Now all the bugs can die by the hands of the hood scoop and no longer my firewall…. Lol. The last thing I did was partially install my MazdaSpeed Lower Stiffener. I’m going to have to modify the LRB Speed aero panel slightly, but I saved that for tomorrow; It’s 95~ degrees here! The car currently has 850 miles on it. I’m planning to start revving to 8k for another 125 miles then transition to half throttle/low boost for 250 miles before going further into boost. Taking all the precautions this time! (Even though we clearly saw the issue the last engine failed - it wasn’t my break-in procedure lol).
Until next time!

Here are the door handles and inserts



Here are the calipers



Here is the hood scoop blocker



Here is the MazdaSpeed Lower Stiffener





Here is a shot of the car

 

Update 8/14/2020
I always start off with saying this will be the last update for a while. This time I think I mean it lol. I would say half-way through this project I created this vision of the perfect FC chassis in my mind. It was a S4 Slicktop. I didn’t want auto-belts and I didn’t want a sunroof. I had one of those things, but not the other. I don’t want to re-shell because I’ve put a lot of work into this chassis already so in order to reach my vision I’ve begun sourcing the things required to delete my sunroof. I purchased a JDM Black Non-Sunroof Headliner, the roof brace, and the dome light bracket. This should be everything I need to go slicktop. I haven’t decided if I’ll do a cut from another chassis or just delete it the old fashion way. I’m confident my body guy can do it properly and make it look as it would have originally so I may just delete it without chopping another shell up. I also purchased a TPS Bracket from JDL Manufacturing to run a Ford TPS. My TPS has been acting up lately, as they all eventually do, so I went ahead and sourced this for an eventual swap. The last thing I did...was make a 100% impulse buy. I found a set of MazdaSpeed Infini IV seats for sale on Facebook. I was able to purchase them and have them shipped from the UK. I noticed they had some surface rust under the seat. I took the rails off and cleaned up the under metals and the rails. I ground all the rust off, then used Rust Reformer, and finally encapsulated with some VHT Epoxy Paint. I think they turned out pretty nice and should hopefully last another 30 years.

Some quick history on the seats. There were 600 of the last run of the Infini IV. 300 in the first batch and 300 in the second batch. A mere 20 of the 300 in the second batch were sent to MazdaSpeed to be outfitted with these special MazdaSpeed Infini IV seats among other MazdaSpeed interior pieces (Steering wheel and shift ****). Only 20 of these seats ever existed and I feel extremely fortunate to have them in my car.

I don’t foresee an update for awhile. I’d wager the next update will be the sun-roof delete (if I’m able to do it over the winter) and the FD Caliper rebuild/installation. So, until next time!

Here’s the parts for the sun-roof delete



Here’s the bracket and TPS Sensor


Here’s the seats as they came in




Here’s the restoration of the underneath (original, rust reformer, finished)




Here’s the seats in the car

 

Lookin' sharp. There was an FC MS rear spoiler base on YAJ. I'm sure you saw it. Not your style?

 

I did! I wanted it really bad. I just didn't 2k USD, and then probably 2.6k USD after shipping, want it lol

 

Hot damn! I was just busy with the pictures, since I don't currently have an FC. Some of the prices on YAJ are nuts.

 

Ahhhh your the one that purchased those seats. They look in decent shape

 

I think given the age they are in really good shape. There was one minor little hole on the driver seat. Everything else looks great. I think my Recaro LX-Bs were in better condition, but those threw me around everywhere during spirited driving.

 

I swear this is my dream car.

Very impressive choices. Some of the parts you run down are incredibly impressive.

 

Those seats look fantastic. Very nice touch.

I could never delete my sunroof. When the weather is just right, I like to go windows up and sunroof open. To me, it's the best.

 

Yup, this is it. Side note just gotta change clothes afterwards cause I smell of exhaust fumes.
Neat build BTW

 

Thanks! I'm lazily looking for the rest of the MazdaSpeed exterior parts, but they are a needle in a haystack.

Thanks Jerry! Yeah, I find myself never using the Sunroof, even after installing a relay to assist it in movement. I think I'll appreciate the additional weight being lost from the top of the car, the lack of black molding breaking up the looks of the roof, and maybe the ability to fit in the car with a helmet.

Thank you!

 

Update 9/29/2020
It’s been a little bit since the last update! I’ve done a couple of things to the car and made a couple of decisions on the car. First things first, I finally got the car on a dyno (I’ll have a fancy video below that my friend made). The load of the dyno compared to the street was way different… I was pig rich (10.4-10.6) through the entire range while on the dyno, but as soon as I hit the street AFR was exactly where it was when I tuned it. The car is also extremely safe on my ignition timing map. With all that being said, the car made 286 rwhp. I think with my fuel not pegged rich and my ignition timing actually tuned I should be around 310-325. Now, on to the decision I made. Given that the car is only going to make 325~ rwhp on it’s best day with the BNR I’ve decided to change things up - I’ve decided to go 20b NA in the FC. The focus for me currently is on acquiring a house, so I’m very slowly collecting parts. Thus far I’ve purchased the mounts, oil pan brace, and a couple of other odds and ends. Around Black Friday timeframe I plan on purchasing some more goods from Full Function Engineering. I’m doing it this way to cut the big cost at the end; once I acquire a house the rest is immediately being purchased. I’ve done some math and I’ll recoup a bit from selling my stuff and as I looked towards the final, final vision for the car it needed something extra out of the ordinary. I also purchased some brand new side markers and front turn signal lenses from Japan. No telling when those will become NLA and I didn’t want to be without a set if the car was ever in an accident. JP3 Motorsports was nice enough to make me some FC metal nut blockers. I know tape and everything else works too, but these are super convenient to grab and throw over the top. I’d definitely recommend picking some up before they are no longer made again.

In regards to actually working on the car I installed the JP3 Motorsports black alternator boot cover instead of the grey one I had. I also finally deleted the vacuum hardline on the firewall. I think it really helped clean up that area. Although the next step in the FC’s journey is semi-on the back burner, I’m incredibly excited to see it through.

Here’s all the normal stuff that came in



Here’s stuff for the 20b



Here’s the new alternator terminal boot


Here's the hard line delete




Here's some latest pictures of the car



Here's the Youtube video my friend made of the Dyno

You Tube

Bonus Youtube of my friend riding with me in the car

 

How's the JDL door handle fitment? Didn't know someone made one for the FC

 

I haven't gotten around to performing that yet. I'm holding off until I get the sunroof deleted so the guy can spray those at the same time.

 

wow. why didnt i ever think to put the fuel pressure regulator right there. nice

 

Most people don't mount it there because it violates the NHRA rules- has to be spaced 6" off the firewall. So if you plan on hitting the strip, mount it elsewhere.

 

So you're saying you have an engine package for sale?

20B would be awesome, going the Defined route?

 

Oh wow, I didn't know this. While I don't intend to ever take it down the strip I do plan on doing some eventual road courses. Not sure on their rulings though.

It'll be awhile before the engine is put up for sale; concentrating on a house first. I won't be having a shop do the work. Initial plan is just to drop whatever engine I acquire in the car and run it until it starts to get tired. Then I'd overhaul and go ITB.