My '87 Base Build
 

Finally decided to make a thread about my 7 build... I Picked up my '87 base model about 2 years ago when I was 17. I'd always wanted a 7 and when I found it running for $500 I couldn't pass it up. Here she is...

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/...omb7/777-1.jpg

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/...20db5df321.jpg

The engine bay

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/...97ec05fc-1.jpg

And the interior...

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/...7/DSCF0377.jpg

As you can see the car is pretty much stripped. It was mostly like that when I got it. Although I took out a few more things like the door panels and the rear bins. My plans for the car are to basically make it into a drift car/ just have fun in car.

I drove it for a while just doing a few small things, put a manual steering rack and fixed a couple small problems.

After graduation I had some money and decided I wanted to do a turbo swap. Also decided it would be a good idea to get a s5 motor for my s4... Live and learn.

The motor after I got it home and cleaned up a bit.

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/...ebomb7/779.jpg

Supposedly only has 13k on the rebuild. Also came with a t2 trans which I wont be using yet. Have the driveshaft but still don't have a rear end and would rather wait then cut up my na and t2 driveshaft to make it work.

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/...b7/t2trans.jpg

Did one last burnout with the n/a and backed it into the garage.

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/...ebomb7/p74.jpg

Here it is with the motor out. Sorry fot the shitty cell phone pic.

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/..._1874991_n.jpg

Once I had the motor out I saw that the rust from a leaky brake master cylinder that the PO had never replaced was worse then I thought. Although only surface, There was enough of it that I decided I might as well paint the engine bay since the motor was out. So I pulled everything out.

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/..._8365283_n.jpg

Then dropped the subframe.

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/...ebomb7/778.jpg

After I got the subframe painted and fixed all the rust under the car

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/..._4897901_n.jpg

I bolted it all back on so I could roll it out of my garage and start the primer in the bay.

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/..._3977677_n.jpg

Then a bunch of sanding, more sanding, paint, more sanding, paint, little more sanding, and a final coat of paint.

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/..._2534529_n.jpg

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/..._3190569_n.jpg

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/...omb7/776-1.jpg

And here it is with the fenders and everything back on.

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/..._4299095_n.jpg

This was my first time using a paint gun. I had some orange peel so I ended up sanding it down and repainting about 3 or 4 times before I got it how I like it. It's still not perfect but it's about a million times better then it was before.

Droping the new motor in

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/..._6092240_n.jpg

And this is about how it sits right now. Just waiting for a few gaskets and some parts.

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/...7/DSCF0369.jpg

This whole project has been a huge learning experience and it's going to be such a releif to finally hear it fire up... If it fires up. :lol:

engine bay looks alot better!!

Awesome man! keep up the good work :D

its coming along pretty good. cant wait to see it run.

You're telling me! haha

I started reading it thinking it'd be another buildup of a crappy base with such awesome mods as a strut bar and LEDs. Looks like you're doing good work. Keep it up, you can actually turn this into a decent car if you just finish what you're doing. Get some interior pieces and make it a nice street-drivable car.

What engine management will you be using?

Nice progress.

Thanks for the compliments guys!

AGreen, I'm thinking for now I'm going to keep the interior stripped. I mean it has almost nothing and with the time and money it would cost to get all the parts it just wouldn't be worth it to me. Plus I already started removing the sound deadning and took out the rear speaker holders and all that kind of stuff. I'm building it to be a track car that I can drive on the stret. Eventually I want to do a cage and the whole 9 yards, but thats a longggg way down the road.

Once I get a stable job and am making a little more money I want to get another 7 as a daily that has all the creature comforts. For now though my 88 toyota pickup does the job. :nod:

As far as engine management I don't really know. For now I just have the "chiped" s4 t2 computer that came with the motor. From what I've been told I should get a wideband to monitor the fuel/ air mixture and a safc to adjust it?

Since I'm really short on cash at the moment I'm just going to try to get a wideband so I can atleast know if I'm leaning out and need to take it easy.

I'm learning as I go and all the engine management and computer stuff is new to me...

A couple dumb questions I thought you guys could maybe help me with...

First, When I was taking my motor out I broke some of the fuel injector clips. And I also couldn't find any s4 t2 fuel injectors. So, since I had the s5 t2 ones that came with the motor and found a mx-3 that had fuel injector clips that fit the s5 t2 injectors, I got those and solderd them on. Should work fine right?

And also I can't remember which fuel injector clips on the harness go to the primaries and which go to the secondaries. I looked at the fsm diagram of the harness but it doesn't seem to tell which is which. Is the ones at the end of the harness, that have only the thermo sensor clip after them, the primaries?

These are for S4
http://www.diyautotune.com/catalog/f...-ev1-p-48.html

These are for S5. About 3/4 way down the screen, item #ND-IC
http://kgparts.com/index.php?page=kgfuel

Before I answer your which one's which question, I've got a question or 2 for you. So you've obviously got an S5 engine there. It came with an S4TII ecu? What harness? Which injectors did the engine come with? I'll be able to tell you specific wire colors if you know what harness you have. Also, make sure that the injector impedance matches the ECU. You'll have to run the S4 TII OMP, since the S5's is computer controlled. All the sensors should be the same, a couple here and there might be a little different, I'm no expert on S5 engines though.

What do you mean by "chipped" ecu? Rtek?

injector impedance is key here.

plus if thats an S5 engine your going to have to swap the front cover to run the S4 omp. Unless you want to cap it and run premix.. your call

edit: oh and since your new to this, NEVER remove the front essentric shaft bolt without having the clutch pedal depressed the entire time. If you do end up having to change front covers that will be a life saver.

I know what the pigtails look like. I got ones for s5 now. The injectors are s5. I'm useing my stock s4 n/a harness. From everything I read that was the way to go. I won't be running the omp, I've been premixing since I got the car and am so use to it now it would be weird not to.

Yes it came with the s4 ecu. The guy had a few ecu's laying around so he gave me one for the s4. I heard about the impeadence. Don't the early s4's have like a selenoid or something by the ecu that has to do with the injectors?

And I don't know what he meant by chipped...

Thanks for the help guys.

resistor pack

Rear primary is lt. green/blk
front primary is lt. green
rear secondary is lt. green/red
front secondary is lt. green/wht

Your 87 probably has the resistor pack. It's called the solenoid resistor pack because injectors are solenoids.

Are you using s4 tII injectors?

I am impressed, good work!

I know, jackass. I was showing you where to buy new ones :icon_tup:

I just noticed, if you look closely in his last picture you can see the resistor pack bolted down.

http://i53.tinypic.com/xsr6e.jpg

I wan't trying to me a jackass AGreen :) Thanks for the links. I already got some off a mazda3 at a junkyard though.

And when I solderd them on does it matter how you wire the harness to the injector pigtails? I was told it doesn't matter. I tried to just wire them all the same just in case. It seems like one of the prongs on the injector would be live and one ground, but I don't know much about electrical, especially with cars.

I'm useing s5 t2 injectors. The only things on the motor that are s4 are the TB and TPS.

So that's the resistor pack Zerkster? I could have sworn I read somewhere it was by the ecu.

So what does it mean if I have it? What do I need to do?

Direction isn't important. They're solenoids, so it'll open the injectors regardless of polarity.

If you're using the S5 TII injectors, then you'll need to bypass the resistor bank. S5's are all high impedance, so you'll have a really high impedance circuit if you don't bypass it. You would run into issues with the injectors not opening enough due to insufficient current.

The bay painted black looks great.

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/...7/resistor.jpg

That's a close up pic of what Zerkster said was the resistor pack. Just wanted to show a better pic to make sure that's it. Now bypassing it, don't suppose that would be as easy as unpluging it?

No, the resistors are in series with the injectors, so unplugging it will prevent them from operating. You need to short around the resistors.

Look at the diagram.

AGreen, again thanks a lot for the help. That diagram isn't helping me though. I guess I just suck at reading them. Been looking at if for 15 mins and am still scratching my head.

I tried searching and didn't come up with to much but from what I read I need to jump the resistor pack? I guess that's the same as bypass? Now looking at the pigtail for the resistor pack there are 5 wires. So I would guess that 2 of them are comeing from the ecu or whatever, and the other 2 are going to the injectors. Then the last one is a ground or something....

So do I need to cut off the pigtail and solder the wires straight together? Makes sense to me but I'm probably completly wrong. Again I suck with electrical.

Alright, starting to get the diagram a little. And I'm an idiot, how would there be 2 wires going to the injectors if theres 4 injectors :facepalm: From what I understand the blk/yel is the ground, and also goes to the main relay and ignistion coil. So do I need to wire the other 4 wires that go to the injectors to the blk/yel wire?

Aahh.. it appears that the blk/yel wire is ground because if you follow it around, it seems to go to a ground tap near the coil, right? That's actually a power wire, and no, it's not grounded. It's a capacitor used to filter out noise. "Condenser" I think is what it's called.

But yes, you need to short all the wires together.

That seems simple enough. Thanks.

One more question. I'm also deleting emissions. Of the 4 seleniods that were in the rats nest, what do I need to keep? Isn't one for fuel and one I need to use for boost or something? I remember reading it somewhere but I can't remember now or find where it was.

According to rotary resurrection I don't need the turbo boost solenoid if I'm running a straight exaust, which I'm gonna be running open downpipe for now until I can afford exaust.

And from what I read I don't need the fuel pressure solenoid either so I don't need any of the solenoids from the rats nest. Yes?

Hmmm I've been doing some reading... If i run a open exaust I'm going to get boost creep. Does this mean I have to get a fuel cut defender? Is there anything else I need. I know I want to get a wideband to make sure I don't lean out. Am I going to need a boost controller?

This is a good diagram for emissions removal. You don't need any of the solenoids. If you remove the rat's nest, you'll have to route new fuel lines because you'll be removing some of the metal fuel line along with the nest.

http://i313.photobucket.com/albums/l...e-routing2.png

So with this diagram, it's Lunchbox Critter's JDM engine w/ rat's nest removal. The yellow stuff, his didn't come with, so ignore the fact that it's yellow. Remove the ACV, the rat's nest, the AWS, and all the stuff in grey. The blue is new vacuum lines. You still need the pulsation damper, don't remove it. The cold start system can go in the trash.

Yeah, you can ditch the boost solenoid, but you'll need a manual boost controller. With an open exhaust you'll have boost creep pretty bad. Even with the upgraded S5 wastegate design, you'll still experience it. The only way to stop it is by porting the wastegate and restricting the exhaust a little. Yeah, with a restrictive exhaust you'll lose some power, but you won't lean your engine out and kill it. Better to be safe than sorry. You can make an exhaust restrictor plate. Trace the downpipe flange on some paper, cut the outline of the flange on some sheet steel, then swiss cheese the middle. It allows enough flow, but restricts it just enough to prevent boost creep.

AGeen you are seriously a life saver. Or atleast a motor saver. I'm mostly done with the emissions removal but that diagram deffinatly helps with some of the vacume lines and shit I wasn't sure about though thanks.

So even if I restrict the exhaust I still need to port the wastegate?

I'm thinking I'm going to cut up my old exaust and use the muffler and some of the pipe off it to restrict the exhaust some. Just have to make a flange to bolt it to the downpipe.

I talked to my buddy and came to the conclusion my best bet would be a wideband and safc.... Unfortunatly I can't afford that So I'm going to port the wastegate, get one of those cheap $10 manual boost controllers off of ebay, and cut up my old exhaust to restrict it a little. Any advice on those ebay manual boost gauges? Any car part that cheap seems like it would be crap but I guess there's not really much to it.

There are mixed reviews about the Ebay MBC. I wouldn't buy one personally. You can find writeups if you do a google search about how to make your own. That way, at least you know what's going into making it.

A wideband is a great investment. I think everyone who owns a modified turbocharged car should have one. SAFC.... I learned my lesson with it. It's really limited to what you can and can't do, and you're better off just saving your money and getting an Rtek ecu or some sort of standalone. My Megasquirt ECU cost me around $400, but I had to build it myself. There are tons of writeups on how to build them specifically for the FC. Just make sure you follow only one set of instructions.

What kind of downpipe do you have? If it's the stock one, then one of the flanges on the stock exhaust should work I believe. Otherwise, Mazdatrix sells flanges.

http://mazdatrix.com/e3.htm

I know all this stuff because I just ran into these same issues not that long ago. Mine is an 88 convertible w/ an S4 TII. It's now got the megasquirt ecu, a TO4b/S5 hybrid turbo, v-mounted (with air conditioning still), and a 3" exhaust. Don't know any numbers yet, I need to rebuild the turbo :D


By the way, the boost controller is designed to RAISE your boost. It can't really limit it more than the spring. The reason you'll need one is that once you restrict the exhaust, the stock spring is (like you said) only 5 psi. The MBC will raise the pressure up to stock level (I forget what S5 is now). It's all about safety.

I don't know what kind of downpipe I have. I bought it off some did who bought a whole turbo exhaust off ebay for $600. He had an n/a though so didn't need the downpipe. It looks nice though. Has the spot for the 02 sensor and everything. The mazdatrix flange looks like it would work though. Is the stock 3"?

And my old exhaust isn't stock. It's some hack job the previous owner put on. It's all just welded together.

I've heard about the megasquirt, I'll have to check it out. Was $400 new? That's cheap as fuck for an ecu isn't it? I'll have to lookup what you mean about building it. I would rather do it that way anyway. I like doing shit myself rather then just buying it ready to go.

If I get a wideband for now, it's just going to tell me if I'm leaning our right? So I know to take it easy. I don't understand how you need a wideband to see it and a safc to ajust it. It seems like one thing should be able to do both. I guess I would have to see them set up to understand.

You got a thread or anything on your build? I'd love to see it.

I wideband is like a speedo, it can tell you how fast you're going but you still have to press the pedals to do anything about it. A wideband monitors your air/fuel ratio which is influenced by a number of factors, but for simplicity sake we'll just say it measures how much fuel the engine is getting.
lean = not enough
stoich = just right
rich = too much (or just right if boosting ;)

The stock computer does just fine at stock boost levels (you are using a turbo ecu right?) but above that you have to "add fuel" to keep your A/F from getting too high (leaning out). To do that you either have to use a piggy back type system (SAFC) that tricks the ecu by telling it incorrect values to get the desire result; an in between (Rtek) which is built off the factory ecu and allows you to change the values that it uses to calculate fuel deliever; or a full stand alone (megasquirt, haltech, etc) that completely replaces the ecu altogether and gives you full control over every aspect of running your engine.

Regardless; a wideband is the first step (if you're wise) but it can't do the job by itself. The Rtek and stand alone ecu's can log wideband output to help you tune, which makes it seem like you are viewing A/F and tuning w/ the same device, however in reality, it is simply displaying the wideband value to make tuning easier.

As for that boost controller, as AGreen stated it can only raise boost, not lower it, so in your situation it has the potential to do far more harm than good, Especially since you have an S5 turbo (assuming, since its an S5 motor...) If it were an S4 there MIGHT be a reason to add a boost controller, since twin scroll was eliminated, but that is a non-factor for you. I would forget about it until you get the ecu situation straightened out and get some higher capacity injectors. Even w/ a ported wastegate, and a spring on the wastegate arm boost wants to creep on my stock S5 turbo when the weather gets cool.

Scrap the SAFC idea, there are plenty of better ways to control fuel, like the Rtek 2.1 ECU(digitaltuning.com). The wideband is a monitor of what the air/fuel ratio is, you need an ECU capable of adjusting the fuel curve to change the air/fuel ratio. Also if you have the S5 manifold/turbo then porting isn't as necessary because the wastegate is a better design than the S4. It will still creep a little especially if you have a free flowing intake as well, but with an FCD or higher flowing secondary injectors you will be fine.

Wow thanks for all the info guys.

So what do you think my best/ cheapest bet would be for now just to get the car road worthy? If I can find some mufflers and maybe a cat to add to the exhaust would that solve my problem until I have the money for rtek and a wideband?

And yes Sharingan, I have a s4 turbo ecu. They guy I bought it from said it was chipped. Would that mean it possibly has a rtek or something like it? I pulled the top to try to look but I don't know what I'm looking at. I didn't see anything that looked aftermarket. How can I tell if it's chipped?

And if it does have a rtek, or when I'm ready to buy one, all I would need is bigger secondary injectors and a FCD?

For now, just put an exhaust on it, with a stock downpipe it won't matter what kind of cat back you have it won't creep. Hell, I didn't creep running open stock downpipe. Don't bother with an FCD, its a waste of time and money that you could put towards an Rtek or other standalone, which would delete the fuel cut feature altogether.

That being said, plenty of people run FCD's and crank up the fuel pressure and/or run larger secondaries and do just fine. Far from optimal but its usually safe.

As far as chipped ECU's I don't have much experience w/ the Japanese tuners but the Rtek runs a socketed chip for the 1.x series so you probably wouldn't be able to look at it and tell (unless its stamped, haven't opened mine so I couldn't tell ya)

Do i have to have the stock downpipe? I just spent $80 on the aftermarket one... I got a couple mufflers and can probably find a cat somewhere so should that be good? I'll just keep an eye on the boost.

well if you have an aftermarket dp then thats fine, throwing a cat in the mix can only help. Might wanna pull the turbo and port the wastegate to the limit of the stock flapper just so you won't have to pull it once the car is running.

"Keeping an eye on boost" is not a viable solution, its like "keeping an eye on temps" instead of wiring in a thermo switch to control an e-fan lol. Eventually you will have to port the wg...might as well just do it now...

This is what I was talking about.

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...strictor+plate

I heard of the plate having numerous holes, but this works just as well. This way, you can use the downpipe you bought. Just get some 3" pipe and one of the 3" flanges from Mazdatrix, weld up some exhaust piping back to a muffler and you'll be golden. Slap the restrictor in between the flanges and your boost creep is gone.

I was planning on pulling the turbo on saturday to port the wastegate but then 1sweet7 and a couple other people said that since the s5 wastegate design is better, porting isn't really as necessary. So should I still do it?

AGreen if i go that route your saying I should go downpipe->restrictor pipe->3' pipe->muffler? And if I do that am I still going to need to port the wastegate?

....I'm beggining to see why people like n/a's.. haha

http://fc3spro.com/TECH/HOWTO/KWG/kwg.html

Actually, this is all worth reading

http://www.fc3spro.com/TECH/tech.html

Got some parts in the mail... Mazda oem rad hoses, fuel filter, and a bunch of intake gaskets. Also got the Bonzai block off plate kit and omp elimination kit, and a used stock bov from a guy on here.

Block off plates.
http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/...ebomb7/bop.jpg

Got the brakes mostley hooked up. Just got to run the vacume line for the booster and bleed them.
http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/...mb7/brakes.jpg

Starting to look like a motor again...
http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/...b7/radhose.jpg

You said that its an S5 motor? Correct me if im wrong but, you shouldn't have eleminate the OMP, S5 motors have a safe mode they enter when the OMP stops working. Unless your going to use an Rtek, so if I missed that just disregard this.

I did not know that. It would be the ecu that does the safemode though correct? I'm running an s4 ecu.

Oh and does anyone know if i can use my s4 na bac on my s5 t2 motor? It fits but I don't know if it would work right. I hear getting it to idle is a pain in the ass without it.

You will be running the S4 ecu, so you will not need the OMP if you premix. The S4 ecu doesn't go into limp mode if the OMP goes bad like the S5 ecu does. You can use the NA BAC, but you won't have an idle adjustment. The TII BAC has a screw on it to adjust the idle speed.

Oh good your using the S4 ecu, I just wanted to give you a heads up about that issue, build looks good keep it up!

Few more questions guys...
First, do I need a knock sensor? I have a spot for one in both rotor housings. The motor didn't come with one though and my n/a didn't have one so I wouldn't have anything to plug it into on the harness right?

Is the thing circled in red the oil pressure sensor and does it look like it's plugged in the right place? And I think the thing under it is for coolant. it's capped on my other motor si I don't know what it's suppose to go to? Should I cap it?
http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/...ntitled1-1.jpg

Now for the bov/ air bypass valve. According to my haynes book that's where it goes which makes sense. Now where does the other end go? I'm thinking where the red line goes on the intercooler pipe but it doesn't line up to great. Do I just run a big vacume line? The green vacume port circled is suppose to go to my bac according to my manual but I'm not running one for now so can it just go to any vacume port on the uim? And the port circled in blue, I have no idea where that goes.
http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/...b7/12121-1.jpg

Last question is, since I'm not running a bac what do I do with the coolant lines that go to it. I know where the one in the front cover comes from but I don't know where it goes after it comes out the other side of the bac. Do I just run a line without the bac or do I cap them.

I couldn't find any of this on 7club and team fc3s is down for maintenance.