hIGGI

iTrader: (7)

good work!

Kim

Getting the toe eliminator bushings out WILL most likely require an Acetylene/Oxygen torch, its a real bitch to get out.

Multiplex

Kim, we'll see, I got some pretty hefty bushings and the like out from the RX7 and from the toyota so far, we'll see how far we will get with this one.

Can someone post the toe illim install picture one more time please, I lost it Not sure which way around to install them

Multiplex

Pictures, wheeeeh!

Multiplex

The bolt is out!!! WHEEEEEH!!!

I bought this nice set of tools this morning, they are counter clockwise turning taps. You simply drill a hole in the broken off bolt, stick the right size tool into it, turn it counter clockwise, and your bolt nicely comes out

Now all I need is a new bolt

rotary emotions

nice work Bas!
the detailing seems to become good aswell, is it all powdercoat?
Just one remark: why not polishing does rotorhousings? Bling bling always looks so cool

Multiplex

re, nopes, its just heat resistent paint Its ashame though, I wirewheeled all the bits an pieces and then spray painted them. Now I have a small sandblasting box that just about fit these type of parts, would have been an even nicer finish

As for polishing the rotorhousings, there are a few problems with this. First of all I had a hell of a time cleaning them in the first place, with all the curves and stuff I find it hard to find tools that adequately do this. It would be alot easier I think if the engine is taken appart fully. Second I dont have the right tools to begin with, I'm learning this as I go along and I haven't even got a clue what tools to best use for polishing. I polished my throttle body but I could do that with some stuff I got with my dremel tool, dont fancy doing that to the complete engine. Third, I dont expect this engine to be in my car for very long. I'm using it to get the car into rolling condition. Once I have finished the car and it is driving I will get a rollcage and bucket seats installed and then I will start saving for a second engine which I want to tear appart and rebuild and that one must really become bling bling. Mostly to learn from it, second because I dont think this engine has much life left into it. 200k miles is alot to ask from a 13b.

rotary emotions

you're right, I almost forgot about the milage on the engine.
as for polishing, several ways are possible, depending on how good you want it to be (or: how much time and elbow grease you're willing to spend)
I used a wire brush (as on your dremel, but bigger) on a normal handheld drill. This cleans out the last bits of dirt and gives a nice shine. After this, you'll either be satisfied as is (my rotorhousings are done this way) or you'll go on. Next step is sandpaper, the rolls for drills are perfect. Starting with heavier ones (40 or 60) and going finer every time, you'll notice a nice surface once you're at the 120 grit. Now you can move to the really hard bit: polishing by hand! Use sandpaper, and again from heavy to fine (120/240/400/600). Finish with a 1000 or 1200 grit. Now use a polishing paste and cloth. Mirror like finish should be there (this is how I did my alternator) You'll need a protective finish (clearcoat) if the shine must last, aluminium is very sensetive.
Expect many hours before a part is really bling bling, or just a few minutes if you want it wire-brush clean.

Multiplex

I did the wirebrush treatment but some of the grease is so cooked on its hard to get off in a number of places, also not everywhere is easy to reach. I think it would be alot easier when the engine is appart to do this.

Anyways, I am even more happy today. When I still had the red RX7 I walked into the local mazda dealership asking about some things for the RX7. The guy was your typical sales guy (I think they only have those) and his first question was "RX7, is that a mazda? I think you are in the wrong dealership, I dont think we sell those"... DUH... (this was before RX8 was announced).. Later on when I was working on this RX7 I never got very far with these guys either. They helped me out once when I was trying to find bolt to close off my powersteering bits, but only cause that day the tech guy was there and he was all to happy to help me.

Today I was in Hoofdorp with my flywheel bolt in hand. I walk up to the counter, sales guy approaches me. Me goes : "uhm, I got this bolt from my flywheel from my rx7, I need new one". Guy goes : "Owh, that must be from the pressure plate right? Owh let me see (guy pulls up RX7 parts catalogue on his PC in 5 secs), owh thats this and this part, lemmi see if I can get it for you". So I'm going like "huh? you're a sales guy right?", I start looking around while this guy is trying to find if they have the bolts in stock, I see RX7 posters on the walls, beauty of an RX8 parked right at the entrance, RX7 history books on the shelves. MAN I WAS IN HEAVEN!

Unfortunately the bolt was not in stock but they ordered them for me, should be in on Saterday.

So definately a big THUMBS up to the Mazda Dealership in Hoofddorp, finally a dealership that helps you even with the small bits and doesn't just want to sell a new car to you.

rotary emotions

that's cool, most aren't very pleased when you're working on cars yourself.
the local dealer overhere (drives an RX-8 BTW) is pretty cool: when they can't find what I want (pre 86 cars aren't on the PC, only on microfiche) they let me look at the fiches myself untill I find the numbers. And when I needed an exhaust for the 626, they even let me put the car on the bridge to see how many of the parts I needed. I must add I will never again replace a 626 exhaust on the driveway though!

Mireck 12A

These bolts are very common, go to a good hardwarestore, and they will have it (or order it)

I'm curieus what the dealer will charge for the bolt.

but indeed, Hoofddorp has a fine dealer, there are more Rx-7 owners coming there.
It all depends on wich dealer you go to, every dealer has the Rx7 part catalog on their PC(I got the Mazda software also, mail or call me if you need partnumbers ), and for the first gens they can look it up on fiches.
Almost every part is availeble, only exception I know of is the first gen's fueltank.

rotary emotions

and some interior parts. the bumper side caps (those rubbers things) for 79-80's aren't either, or at least not all of them. some small items aren't available anymore aswell. and 3rd gen engines aren't as far as I know, but who needs those?

Multiplex

re, hehehe, yeah you have some very good dealers out there luckely. With toyota I had the same experience, when I contacted the local dealer for some parts the reply was: 'Sir you better drop the car off and we'll see if you really need those parts'.

Later on I did business with a toyota dealer close to my work and they were alot more helpfull especially since this time I had part numbers

Multiplex

mireck, yeah they are expensive, 3 euros a piece if I saw on the PC correctly, its was just convinient. If I had the time to head off to haarlem there is a GREAT hardware store there, they have just about any bolt imaginable in the world in stock.

Multiplex

okay guys, some more pics and info

First, for everyone who doesn't have one of those things to keep the flywheel fixed, not the best way but it works <grin>


This is what my engine will look like with the upper intake manifold on


I can't seem to find the bracket anywhere that holds the intake manifold up...

I also put a flash light near the exhaust ports and rotated my engine. Interesting, I seem to have all my apex seals so thats pretty good, they look fine too but I get the impression they are fully pushed into the rotor and I wonder if they still come out fine. Also my rotors really look badly charred (although otherwise fine asfar as this allows me to see). Would it be a good idea to spray some lubricant in there, of maybe some 2 tact engine oil (I'm going premix anyways)? something to oil the seals?

Kim

fill each rotorchamber with some oil, I have read that some people use Autotransmission-oil, why I dont know.
Just let it sit and eat away all those deposits.

Multiplex

Kim, my guess is that ATF oil has more solvents or something. I read it a long time ago on the forums and last night higgi also suggested it to me, so atf oil it is

Multiplex

I love ATF oil

Well I guess the results of today would have been managed with any oil, I poored some in and immidiately the front rotor started to make plenty of compression, I could hear it clearly and definately feel it. The PLOP as the exhaust opened up was magnificent On all 3 sides nice and strong.

The back rotor was less nice, I can hear it suck in air and when the exhaust opens up the air pressure pushes out the atf oil in a nice stream. But no noticable plop sound so it definately does less then my front rotor.

We'll see what a night of soaking in atf does to it. Tomorow I repeat the process, and sunday I'll rotate it until no more atf comes out. If my tention bolts are in tomorow I will put the engine back in Sunday night

Multiplex

oops, mixed something up there, not the tention bolt I need to get, was talking about pressure plate bolt. stupid me

Multiplex

Pictures I will post later this weel but anyways...

Me and Leon arived at the garage around 6 tonight. Weather really sucked so it was good we could work indoors. For the first time in 4 months I stood eye to eye with my FC again. One problem we already knew about, it had been stored in one of the halls where they had problems with leakage. Indeed, some parts that we didn't paint to well had started to show some signs of rust. Especially the brake things need to be done again. As for the body work, that actually looks pretty good! I found two places where tiny dots of rust are apearing and those places were rust infested when I cleaned it so I am not surprised. Those bits will be touched up soon

But there we were. Engine, car, gearbox....... no hoist!! So I call the owners up... Sorry, but the hydrolics on the hoist have broken down... No hoist......

Uhm..... Well we'll figure something out. Car on the lift, first try to finally get the axle loose. This time we succeeded in it!! Learned alot in 4 months (Leon took his BMW partly appart and put it back together and I've been learning alot on the toyota). So thats a good step.
Lower car again, okay lets see if we can get the engine in without gearbox, we can lift it right??

DAMN that sucker is heavy, but after a few small stops in between (and slightly bending the bar at the front of the car *OOPS*), engine was in its place. We had trouble though, one of the engine mounts didn't go to the bottom fully, we solved that much later in the night, but it caused us some problems. Actually, I think I forgot a washer between and it looks like the mounts are a little off. Will have to fix this eventually.

Gearbox proved to be much more difficult to get on right. Party cause the right engine mount wasn't lowered totally, also cause its damn hard to align thing thing up. I'm a bit fearfull this might have damaged something, but in the end,we got it in, we got it bolted up, and its in place. I have no idea if the clutch will work though, I'm not even sure I installed everything correctly, but time will tell. I'll need to get a new clutch line and hook it up to see.

Also something i am unhappy about is that we figure out to late that we needed to remove the gearstick and clutch thingy becuase with the engine haning downwards they hit the tunnel and I damaged my paint job. I definately need to work on that, next time I am working on it I'm sure I'll find some rust in those spots.

Putting the gearstick back on we're not totally sure we did it right, it has some trouble going into reverse... but otherwise it seems to work fine, anyone got any ideas about this?

Anyways, at the end of the day we looked at my RX7 with the engine back in, gearbox in place, everything lining up. MAN this is a good feeling! Next up is putting everything back onto the engine, figure the wiring out, fixing the fuel system, put exhaust headers on and maybe some temporary piping, and fire her up!

I think we'll have her running pretty quickly actually, the only major thing now is the exhaust, the rest is minor. After that it's just gonne be alot of work getting everything finished. I have to sort out the brakes, still need to get the rear in order, get the lights in order, and then start work on the interiour.

But I do feel that today, we made a major step forward to getting her back on the road.

Multiplex

Okay, couldn't resist

This was right after we lifted the engine in, no gearbox yet:


No idea what this wire is for, but it broke:


No idea what this thing on my gearbox is either:


Damn this looks so cool!


All done:


Finale!:

hIGGI

iTrader: (7)

congrats !

u could be sure i would not even try without hoist ))

Multiplex

Higgi, well its not recomendable however in all honesty, it turned out not to be that hard either. With almost nothing attached to the engine it is pretty liftable by two people. The hardest part is that you can't really reach into the engine bay. So we had to place the engine first on the front of the car (which was the only bit we shouldn't have done) and then have one of us get into the car, then move the engine down to the subframe, now both get in the car (real shame that we didn't have a 3rd person taking pictures because by now Leon was basically standing on the car, then move the engine into place.

Sure is a once in a lifetime thing for me though

Ariel

Nice work not letting a defective hoist stop you! Actually I am currently waiting for money to roll in so I can buy a hoist, maybe I should just take out the engine by hand

It looks nice with the clean enginebay and newly fitted engine. I am looking forward to the see that thing finished.

OC94Rx7

Nice work Bas!
Looks like you will have it all completed before Spring?

Oliver