I thought Id share what Ive been up to for the last little while. Its been
almost a year since Ive had a rex to call my own. I got into the biz. of
buying them, repairing them, and selling them locally. My last rex was 87
t2, and before that I had a nice 89 GTU, but I sold those both for some
"start capital" to begin my little business \adventure with, and have
therefore been rex-less in the meantime. Sure, Ive driven many since then,
but most of them needed several things to be considered nice enough for me
to call my own, and I wasnt gonna sink any $$$ into them just for resale.

A few months ago I bought a clean 87 t2, blown up, off the partstrader. IT
sat for a while...Ive been too busy to pull and rebuild the engine. Then I
obtained a clean used engine in a trade, this one was professionally done
and had ~53k on it from what I was told. So I stuck it in my car and got on
the road...it felt good. Car had driveability problems under boost until
today, but I was happy I could cruise around in it.

I swapped ina set of 89 tails, swapped the hatch for one with no rear
wiper. renewed my old HNDAKLR license plate for this car, and swapped on a
89-91 front bumper with foglights. I also added a set of aluminum ruims and
new tires to replace the shitty stock gray ones. Sure theyre only 15's and
the tires are too small for the car, but hell, they were free, and give me
better acceleration :-)

Then I set about performance mods...downpipe and midpipe(installed with new
engine), custom TID intake and cone filter(shelded filter, for later use
with ducting for a cold air intake), and an e-fan. I used one off a early
90's ford escort...dont laugh, its the same size as teh popular fiero fan
but comes with a shroud that covers the stock FC radiator perfectly. Moves
alot of air too, and I got mine for $35. I used an adjustable thermostatic
switch from autozone which cost another $18. Keeps it nice and cool, around
1/3 on the stock gauge.

Next came a new battery adn terminals, and a double groove alternator pulley
from an old dodge alternator. Cost me $15 at the local alt. repair shop. We
looked it up and any old dodge 2.6 motor, 81-87, will have this pulley,
even though the alternator looks way different than ours. I have a spare if
anyone is interested in this mod. I finished this mod with all new dayco
belts..no slipping here :-)

Finally came engine mods. I took the whole thing apart, and removed hte
following:

oil metering pump, lines, injectors, and vacuum hoses
EGR valve
BAC valve
ACV valve
airpump
subzero start valve
vacuum spider
split air pipe.
air supply valve
pulsation dampner

I made blockoff plates for all these parts, and used spare bolts to plug the
oil injector holes. I repalced the PD with another banjo bolt from a spare
fuel rail, they fit perfect. I also cleaned out the injectors using
compressed air..not as good as a professional cleaning, but better than
nothing. Quite a bit of **** was thrown out of those injectors. I did it by
using a vacuum hose over the injector inlet, using an old harness connector
run to battery power, and a pressure regulator valve on my air line inserted
into the other end of the vacuum hose. I did the TB mod while i was in here,
removing all the cold start stuff too. I must say this mod helped my boost
response as well; before it was slow to respond and erratic, sometimes full
boost, sometimes partial. I flipped the TB spacer plate backwards to
eliminate all teh vacuum outlets on teh dynamic chamber, except one, which I
plugged with a new cap. I now have 4 vacuum lines ont eh whole car. I put it
all back together and, to my surprise, idled and ran very well considering
its lack of conrtol systems. I had to adjust the throttle stop screw, and
that was it. Rock solid 800rpm idle, and no drop in idle under load such as
a/c, steering change, or brake. Runs as good or better than any stock engine
Ive sen yet, as far as idle and driveability. I am VERY pleased with this
part of the mods. Sure, its a bit cold natured the first 3 minuts, but after
that it runs like new.

Finally I open air vented my blowoff valve for that nice, riceboy
intimidating shift. I didnt like the changes in idle and around town driving
with it left open and idled up. so I went to lowe's and got a plumbing
fixture, 3/4" flapper-door type check valve. The door moves very freely, adn
it is plenty wide enough to flow air. I mounted it on the pass. firewall,
facing upwards. This keep sthe flapper door closed except when pressurized.
I ran some spare ACV silencer hose from it to the blowoff valve itself,
about 9 inches away. IT holds vacuum fine, and sounds killer when boosting
hard. Between it and the TID mod, I can hear teh turbo spool nicely, and
hear it release when I shift. Pretty cool for $10 each mods.Im hoping that
when I get my dual canister catback, this mod will also help me shoot hella
flamage since i have no cats. :-) Oh, and I have also rewired my fuel pump
for constant high voltage.

Future mods are: dual canister catback(n1 look-alike), large FMIC, boost
controller(manual), GSLSE secondary injectors(if needed), and mounting my
autometer boost and a/f gauges when my pod finally arrives from backorder. I
think, for my goals, I can get by ont eh stock turbo at around 12psi and be
happy for a daily driver, at least for quite a while.

Pics of all this, the car, and mods, can be seen at:

http://hypntyz.rx7life.com/myturboII

The first 6 pics are of my blockoff plates. The next 3, ignore those...they
are of my custom automatic-to-5sp conversion bracket. 12-23 are old pics of
my t2 when I first got it. Pics 30+ were taken during and after the modding
was goin on :-) Have fun, any comments or suggestions welcome :-D

 

Come make my car run Oh wait, you'd steal it until I finally payed you! whoops!

 

wow, way to go.
is the black T2 in your sig the car you're talking about? if so its a beaut

 

That is the nicest, cleanest engine bacy I think I have ever seen. I wish I could do al that to the car I am about to get, but I don't know enough. Better yet I wish I lived close to you so I could get you to teach me. Very nice car man. Very clean, and a lot of work in it. Well done.

 

YEah the black car in my sign is my 87 t2. Purty aint she?!

 

All the same things can be done with S5s right? Just curious, do you have a pic of the thing you used as a BOV check valve?

 

There is a pic of it on the page somewhere...its behind the charcoal canister. IT was gold/brass/copper, but I painted it black. Its available at lowe's etc. with teh plumbing stuff. Cost about $7.50

 

What you've done is pretty much exactly what I have been planning to do when I get my engine. Except my car is 87 and I should be getting a s5 jspec, so I gotta switch a few more things around for that. I like how you got bare minimum of things to run.
Just curious, does your check engine light come on? Also, you say it still runs good w/ out the BAC?

 

i didt thing , i ook off the vacumm rack sae block offs as him but i ran a str8 fuel line forn the fuel filtr to the fuel in leton the primaries i got 680cc's i the 2ndaries and jus a downpipe for exhaust i run rich whn i peg it and i get no fuel cut of at 12 lbs on the factory comp i dunno but that vacumm rack takes away alot of power, o yea i only got 4 vacumm lines off of my motor too

 

Very very nice car. It looks just like a Series 5! So how hard was it to put that S5 front on it? I want to do it when I get my 7. That is the nicest S4 I have ever seen I think, way to go.

 

No check engine light. The car runs, in my opinion, as good or better than stock w/o the BAC. Ive tried the a/c, brakes, lights, and steering and one of them kill teh car, or make it wander more than 100rpm off 800.

SO did I. No vacuum rail for me

In honesty, I bet I see 5hp more just by taking that **** off. I cant explain why, other than egr removal, but it is an all around good mod for guys like me.

Thank you. IT actually has sorta poor paint, thus the reason for taking pis with it wet The insides are really sweet though, its what impressed me with the car when I bought it. IT has some door dings, but I plan to fix those when I repaint. Also, the PO put a s5 mirror on teh driver side, and an s4 remains on the pass. side. SO Ill have to swap that out as well

About an hour or 2. Its just a bunch of 10mm nuts, that are rusted in place. Just be sure you get the 89-91 bumper support(if using foglights) and foam reinforcements. Also the lights are different, so get the lenses too. I didnt even have to remove the fenders or headlight assemblies...just bend a 10mm wrench to reach behind the corner of the headlight assembles to get the top 10mm nut, you'll see what I mean.

 

BTW, Im considering selling it to get a down payment to refinance my house..any offers?

 

Does the moulding on the sides match up?

what if I got a 89 front bumper and fenders, will the bolt right up and look fine? IE matching up moldings?

thanks

very nice btw

Action

 

The side molding is different. All the fenders are the same, don't waste your money.

 

Beautiful

(must be friendly cuz he's probably gonna do my engine swap...dont **** off the person who's tinkering w/ ur wankel )

edit: damn, thats sounded assholish like i said htat just to be nice...but damn..that IS such a beauty..such clean shiney paint...how come FC's that arent yours always seem to look so much nicer?

 

IT's all in the presentation, boys...

Up close you can se the tires are too small for the car, the aforementioned trim does not match up, the paint is faded and scratched up along the bottom, the doors have dings, the mirrors are from different models(87 t2, 89 NA), the rear bumper is warped, adn the door trim I put on(missing when I got it) is not lined up perfect, plus one of them has little strips of red paint on it, from where the car I got it off of had been repainted once in its life and poorly masked.

Digital cameras really can either hide, or bring out, defects as desired, its all in the setup of the camera and shot.

BTW if anyone has 89+ molding for sale Im buying

 

looks good

 

Thanks. I was just reading about yourd blowing up..sucks dude. Not encouraging for me, though Im just like you..if I blow it up, Ill rebuild it better and do it all over again until I get it right

 

Thats why I only take pictures of my car when its really bright outside, and only from certain angles

 

Note that it is overcast outside, beginning to get dark, and the car is freshly washed and wet...that was by design...

 

This is one of my favorites due to the glare. Not shown are the dents, dings, scrapes, and scratches. Having a shitty camera helps too.

 

oh well atleast i will have a reliable FD to drive

 

Since you're obviously in anguish over the loss of your FC, Ill trade you my reliable FC for yoru reliable FD, that way you can have your cake and eat it too

 

yeah, my car looks totally fucked. but, if i take the right picture of it, it actually looks decent

 

do you premix now that your omp is gone?