My 1973 Rx2 Project
 

Well this is my project, which I have neglected for quite a while now, but Im back at it! I purchased this car for $200 I think, when I was a senior in high school in '03-'04. It came in yellow and was minus a gearbox.

I put in an engine and gearbox from a 1982 rx7, couldnt get that to work, and a few years later I bought a bridgeported 12a. Which I have had even less luck with.

So 3-4 years later I am back to do things right this time! And yesterday I pulled out the gas tank and did my best to clean the rust out of it, dumped in some tank sealant and my fingers are crossed!

good luck man... you can do it

its ok to take your time.
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So one of the things I would like to do is get rid of that mess of wires in the engine bay. So my question is, can I get rid of the #1 & #2 control boxes, or will that screw up my timing? :scratch: The coils are no longer wired up stock and I was thinking of going dlidfis. My goal is to clean up the engine bay, just keep what I need in there, such as; wiring for lights, coils, thermostat, starter, etc. If anybody has any advice or shortcuts on how to match the wires to the wiring diagram and get rid of em that would be awesome, or is this really as tedious as it looks? :dunno:

Thanks guys.

Get it running before you start asking about getting rid of wires! If you try and clean them up now your gonna kick yourself later. Make getting the motor in/running your first priority, you can then see what you need and then you can start weeding out shit that isn't needed. Good luck

^^+1

Hahaha ok, that almost sounds as if its coming from experience? Thats a good point though, Im glad I didnt start then.

How compatible are 12a's? Can you match irons up with housings from a different year, and vice versa, as long as the ports are the same? I saw a post on how rotors have letters stamped on them and how you dont want to use two rotors that are more than two letters apart or so, but what about irons and housings?

u pretty much have 2 groups of housings. 1st group consists of 1st gen rx7 and earlier. 2nd group consists of everything else from 86 and later. u can't use rotor housings from say a 90 with intermediate housings(irons) from an 83 12a, or vise versa. in 86 and later engines, the O ring seal grooves were moved from the rotor housings to the intermediate housings. and no one that i know of has taken 86 and later housings and put 12a rotors and eshaft in them. now the letters ur talking bout on the rotors is true. that's how they're identified by weight.

yes,take u r time with it

Ok, so all 12a components are compatible with all 12a's and all 13b's are compatible with all 13b's?

only of those particular groups. there were 13b's made pre rx7(rx4 and rotary pickup or repu). the 84-85 gsl-se is 6 port 13b fi. some have taken the se rotor housings and put them with the 12a irons to make a 4 port 13b. but i guess u could look at it that way because of the location of the O ring grooves.

What happened to the motors you mentioned in the first post? were they fucked? or just you couldn't get them to run? Ive done 2 1st gen rx-7 12A swaps in rx2s and they are pretty easy.

The first one I put in I got to run, but I was running gas through the fuel tank which filled the carb with flakes of rust. Then being the genius that I was in hi school, I removed the filters in the carb and sent all that crap into the engine. That may not have killed it but then I put on a big holley,ran gas through a gas can and it would just flood and I got it started one time I think.

Then I bought the bridgeported engine from a guy that never saw it run, and I didn't know what to check. It looked brand new, not a dirty spot on it. And I have never got that one to run.

So about 3 years later I ran a compression test on it and there was only good compression on one side on each rotors from what I remember.

Now I have just sealed the fuel tank and purchased an edelbrock 1405, holley red fuel pump, pressure regulator, and gauge. So now once I put all those parts on it I should have the fuel system where it should be.

I spoke to a guy and he said to tow it around the block to try to loosen up the seals, and if that doesn't work than I should pull the motor and tear it apart....

if you decide to sell that car let me know i would love to build a rx2.

^^Ha!! Thats the last thing i will sell. but thanks for the offer. Hey how do you like the Aviation seals? did you use the overhaul kit or just the seals? I was pricing out rebuild kits and theirs seem very reasonable. Looking at rotary aviation and atkins so far.

So here are some pics of the fuel tank. I pulled it out a couple weeks ago and spent the day prepping it for the sealant and then finally sealing it. One of the pics is of just some of the flakes of rust that came out of the inside of the tank, I spent over an hour just knocking the rust out of it...And last weekend I threw some paint on it!

Today ,after work, I spent a couple hours drilling out all of the screws that broke off when I took the tank out. Every screw broke hahaha, but I drilled them all out and now I just have to tap the holes and find some screws. They actually came out easier than I expected after I drilled the pilot holes. :)

I do all my rebuilds with aviation classics not the super seals and i only use their apex seals as the factory mazda coolant seals and the pineapple racing HD coolant seals are the best route for long term and gobs of power from my own personal experience. Atkins make good stuff i would use there overhaul kits but still use aviation seals as i have spent some serious time testing the aviation seals under harsh conditions like heat and detonation and i have yet to have a motor come back that i have rebuilt.

Yeah I've heard good things about pineapple HD coolant seals, as well as some not so good things about atkins coolant seals...too bad cause I like the price haha. But right now I still have a lot of time to figure out what route to take and to save up some cash. Ive yet to tear apart an engine but I have been watching vids and reading threads and talking to people about it, so I will at least have a better idea of how to rebuild one. Money is an issue though so it may be awhile, or a budget rebuild....but I hate tearing things apart cause I didnt do it right the first time....

yea money is always a issue but take your time its worth it and don't take any short cuts. if i were you i would buy the aviation 500$ rebuild kit with apex seals and then buy the pineapple racing hd water seals as they are reusable in case you mess up or need to take the plates back off while rebuilding.

All the kits on the market, be it mazdatrix, racingbeat, atkins, goop, rotary aviation, pinapple, so on and son, even black dragon, there all good...Just depends on who

who is doing the build and if they know what the hell there doing lol...
And who is doing the build and if they know what the hell there doing lol...

Comes down to the wear and tear of the parts being used in my opinion...

take your time cracks me up, how much of a debate people make on whats good what bad ect ect,

nice build tho, and nice job on the fuel cell

^^ I was just asking what he thought about some parts, and I added in just a few things I've heard about some products. It was far from a debate. But thanks for giving me a few more company's to look into for kits :)

in your opinion they might all be good but there is positives and negatives to all of them as well as preferences people might have. but your the one that usually runs carbon seals.
That was not a debate at all but different company's make and offer different products if they were all the same we would not have choices now would we. and taking your time makes a world of difference and is very good advice for advice to someone who is new to all this stuff like mrhandyman.

oh and that is a gas tank not a fuel cell

So I was looking on the rotary aviation site and the only kit I could find for the 12a is the $620 kit.

http://www.rotaryaviation.com/12a_basic_kit.htm

It says "All internal O rings and gaskets needed to close the engine including the pan gasket" so does this mean that it has the rotor oil seal o rings as well, or just the o rings that go into the housings? And if their kit is only $620 for apex seals and o rings, that is a really sweet deal. So what all else would I need if I got this set?

OK so looking for some advice...I recently picked up a gslse 13b engine with the intentions of putting it in my rx2. So from what Ive read I can either;

a) get a megasquirt and all that goes with that setup and keep the fi
b) get the racing beat holley intake setup for a gslse $1000+

if i made a 4 port 13b with my 12a plates would a racing beat 12a holley intake bolt up to it? because I have one of those. and then I wouldnt need to mess with fuel injection and what not.

Could I get a gslse ecu and use it to only run what I need for the engine, basically make it a standalone ecu for cheap? Or is that a stupid question...

Does anybody have any suggestions, or ideas?

If u use ur 12A irons with the gslse housing u will make an old school 4 port 13B... Not a 12A...

Right, So the 12a intake won't fit without an adapter plate, correct? My first plan was to make an adapter plate to mate the rb intake to the se...but just couldn't find an easy way to adapt a 4 port to a 6 port...but I do have resources and materials to fab up a 12a to 4port 13b adapter.