You have to bring like a sealed pint. With as often as we get cops patrolling our meet, open container law isn't one anyone wants to deal with.

 

I recently bought something to get me back into the club- I was hoping to show it off at the next meet, but I don't think I'll be able to safely drive it that far...

I now have another rotary!



I bought it knowing it had boost issues, and after fixing some things, it seems like something else broke in the process. I can't complain, I fully expected it. Atleast it looks good sitting in the garage! haha

 

Congratulations Brett!

 

Brett, that was the hardest secret to keep but congrats!!!! If you ever need extra hands, you know you can always call!

 

Beautiful!!!!

 

Thanks guys! If it weren't for Tommy, I wouldn't have found it. I'm the third owner, I got it from an older couple in Tuscaloosa, AL. It has 69K miles on the body, around 15K on a rebuild, and is completely stock.

I'll have to pick a few FD people's brains at the meet, I'm not quite sure what's going on with it. It was only working the primary turbo, and I found something broken so I replaced it. Then it seemed to pull harder, but 5 miles after that, it started having a new problem... Still something turbo related, it would probably be best to redo the whole system but I'd like to enjoy it a little more before tearing it apart.

 

Nice!!

 

Looking good Brett!

 

It sounds like some sort of vacuum leak. Can you feel the second turbo kick in around 4.2 - 4.6k?

 

At first, it was a vacuum leak. One of the vacuum nipples on the pressure tank was cracked and had been somewhat repaired, but it still leaked. The primary turbo would boost fine but after ~4500 it did not pull like I thought it should. So I bought another pressure tank and installed that, I also installed a boost gauge.

With my little brother in tow to read off the boost gauge, we took it for a test drive Saturday and it felt much better and was hitting 10 lbs like it should, but I had to keep the speed low until I could get to a good road to test on.

Then before I could give it a good WOT run, it started making a goofy whistling noise so I babied it back home. First I thought it might be the air pump but it changes tone with different amounts of throttle and engine load, so I think it's something with the primary turbo. Now it isn't building boost at all. The noise it's making is similar to this guy's video, but I haven't been able to get ahold of him to see what his issue was.
I thought it might be an leak between the turbos and the intake, but I disconnected an intercooler pipe and it didn't change anything, noise is still there. I think the primary turbo is shot, a blow off valve (or whatever the stock one is called) is stuck open, or maybe the stock Y pipe cracked or something... I haven't done a lot of research yet, so those are my slightly educated guesses...

EDIT: I found a thread the guy in the video did, his front turbo **** out. I guess now is the time to see how all that crap above the turbos comes off... lol

 

I would replace all check valves with Dale's viton ones. I also have a stock BOV in the for sale section in great working order. I'll pull it if you want it, OTGA members get a good discount (free) especially if you drive a FD.

 

It looks like you are having fun with the new Toy Brett. That thing has all kinds of bells and whistles.

 

Thank you, I want to redo the vacuum lines and check valves but I'm not sure what route I want to take. Do I replace those bits and leave it stock, do I do the simplified sequential system, or do I dump it all and go non-sequential and do the intake/exhaust mods that I want... I feel like I should read more and talk to you FD guys before I do anything like that, though.

I see what you did there...

 

Nice FD Brett. You probably need to replace every hose under there with some good silicon
replacements. Theres like 20+ vacuum hoses from what I've heard.

I wouldnt modify the twins or the exhaust or anything. Keep it all stock and working if you want to
see that cars value appreciate. Unmolested FDs are starting to draw real money these days.

 

I agree, but cooling mods are a must. DP, radiator, intercooler....

 

Sounds like it runs on vacuum and you are leaking some somewhere?

LOL, That thing might as well be the space shuttle as far as my limited knowledge of FDs goes.

Brett, you do know the rotary world has a dark side right?

Sure is pretty though. Good color combination too!

 

if you need help working on the fd let me know

 

I just saw that you don't have caps on the tubes from where the air pump was removed, you need to cap both the pipes off, they are right where the intake pipe is for the rear turbo

 

Brett,

While I agree with Tim that the bone stock ones are going to maintain their value, consider what you want the car for. If you want it as an investment to sell and make money then yes, keep it stock. If you want to keep it and enjoy it then don't worry about resale and do the mods you want. If you don't enjoy a car then what is the point of owning it?

I would recommend the reliability mods listed in the link below. Those would be the first things I did to an FD if I had one and I think they are the mods Alex was referencing.
Reliability Mods

That being said, you know you're an FD owner when you leave your car at home because you don't think it will bake it back...

 

Congrats on the FD Brett. I'm just south of Nashville if you are ever up this way and want to talk about FD, FB, SA stuff.

I converted my FD turbos to non seq setup and it's a lot easier to maintain and troubleshoot.

 

Thank you Robert! It means a lot coming from someone with such a fine 1st gen...

Evo, that was just a video I found where someone was having a similar problem as I am. I wish mine was that nice!

Tim and Tommy, what you said is spot on. Because of the mileage and stock-ness, I'm still not sure how far I want to go with the car... Once it's running property, an aftermarket downpipe and metal AST are sure to follow. I've bought a fancy switch to wire up a manual fan controller, too.

I'm going to take off the maze of intake hoses tonight and look at the turbos. My gut tells me they'll need to be replaced.

I appreciate the offer, Johnny. What other mods did you do to your car to support the non-sequential setup?

 

Brett, those FD's are front wheel drive, aren't they?

That could explain the whistling when you engage the turbo's. To fix it, you swap the front wheels.

Take a look underneath, I don't think you'll find a drive shaft.

 

Hey Ray, are there any parts you are looking for? I have a bunch from that fb purchase and I am going to a junk yard this week to pick apart a 84 gsl

 

You hit the nail on the head, Ray. I don't think the OCD is working either. Damn rotary, better just stay with the BMW.

 

Thanks for the kind offer Martin. I'm well stocked on 84/85 GSL parts, the remainders of the five I've owned over the years.

But my current project is an 83 GSL, so if you have any S2-specific parts, especially red interior (or any color dash) I'd be very much interested!

(And yes, I did spend all day Sunday cleaning out the engine bay on the White Ghost getting it ready for painting, maybe as soon as this weekend).

Brett, the FD is definitely a step up from the BMW.

BMW's are front wheel drive too, and their engines spin counterclockwise.

The FD will be fine, just put a 12A in the trunk and drive it in reverse.