A year ago I purchased a 1987 RX7, for $400.00. I bought it from a kid that thought he would make a drag car out of it. He then opened the hood and realized he had no idea what to do with a rotary. So his loss became my gain. I grew up with many of my friends being Puerto Rican and well a lot of them had first gen RX7s, or Datsun 510's with 12a motors, a really good friend of mine had a 2nd Gen RX7 TII. So to me this was an awesome find! It had everything with it it just needed to be put back together. However, that's not my personality and since most everything was removed from the car why stop there right? I joined the boards here did a lot of reading and still do, I think I am on here 4 or 5 times a day just reading posts taking the good with the bad. The first thing I had done was some one ran a carfax report for me. According to the Vin number I had a TII which would explain the hood. But would not explain why I didn't have TII mirrors, motor, drive train, seats or anything else that came from a TII. I don't understand it but, I knew I could rectify the situation. And the pictures that follow are my car's story.

Bringing her home. Notice the cattle roping rope tied to the AC line? That is holding the tranny up......


Did I mention the kid that was working on this was a redneck? Not sure what is
Up with the hot pink road marking paint that he painted the interior trim and calipers with...






Everything besides the motor that used to be under the hood now resided in the car...







I actually thought there may be a decent exhaust system from looking at it... Again this was a redneck kid... Tips from Walmart on the stock exhaust. lol




Her first resting spot.

 

The following pics are what remained still intact on the block. Lucky for me he didn't know how to break the motor open. he pulled it out of a running car with only 116000 miles on it to clean it??? I dunno...











Intake








Drive Shaft




Tranny (sold)

 

Ok, remember I said it wasn't in my personality to leave things alone and since things were already out I chose to make some changes. I searched and searched online for a low mileage JDM motor, I had a choice to make here. Do I stick with a Series 4 TII motor or do I go with the Series 5, so I did some more research and the general feeling I picked up was that the series 5 had more ups than the Series 4 so I found a S5 motor that is supposed to have somewhere around 40,000 - 60,000, miles on it, and came out of a 91 TII. it was only $800.00 for the full swap motor, tranny, all the systems intact and a full harness. These pics are from when my motor came in.











I had some damage from the shipping, I didn't realize it until after the driver was gone and I unwrapped it. Lesson learned now... My claim was denied because it should have been brought to light before the driver left so it could be documented. The inter cooler damage I am not really worried about since I am going with a FMIC, but the UIM will be replaced due to it being cast aluminum and It doesn't look too bad but looks can be deceiving.









This is the ECU, I was going to use it but noticed it was damaged so I cracked it open and sure enough the board is cracked inside, not 100% sure that it doesn't work but it looks bad enough for me not to use it. I am still deciding what to do here, i think I am going to go with a standalone haltech. Unless someone gives me a reason not to. They seem to be the ones most people use, and from what I understand it would allow me to keep my AC.





Over all I was very happy with the engine, you can tell it has been sitting for a while and needs some cleaning, but I will be doing all that before dropping it in.

I thought about a rebuild before dropping it in, but I think at this point I want to put it in then if I break it I will rebuild. But who knows, I could change my mind before I drop it in.

 

After about 8 months, I am back on the project again. Life happens sometimes and priorities change, so now it is time to get busy. I started stripping the interior. Much of the work was already done for me. Don't ask about the spray foam I have no clue who or why it is sprayed in the holes. I doubt very seriously that is stock... I have started chipping away at the sound dampening crap. it comes up very nicely with a chisel and a hammer. As you can see in the pictures the dash is pretty much trashed, so I will be replacing that. Well a picture is worth a thousand words so I will let them speak for them selves..














Yeah, umm this is what was connected to the AC controls... should be fun to fix...





These are some of the engine bay pics, lot of work to get done her, before the motor goes in. I could have just gotten away with some detaling here if the kid that decided to work on it hadn't let the brake fluid eat through the paint... SO now I have some rust to clean up. not too bad though..
























More to come.....

 

More stripping....Focusing on the bay...

 

Got some more Stripping done today.

 

My next delimma is to go paint or truck bed coating for the bay, what do you think? I'll be really honest I am not worried about the weight gain with the coating. I am however concerned with it holding up under the heat.

 

damn rednecks.....when you go to strip the sound bending, use dry ice and a hammer... you can actually just pull it off once you let the dry ice sit for a second.... well you have alot of work to do and make sure you keep us updated

 

Wow! That shell is pretty "immaculate" compared to the rust buckets I've seen and worked on. Great find!

 

That sounds like a pretty good deal on a motor. good job keep us updated

 

hammertone. looks awesome and holds up under the heat.

 

man, you are ambitous to take on that project!
Where did you get the j-spec?

 

nice cpubygs only if u had the haltech you sold a while back anyways i will be home soon i can give you a hand as a matter of fact u live about 5 mins away i live on the 33 3 miles from the track right before polk city

 

What is this Hammertone you speak of? lol I'd really like to finish stripping it down to the metal and just clear coat it to keep it from rusting. I think it would be different, and sweet all at the same time. You might get blinded when you pop the hood out in the sunlight, El Nene, I'll take you up on that offer. My inlaws live out that way, and i grew up out there. I have to take a break this weekend to fix the timing belt in my wifes accord, but next weekend I will be ripping away on the car again.

 

Thanks! I really think with all the right parts and access to lots of rotor heads it won't be that big of a project. I got the JDM from ebay actually I'll see if I can find the guy again he had lots of good feed back and I actually contacted a few of the buyers he had sold to as well as got him on the phone first. And when I had the shipping damage issues he went above and beoynd to try to get UPS to pay for the damages.

 

Hammertone refers to the texture of the finish- it's commonly seen on machine tools.
All brands are not created equal,
Hammerite makes the best.

 

And Hammerite holds up to the high temp? Has anyone else done this in their engine bay? Just curious I'd like to see some pics of a finished job. Even if it isn't on car just something in general painted with this.

 

Looks good. Seeing peoples threads on builds gets me excited to start mine one of these days. Soon as my money situation is fixed that is. That guy did some damage on that car, maybe you can get it back in tip top shape

 

I plan on it, I get impatient sometimes and I wanna just throw the motor in and be done with it, but then I step back and think of the long haul and how I should handle it. So things like me not wanting to rebuild the motor, it's a thought process and a pros and cons deal. I just really want to take pride in it and do it right the first time, I think it will be cheaper and look a lot better.

 

no take your time u r doing it right no rush bro no rush

 

That ECU wouldn't work anyways. It's the N3A7 from a JDM '91-'95 S6.

 

my mate got a S5 JDM motor and it came a S6 ECU, must be a conspriacy

 

They probably just grabbed an ECU out of the bin that said "RX-7" on it without running the numbers first.

 

looks good, take your time.

 

lol, oh well... Board is cracked case is all bent up. Guess I will trash it. I plan on going with a stand alone anyway. I thought it was strange that the ecu had plugs with cut wires and the harness on the engine was uncut...