good luck howi, been keeping an eye on your thread here for quite some time

 

Haha! I just caught this! That was me, Howi- thanks for lending me your voltmeter! I want to take a closer look at your FD next time out- looks really sweet. I did make it home and even made it to dinner in the nick time. It turns out the 'ACC On' power to my PCM shorted somewhere so I had to jumper it from the main fuse box. Looks like after three years I'm still working out the bugs.
Nice meeting you, Buddy.
See you next time,
Andrej

 

Thanks! Actually, I wasn't the one who set the 1m 18s. :P My partner Peter and I share the car, and he's currently faster than I am.

Thanks for checking up! I did a quick search on your posts and it seems like you're interested in a similar swap. If you have any questions, don't be shy, just ask.

HAHAHA! I never knew a 10' guy can fit in an FC!! It was a pleasant surprise to see another 7 on the track, not to mention a piston one. Your car looked nice and clean, should be a hell of a car on the track! Too bad I didn't get a chance to run with you that day. I'm really sorry I couldn't help out more that day, I was really swamped...

I guess that's just the life of a self-wired car.... I went through the same thing, cutting/splicing/soldering each wire one by one. The first year I got the car running, it wouldn't stop popping the main fusing every month or so (then it stopped for some weird reason lol...). Just last week, one of the injectors stopped working due to a short "somewhere." Track day was approaching so I just ripped out the entire injector harness and made a new one.

It was a pleasure to meet you too Andrej!

Howi

 

When is your next track day?

thewird

 

Onyx's next track day is on June 27th. I will try my best to hit that one; we want to try to squeeze ourselves into their leaderboard if possible. Do you think you will be able to attend this one?

Howi

 

Howi, This Sunday TMP....you should come

 

LOL.. Times are tough old man... and racing (well, lapping) isn't cheap.... I'm not even sure if I can make it to the one on June 27th.

How about we get together for some beer? Much more affordable. We need to catch up too; haven't seen you for probably a year now....

Howi

 

Nice build, i have always wanted to do this swap. I had an e36 M3 and fell in love with the inline 6. They are naturally balanced, smooth, and sound amazing. Do you have any pics of the engine sub frame. Did you just weld adapters to the Fd sub frame and did you have a custom drive shaft made to mate the R154 to the Fd rear end? Thanks.

 

Thanks! The engine is indeed buttery smooth and balanced. I absolutely love it.

The front subframe is a modified stock subframe, because I want the lower control arms, the steering rack, and the sway bar to be in the stock location. Basically, I cut the rear cross beam (so now it looks like the letter 'K') and welded the ends shut. Then I built 2 towers on both sides to support the engine. Nothing tricky or fancy here, you just have to live with a non-stock hood. As much as I love the stock lines of the FD, what's important is function over form, right?

I don't have any pictures of the front subframe at the moment. When I have some time and the weather is permitting, I'll snap a few shots of it for you.

My R154 came with a chopped drive shaft. So I simply brought my stock FD RX7 drive shaft and the chopped R154 end to a truck shop, and asked them to combine the 2 together with a specified length.

Oh, and check your PM regarding those wheels.

Hope that helps!

Howi

 

A few more pics of the wheels in question, they used to be howi's but I took them off his hands a few years ago. Volk SE37A's







I need to hit the track more

 

actually the more i do some research and talk to my local tuner that i trust the more i'm leaning to wanting to go to the 1jz with the vvti instead of the 2j. mostly why i've liked your swap lol! the whole idea of something linear is mostly what i want. something that wont be a total dyno queen ahhahah! i'd stick to rotary but there isn't anyone that is comfortable tuning them or even working on them around me so i'm looking for options and i've gotta keep it boosted . i'll probably end up asking a slew of questions down the road lol, it'll be a good long while before i can afford a fd of my own... i've blown a crap load of money on a home remodel and it's left my wallet bare.

 

Hello Howi. I was wondering what front bumper you are using. Is it aftermarket or is it a modified 93-95 bumper? Either way I'd love to know because I think it's gorgeous. I would love to get something similar as it really shows off the intercooler while still looking stock.

I read through your thread and used the search thread tool to search for "bumper" but came up with nothing. I hope I'm not asking you to repeat something you've already addressed

Great project BTW. Your build has inspired me to start planning out my 2JZ swap, which is scheduled to start in spring of 2010. So with months of time, I'm hoping to get every little detail planned out before I get started

Lane

 

not to threadjack or be an ***, but for all you ppl wanting to do a 2jz swap into the FD, its pretty much pointless...

the 2jz has fitment issues with the steering rack location and will bumpsteer (if you don't knwo what that is, look it up, its not something you want a car to do)

but, if u know some secret to making it fit, the 2jz is an awesome engine. Otherwise, just buy a mkiv supra. they pull .94g's ont he skidpad stock,s o dno't blv the hype about how they "cant" handle. They destroy rx7's on most big tracks.

 

The front bumper was purchased from a very small Japanese shop. It was about $2,350 shipped to my door and I had to wait almost 6 months for it. So it's good that you're planning early...

I'm just kidding...

You're going to love this. It's just a slightly trimmed OEM bumper. $0. I can remove the bumper for you when I have some time and take some close up shots of it so you know how it's done. I didn't do the work myself, I got the car this way. But it doesn't look difficult to do at all.

LOL... Thanks for the heads up....

 

LOL! That's awesome! You really had me going there
You don't have to go through all the trouble of removing the bumper on my account. I just wanted to know if it was as simple as trimming the bumper or if there was more work involved. Now that I know it's just a trim, I think I can handle it myself. Like I said, I'm still in my planning stages and I'm only about 1 month in so I don't even have my FD yet. When I get my car I'll pop the bumper off and see what's involved. If I can't handle it, I'll find a shop that can. Either way, I'm going to try something similar, because I love the look

Keep up the good work and don't let the swap newbs get ya down

Lane

 

Thanks! It's not a problem to remove the bumper. I take it on and off a lot so I only secure it down with 4 bolts LOL... I'll for sure snap some shots for your next time I remove it; it should be soon because I need to work on my FMIC a bit. I'll post the pics in this thread.

A few people have inquired me about the hood bulge. For a mostly track car, I was initially very tempted to just cut a vent hole that clears the engine as well as improves cooling, and just paint it black. But we wanted to keep the sleeper appeal to the car so we went the extra mile to make it some what stock looking.

This is what we did. We cut off the hood supports where needed, then I banged up the hood from underneath with a hammer until the stock hood clears the engine and shuts. Because we made the engine sit so far back, the stock hood actually clears the engine completely. We only had to make a small little bulge (the flat black area on the driver side) to clear the stock JZ intake manifold (the flat black area in the center of the hood at the front was only to cover up some scratches):


Note that in this picture, everything is already in the car. The car was 100% functional and running. To reiterate, the front subframe was modified from the stock one, so the steering rack is still sitting on the stock subframe, in the stock location. If you push the JZ engine as far back as we did, you only have to make the small little bulge as shown above.

Then we simply brought the car to our trusty body guy, and asked him to smooth out the bulge and paint it. The pictures can be seen on Page 1 of this thread. You may be wondering why the bulge was so much larger and symmetrical in the end. This is because I want to have just as much room on the passenger side in case I want to install a single turbo in the future. Single turbo setups on the 1JZ / 2JZ sit very high, usually protrudes higher than the engine itself. So I'd like to keep this possibility open.

If you're doing a 1JZ / 2JZ swap and you're using an off the shelf kit (ie. Tech 2), which obviously does not involve firewall modifications, I wouldn't recommend doing the same to your hood. The reason is without firewall mods, the engine will sit significantly more forward. That means you would probably have to make a very very big bulge in order to clear it. You probably have no choice but to go with the Tech 2 hood, which has the crazy big bulge and vents. It works but not stock looking at all.

Hope that helps,

Howi

 

Excellent info Howi! I love the way your hood looks, but I knew getting into this swap that I would never be able to do something like you've done. I'm going to have to go with the Tech2 kit because I have no experience with metal fabrication. I hate that I'm going to have to go with their aftermarket hood, but that's the price I'll have to pay for my lack of experience and to keep the steering rack level. Oh well....

4 Bolts! Wow! That really is a track car
Alright, but don't rush anything on my account. If you've already got your bumper off for another reason and happen to remember to snap a few pics, I would LOVE to see some shots of that modification; otherwise, I'll figure it out next year

Lane

 

Thank you! No worries, I'll for sure snap some photos of it for you.

Thewird, will you be coming out with Onyx on this coming Saturday? I'll for sure be there. Hope to see you there!

Howi

 

Nope, can't make it, my car isn't running. Rather it is running, but I want to fix it before putting it on the track again. I need to get ready for Mosport on Wednesday.

What 1800*F does to a turbo with a heat blanket on... (look at attached photo) It's probably been like this for a while but I never bothered to look into my exhaust leak since I thought it was my burnt out resonator.

thewird

 

That's too bad. But there's always a next time.

I can't really make out, but is that your turbo flange detaching from the turbine housing?

Howi

 

I'll go Howi, if i can get a set of wheels taken there for me.....

 

Yah, it cracked at the weld.

thewird

 

We hit Dunnville again on Saturday, June 27th. We've been looking forward to this day for a very long time. We set 2 goals for this day:

1. Get real comfortable with the BFG R1s, 245/45/16.

2. Shave as much lap time as possible by adjusting camber and tire pressure.

A lot of data was collected throughout the day. We set up leveled tiles with salt in between (to act as ball bearings), and after each camber adjustment, the toes were reset to 0 by using strings and jackstands. We used 3 tools to collect all the data: lap timer (with 3 split times), tire pyrometer, and tire pressure gauge.

After a long day of set up, we optimized the camber for each wheel for Dunnville. We achieved a lap time of 1 minute 14.65 seconds that day. That's 4 full seconds off of our previous lap time.

With more seat time and more fine tuning, I believe we can take at least another second off without spending any money on it. Our goal will be the 1 minute 13 seconds the next time.

A special thanks to Rotary Dynamics. Jimmy went out of his way and came out to coach us. He provided us with many great advices for both car set ups and driving. We've taken his advices to heart, and will definitely be trying them out the next time we go. Thank you so very much Jimmy!

Rotary Dynamics' smoking hot, blistering fast black FD RX-7:



Our Function Racing 1JZ FD RX-7:



Thank you Rotary Dynamics! You guys rock HARDCORE!

Howi

 

congrats on the times howi!

too figured i'd say this... since i've been learning and talking to tech2 myself. the tech2 kit for the 1jz works with the scoot hood, the 2jz needs their hood to fit.

other then that howi have you all thought of doing your own kit since it seems like you have great luck and such with the way your car is performing?

 

Thank you very much!

I'm surprised that the scoot hood could clear the 1JZ with the Tech 2 kit. I know that the scoot hood is very popular among the V8 guys, but the 1JZ is much longer than an LSX. It's not a bad looking hood IMO, except for that center inlet hole.

Since our car was built for the track, and required extensive modifications, I'm afraid we can't put together a marketable kit like Tech 2. We have other products on the way, and we're simply using our FD to get our name out. Just like our FD RX-7, we're building a company offering products that are track driven, track used only.

As promised, please find attached photos below for the bumper mods:






Howi