Mefarri's 1995 FD LS3 turbo build
 

Hi all, My name is Matt and I’ve been meaning to make a build thread over here. I’ve got a long one on norotors.com but for this one, I’ll skip all the stuff in the middle that is mainly just discussion and questions.

I purchased Jimlab’s 1995 FD in April and have been working on building it into an LS3 76mm turboed beast. Pretty much everything I’m buying for the car is brand new. I’m copying and pasting posts and info from my norotor’s thread so this will be in chronological order up to today. I can’t stress enough how perfect the car is. It’s like a time shuttle to 97. Jim went as far as buying a new windshield washer tank and heat shields and things like that. Make me happy to work on it without having to be dingy. Jim popped his 3rd or fourth rotary in 2 years in the middle of 1998 and the car hasn’t been driven since. The tags are still registered until 1999.

In case you didn’t know, here’s the quick write up Jim did on the car and what’s on it currently for the most part and the pics I took the day I got it.


1995 RX-7 PEP -
Bought new in April 1997, the last of two '95s imported by Chaplin's Mazda in Bellevue, WA
One owner, no accidents, always kept in a heated garage.
Currently located in Bothell, WA 98021.
~13,000 miles on the chassis, ~17,000 miles on the odometer (from speedo recalibration, see below)

PAINT/INTERIOR
Originally Montego Blue Mica with tan leather and "orange" OEM carpet.
Now Chevrolet Corvette Electron Blue Metallic (2002) with black carpet and R1 seats.
Car was professionally painted with engine bay stripped, bumper, doors, hood, hatch, sunroof removed.
The only remant of MBM you will find is under the carpet, and under the car.
The paint was given a light buffing but needs to be wet sanded and final buffed. Ample clear coat was used to protect against minor scratches incurred during assembly.
Car has no emblems currently, but will include new black and silver Efini emblems (front and rear) and I believe I have the Efini sticker for the back of the car.
Will include two uncut Efini key blanks.
Door handles work perfectly,
There are no finger print dents in the doors, and the car has been covered most of the time,
The front bumper is not sagging.

INSTRUMENTATION
The car currently has no additional gauges.
Factory stereo with CD player.
The stock gauges were sent to New Zealand in 2001 and were reprinted and recalibrated. Factory illumination was retained. I'll post a picture later.
The speedometer top speed was increased to 240 mph and is calibrated to 8,000 ppm @ 60 mph if memory serves, but I'll have to check my notes. Stock is 8,2xx, I think.
The tachometer was calibrated to 1/2 stock for the LT1 tach signal. The input will have to be doubled to work with an LS tach signal.

HEADLIGHTS
Yeah, this is a sore subject. I've owned almost every sleek light kit made and two of a couple, and wasn't happy with any of them.
The car had RE Amemiya sleek lights in 1998, so it is already modified for and will fit all current models of sleek lights that I know of. That said, it has no headlights installed.


TAIL LIGHTS
Efini 99-spec converted tail lights.


SUSPENSION
All aluminum suspension pieces polished, including the rear knuckles
0-mile OEM front rubber bushings
0-mile OEM rear pillow bushings in all positions
0-mile Super Pro poly bushings in rear control arms and trailing arms
0-mile FEED pillow bushings in rear toe links
0-mile Zeal B6 Function coilovers 9k/8k front/rear
Rear subframe stripped and powdercoated


STEERING
New MOMO steering wheel, Evolution M
Maval Gear converted manual steering rack

CONVERSION PARTS
0-mile Samberg LS engine cradle, powdercoated flat black.
0-mile Samberg tie rod ends, uninstalled. Currently has the old Hinson welded tie rod ends.
0-mile Samberg transmission brace, powdercoated flat black.
0-mile Samberg Cobra differential cradle, powdercoated semi-gloss black.
0-mile Samberg drive-by-wire throttle adapter
0-mile Samberg steering rack spacers, powdercoated flat black

ELECTRICAL
Front engine bay wiring harness has been modified to eliminate unused components, reducing several pounds of unused wiring. That includes the headlight door actuator wiring and fan relay wiring.
0-mile uncharged Hawker Genesis battery (mounting bracket installed beneath driver's side bin)
2-gauge power run to engine bay from battery mounting location.
The stock air conditioning never worked well, so I eliminated the under dash components when I was on one of my "lightening" kicks, but I have a replacement core that can be reinstalled if you want A/C on the car. I don't believe I eliminated the A/C wiring under the dash, but any wiring in the engine bay related to A/C was removed.
Honda S2000 push button starter mod, no cigarette lighter.

SAFETY
BOTH air bags have been removed. The first gen. air bags were dangerous, in my opinion, and in a car this small it was a liability. It also weighed a consierable amount.
The passenger's side airbag ('95 model, remember) was eliminated and an aluminum brace was fabricated to hold the stock cover in place.
Streetworks in Auburn, WA installed a CroMo 4-point roll bar with harness loops. I'll post pictures when I find them.
Both seats have brackets for 5-point harnesses.

https://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b...7/photo2_2.jpg
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The car will be getting carbon feed style side steps, carbon RE Amemya style headlight buckets, carbon squarecraft rear side diffusers, carbon low profile wing, 99 spec front lip, and an FRP street diffuser. All from Shine except the lip and headlight buckets.
Not sure on the wheels yet. Needs to be 10” +38 or so in the back to fit a 285 under stock fenders. I’ve rolled the rears but am not touching the front as I like having fender liners that bolt in. I’d like to run 265-285 in front. Which would probably require custom wheels. If it comes to that, there’s a good chance they’ll be CCW classics. I’m keeping my eye out all the time though…
I’ll just give a quick rundown on what I’ll I’ve bought/done so far to get us up to speed.
I bought a complete long block from a tech at a Chevy dealership. It’s an L92 pullout from an Escalade. Same exact thing as an LS3 except for the valves (which will be replaced anyway.) Aluminum block/heads, 6.2 liter of awesomeness. It will be getting forged pistons and rods, full valvetrain and cam. I also bought an LS3 intake manifold, Edelbrock 90mm cable operated throttle body, NRG hood dampers, stainless exhaust manifold flanges ( the car will be getting custom tubular stainless headers), truck ignition coils (3x hotter spark than LS1 coils), Chaser auto carbon headlight buckets, and a bunch of other misc items I can’t think of right now. I also just picked up an RPM Tranmissions built level 4 T56 6 speed. Came with the slave, TOB, MGW shifter and hurst shift knob, all with 1500 miles for only $1750. New that’s about a $3200 combo.
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As of right now, the headlights will be using Hella 60mm projectors and HID conversions from The Retrofit Source.

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Jims custom billet sway bar mounts
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After a lot of thought, measuring, and test fitting with mockup pieces, I was able to fit a really nice Treadstone vertical flow intercooler into the factory front bumper without cutting ANY of the bumper except the 3 mounting tabs on the bottom which were useless now anyway. The intercooler is rated to almost 1500CFM so it should do great. The full area of fins is exposed to incoming air. You’d think it was made to fit the bumper. Right now it’s on temp brackets. I’ll make prettier ones later.
To do this, I had to remove the factory bumper support and crash bar. Both will be replaced. One thing I made sure I kept is the factory hood latch bar. I didn’t want to use hood pins.
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I am also able to run a very nicely sized radiator so cooling shouldn’t be an issue either.
Here’s a mockup with the mockup radiator and mockup intercooler. The whole thing will be fully shrouded.
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Here’s the intercooler mounted with the temp mounts.
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Hot side inlet is at passenger bottom
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Cold side outlet is up in the bumper in front of the driver’s headlight. Should be interesting snaking that out but it looks very doable.
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Also, neither the radiator nor intercooler sit below the front lip mounting bolts. With a shroud, they’ll be fully protected.
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Rolled the rear fenders
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Oil pan baffle with trap doors and Mocal thermostat that bolts to the Ls block. Car will run 1 13 row oil cooler.
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Stripped the whole car for intensive wiring and Lizard Skin Sound Control and Ceramic Insulation. Her’s one of my guest bedrooms.
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Installed Powerflex bushings everywhere they weren’t already. The car has the full suspension polished too…
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http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...controlarm.jpg
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99 spec lip
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929 Master Cylinder
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Stuff
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Tial 50mm Q BOV, and 2 28mm MV-S wastegates
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Engine in shipping crate
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Here’s the full lizard skin treatment. The entire interior was stripped of every nut and bolt, lightly sanded, vacuumed and then wiped with naphtha. I sprayed 3 full coats of Sound control over the entire car, following by 3-4 coats of Ceramic Insulation. Should deaden the car extremely well and reduce the interior temps by up to 30 degrees.
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So that pretty much gets us up to current. The interior will stay pretty civil. MIGHT do Corbeau FX1pro seats but I may just keep the R1’s. Other plans for the car are:
Sumped fuel tank with Magnafuel 4303 pump, -10 feed/-8 return etc.
Precision turbo 7675GTS billet turbo – shooting for right over 800whp on high boost (13-15psi) and 650 on wastegate spring (~8psi) on 93 pump.
Full milspec wiring harness with firewall lbulkheads
A/C
4” downpipe to full 3.5” exhaust
3” AL intercooler piping
Full standalone ECU
Etc. etc. etc.

So there you go. :)

eh, with a 4" downpipe and whatever clutch you end up running "civil" won't really be part of the equation despite the A/C. it will be loud and rough to drive already. looks like good progress so far though.

Maybe not in a rotary, but LS motors aren't loud as shit by nature. I guarantee this will be as civil as any car on here. Thus the attention to sound deadening etc. I'm going to be using a Mcleod Twin Disk clutch that has stock like pedal feel. Again, a non issue.

My goal is to be done in less than 6 months.

Looking forward to seeing this beast unfold over the next few months, the car is in such pristine condition!

Definitively go with a fixed back seat or remove the roll bar. Using stock seats with a roll bar can be extremely dangerous.

Your build makes me very happy!! In a alternative time line that might be my build.

Where in Arkansas?

We need to hang out. I am hopefully going to have my car back before the end of the year.

Enjoy the process. It really is fun.. :icon_tup:

CanIbeat?

I can see that.

I'm in Maumelle. Where's your car?

Probably not. :nod:

it is amazing what mufflers will do for a car?

I lived in LR for 35 years. I know Maumelle well. I've been to traffic court there back in the day..

My car is in St. Louis getting the body and paint work finished this week. It will be going back to Defined Autoworks in Ohio next week.

I am down in LR at least once a month. Maybe when I am around on a weekend I can check out your project.

I thought really hard about going LSX.

I also wondered whatever happen to Jim Labs car. Even to the point I considered contacting him. I decided against starting another project until I was done with this one.

See what I mean, this could of been my project. I will definitely bring my car down when it is finished.

haha cool. Sounds good. I went to U of A up in Fayetteville.

Got the 929 master cylinder brace stripped and painted, cleaned the reservoir and got the new brake lines made up and installed. Now I just need to put the whole interior back in so I can mount it.

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Man, don't take this the wrong way, but words can not describe how appalled I am. Good luck with your build, you seem to be paying very close attention to detail.

Now that's what I call a build! How much hp do you expect? 800+?

:nod: Yea I'm a little OCD.

I'll make around 650-700whp on wastegate spring, ~8 psi. And should make over 800whp at like 13 pounds. :egrin: A guy on norotors with the exact same setup except his heads were ported and mine won't be, made 780whp/ 762wtq at 9 pounds and 875whp at 13 pounds.

Improved Racing representin'.

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You'll love the McLeod clutch, it holds over 1k whp, and it is easier to use than the stock clutch in my gf's lexus IS300.

Well hello Demon. Solid first post.

That's one $$$$ project you got going there. Nice and clean that way things are suppose to be done.

Where at in Arkansas are you located?

Thanks abc. I'm in Little Rock.

Will you be road racing this beast? If so you will need a dry sump setup because the LS3's have oiling issues when used on a road course.

Sweet build man !! Always nice to see other 7s in Ar.

awesome build! cant wait to see the finished product

It's not just LS3's. The LS oiling system shows weaknesses on the road course. I don't really have any plans to road race it. But I've got an Improved Racing oil pan baffle with trap doors that's going in and I'm going to try and squeeze in one of the small accusumps. That should protect me from anything I'd see. Problem is finding room for the accusump in the engine bay... I will be running one 19 row oil cooler in the driver's vent. I've already got the Mocal LS thermostat block adapter. Most LS guys don't even run oil coolers.

oh cool i'm in memphis...my LS1 FD is in Indiana tho

Bought a spinning rotor keychain from Mavila. Pretty cool.

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............................Quit wasting your money on that keychain shit and get to work on your car!!! ;)

I'm about to buy the turbo and accompanying items to build the manifolds, crossovers, downpipe, and IC piping. What sucks is how much stuff I have to buy before I can start mocking anything up. haha.

I can, however, put the motor and tranny into the car now that I've got a tranny. It's just making time to do it.

Got the motor and tranny in for mocking everything up. It'll be coming out later to get built with forged internals.

My friend Greg came over and we knocked it out.

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Bought the Ford 8.8 diff housing, inner 31 spline Cobra axles, and AC evaporator from Fritz.

tag!, keep updating please :)

But for real, if you could somehow put it detail, engine mounts, other parts, wiring or whatever come to mind to show the steps on what it takes to put the ls in the car.....

I have a ls 240sx but i would just like to see if the steps or if there was anything different between the swaps. Thanks, nice build so far.

You should just go over to norotors.com That's the v8 swap site. Everything you want to know and more is there. It's criminally easy to put these in the car. 6 bolts will remove the tranny and engine combo from the car. No cutting on anything is necessary except for about 1/2" at the front of the shifter hole and removing the radiator support bar from between the frame rails.

Updates will be coming shortly. The next step to mock up the turbo stuff requires me to buy about 3k worth of parts so it's not a little baby step.

Bought an ATI damper, ARP crank pulley bolt, and an Earls 19 row oil cooler and mounting bracket.

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Kinda hope you end up with yellow wheels in the end. Looks insane.

Haha Me and SummitHeart would be twins kinda. I thought about the loud wheels/ bronze or something but I'm leaning towards a classier choice. I'd really like some other options for custom size/offset wheels other than CCW classics but all the others are way more than $2300. 6 months ago I would have told you you were insane to think I'd pay that much for wheels, but it seems like it's really the best option for sizing that will fit 285's at all corners inside stock (rolled), unpulled fenders.

Bought some boring but much needed stuff. New Dorman Taurus fan from rockauto. Katech manual belt tensioner, Sanden 4665 AC compressor from ACparts.com , Kwik Performance High mount AC bracket, and Speedway motors high mount Alternator bracket. There goes $850 on the most boring pieces of the whole car. I'm going to get the 160 Escalade alternator a la Blake from Autozone with their lifetime replacement deal just in case something goes wrong with it.

Going to be a sweet ride when its done. Can't wait to start on mine

lmfao @ "criminally easy" :awesome: yeah, thanks to the guys who make the mounting equipment and support the swap it is not too bad. hardest part is getting your wiring setup and bullet-proof. although you can get harnesses made for you and all of that, when you make your connections, you have to pay very close attention to how you do them (shielding/insulation, solder/shrink wrap/crimps, etc.).

other than that... piece of cake :) it's the way to go with FDs, they are so much more fun to drive with the v8. now, with an ls3 and a turbo? holy shit it's gonna be scary. sick build dude, can't wait to see it running.

Thanks dude.

Wiring is the one thing on the car that I haven't wrapped my mind around yet. One thing that will decrease a decent amount of wiring is the fact that I'll be using the Racepak Haltech IQ3 display for all the gauges. So that will delete all sorts of stuff behind the dash as it only uses 3 pre wired connectors. I'll be running a Haltech Sport 2000 EMS so I'll be building the engine and front harnesses from scratch which was my plan all along. Not too much should change on the body harness I don't think.

I just made a mock up radiator out of some 3/8" plywood so when the turbo gets here, I can have it in place for assembly. Fitting a 4" downpipe on the passenger side with AC is going to be tricky.

awesome! thats a sick build.

Everything is soo clean and tedious. I cant wait to see the final look.

I was wondering why you didnt just use an LS2 and stroked it?

Unless you got a good deal on the other engine?

Really really wish i had an indoor garage to do these types of projects in.

The long block cost me $1100....:egrin: Go check what LS2/3 long blocks go for. You'll see that price is stupid low. It's what the core charge is from Chevrolet. I bought it from a tech. I'd rather have 6.2 than 6 liters any day. haha. Also, I'd rather have more bore than stroke for longevity since it will make all the torque I want anyway.

Turbo will be ordered this week. Then the fun begins.

Looking forward to the turbo piping coming together. Beautiful car, keep up the good work.

Brief update. As you can imagine, packaging the manifolds, crossover, turbo, wastegates, radiator, water pump, fan AND AC compressor is going to be tough. I spent a few hours looking at the bay and working with my wooden mock up radiator and found it was just too tall. After talking to How Racing and a friend of mine with a turbo LS FC, they both recommended a shorter radiator. I guess I was overdoing it. The new size fits MUCH better. I cut down my mockup to size and it all works. I'm going to rigidly mount it in the car for mock up purposes soon and replace it with the real thingafter I know where the turbos going to be sitting since I'll need the AN fittings welded on in the right lcoations.

I also ordered the turbo last week. Precision Billet 7675GTS, ported compressor, t4 .96 AR turbine housing. Also got the downpipe vband assembly and some gaskets. That should be shipping tomorrow and then I'll be able to build a jig to fixture it in the bay and then it's just connecting the dots with all 8 runners. hahaha.