Well i just towed it home this morning and it's probably the sexiest thing i have ever had ownership of...

I was expecting a blown rear apex, but i get even sweeps on both rotors. The front gets up to 90 psi and the rear to 75 psi on a piston engine compression guage. Good news for my wallet! The turbos have been leaking oil and i found some small puddles in the IC piping that have built up over time. Brand new set of bridgestone potenzas with possible flat spots (i put them up to 44 psi).

Plans? Mostly stock. 95% labor done by myself on my own time...

-Full rebuild on the engine, possibly ceramic coating on the rotor housings or some low mileage modded s5 housings depending on condition.
-Rebuild stock turbos. I've read alot of mixed results from stock twin turbo rebuilds, but i believe it can be done right with a good core, some knowledge, and attention to detail. I'm compiling information on all kinds of turbo rebuilds and am trying to condense the information and apply it to our turbos. Not that i'm an expert, but I plan on doing a detailed write up with photos and posting it up here if they turn out well.
-New clutch assy.
-Transmission seals and synthetic fluids in the trans and rear end
-Eventually upgrade SMIC and put in some spring/ball MBC's

enough talk... here it is:






input/suggestions appreciated

 

Nice car, good luck w/ the rebuild.

 

keep us updated in this thread!!

 

The engine is definitely done with those numbers.

Why on earth would you inflate the tires to 44 psi? That's just insane. Proper cold tire pressures are 32 psi.

 

 

Good Point,

When I got new tires the shop inflated my tires to 48 psi.

I eased into in 3rd on a banked interstate turn and it felt like the rear end slipped about a foot. Got it home thought something on suspension had let go, I also got a 4 wheel alignment. Nothing, moved on the tire pressure, WTF.

At 30 PSI it handles like a dream.

 

Silver = Nice car man, but what's up with your rear muffler section? Looks kinda crooked More details on what happened before you had the car towed would be nice ... in other words, how did you blow the motor and what kind of behavior did the motor exhibit before your compression test (hard to start, no power, etc.)

 

Good luck with your rebuild. You are about an hour south of me and I would love to see the results of your hard work on the road in the near future. Beautiful car with an interior that looks really good.

 

i put the tires up to 44 psi to prevent/remove (hopefully) flat spots from sitting. 44 is the max it says on the sidewall.

i noticed the muffler too... i think the mounting points were defective and looks like it was re-mounted from some welding spots... not very well obviously, but the pipes have no kinks or anything i've noticed yet.

well i just signed off on the title on saturday so i have little idea what it's history is other than that it was garage kept and looks it. it was the lady's 4th RX-7 and first 3rd gen. before that she was into triumphs. anyways, the turbos she knew were going out. she then let the car sit for a good amount of time (several months or more) and when she went to start it again it wouldn't run. it was towed to mazda and they said it was running a 2 on their comp tester and weren't specific about which rotor. that was 3+ years ago.

from my comp tester i'm thinking all the apex seals are intact due to the even, although low, compression sweeps.

i don't plan on trying to get it going... first thing i'm going to do is drain all the fluids and start stripping the motor and organizing parts.

 

i've had a couple free days here and there to fiddle with the car. so far i'm about ready to pull the engine and am planning on doing it this weekend or the next. i drained the coolant and thankfully it looked fresh and clean... hopefully no corroded cooling channels/what have ya. it was sitting for some time, so i was a little scared about that.

judging from the condition of the rubber/plastic i'm definitely going to replace all the hoses and couplers with silicone. a couple harness sections near the turbos will also need some TLC. so far i cracked the insulation on the air pump harness and i'm sure more will follow, no biggie though. i'll probably re-wrap the entire harness anyways.

here's the Y pipe coupler:



boost leak maybe?

other than near the turbos the engine bay seems clean and undamaged:



i'll drop some more photos once i get busy with the engine internals and turbos.

 

yeah, i know i said nomore until the engine, but i'm bored. i've been waiting until i get a hoist into the garage, so i've been doing some things i had planned on anyways.

started painting some previously corroded/crusty underhood parts and polishing metal parts/bolts/etc with a rotary wire brush. i plan on doing every fastener and most visible metal parts for a new/clean look.



i rigged up a pulley holder for the power steering pump. unfortunately the plastic pulley was brittle and the nut was stubborn... i got it off but there is now a fracture in the pulley and i'm looking for a replacement. next time i'll make a better holder; i think the angles might have caused the pulley to break... well that and the fact that it's freaking plastic!



finally, i pulled the harness out and past the ABS unit, so the engine is ready to pull. planning on pulling the engine WITHOUT the trans.

 

 

the stock turbos are pretty much throw away items from those I've talked to

talk to Brian at BNR

 

I used to live in brandermill on the southside. Va love.

Good luck and welcome,
Dave

 

welcome...

 

My twin turbos are reserviced one and they are as good as new. A perfect 12-10-12psi boost and not a single drop of oil after 2 years of work now.

Looks a well kept car. Now get her running and take care of her.

 

thanks for the love VA peeps, hopefully i'll be seeing you on the road. i've got a faded maroon FC too so look out for that. it's now mainly just an auto-x car though.

i haven't really talked to anyone about it yet, but from what i gather from reading it's really subjective. it depends on their condition and what your goals for the car are. again, what i've gathered correct me if i'm wrong. just rebuilding the stockers can get expensive... especially if you do the hot side with the carbon seal and re-working the shaft. it's not a home operation like the cold side.

thanks for the info, improved fd, if i decide to go the upgraded route i'll talk to him, but as it's looking i think i'm just going to look for a good twin core if mine sucks and rebuild it.

also, what other methods have people used to get the PS pulley off? impact tool?

 

this primary is a prime example. rusted wheel and major fractures.



don't know what happened there, coolant leak? the secondary is spotless...

aside from the turbos everything is as near perfect as i could hope for. rotor housings are marginal and will be replaced or resurfaced.

i'll also probably pick up a cheap 13B e-shaft because of this rear bearing:



no idea what it's from, but it it's extremely rough... anyone else run into anything like this?

 

slow and steady... soon as i sell my toyota i'll have the funds to finish! then i just need the time

i've amassed a decent collection of refurbished/upgraded parts that i'll be installing with the engine and twins...

some perfect turbo manifolds:



cleaned and balanced turbine/compressor assemblies and rebuild kits:


OMP adapter:


resurfaced flywheel, exedy PP, comp clutch CD, TOB:


injectors cleaned/tested:


K&N filter, rb intake duct, and PFS (i think) downpipe:


the only main things left to do are: put together the twin turbo assemblies, get my rotor housings resurfaced, and put together the engine.

i can't wait to finish the project... i'm aiming for this coming spring due to demands from school etc. first things first, ya know?

 

Car looks really good, i really like the silver and black.

 

looks like you're taking your time and doing it right

my last project took a year!

 

good job. keep it up

 

Thanks for the compliments on the car... hopefully i'll have something more substantial to show in my next post. The flywheel is really the only eye candy. I had it done at a local napa machine shop.

Yeah, I don't think there's a point in rushing through something and cutting corners. I did that the first time I rebuilt my FC and the engine lasted only a couple hundred miles before a side seal cracked and found it's way out of one of the ports! The current engine has over 10k on it and holds compression like new.

 

Everything appears to be in pretty decent shape. How many miles on the car? Good luck with the rebuild. Looks like you've found a bit of free time so far.

 

almost 125k, but it was garage kept.

the funny thing is that the lady who owned it was disappointed that it didn't last longer.

she was used to the relative reliability of an N/A haha.