I've been waiting until I was done to post this.

After several months on blocks, just over $8,000, and many hours on this web site asking questions and getting all the answers, my build is done. Tonight, everything was in place to finally see if I had done things right. I've never pulled the engine on an FD and this has been a learning experience all the way. So, tonight I installed the battery, pulled the EGI fuse, and cranked it over about six times(1 minute between cranks to monitor the fluid levels and cranking oil pressure). On the seventh try, with EGI fuse in place, it fired right up. Kicked out enough smoke that you would think our house was on fire. It then idled as if it were under water and then the smells arrived. Shut it down a few times to keep filling it with coolant as the level dropped. After rough idling for 15 minutes it finally smoothed out to a continuous pur. No leaks. Took it on a six miles test run and no problems. Fantastic.

So now I want to give a big thanks to the guys at Fighters Garage and Dale Clark (he lends a hand there) for a fantastic job and being great to deal with. Didn't know Fighters Garage does rebuilds? Well they do. If your anywhere near Pensecola, FL, check them out.

I also wanted to mention to those who have never gone through this process that it can be done with one person. Let me correct that...my wife had to help me get the hood off. It takes longer to perform certain tasks, like getting those motor mounts into the subframe, but one person can do it....one person with the help of this site.

So here's where the eight plus grand went:

Fighters Garage rebuild with street port....Thanks Jimmy and Dale
BNR Stage III Turbos....Thanks Bryan
Fighters Garage Intake
Pettit rebuilt tranny
New clutch from Pettit
New OEM wiring harness.....Thanks Ray
A million OEM gaskets.....Thanks Ray
A thousand OEM hoses .....Thanks Ray
Misc OEM parts....Thanks Ray
And some tools I didn't own....Thanks Wife

So here are a few pics...

Engine coming out



Engine going back in....




Engine installed....

 

awesome, whats it say on the dust in the bumper, goood to be back?
cant wait till mines done

 

wow, looks great man. money well spent. my price ticker just hit $400 and i havent bought any parts for it yet lol. congrats on your sucessful build. im jealous!

 

Here you go....

 

i like how you did those photos. motor looks clean. have fun!

 

good job man!

a new i/c would be good in florida. or at least plug the hole on top of your i/c duct. i logged a 4 degree celsius drop crusing and almost 15 on the highway, reading the commander of my pfc

 

Did you pay 8k for a rebuild?

 

btw. do you have pics of the whole car?

 

nice work on your first try

 

Nice work, how many wraps did you do around your DP? I did double on mine, really made a difference in the temperature, especially on the ABS above it.

Good to see another FD on the road, "I'll be back" for sure!

 

Hey I love your intake setup
could you take a pic of what you do with the bov's?

do you run them to the atmosphere?

 

Wow, thanks for all of the questions. I'll try to answer all of them.

How many wraps on the downpipe? Dont know. Just made sure I had the proper overlap.

Yes, I would love to upgrade the intercooler but money is not falling off any of my trees. I'm running the stock boost and ECU so the stock I/C will be fine for now. In the future I'll take advantage of the BNR's but not now. I'll be plugging the hole in the ducting in a minute.

No, I did not pay 8k for the Fighters Garage rebuild. 8k was spent on everything listed in my first post.

The question about the intake...I'm running the Fighters Garage intake and yes I'm venting the BOV to the atmosphere.

Here is a pic of the whole car...couple old..some new

 

those wheels are gorgeous! are they sf winnings?

 

I think those rims are the old Enkei Aegis wheels, no longer in production.

Wasn't this car in Super Street Reader's Ride like 5-6 years ago? I remember seeing the same car in one of my old Super Street magazines.

 

That Car Is Gorgeous!@

 

Is that ok to vent the stock blow off valves to the atmosphere?

Is it not more efficient to vent them back into the intake track?

do you vent the secondary BOV also ?

 

wb123 stop quoting pictures every time!

the "fighters garage" intake looks to be just a set of ebay hard pipes with k&n filters stuck on the end and a homemade "heatshield" (if you search, there are heatshield templates posted on the forums.

also, why not do a search about venting the bov, there are already threads that answer this question. (here i'll save you time, it's OK to vent the bov's)

 

wb123,
Feel free to quote, just delete my photobucket links when you do. It will save the above mentioned responses.

 

Out of curiosity what springs/coilovers are you using?

That is a nice looking 7, what bumper/side skirts you using?

Nice car.

 

fighters does great work

glad to hear of another satisfied customer

 

The suspension and body set up you see in the pics was done by some former owner. Don't know what suspension mods are done but it is low and can go around a dime and I love it. I was told by some people on this site that the body mods, i.e. side skirts, front bumper, etc., are an old RE Amemiya kit. It may be some old school body kit but I wouldn't change it.

Someone also asked about the rims and yes they are, unfortunately, a discontinued 18" Enkei rim.

 

Man, Steve, looks really good! Glad to hear she's purring like a kitten again!

I'm really pleased with how your motor turned out, and I'm glad to hear it's running nicely. You'll have to make it over to Pensacola once she's broken in!

BTW, many of the pics on Fighter's rebuild page are of your motor getting put together

http://www.fighters-garage.com/rebuilds.html

Dale

 

I designed the Fighters intake - it's far superior to the Ebay junkos. The pipes are thicker aluminum, the ends of the pipes have beads rolled on them (we have a bead rolling tool at the shop) so the pipes stay in place nicely, real deal K&N filters on the intakes, a nipple on the secondary pipe for the airpump to draw filtered air from, and my "anti-moo" device for the airpump air relief, along with the heat shield.

It's a good value for the quality of parts that you get, and it fits well and works very nicely. You can also order it "a la carte" without the airpump hookups and heat shield if you want. Oh, and it also comes with a real quality silicone 45 deg. bend for the primary turbo connection.

There wasn't a pre-made intake on the market that used quality filters, hard pipes, and had decent hookups for the air pump and a good way to silence the airpump relief, so we made the Fighters intake .

Sorry to get your thread off track, Steve!

Dale