So I decided its time to post up my build so far.

The back story:
Due to school and such I didn't get a chance to pick up a car til my senior year of HS. I was mainly looking around at turbo civics (mainly 99-00 si) a few scoobies, etc because my budget was pretty small at the time. Luckily for me I never bought one, most had blown engines or some sort of tuning problems. It also gave me a chance to get my HS ricer phase out of the way (I look back and see what I planned to buy and just shake my head ). I kept hunting for the right car but nothing seemed to be right. At some point I gave up on civics as finding unmolested ones are impossible and just kept looking at anything else Japanese. For some reason or another I decided to pop rx7 in to craigslist one day and bam! Went to go check it out and knew that I had to have it. Needless to say it was wayyyy over my budget at the time. Parents said to wait for a bit (see: killed me slowly) and I took a trip to Japan with the Boy Scouts as part of an exchange program and saw all my favorite JDM tyte cars lol. Came back and talked the guy down on the price (though unfortunately it turns out the market went soft on them shortly after .___.) I honestly had know idea what I was getting myself into. Up to this point I had never turned a wrench on a car...ever and also never drove a manual , though I grew up watching the IMSA races at Texas World Speedway and chatting with all the drivers if that counts for something Anyways, its been a learning experience to say the least and the car has taken some crazy turns (well not that crazy but) Seemed like everytime i went to buy part A something expensive would break so the build has been slow and costly thus far (for a college student at least )

Anways how I brought her home (dont hate the wheels too hard ):




the engine


nothing too crazy
non-seq
Koyo rad
Greddy frontmount
Tokico illumina with Eibachs
Reman engine
etc.

Shortly after, I got fed up with the Texas heat playing games with me and the engine temps and bought the Sakebomb Garage oil cooler kit

all installed:



And goodbye engine temp problems

From there I started saving for the PFC, unfortunately the rear tires decided to take a dump and I threw down for some Advan Ad08's in 285/30r18 woot bye bye money...

 

Then on the way home from college, 5mins from my house the clutch lets go...I think it was the bearing in the e-shaft (the name slips my mind) and a couple other things but needless to say it was pretty bad. I bought an exedy single plate organic clutch from pettit racing and an ACT lightweight fly, but it was my lucking day and they sent me the more expensive pettit 8.5lbs chromoly instead Either way it sucked as I had planned on doing the fuel setup and all the electronics that summer...We (me and my dad) ended up doing it the crazy way by pulling the motor because why not. Also finding a 54mm socket was damn hard.



At the same time I installed the Banzai racing poly motor mounts and some other odds and ends. We also fabbed up a quick transmission brace and took care of some loose ends I found as we disassembled the car.

<lack of pictures disturbing>

Turns out at the same time the front tires started to separate and being poor as f%$k at the time I went with some Hankook Ventus V12's for the front. And I also managed to pick up a powerfc used.

 

Then it came time to get the car inspected and emissions have really tightened up here in Texas, so after many alternate routes I bit the bullet and decided to install a Bonez hi-flow cat i picked up for a pretty good deal with <50miles on it to replace the crispy stock one haha. An airpump and a HKS EBC for good measure. Also decided to fix the exhaust leak I had coming from the twins to dp. I thought it was the gaskets so I bought some...turned out i was missing some bolts and two of the studs were snapped...wicked. And somewhere in between me getting the studs pulled and some new ones put back in something happened to the oil control on the secondary (at least thats what I think happened). After all the hard work getting them out, back in, out again, back in again,...., and back in again I start the car and find out someone traded my fd for a 1860 steam engine...So I came to a crossroads.

Route A: Pick up another set of twins cheap and hope they last
Route B: GO F$#KING SINGLE

I chose B

Got a used Aspec 35r kit with a longrunner mani from a forum member for a good price


And after that, it got real:

I decided since everything was changing up, why not change my set up to a vmount and paint the engine bay?

why not indeed:




I know its not pro as hell, but I'm on a budget and personally I think it turned out pretty epic.

started mocking up the vmount using the Greddy fmic


I also decided to semi-rewrap my harness. It was looking crispy in some spots and nasty with some uncovered wires (not bare wires but you know)



thats how the bay sits right now.

I'm in the waiting for parts mode now but hopefully she'll be all wrapped up soon, but wont be boosting it too hard *read stock fuel system * til i swap out the rest using my tax return

 

Parts I have installed or not:

Reman Motor
Aspec gt35r Long runner kit
New harness
Power FC
HKS EZII EBC
Sakebomb Garage 25row oil cooler kit
Koyo Radiator
Greddy FMIC (soon to be VMIC)
Greddy BOV
Turbosmart 45 WG
Supra Fuel Pump
A/C Deleted (i tried to get it running but the compressor leaks )
PS Deleted (because a 5'5 105lb asian kid cares not)
Emissions Deleted
285/30r18 Advan ad08 and 245/40r18 Hankook V12 Ventus
Banzai Poly Motor Mounts
Exedy Single Organic Clutch
Pettit Racing 8.5 flywheel
Homefab Transmission Brace
Tokico Illumina + Eibach lowering springs
New tierods (does that count?)
Coming soon: secondary with 1680 + primary with 850 and all that jazz.
Pretty sure there are some other shenanigans I've bought but that's what stands out atm.

And here is the goal (except vmount instead of fmount):

Gram Lights 57d Luminous Yellow
URAS carbon front lip
FEED skits
RE-A Pro Diffuser



Thoughts on wheels? took a while to shoop that together

 

I forgot the part where someone broke into my car



and another dude keyed the rear bumper...after the driver side was almost broken into

Anyways waiting on parts now and finishing up the brackets for the radiator

 

Not a fan of that luminous yellow on a red car

 

I'm a fan of the luminous yellow on a red car

 

I'm sorry, but that has to be the worst color combo in history... Please don't do that to an FD. I get trying to be unique, but some things are not done because they are so ugly nobody is dumb enough to do that... This is an example

 

wheels are great...... i mean the style the color not for my liking but its your car keep up the good work on building your FD

 

Haha the wheels are still debatable~ Here they are in ceramic white for the haters :P



Anyways small update, the 90 silicones are temp til I can get proper piping welded up this summer...have to make it home from college haha...to be honest I dont think its going to hold (trying to get one sent back...they sent me two 2.5-2.75 90's and i needed a 2.75-3.0 )



All that's really left is welding up the brackets I need for the vmount set up which hopefully will be this weekend...

 

Looks sick. I actually kinda like the yellow/green look surprisingly. What kind of hood are you going with since you're going the v-mount route?

 

Haha same its love it or hate it I guess. And the plan is to just drop vent the stock hood to run a more fitted look. Similar to the MS hood but open and ducted down to the IC.

 

The green looks terrible. Almost so terrible it's ok.

I guess silver or black would be kinda boring on a red car, but that's what I'd go with. Flat black would probably look pretty nice.

 

i love obnoxious colors. im actually wearing a luminous yellow shirt right now....

is that bumper photo shopped? or you really have a 99 spec lip on top of the base lip???

 

yup bumper is shopped. uras front lip haha. I think i need to see the wheels in person before I buy them. For a while I was thinking some Advan rg d's in either the matte black or bronze but something keeps pulling me back to the Luminous. Maybe its a phase haha.

Small update.

Supra pump installed.
Turbo oil return line finished
Turbo coolant lines finished
HKS EBC half installed lol...

Stuff left til fire up:
Finish the radiator brackets
Gauges + EBC
Rear return block off
Fan electrical extensions (just gotta wrap)
Add oil
Add coolant
Jump the battery

I think that's it, finals have been kicking my butt all week :\

 

Looks sick with the white gram lights. good job so far man

 

Thanks man, wheels are a long ways away .____.

Finished up the radiator brackets today, definitely far from perfect :\ but dont have a viable workspace atm. Everything will get redone i'm sure this summer when I have a garage and such.

I was going to fill up the oil but the rain says otherwise.

Going to take a break from it for a while as round 2 of finals begins (and thankfully ends) this week, but need to get some 1.5in aluminum pipe for the radiator hoses. Ugh i need a daily driver.

 

Good stuff man! red on luminous looks great in my opinion. Do whatever color you want man! it's your car!!

 

thanks man, your car is stunning and the Luminous is definitely one of those love it hate it looks, especially on red but i saw it on a bunch of the japanese d1 cars and fell in love haha.

 

Kiku, I've seen your car here around Austin (Especially UT area) quite often about a year ago. Good luck on your build! Good to see you're on the forums

 

Yup, i dont drive to campus as much since I live a lot closer now. I've only seen a handful other fd's in the area, haven't seen yours yet. And thanks! hoping to wrap it up this weekend.

 

For a poor college kid I'd have to say it seems as though you're doing pretty well for yourself haha :P Great looking car you got there but those rims are a little intense. How much did you end up getting it for?

 

well this build is over a two year period and i picked it up for 11.5k with the koyo rad, greddy ic, wheels, tokicos, relocated batt, dp, tanabe exhaust, and a few other odds and ends. since then its been a uphill financial battle

In other news: STARTED HER UP TODAY (well this morning) worked on it for a solid 12hours I think tonight Pulled an all nighter last night for my last final so i'm pretty freggin tired. Will finish bleeding the coolant tomorrow.

 

Have an exhaust leak coming from somewhere .___. i think its at the manifold now :\ and the blow off valve wont pop completely (i think the springs are too stiff ) But its damn fast....only took 3 months

Also my rad lined up perfectly with the front bumper /didn't even use the bumper in the fabricating stages

Just gotta get it inspected Damn emissions...

 

got downforce?



Added that front splitter with front air damn. Little thin for my taste, next time I'm going with alumi-lite...I think I'll pick up some other support rods as well.

Also removed the stereo and fabbed a plate for the EBC and turbo timer (and eventually other switches and such) and put some 8mm slip on spacers on the front tires. more pics tomorrow.