Hello to all of rotary enthusiasts, I wanted to share with everyone my experiences with IR Performance in Metuchen, NJ. (The span of this entire experience is approximately 2 years long in total so please bare with me if I am missing details or exact dates.)

Just a little about myself to start out, I have been a member of the rx7club.com since May, 2001 and have been a die hard fan of the rotary world since the day I layed eyes on a rhd FD3S in Seoul, Korea Summer of 1999 (I was car struck). I've owned my first FD during college 2002, which obviously was a huge mistake as all my money went into the car like a red headed step child. (I'm sure some of you have experienced this as well.) When I got out of school in 2005 I ended up selling the car to get debt free and pay off some of my student loans. In 2008 I ended up purchasing another FD as no car ever felt the same after driving a few cars.

Ok, so to fast forward, when I purchased my FD in 2008 my car had 92,000 original miles with minor mods done to the car, intake, full exhaust with RB duals, struts bars, silicone hose job, etc. basically almost stock with reliability mods. The car ran great for the miles as it came from a good owner who garage kept it in Ohio and never seen rain. (I was the 3rd owner). Since this isn't my daily driver I put in about 6,000 miles a year at the most on clear weather. About a year later the car started to show signs of low compression at times with slight smell of coolant. Each time before I start her up I had to add a full cup of coolant as it was burning off. I new what was coming as I was expecting a rebuild.

I brought the car over to IRP for a diagnosis and with compression testing turns out it was due for a rebuild. (If I recall the front housing was 98 and the rear housing was 89). IRP was very helpful in terms of recommendations on parts depending on which route I wanted to take before the rebuild started. Since it is a business after all I was being offered a lot more options than I can chew at the time but IRP was honest about costing and attentive with my requests/questions. As I have always driven pretty much stock FD only I decided that I should go for a single turbo build I never got to do. Most shops will not do this but every used part I purchased from reputable sellers on the 7club forum IRP inspected and tested. It took me almost 1 year to accumulate all the parts I needed for the car to be finalized, this was b/c I did not have a lump sum of cash to spend all at once so IRP agreed to allow me to pay bills monthly at a time. Each time I went to bring over parts or payment I got to see the progress of the car which was exciting.

I ended up getting a Stage 3 Streetport with a Gotham Racing single turbo T04Z equivalent 850 primary and 1680 secondary injectors, dual wastegates vented, resonated mid pipe, v mount intercooler, tune from Enzo etc. the whole shabang. Car went through an entire overhaul. (The list is literally 3 pages long with a combination of stock and after market parts.)

For those of you who know me personally I am sure you are aware of the mishap that has occurred during this build, if you wish to see the full story please check out this link:

https://www.rx7club.com/bad-fugly-me.../#post11559605

Before the build pretty much stock with the usual reliability mods only sitting on SSR wheels


At IRP for compression testing


Engine bay before


More photos and build progress will be added shortly

 

Surgery starts


Heart removed


Turns out one of the seals around the housing had a small leak letting coolant drip into the housing slowly, which was the reason my coolant kept disappearing. It was so little at a time that I would never notice white smoke, other than a hint of coolant sweet smell during warm up.


yea 92k miles on original motor, no premix and barely redlined will do this

 

Looking forward to the rest of this build. Nice car.

 

Thanks bud, car is almost done at the moment as these photos are old, I will be adding them as I get a chance throughout the day

 

Duel Tial WG vented to atmosphere custom built on HKS manifold


Motor gets rebuilt with Rotary Aviation seals, Stage 3 Streetport and Gotham Racing single turbo T04Z equivalent, housings were off of a low mileage motor. Motor has been simplified since it's going to be single turbo, unused ports have been welded shut and shaved down.


ACT Heavy Duty Street Strip clutch


Manifold has been heat wrapped

 

Bonzai oil pan brace


New OEM engine harness


Let the powder coating begin, I ended up getting the UIM ceramic coated later on


Engine finally gets installed in along with KG fuel rails, Bosch 860 and 1680, FJO and 3 bar map sensor, AEM fuel pressure regulator and Supra fuel pump

 

Custom V Mount fabrication


Piping fabrication




Apexi N1 coilovers


She starts up on first try

 

Pulled the tan interior out along with the carpet to convert it to, red interior with black carpet

 

It turns out I'm missing a lot of older photos as my previous phone during this build crapped out on me. I have few photos here and there but I myself is losing track on when they were taken as my car was fully built than totaled and the replacement car is almost identical to the previous.

The photos below was the results of a an unfortunate accident you can find out more about it based on the link that was provided on my first posted on this thread. She was basically totaled before I got to enjoy the car from a tune after a year of building her.





I have more photos of the currently replaced vehicle which was built from the ground up once again in a span of nearly 1 year. Photos coming soon.

 

The full story of what happened to the car is located on the link that was on my first post. Car basically was fully built then it was totaled during tuning...

To make a long story short, a roller identical to my totaled car was purchased in PA brought over to the shop. Which ever part was salvageable was transferred and what ever was not was replaced with either identical or better parts.

She is currently alive and well about 90% complete and needs a final tune.

Fender roll and pull day


Finally at home after nearly a year






Back at IRP for a final tune where she currently is at this moment

 

any more updates?

 

The last few photos are it's current state now sitting at IRP at the moment waiting to be completed. I had so many more photos but lost most of them going through cel phones twice in the span of 2 years of the car being built.

 

when do you expect the car to be completed?

 

Not sure at the moment, the only thing major is AC setup and tune. It's been another 4 months since I dropped her off to get the final work done. At the moment I have no clue on exactly when, I just hope I have enough weekends left to enjoy her before putting her away for the winter...

 

Damn, that is sad. Nice you were able to get such a similar shell for the swap. Hot side on the IC looks SOOO much better with the new core/end tanks. Nice job on the build. Let us know what numbers it puts down.

 

Yea for sure, the snail pipe wasn't doing it for me either haha Definitely will post numbers once it gets dyno'ed