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I thought I would make a thread here to keep up with the progress of my restoration on my 93 Base. I can also use this thread to keep track of an ever growing list of parts I need haha!
The car & the story:
I have always wanted an FD RX7 all my life, it has been my #1 dream car since I was about 14 (almost 30 now). I have had plenty of cars throughout my life including Nitrous equipped Fox Body Mustangs, S14 240SX, MR2s, etc. etc. However my 2 all time favorite cars were 3000GTs and FD RX7s. I was lucky enough to own a 93 3000GT VR-4 model that I built and tuned myself to around the 420ish AWHP mark. It was an absolute blast on the streets. However, it had a rebuilt title, wasn't worth much, and I was longing for the days of a light RWD 2 seater like my old 99 Miata.
Now I've had my eyes out on RX7s for a while now and it seemed that the only color around was red. I'm just not a huge fan of red personally (although it looks completely at home on a Ferrari to me) and was really looking for a nice black RX7 with no sunroof. I also didn't want to spend a huge amount of money since buying an FD would mean getting rid of the VR4 and that car just wasn't worth much.
Fast forward to about 3 months ago.. I'm browsing Craigslist, like I do just about every week, for RX7s and I spot an ad for a 93 black base model automatic for $9200. It looks overall pretty good from the few pictures but the ad doesn't specifically say if it runs or not. So I text the guy and find out that the "motor is seized". He also tells me he doesn't have the title yet so I initially passed on this.
About a month goes by with the car still listed and the guy texts me back saying, "Hey man, I just got the title if you still want to come check the car out". It was only a 40 minute drive so I figured... eh what the heck. When I get there I can see that overall the car is in pretty good shape with the following exceptions:
1. Few very small dings around the car that should be PDR'able (maybe about 6).
2. Various interior plastics are cracked.
3. It has an OEM rear wing and the clips and everything for the front lip but the lip is gone.
4. When you turn the key nothing happens. The starter doesn't engage at all.. just dead.
5. The motor is seized and will not turn over.
So, definitely needs some work, but the car has been a 100% southern car its whole life with no reported accidents. Zero rust and it was pretty much what I was looking for except the whole automatic part. The story goes that he got it from a guy who claims that it drove fine until he had to park it for a few years to take care of his dying mother. When he attempted to start it after that the starter never engaged and the motor was seized. We talk for a while and the guy agrees to go to $8000 for it.
About an hour later and I have it loaded up with a towing company and on the way home:
And here she is unloaded in my driveway. You can also catch a small glimpse of the old VR4 in the garage (parted out at this point) and my 93 3000 GT Base model daily driver in the front:
The goal:
To restore the car to factory condition, complete a 5 speed swap, simplify the rats nest (simplified sequential), and do reliability mods. Eventually down the road I want to take the sequential twins as far as they go with supporting BPU mods and a PFC. No more than 350WHP and I WILL be keeping the sequential twin setup as that is one of my favorite features of this car. So a modest build down the road and nothing crazy.
Initial findings:
The very first thing I wanted to tackle was figuring out why the starter was not engaging at all when the switch was turned. I started by narrowing down what the issue could be. First I bypassed the alarm lockout, no dice. Next I removed the starter and hooked a battery up to it, spun perfectly. That let me know that more than likely the ignition switch was bad. I began to inspect it closer and found that when I applied a sideways pressure to the ignition switch the starter would engage. I removed the switch and here is what I found:
Yuck, that sucker was burnt up pretty badly. A trip to Autozone and $120 later I had a new ignition switch installed and the starter problem solved. However, the motor was still completely seized and would not turn over at all once the starter was reinstalled in the bellhousing. Time to investigate why!
The seized engine:
Rather than rush into things, I attempted to go through all the motions to try and unseize the motor as recommended on the forums. I removed the upper intake manifold and threw a quart of ATF down the runners and let it sit for a week. I was hoping it was just carbon buildup that had locked the motor up since it hadn't started for about 4 years. My theory was the ignition switch went bad and one of the previous owners just let the car sit until it carbon locked because of it. Heh... I wish...
The ATF trick didn't work at all and rocking the crank bolt left or right resulted in in either loosening the crank bolt or this (1/2 craftsman ratchet):
So I purchased a camera and took a look down the lower intake runners to see if I could find anything. What I noticed is that 3 of the injector diffusers were either missing or broken apart and just laying in the runners themselves! I'm talking about these:
Well, that explains my seized motor then! Best I can tell is that one of the diffusers gave way and lodged itself between an apex seal while the motor was running. So, at least one rotor and housing are more than likely trashed. Oh well, this honestly doesn't slow my plan down too much, but I was certainly hoping I'd get lucky and magically be able to unseize this motor
Pulling the motor and transmission:
Seeing as how the motor is going to need a rebuild and at least a few parts, and also the fact that I don't want to keep the automatic, I decided the best and most cost effective route to take is a JDM engine/transmission combo. There is an importer about 20 minutes away from me that will sell me a 93 engine/transmission/ecu/harness combo ready to go for $2000. He will also give me a 30 day warranty on it and deliver it to my door for that price. Pretty damn good I think. I will still head down there with a battery and a gauge to do a compression check, but as long as it is in decent shape that would make the most sense for my plans. Time to pull the old motor out:
Last edited by NightWalker86; 01-19-16 at 03:46 PM.
Reason: Cleaned up typos...
As you can see from some of the pictures, everything wasn't perfect. I found 2 unexpected surprises during the removal of the motor. The first was the radiator and A/C condenser looked like they came in contact with something because they both had a dent in the corner of them. I'll need to replace both of these before putting the car back on the road.
The second surprise was that apparently one of the previous owners had the down pipe flange cut off where it would mount to the stock factory catalytic converter and replaced with a straight pipe all the way back to an aftermarket muffler. In essence, they completely removed the cat and made it very difficult for me to reinstall it. The JDM engine combo will come with a JDM downpipe without a precat, and I'll have to get a stock cat (I've got emissions in my county for 2 more years) and a flange to weld onto the exhaust side, but hopefully that wont be a huge pain to deal with.
Other than those issues, it all went relatively smoothly. I plan on breaking the motor down this coming weekend and I ordered a nice rotary engine adapter bracket from Pineapple Racing for my engine stand. My next biggest hurdle is putting together all the little odds and ends I need to finish off the JDM engine/5 speed transmission swap. Here is what I have so far:
Owned:
1. 5 speed pedal assembly (clutch and brake).
Here is what will come with the engine/trans combo (only 5 speed swap parts listed):
1. 5 speed transmission.
2. Shifter.
3. Clutch/Pressure plate/Flywheel all connected to the motor.
4. ECU (I'll be reusing my auto ECU since I don't want to deal with the JDM governor).
5. 5 speed engine harness.
6. Slave cylinder.
7. 5 speed starter.
Things I know I still need to buy:
1. 5 speed driveshaft.
2. Rear end or change the auto companion flange.
Things I'm not sure about:
1. What lines will I need for the clutch master? The slave cylinder will already be installed on the transmission so I only need the lines from the master to the slave. Anyone have a link for the exact lines I need?
Or will I also need this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/231372947997?ul_noapp=true&chn=ps&lpid=82
2. The rear end... Ideally I would just like to keep the auto 3.9 rear end. I have read conflicting things about why it is necessary to change the companion flange. Some people mentioned redrilling as an option. Does anyone have a link to more information on this? Obviously, once I get all the parts I am sure I will see why and what is needed, but I am going blind at this point as to what the issue is requiring this. Any info?
3. Mounts.. is the PPF the same for auto and manual cars?
Any advice on the above questions will be great. I'm trying to gather ALL the parts I need ahead of time so that I can get them and install everything at once. I want to make sure that 30 day warranty covers any unexpected issues!
Last edited by NightWalker86; 01-19-16 at 03:49 PM.
secondary air connected to a straight midpipe. Gotta love what people do
Heh, yeah I laughed when I saw that too. I'm not thrilled about having to reweld a flange to this setup, but I don't want to replace the entire exhaust just yet so that is what I'll be doing for the time being. I want to be careful and do things in the correct order/stages. Although running a JDM downpipe with a muffler shop catback still might fall in the realm of needing a tune/PFC. Hopefully not, but I plan to do a PFC pretty earlier on.
This thread here actually offers a ton of information about the differences in the companion flanges: WTB: Manual Diff Flange - Buy FD Related Items. I have borrowed a few of the pictures from that thread to reference here (credit for these pictures goes to wjp005 from fdrx7.com). The flange on the LEFT is a manual flange and the one on the right is from an auto:
Manual on the top and Auto on the bottom:
The thread indicates to use the auto flange would require enlarging the holes on it (and possible the manual driveshaft). That really doesn't concern me much, what I AM concerned with is the differences in the counter weights. I wouldn't want to do this is if would cause a huge imbalance on the driveshaft/drivetrain.
Has anyone actually redrilled the flange and ran with a manual driveshaft/auto companion flange?
You're going to need a good chunk of stuff as I have just completed this myself.... with a jdm motor might I add. I nuked the the emissions simply because half of the ports you need for it don't come on the JDM unit.
You'll need all of the harnesses dash forward.
- 5spd dash harness
- engine harness
- front harness aka (main harness)
and honestly you might as well get a used pfc in the classifieds the stock ecu may give you some issues unless you're using a 5spd ecu which I still avoided lol.
You're going to need a good chunk of stuff as I have just completed this myself.... with a jdm motor might I add. I nuked the the emissions simply because half of the ports you need for it don't come on the JDM unit.
You'll need all of the harnesses dash forward.
- 5spd dash harness
- engine harness
- front harness aka (main harness)
and honestly you might as well get a used pfc in the classifieds the stock ecu may give you some issues unless you're using a 5spd ecu which I still avoided lol.
Hey 4g63rotary,
Thanks for the reply. Good point on the emissions equipment. Atlanta only checks for a cat and then puts the car on the dyno, so I can leave the motor as is and hopefully run a good enough cat to pass. If not, I can simply purchase a PFC and use that to qualify for a parts waiver :P On my VR4, it was very close to passing with a stock cat and no other emissions equipment but it failed. I installed a Greddy eManage Blue, took it to the emissions shop and had them run it on the dyno. It failed so I drove it forward to a parking spot and tuned the eManage to lean out the mixture just a little bit from 3000 RPM below at less than 50% throttle. I then rolled it back on the dyno and had the guy run it again and it passed with flying colors. Obviously I had a wideband and was watching AFRs like a hawk during the whole test. The expression on his face was simply awesome haha.
From all the research I've done changing out the dash harness is not necessary. I'll have to hunt down all the links, but this one specifically is really good: https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...quired-939015/. I know I have more saved showing pinouts as well. The auto ECU will run the car just fine too with the added (if you call it that) bonus of not pulling timing between shifts. This could get you in trouble if you start doing BPUs though so I'm not really advocating it.
So the dash harness and the manual ECU are optional and not necessary to complete the swap. I should be able to splice/solder the few wires necessary to make everything work with the auto dash harness and have it look nice if I take my time. At least, that is my plan anyway. I'll look for the other links with pinouts and what not later tonight.
Last edited by NightWalker86; 01-19-16 at 05:05 PM.
To pass smog, you generally need a cat (stock preferred) and an air pump. You may be able to tune a PFC for your local area, but you definitely should pass with a cat and air pump.
Looking at your exhaust, you could probably pick up a used downpipe, cat, and catback for not that much. Manual ECUs are a dime a dozen as well.
Sorry for the lack of updates guys, I've been busy at work and planning which route to go with the car. I pulled the engine and got it all tore down about 2 weeks ago. The verdict is in.... and it ain't pretty!! Lots of carnage pics to follow...
Pineapple Racing engine stand adapter:
One of the damn studs of course busted off during removal of the downpipe:
Upon closer inspection, it looks like this was a reman motor:
That looks ominous...
Hmm... about that...
Yeah.... this isn't going to be pretty...
This damn nut proved to be a huge pain in the ***. Trying to find a 52mm or 2 1/8" socket proved quite hard to do even in the Atlanta area..
I went to Harbor Freight, Northern Tool, Napa, Autozone, Advance Auto, etc. etc. before I finally found a socket at Sears. I had to but a 3/4" breaker bar to fit the 2 1/8' socket. $68 later and I got what I needed without having to wait on eBay..
The damn auto counterweight wouldn't budge so I ended up threading two bolts through to "pop" it off. I wasn't too concerned about it since I wouldn't be reusing it anyway..
Now comes the real good stuff...
Looks healthy to me
Heh.. and I was wondering why the motor wouldn't budge...
Diffuser just chillin'
At this point I couldn't wait to see more absolute carnage from pure neglect..
So... Yeah... The motor as you can see is completely trashed. But, before I gave up on everything, I decided to give the parts a good diesel bath and see if anything at all was reusable..
Breakdown:
Irons: 2 out of 3 trashed (3rd might not be good either but I have to clean it more before I will know for sure).
Rotors: Both are completely unusable. Rusted, pitted, seals frozen in, etc.
Housings: Surprisingly... both the housings seem to be completely fine after cleaning them up. I'll need to measure them to be certain, but they look good.
So there you have it folks, a perfectly good motor that someone just let rust away for YEARS! Completely ridiculous, but that is what apparently happened. Seeing as how the motor was shot and I'd need to buy an entire engine from someone, and that I also didn't want to stay auto, I knew what I had to do...
So now I was left with an $8k automatic shell and a motor that simply could not be rebuilt. What to do!?!?!? Well, I spent quite a while reading about how terrible JDM engines are in general, looked at the LS1 route (I swear only for a little while!!! :hides: ), and got a bit discouraged at one point. I was looking at a minimum of $3200 for an engine from a rebuilder and at least another $1000 for the 5 speed swap parts (at LEAST!). Suddenly my "deal" of an RX7 for $8k was quickly turning into a nightmare.
After careful consideration I decided that a JDM engine/5 speed combo simply made the most sense in my situation. I needed all the 5 speed parts anyway and almost none of my engine components were reusable. So even if the JDM engine was in need of a rebuild too, hopefully I would have enough usable parts to make it all work with a rebuild kit. I did however want to be as picky as possible and hopefully score an engine that didn't need a rebuild. I knew this would be a gamble though and it took about a month for me to finally find one that wasn't completely junk!
This is a 99 spec engine/transmission combo that is super clean. I talked extensively with the importer who is from Canada and made sure he compression checked the motor correctly:
Compression checks out but a coolant/oil control ring could end up biting me in the *** anyway since the history on these motors are unknown. I rolled the dice since this made the most sense and purchased this motor for $2,460 shipped directly to my door. I just received it a few hours ago and I will be doing another compression check this evening.
So that's my journey thus far. I've got a LOT of work ahead of me, especially considering this motor is a 99 spec and I don't know whether or not I want to try and keep the 16bit engine harness/ECU or not. Stay tuned as I plan to do a TON of work over the next few days!
Unfortunately, my stock USDM engine harness is completely shot. Almost every single connector is broken, some of the wiring is starting to pull out of different connectors, it's completely cooked, and a few of the solenoids from the rats nest are broken. So.. Yeah :/
Meanwhile, the 99 spec engine harness is in great shape and the wires are not even stiff from too many heat cycles. The N3G1 ECU also came with the dash harness clip so "all" I need to do is repin my 93 USDM dash harness plugs over to the 99 spec ECU connector and it hopefully should work. I just spent the past few hours looking over the harnesses in the garage and searching the forums for any info on this swap.
The only luck I had was a few threads where people vaguely mentioned others have successfully swapped in an S7/8 harness/ecu into an S6. But no real details. I did manage to find these two pin outs which should help me get it wired (hopefully):
S6 ECU pinout:
S7/8 ECU pinout (not actually sure if this is a 7 or 8 pinout unfortunately):
In a perfect world, my S6 USDM harness and rats nest would have been reusable and I could simply have swapped it all over to the 99 block. Unfortunately, that isn't the case and it seems like I might as well at least try to make the 99 spec components work before spending a bunch of money on a new harness/rats nest. Either way won't be a ton of fun haha. Also, the stock ECU will eventually get replaced with a PFC down the road but my main goal is to get the car back in working order and stock(ish) before I worry about modifying anything for power.
If anyone has experience with making a JDM 99 engine harness/ecu work in a 93 USDM car I would be forever grateful : ) I just need to know specifically what needs to be repinned for the dash harness to plug into the 99 ECU. If nobody has done this before, I'll be attempting it shortly and I will report back on what I find. Thanks!
My buddy tried this and it runs in a single setup. But, I'm pretty sure he paid in blood. I would really recommend forking out for a nice s6 harness. Everyone has solenoids laying around, post up in the FS section. Welcome to FD ownership! You've got the mech skills for it, for sure!
My buddy tried this and it runs in a single setup. But, I'm pretty sure he paid in blood. I would really recommend forking out for a nice s6 harness. Everyone has solenoids laying around, post up in the FS section. Welcome to FD ownership! You've got the mech skills for it, for sure!
Thanks man. Yeah, if I repin the dash harness to work with the 99 ECU connector and it doesn't work then I will have no choice but to revert it back to the 93 style and look for a new harness/rats nest.
If your buddy has attempted this conversion can he share some insight? I don't need to know anything about the single turbo setup or the engine harness, the only thing I need to know is how he changed the dash harness connector to work with the 99 ECU. Did he basically repin the connector using the same diagrams I did?
Well, it's about that time for an update! I started working on the car as soon as I got home Friday around 5 P.M. A buddy of mine was supposed to come over around 7 P.M. to help me get the engine guided in with the engine hoist. But, like all projects, I hit one slowdown after the next. The engine bay was completely filthy and there was no way I could put another engine in without first cleaning it all up. There was years and years of grease and leaves all over the place. Have a look for yourselves:
So I took a trip to Harbor Freight to buy a steam cleaner, grabbed 5 cans of brake cleaner, and got to work:
I went to town on the entire engine bay and also got rid of all the leaves and other garbage. This took a few hours and by the time I was done my buddy had arrived to help. Unfortunately, I found a few other things that needed attention before we could get the engine on the hoist and lowered in...
01-19-16 | 02:54 PM
My 93 Black RX7 Base restoration.
