finally finished my gauge pod


some parts are coming in
patch harness and fuel rails


also I got the brackets to this v-mount kit


slowly but surely the car is coming together and now I'm getting even anxious to get her running and driving

 

curious as to why you would get a kit like that instead of having oil coolers on the sides like the R1 or rx8s? That seems like it would block a lot of air to the IC/Rad...

 

I didn't buy the kit, [for ease of explination] we just found it at the shop, for the time being and money's sake I'm going to have the oil cooler mounted per the picture but eventually want to run the side coolers, I'm mostly using the kit for the radiator brackets so if the cooling really becomes an issue I wil change it

 

Got the oil cooler finally mounted after a long day of modifications and just as an fyi this kit is horrible and nothing lines up, i do not recommend it to anyone > unless you get it for free like i did si i guess i cant complain

 

When will this moster be alive?!?!?!?!?!?!?! the wait is killing me.

 

I plan on taking it to Kevin's by the end of the week

 

this thing looks awesome! following this build!

 

gorgeous fc HANDS DOWN!

 

Thanks guys! She is offically at the fabricator getting some really good work done, no telling how long it will take but man I am anxious as ever to get her running, all down hill after that

 

I like the stock look as well.the build is coming along nicely.

 

So after the car sitting at my fabricators for over 2 months and nothing happening (not even a quote on the work) I decided to bring my car back to our shop and to do the work myself. The car needs the v-mount fabbed up and mounted, air ducting, oil and fuel lines, wiring, tune, and a few other things done before she'll be running again. !!!

First thing I've done since I got the car back was to fab my v-mount. (Keep in mind this is my first time fabbing anything) I am using the brackets from the kit mentioned above but I had to order a new radiator (24"x19"x2" double pass) and used an intercooler that I found in the shop. Both of which needed some modification and I can proudly say that I have done all of the work myself (minus the actual welding part) which is a big accomplishment

First started with patching the filler hole on the top of the radiator.


And welding on some dowels and making bushings..






Then I had to make brackets to hold the radiator up and in place


\

 

Once the radiator was mounted the next step was to get the intercooler on:





With the oil cooler on:




And then to design the piping:



Getting excited because although I still have A LOT to do I'm starting to get the ball rolling to hopefully finally get her running again!

 

Looks good, Solid build

 

Am I ever oing to see this thing again?

 

Looking Good

 

next step was to fab up the piping:
Got it all laid out how I wanted it and welded it up



(note the huge hole on the top of the cold side will be welded shut, I know it kind of makes it look like **** but I'm doing this on a budget build and am using an intercooler we already had)

After that it was time for ducting.... which let me tell you is a pain in the ***...



Not 100% final but mostly done


Oh and I installed some areocatch hood pins

 

Looking good Ela. A far, far way away from seeing you come out with the RX8.

 

Thanks Corey!! I should be done soon! Just waiting on a few parts but my broke status is kind of limiting me....

 

This is what my car sleeps next to at the shop, underwhelming but still awesome

 

Very cool... two thumbs up for DIY!!

 

So everything is finally coming together, finally got all the needed AN fittings, finished welding up the inter cooler and radiator, and put it all together.

Spent more money on AN fittings than I thought I ever would... who ever thought these suckers would be so expensive


Fuel lines all hooked up, running 850cc and 1680cc injectors


Oil cooler and power steering hooked up (don't mind the tiny power steering cooler had to use what we had since I'm about to move)


Welded up the radiator piping:



And finally put the manifold, intercooler piping, and plugged everything back in:




Everything was ready for first start! Or so we thought....
We're having an issue with our temp sensors, all of them reading 175 C The car will crank and crank but won't fire up. We're thinking it's a harness issue so hopefully we will resolve it and maybe I'll get to hear her purr soon.

 

looking good ,,, great work, record the start up is always a awesome feeeling and is best when you see it over and over lol

 

So we fixed the wiring issue by using a different harness. All the sensors were reading right where they should be but we came across another problem.... The car would start for a few seconds and wouldn't idle on it's own. Our first thought was timing and the TPS being bad. We checked the timing and it was way off as well as Ohm tested the TPS and it was all over the place so we replaced it. Cranked the car and now I could keep it running with lots of throttle modulation. Next step, compression testing.....and some bad news....
Rear rotor:

and the front rotor:

(chart on the back reads that at 250 RPM compression should read around 6.0 Kg/cm3)

What a bummer ! We're hoping that because the engine sat for a while the seals are just stuck and maybe some high RPMs and an MMO treatment they unstick themselves.
This is what I get for using a hand-me-down (and questionable) motor, oh well, keeping my fingers crossed.
Also any other ideas on what my problem is (and how to solve it) are welcomed.

 

i bought a car that was sitting for 13 years and i had similar compression before starting it again for the first time. After warming up the engine and driving it for a while i went from having 60 60 30 front and 60 40 30 rear to 90psi on all faces. Drive it around a little and test the compression when the engine is warm. All of your readings are evenly low which would be unusual if the engine was damaged no? Its pretty unlinlely tat all the seals are damaged in the exact same way yielding the same result

 

Yea that's what I'm thinking. We think it's just the seals being stuck or something of that sorts. I don't really think (and hope) the engine is damaged. I can't really drive it and it's a struggle to get it up to temp because it won't idle or even run on it's own. We're kind of in the process of trying to tune it with the Power FC but to do so you need it to idle on it's own (that and my water pump is leaking horribly...I can never win). Like I said we're going to try to flush it with some MMO and some RPMs.