Ive been into Rx7s since I bought my first car, a 1981 Rx7 that I still have to this day. (Im sure Ill sneak a pic of it in here somewhere.... I bought my first FC three or four years ago. To be honest, up to that point I had little interest in owning an FC. I had owned a few FB's and as any 7 owner I aspired to one day own an FD. I bought a running SE for $400 and I was hooked... That car sadly is long gone, but late last year after selling my lifted Toyota pickup I decided I needed a car that got decent fuel economy, little did I know I was destined to run across a running, driving GXL listed at $1000, well under my budget...

I went and looked at it, and with some careful haggling, drove it an hour home to the tune of $700!! Brace yourself for the before pics! (I promise, it gets better!)







118,000 miles? Yes please!!



Bone stock!! A clean slate, just the way I like them... Well, to buy them that way that is...

 

I decided I would restore the car and daily drive it leaving it mostly intact, little did I know I would not adhere to this, at all...

Painted the S4 tails back to their former glory!



Built a new completely custom exhaust, which didnt sound half bad!



A photo-shoot with my FB... You can almost see the odd rust hole it had in the hood...





A cone filter upgrade...



Painted the bumper to the closest color I could find off the shelf. Refinished the wheels as well. I also changed all the belts, hoses, plugs, and fluids before putting any miles on her...

 

One for fun,



And a random pic tossed in of the club I am a part of, Ohio-rotaries. I organized this particular meet...



Tossed in a Taurus E-fan with a temp switch



Traded some parts for a turbo hood. I really wanted an aluminum N/A hood... But I do love the look of the T2 hood...



Lowered the car..



Added a sweet sport wing...

 

I then proceeded to do very little to the car for quite some time. Every meet I brought the FC to, I had to listen to everyone ask when I was going to boost it, given that I had a T2 hood. I had no intentions of doing so.... Until THIS showed up in my possession....

 

I completed an emissions removal and while working alot out of town did my best to score parts, and when I was back in town, I beat on the car and took pics.... A friend referred me to Aaron Cakes website and I went about researching and planning out my build...







I wanted to fabricate everything off of the car, giving me as little downtime as possible. Because lets be honest, we love driving our cars more than working on them.

I also bought an SAFC and went about learning how to tune while the car was N/A I also purchased an Innovate Wideband... (The gauge pictured is a useless freebie narrowband I had lying around while I waited for my wideband)



In order to fabricate without taking the car out of commission I had to find another engine to use for mock everything up... This quickly led to me buying LOTS of 6 port engines... I have enough housings to build three engines, not counting the good engine I used for mock up....

I sourced a complete T2 intake, nearly for free, lets just say I have AWESOME friends! It is properly port matched here, I needed to clock the turbo as it had been disassembled.



During this time I built the oil feed, and drain all while driving the cars to bbq's and local meets! The best part, was that most people I hung out with had no idea what I was planning, I kept my lips tightly sealed...

 

I painted the intake with some hi-temp silver paint. This was a terrible decision, Ive had to remove it so many times, the paint looks aweful now.... I also started leaking pics like this into our forum at OH-R...











This was the last meet it attended, a rained out Rotary Park meet, so we ditched and hit Taco Hell...

 

As soon as I had everything together I started my conversion.... Please forgive my horrific looking engine bay...



Swapping my N/A pan for a modified pan tapped for a turbo drain...









I had some bad hiccups along the way, one primary injector stopped working, I rebuilt it, and it must have been plugged up with something as it is fine now... I am running an open 3 inch down pipe temporarily while I tune out the bugs. I am also only using the TMIC temporarily, I was going to wait to order a FMIC, but my budget was hurting, so I jumped the gun and used it.

No BOV currently, I dont need to be lectured on the possible dangers, I am well aware. The one I had was used and turned out to be a giant boost leaking POS. I check end play after every single drive, as I havent driven it much, and no measurable change so far. It is on my massive to do list, so in time I will fix everything.

 

AFR's have been corrected since... (Ended up being a wacky wideband sensor) Some of the other videos I have if you watch them the car has a bouncy idle, it was set to high, that has been corrected as well.

http://youtu.be/tT3zmo2BJWg

 

Sourced a used BOV locally, and installed the exhaust, which quieted it some.

http://youtu.be/CrL9_jTS8Mc

No pics, just got it on... Wastegate actuator rod came loose, dont know what happened to the clip. It will still boost to 7 psi with the heavily ported wastgate flapping in the wind. Granted it doesnt come on until 5K but I was surprised!

Getting a new clip tomorrow, then back to boosting and tuning properly!

 

Turbo started smoking occasionally at idle, no external leaks... Looks like the turbo is leaking some oil out the turbine side. It was a free turbo, I cant complain. I will rebuild it, but in the meantime I sourced a good S4 turbo, minus the turbine housing. What can I say? I hate downtime!

I also sourced a wiperless hatch, complete with 100 horsepower worth of stickers! Not sure about all the decals, I removed some of them... Might take them all off, might leave them, we will see...







Also in the process of buying a house, being really picky about the garage... Need a four car minimum with tall enough ceilings to accommodate a four post lift. Its every bit a PIA to find as you can imagine... Either that or a property with room, and ability to build something that size... Almost bought a place, until we called the city and asked what would happen if we added a garage that size. It was a four acre lot, and we were only allowed a two car garage!! Damn city limits... As soon as I have a decent garage, this and my girlfriends MR2 are getting painted! Well after I do A TON of body work and rust-busting on the FC.... Thought about getting a new shell.... But that would just be the easy way out, I know how to do it, and the car has treated me right so far...

Anyway, enough of me rambling, hope some of you guys enjoy my 'budget build'! If not, go easy on me! I leave one more pic at the bottom for those that endured it thus far. This was just a local import meet, we decided to roll into. Nothing like discussing premix in front of a bunch of Honda guys! lol

 

Oh yeah, and an after party in my driveway after an OH-R meet! (Yes, I have 13 and 15 inch meshies for my FB lol I used to have a silver 15 inch, and gold 14 inch meshies as well... I am abit of a wheel *****!) Speaking of wheel whoring, I need to get started doing that for the FC! I have been hunting Crown Vic wheels, but I am not opposed to anything decent looking with a positive offset...

 

I like. Excellent work thus far.

Keep it up.

 

Thank you, I appreciate it!

Pic of my exhaust, 3 inch from the turbo to a 2 1/4 inch Y pipe.
Need some chrome tips... Thinking some fat turn downs....



Pic of my dingy bay, new turbo installed, its nice not producing clouds of smoke at intersections! Note my knock off HKS BOV installed now... Thats really the only major noticable change from the last bay pic.



And a vid of the product thus far...

http://youtu.be/AWyVrOrnPlM

 

Very nice work man. I'm definitely diggin it so far.

I read all your posts, but still may have missed it, but what did you lower the car on?

 

I didnt say because it is a pretty controversial mod... I bought a second set of good used springs and cut them. That way if I didnt care for the ride I would still have a good set. I didnt torch them, I used a cut-off wheel (meticulously measuring and remeasuring all my cuts) and only cut the upper perchs off. I then reshaped the upper-most coil into a new 'lower' perch. I think these springs might have been sagging to begin with, as the car is much lower than I planned. Believe it or not, it isnt bouncy at all and rides pretty decent.

I am sure I hurt the handling of the car to some degree, and I am planning on moving to a proper lowering spring/shock combo. I keep thinking coilovers, but I feel like they are overkill for a car that will see mostly street duty.... Either way my budget is very limited, and I knew the turbo conversion would cost a lot, I just didnt realize how much it can nickel and dime you...

500 Miles in...



Had some odd noises from the back of the car, time to check the diff mounts, wheel bearings, and brakes. Everything checked out, although the sway bar end links are trashed... (Ignore my ugly wiring mess hanging from the hatch.... Its the harness for the rear wiper, and the previous owner added some wiring to a toggle switch that was on the dash, since the factory rear wiper button didnt work! lol, its an FC go figure!)



And an entertaining side effect to my hatch conversion, it opens on its own! Theres nothing like good hatch struts!


EDIT ::

Id like to add, I wouldnt suggest to anyone to cut your springs, I only did so because I had a spare set and I was curious as to the results... I took my time, researched, and did it what was accepted as the proper way to do so. Although there are different accepted methods, and I am not saying this one was any more ideal than any other. Either way, if you decide to do so, dont blame me if your car sits crooked. And expect to blow a lot of shocks, short stroke shocks are needed if you expect any life out of them. And after you buy the shocks, you may as well have bought proper springs to. So do so at your own risk.

 

Ha, nice.

I know the feeling. I have a lexan hatch on mine, and it basically shoots for the skies when it's opened. Light weight and good struts don't mix.

 

Hanging out with some FC's.. One 6 port turbo, one GXL with a T2 swap, and a T2...





Later on, hanging out at Scary Larry's place...



Taurus alternator, in stock location, with a stock belt... Look, its under a TMIC!! Also bought a FMIC and piping, should have that on soon...

 

Well the Turbo started smoking again, two turbos back to back smoking means that something is probably causing them to smoke...

I decided to redesign the oil drain, as it had started leaking anyway and while laying under the car I noticed something odd. I hadnt started the car at all that day, and the drain was steadily dripping oil at the pan fitting... I bought the pan (pre-tapped) in a bundle of parts from a friend, they had all been used in a 6 port turbo build. I had decided after looking at pictures from Aaron Cakes writeups that the drain was in a suitable location.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. I had never liked it to begin with, as it was angled slightly downward. I chose to use it anyway... I pulled the hose off of the drain fitting in the pan, and drained nearly a quart of oil from the pan... While the car was sitting level... The fitting is about 3/4 inch or so down from the pan flange.

I removed the fitting, and temporarily plugged the hole in the pan. (I will put the original pan on soon) And I then tapped the front cover for a drain. Shortened my drain hose, double checked the angle on the drain, reassembled everything, changed the oil, and went for a spin. So far, so good... We are nearing 1000 miles on her, and I have abused the snot out of her the entire time. Ive run lean a few times, partially due to taking it on the interstate and doing some hard pulls, without fully tuning it. No detonation, thankfully!! So I got really damn lucky there, thank you 93 octane! And just for the sake of saying, the car is fully tuned now.

 

I bought my arctic silver '87 GXL for $700, too. We have the same exact car... I turbo swapped mine quite some time ago. Very cool.

I recently had a bit of smoke coming from the turbo. It had been smoking from the old oil drain gasket on the bottom of the turbo. I made all new oil feed and oil drain gaskets, replaced them, and no more smoke.

 

Ive done that twice now hoping it would solve the issue, and no dice. I think that the drain being below the oil level in the pan was causing oil to back up in the drain, at this point I think both turbos will need rebuilt to completely eliminate the smoking. Either way it has improved for sure.

Thats pretty funny that we both bought arctic silver '87 GXL's for the same price though! Even cooler that both are now boosted too, who woulda thought?

 

what a nice sound!!! laughed when i saw the hatch open up haha lol good stuff

 

Thanks! Thats a pair of $30 cheapo 2.5 inch Thrush Turbo mufflers! It was a little loud with them N/A, but the Turbo has given it a more acceptable sound!

For reference, this was how it sounded N/A




Oh yeah, a pic with its evil twin...



Window sticker,



Mazda first aid kit, with vintage first aid supplies lol







Note the date here...



And a pic from today at Wally world...

 

Oh, you had a modified oil pan. I didn't realize that it was a 6-port turbo conversion at first. So, you're going to modify the oil drain to resolve the issue? It would make sense.

Wow, I really am impressed by the complete first aid kit. I wonder how man people still have those...

 

cars looking good man id like 2 find a wiperless hatch

 

Ive already moved the drain to the front cover. It has helped greatly with the smoking, but I think the turbo needs rebuilt to completely eliminate it at this point.