Hello fellow RX-7 and FC drifters.

Well I finally decided to go ahead and show my build thread here on 7club, basically to share my experiences and knowledge with le community.

So lets dive right in and start with the pics!



- Picked up the car on March 6th, 2011. Seller said the engine was rebuilt by Rotary Shack. Did not come with an exhaust or headers and had a Weber 48DCO side draft. I got an exhaust installed from my old FC and got it running in 2 days. It was pretty loud but I loved it!







About 2 weeks, later, I had already ordered some colder plugs, since it ran stupid rich, and a few other pieces to help keep things cool and in check. And no, I never installed the fake wide band gauge, gave that crap away!

Will probably post more later today, or tomorrow. We'll see how lazy I feel.

 

another ventura county build nice! good luck man

 

Thanks man, much appreciated. I actually saw your thread and saw you were local. Gotta represent the 805!


After 'bout a month of driving it, I got the engine bay cleaned up and ordered up some coilovers to hit the track.







Also got a super cheap battery box from Wal Mart, I think I probably spent no more than $17 with the strap and everything.

 

Around April 17th, I dropped the welded diff and slap in a S4 NA Clutch Type LSD. BAD MOVE BRO!

That same day though I slapped on the Stance XR Coilovers. PBM was out of stock at the time and I wanted to get their PRO Coilovers which they told me were gonna be in in just a few days but who ever I spoke with said it's going to be too gripy for my NA! Ha! Dude I love the grip, I should've pushed them on selling them to me but oh well. I'm happy with my wanna be DG5's.





Since I was going to daily the car, I got some wire mesh air filters.



And made my own oil-air separator(oil catch tank)!!!

 

Some time in June 2011, I got my Sonic Motor 'Bride' Vios 3 bucket seat in. Pretty comfy, can't complain.


Got crazy and wrapped the catch tank with a Rockstar 24 ouncer. Always gets me through long nights.


And swapped in a black dash along with a lot of the accompanying trim pieces. That s*** is stupid hard. Took me a whole day to do the whole swap. Well worth it if it's a street car, not so much for a track car.


I also started working on fitting the battery in the rear passenger side bin. Had to trim the bin housing quite a bit and also the frame to fit the battery cable through.


And ended up finishing the next day.

 

Some time in July I hit the Balcony, signed up for a 626 Drift even. Little did I know that clutch type LSD's are crap if they are worn out and not shimmed. The next day I got that crap out of there!!!


Then in November I went to the Just Drift Toy Drive. As you can tell it was raining, my car felt like it had a v8. Overall, it was a super fun day. By the 2nd day I was drifting the whole course around the shack.

After this even my car started having some serious starting issues. It would basically be hard to start once warm, and I'd notice that my fuel pressure wouldn't build up so I though it was basically Vapor Locking. I later found that that was not the case

Cusco shift ****! JDM Tyte


Raddest mod I ever did to my car. Grip tape on the pedals! When I drifted the balcony in the rain, it was a bit sketchy when trying to clutch kit or slam on the brakes. This ended up fixing the problem and was ready for more rain drifting.

 

So around March 2012, I blew the engine while driving to the track.

At the time I had no idea what really happened or why it blew, but after having taken it apart and a friend of mine having a similar issue with his FD, I cam to the conclusion that running 15-50 Valvoline VR-1 is not good at all. Even if you have good oil pressure at the gauge, it probably is not getting through to all the places it needs to lubricate. Also, you sometimes get low oil pressure and think it's only because you have worn bearings and the oil thinned out. NO! Your pump is just not pulling the oil it needs.

But anyways, out came the engine. Took maybe 1.5 hours to pull.






And got it set up in my shed for dis assembly.


The rear iron was blued, the rear rotor had basically all of it's side seals and apex seals seized and each and every bearing was spun or badly gouged. Also, the front thrust plate was cracked and the thrust bearings weren't even there!

Lesson learned, don't use thick *** oil if you don't race in 100*+ weather, and even then it's probably not a good idea!

 

So this has always stirred up controversy with some of my local RX-7 buddies, 4 lug conversion on a original TII Chassis. I did it for a couple reasons though; 1, I have 3 full sets of awesome looking and awesome fitting 4 lug wheels; 2, 2 of those full sets are 15" wheels, so tires are stupid cheap.

I know this is not ideal for max grip or speed, but for now it'll do. Plus I think it'll look great once it's all said and done.


So then I did the camber mod on the front knuckles and slotted the holes on the coilover mount. Everywhere I read people were saying the used a file. Little did I know though is that most were doing it on PBM's which have aluminum lower mounts. Stance XR is full on steel, so it actually took me 3 hours or so and ended up with blisters though. Oh well, it was a good learning experience.


I then modified the camber plate for the front struts to be caster adjustable. I don't have a pic of the lower bracket but what I had to do basically is press out the stud on the plate, make a steel bracket that'll go on from underneath to hold the studs in place, and bolt it all down. It was fairly difficult but I think well worth it. Doesn't have a ton of adjust-ability but it's enough to get me even from side to side.

 

gotta bust out a dremel or a die grinder next time haha believe me itll make your life 100x easier

 

No yea, for sure. I'll be prepared if I do it again.

 

So around early June, I found a guy that was willing to trade his TII chassis with a rebuilt engine for my 280Z that I just finished bringing back to life. I basically just needed the engine since it also came with all the parts I would need, including turbo, intercooler, ECU, harness.


He also had the CorkSport turbo inlet pipe(TIB) and the blow off valve pipe right above the turbo. They were originally polished but I hated the finish, it looked tacky. So I primered them, sprayed it with a crinkle black and now looks like OEM.


A few days later, the engine was in my car and I actually opted to go with a non turbo trans for now since I was planning on not boosting a whole lot and keeping it very simple and reliable.


Also, the car came with an Rtek ECU which I ended up not using. Basically, since the previous owner hacked the harness when doing the carb swap, I was never able to get it to run on the stock ECU. I jumped wires, by-passed this and that but no luck.

At that point I decided to go with a standalone, I mean, what could go wrong? I'll be making my own harness and know where every wire is getting power and ground from.

 

Soon after this, parts started coming in.


I actually got this thermal intake manifold gasket. Main reason I got it is because it's meant to be reusable.


Then my EMS-4 came in along with basically all of the sensors, fuel pressure gauge, AEM Fail Safe Gauge, Injectors, Fuel Pump.


The injectors I got are from Deatschwerks. They're 700 cc/min all around. They're basically a direct fit and high impedance. They are cataloged for a NA/NB Miata.


That night I got the EMS mounted.


Trying to make everything fairly neat and like stock. Keeping it subtle but practical.

 

Early September and everything was slowly coming together.





Got some AN Push Lock hoses from XRP. Overall, it made everything as far as working on the engine super simple. Removing fuel lines has never been so easy for me, well aside from some of the Ford quick disconnect fuel hoses.





Then I started working on the harness. I've never done anything like this before and I'm sure it'll have to be redone at some point. But for now it's good, I'm sure it'll last some 4-5 years, well as long as there isn't a fire!!!

 

Not to fun messing with wiring huh? Ive redone 100% of the wiring on my FC as well. Chassis as well.

 

sick!!!

 

Where did that intake gasket come from?

 

Wiring is a pain, I'd much rather pull out a dash than do wiring on a chassis.

The gasket I got from my work, we used to sell it. It's a P2R brand and meant for an S5, but the intake holes line up and all I did was slot some of the bolt holes. hit me up if you're interested, there may be one lying around somewhere.

Thanks! Always looking to get my car up to your power level man, pretty crazy with that bridged motor you got going on.

 

So for about a year now, I've been saving up money to take this to a tuner. Been messing with the ECU settings a bit but just cannot figure out exactly what it is.



In the mean time, I helped my friend design some drift knuckles. Got them on my car and got massive angle!!!




And I'm planning on cutting the stock fenders and pull them out a bit. Basically like the old AE86 DIY widened fenders.



And here are some quick shots of what the ackerman looks like. Haven't taken my own measurements though :-P

 

Cool to see another local rotary build! Who are you going to take it to for tuning?

 

Good thread.

 

Thanks man. Ima be taking it to Tri-Point Engineering. Guy I've talked to knows his stuff when it comes to AEM.

Thanks!

 

Nice, if its the same guy im thinking of that posts sometimes in the power fc tuning group he does seem to know his stuff for sure. I would suggest throwing on a simple water injection kit just for extra safety when you do start boosting it.

 

Is that not too much "flop" at full lock? someone ( I think JTP) mentioned this being a terrible thing with our cars

 

I'm not sure if he posts in the Power FC section, it's EB Turbo that I'm working with though.

And yea, I will do water meth down the line, probably once I go v-mount. Haha, stock turbo, stock ports with a v-mount and water/meth!!!

The "flop" I don't think is really a problem but maybe more of a driver's preference. If you can adjust camber at the spindle separately from the steering axis inclination and caster, i.e. Slotted Spindle Mount on the Front Strut and independently adjustable Caster/Camber Plate, then you can change the "flop" to your liking.

Check out these pics for reference:












And right here I think really shows the differnece drivers may have but also how a double wishbone suspension differs from a MacPherson Strut:

 

ah I see. Ty for the info