1st I would like to apologize to all the hardcore rotards out there for ruining another 7 but on a more serious note, I hope you enjoy the build.

I'll start this thread with a little history on the car. I bought my 93 MB touring in Texas back in 04 with a few simple boltons(SMIC, exhaust, intake) and enjoyed the hell out of it. I continued to enjoy and mod the car until it was full bolton and tuned to 13psi (~300WHP, never dynoed).

This is me screwing arround and making flames
Mazda rx-7 popping huge flame! - Car Videos on StreetFire
This is me racing a local neon.
dodge srt-4 vs mazda rx-7 3 - Car Videos on StreetFire

***Space reserved for old pics if i ever get around to finding them***

1st motor let go while racing a mach 1.

2nd setup was a street ported T04R that put down 417 to the wheels on 93 octane. This is when I had the most fun with the car




This is me vs the black SRT-4 above now running a 100 shot. and a gxxr750
neon races an ls1....and 420 whp rx-7 races a gixr - Car Videos on StreetFire
another random skittle...
RX-7 Vs. SRT-4
Me vs KN terminator
Vids are dead but this post still has SOME of the drama lol CLICKY

The last setup was a 1/2 bridge port motor with a GT3574 turbo and a healthy diet of corn:coolugh:


YouTube - FD 1/2 bridge first start

Before I could have this setup tuned I lost interst in the rotary and finally decided to take the plunge into the darkside:ohnoes: (i've wanted to do the swap for ages but couldn't bring myself to do it.

So I sold most of my rotary stuff. The engine went to Cali, while the tranny and turbo went to Hawaii.(still have plenty of junk to get rid of) and started buying parts for my build:yay:....

 

This was the first thing to arrive...


It's an 07 LS2 with 12k miles pulled from a TBSS

Getting the engine bay cleaned up and ready for primer.


Started spraying the front part of the engine bay.

Few more pics.


I still have lots of work to do before it's ready to paint.

Found this old pic.

Damn i'm gonna miss that big front mount. But I'm gonna enjoy not NEEDING it. I've never owned a V8 or anything relatively quick that wasn't turbo'd. I'm also feeling the idea of having similar hp # to my hopped up rotary with more tq and better gas mileage to boot


Finally got the motor on the stand today. Here is a few pics with the ported intake sitting on top.

 

Open wide...

Can't forget this shot...


I haven't had time to make any progress on the car at all this past week but it looks like i'm taking a "quick" road trip to Dallas to pick up some more goodies for my motor.

My origional plan was to leave it stock untill I completed the swap....lets just say that plan fell through lol.

 

looking good!

 

Thanks man!

OK, no progress has been made on the chassis but I do have some updates to report.

As you can see above I picked up a pair of NEW l92 heads. So my current 243s are for sale.

I already sold my ported LS2 intake setup sense I will need an LS3/L76 mani with square ports.
Meanwhile I've been doing some more shopping on LS1tech and scored a killer deal on an oil pan/pick-up tube/windage tray/and bolts (basically the whole shibang). Man I love finding good deals


Also I found a shop that just rebuilt a T56 for a customer and installed it with a new SPEC stage 3+ clutch. Shortly after that the owner of the car decided he wanted to go "fast" and sense he primarily dragged the car, that meant a built auto. So he asked the shop to sell his manual setup to help fund the auto. Of course the owner will have to take a large hit on the deal and his loss was my gain.

Now I have a fresh upgraded tranny with bellhousing topped off with a spec 3+ clutch, and a nice Hurst short throw shifter. The whole setup only has about 300 miles did I mention I love finding good deals:yay: lol They also through in the slave and a stock flywheel. I'll be ditching them both in favor of a new slave and aluminum flywheel.

Specs on tranny include:
Short throw hurst
t56 w/new d@d parts
New 3-4 synchro assembly
New solid 3-4 inserts
New 3-4 shift forks steel
New bronze 5-6/rev.fork pad
New bronze 1-2/3-4 fork pads




I will be painting the tranny and a few other parts hopefully tomorrow( if I can get my "honey-dos" done early enough

 

Ewww...don't use a Spec clutch. They break, don't hold, etc. My buddy had a stage 3 on his KAT 240sx for 3000 miles and he doesn't drive crazy or anything. He spent 500 miles completely babying it and everything to break it up, but it started slipping BAD by 3000.


Go with the LS7 clutch? That should hold most of what you'll throw at it and will have oem type feel..

 

Thanks for the suggestion but several people have had great success with the SPEC products when installed and setup correctly. (I'm not says your friend did anythingwrong with his)

However, I did consider the LS7 clutch for it's OEM feel but it deffinatley won't hold up to the abuse I plan on putting my car though. Plus The SPEC unit came with my tranny. Depending on how the spec performs, when it's time to chaneg it I will probably lean more toward a MONSTER clutch.

 

Looking good breh... good luck with project =)

 

Thanks man.

I received my improved racing oil pan baffle last week(didn't wait on the check valves) and it looks great! still need to take some pics

I painted my bellhousing and valve covers with highe temp with rustoluem (sp?) silver and will also clean and spray the tranny and shortblock with the same color.

I also bought some chromoly pushrods from a forum member here.
I will probably order my cam this week but i'm still unsure who to have grind it.

The only other plans for the motor that I havent metioned are upgraded rod bolts. However, I may end up doing something with the rockers too.

Lastly, my atomic rex rack has been made and is on it's way!
This arrived at my door this morning...



And the oil pan baffle I mentioned earlier...



The TSP pushrods should be here sometime today as well.
My used aluminum SPEC flywheel with NEW friction surface/hardware has arrived. Also ordered a new slave. Now I need to build/buy a remote bleeder for the clutch (i'll probably just make my own)

And last but not least, I ordered my custome comp "old man" cam. I was told i should have it in about 2 weeks. I'll update this thread with more pix when it arrives.

 

looking good! you're going to love the steering rack..what are your power goals with this set up?

 

I'm looking forward to testing the rack as much as the new powerplant lol. I keep hearing nothing but good things about it. Plus it will clean up the engine bay a but more. This setup should put me somewhere in the 450-500whp range with tq coming in slighlty lower.

BTW I'm currently copy and pasting my posts from another forum so i may repet myself now and then. But I'm still in the VERY early stages of my swap

 

Looks nice...

I'm currently dropping an LS2 in my FC

Are you over on the V8rx7forum?

 

Heh I build muscle car V8s for other (big, heavy) cars but I can't imagine having the massive torque of a modern V8 in a tiny car like this. I would most definitely get killed.

 

Sunburn, I've been keeping an eye on your build thread from the begining and imust says it's looking very nice. I'm on the V8rx7forum under the same SN and my build is the ugly duckling thread.

I actually got a little bit done today with cleaning up the motor/trans
Here is the tranny painted craptastic black how I got it.


And here it is painted hi temp aluminum as well as the bell housing. I chose this color for it's stock/clean look. Plus it would make traking down any potential future leaks much easier.


I also painted my valve covers



Here is a shot of my SPEC aluminum flywheel


New slave thanks to SNL Performance. Ordered yesterday arround noon and it arrived sometime this morning.


Baffle sitting in pan not bolted down yet.


Pretty dirty...



Getting better but still not done. Also have to do the other side.



The block/oil pan will be painted the same color as the tranny when it's finally ready.
Heads are brand new and won't be painted.
That's it for today.


Soon I hope to be taking apart my stock oil pump(12k miles), to port and shim it.

 

This just came in today...


If all goes well this week I'll have the decks cleaned, cam installed and some aftermarket rod bolts ordered and installed if they come before the weekend.

Other than that, all I need to do before buttoning up the bottom end is porting/shimming oil pump, and modding my ls2 windage tray for the f-body pan. I'm looking forward to getting this shortblock together and painted so I can set it aside for the next portion of the build.

 

Traitor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

I hardly got anything done today. Just got the cam lubed up and installed.




Still need to torque everything down. I placed an order for some ARP Pro2000 rod bolts but i won't be getting those until early next week.

I'll try to get my oil pump modded before the new bolts arrive so I can bolt the pan up asap.

Still haven't touched the oil pump but I should be able to get it knocked out early next week. In the mean time this came in today.

Besides the rush you get from boost I think the thing I'll miss most will be the ability to wrap it up to 8000 RPM. And sence I'll be running a stock bottom end 8k or anything close to it is out of the question. But with the help of these ARP rod bolts I should be able to safely take it up to 7000 RPM. It's a far cry from 8k but better than keeping it under 6500 RPM

I've decided to go ahead and replace the oil pump for a little piece od mind

Here are some pics of what i got done today.
stock bottom..


ARP Pro rod bolts lubed up...


A shot of the stock bolt with sleeve (can't remember the actuall name) still on it. These MUST be removed with the stock bolts.


New rod bolts installed...


Before...all stock

After...ARP rod bolts and modded windage tray.


I probably won't have a replacement oil pump untill next week. Then I'll finally ba able to seal up the bottom end and get it painted.

I went ahead and prepped the block for paint.

Please excuse the crappy phone pix. I forgot my camera again.

 

Then went to town...


And a shot of all the painted pieces.


I think these will be enough to handle my old man cam

And my new pump is also finally here. but it's useless. This is one section of the build i can't wait to tie up and move on from.:rant2:

I got a little done last night and today. I got all my patriot dual valve springs installed and I must say it was a lot more time consuming than I thought it would be. But I didn't have a good spring compressor so I'm not suprised. I'll try to load the pix tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Btw I now have a complete set of stock valve springs, seals, retainers, and locks for sale if anyone is interested.
Here are the pics of the heads with new dual springs.
Stock


Patriot Extremes.


Springs installed


Random shots of the heads



Stock springs and components with ZERO miles that are now FS.


And on another positive note. I was refunded for my oil pump and it's time to order a few more parts

 

Today I ordered a new oil pump. Rather than porting a stocker I ended up finding a decently priced meling high volume oil pump NIB. I have a couple more oil system mods planned but I won't get into that until I'm ready to start purchasing the parts.

After the motor is finaly together I will be ready to focus my attention on preparing the engine bay for it's new heart (master cylinder, paint, abs install and the price I'm looking forward to te most, samberg subframe )
__________________

Just ordered my willwood master cylinder, adaptor plate,and steeda tri-ax shifter handle. It should all be shipped by tomorrow.

 

****Sigh**** Another bastard build... Ah well, at least I will get to ride in the thing.

Honestly though, it is looking great Cyan. I am loving the way everything is looking as it comes together. I keep trying to convince my dad to pick up an FD with a blown motor and do what you are doing here. I would really like to do one of these myself but I am FAR from willing to sacrifice my car to it...

Oh, and anytime you miss the 8K revs and sound of that turbo spooling, just gimme a call I will put my car on the phone anytime you are having withdrawals.

 

Thanks Noah. It took me a quite a while to finally decide to let the rotary go and now there is no turning back (at least not with this car)

We will need to do some side-by-side pulls to see how these two beasts compare. As well as on the track. I'm really curious how loud this thing will be though. I'm looking forward to hearing the V8 sound screaming from under my hood rather than fading behind me

 

lmao!

this guy that i know has a ls1 FD with a turbo by the cat back and it sounds pretty nasty... but as nasty as my 20B

nice build! is this going to be a weekend warrior?

 

I've seen the short vid you posted of your car and nasty doesn't even begin to describe it There is nothing out there thatsounds quite as unique as a turbo 3 rotor.

Yeah, it's my WW. I DD an 02 Mirage (slowest thing i've ever driven/owned). It makes my wifes Prelude feel like a sport car lol. But the A/C is cold and I get up 38MPG on the highway

But when my FD was running (and tuned) I drove it alot more than just weekends and i'm sure that will be the case with this new setup as well. Plus my wife actually likes going with me on my "evening cruises".

 

Yeah, I am looking forward to hearing that thing both from inside it, and behind it. Maybe I will stay pretty close, (I hope), but I am sure you will drive by me. I am always up for doing some side by side pulls.

Yeah, I would love to hear that Turbo 20B up close. Maybe next time I am in Orlando visiting one of my friends we could meet up. I am sure my friend would LOVE to hear that thing too...