magnumP5's RX-7 Build Thread

[magnumP5]

I don't see seats in that pile lol...

Still in the car - didn't want to risk them getting dirty (look at the engine!) in the garage. I'll try to pull, clean, diassemble and package them up sometime during the week.

At this point I need to remove the oil pan, clutch and flywheel, main pulley, water pump assembly and front cover assembly and it'll basically be down to the "short block". Some good news is I just was told I got a $1000 bonus at work today. Combine that with the profits from selling a few parts and I've got a little extra spending money for this project.

 

[Lewis7789]

Good work on the progress, Jon. And super congrats on the bonus! What happened to your seats? Did you find a new set? Did I miss that part?

Sorry I can't really help out more with the rotorary part. I don't know jack about those things. But my hat's off to you for tearing it down, researching and learning as you go.

 

[magnumP5]

The stock seats are going to mymmeryloss in CO for his mini-truck build. Of course this means I now have NO SEATS but that doesn't matter too much considering the car can't move under it's own power.

I'm really liking the respray you did under the hood of the P5 so now it's got me thinking for the RX-7. I'd rather do something like white or light grey so things are easier to see in the engine bay but I don't see that working well without A LOT of preparation. Still debating if I want to get the whole thing resprayed as well (but what color?).

 

[PrinceValorum]

Still debating if I want to get the whole thing resprayed as well (but what color?).

One of the reds/classic reds. Red seems to be more uncommon on RX7's, I think the only red one I remember at The Mitty was that pre-production FC.

 

[THE Phen]

Oddly enough, yeah. I don't see many reds unless they're 'verts.

 

[Lewis7789]

My masking/paint job only took an afternoon and half the time I was showing my GF what to do or fixing her mistakes. haha! I'm sure you would do a great job. I say do it! White would look badass.

ps- What seats are you going to replace the stockers with now?

 

[magnumP5]

My masking/paint job only took an afternoon and half the time I was showing my GF what to do or fixing her mistakes. haha! I'm sure you would do a great job. I say do it! White would look badass.

ps- What seats are you going to replace the stockers with now?

Only the engine bay would be white - the exterior of the car is either going to stay red of some sort (blaze red, classic red, true red, etc.) or I'll go race ready with a satin/flat black. For some reason white FC's are quite common, but they do look really good when clean.

The seats are going to be replaced by Racetech RT1000's unless I find something smaller, lighter and cheaper. I've heard very good things about them; the best being they are still very comfortable for fixed-back, fiberglass racing seats.

Did more work last night but didn't take any pictures (was frustrated) but I'll be sure to take some "before" pics next time. Basically the engine is 90% stripped to the shortblock. All that remain are the oil pan, front cover and oil pump assembly and flywheel. For the life of me I can't get that 2-1/8" flywheel nut broken loose! I've also started tearing out the A/C. So far I've removed the two firewall lines going into the cabin and the pump but there are still three more lines, the condensor and the evaporator left. My plan is to keep everything intact should I ever try to reinstall it some time in the future.

 

[PrinceValorum]

For the life of me I can't get that 2-1/8" flywheel nut broken loose!

You need a big pipe, and I need one, too. Does the handle of your jack fit over the wrench?

 

[eprx799]

For the life of me I can't get that 2-1/8" flywheel nut broken loose! Thats because that nut has about350ft/lbs. on it. you need to use a really long cheater bar to break it loose. As far as painting the car goes just respray it the original color then you don't need to repaint the door jams to match.

 

[magnumP5]

^^^ I thought it was only 2xx ft-lbs. Either way, I weight ~160 lbs and the wrench is ~2 ft long so with my weight on the end of the wrench that's 320 ft-lbs (in an ideal world) and it's not budging!

Regarding paint, I imagine any red would work okay without repainting the door jams or under the hood as it'd be close enough. If I painted it flat/satin black I really wouldn't care.

Trying to sell some superfluous items to make money for the build. Too bad there really aren't any RX-7 owners over here and I don't feel like becoming a member on RX7Club just to sell stuff.

 

[mymmeryloss]

Whatcha tryin to sell? Anything else I could use?

 

[magnumP5]

Whatcha tryin to sell? Anything else I could use?

Mainly a bunch of misc. stock RX-7 stuff. Most of it is stock suspension and body stuff, which I don't think would benefit you at all.

FINALLY got the flywheel nut off! Then I had to get the flywheel itself off, which was another task in itself but some progress was definitely made today. I'VE CRACKED OPEN THE MOTOR! Pictures and captions below...

First, here are two pictures of the engine in "short block" configuration; literally three "irons", two rotor housings and the rotating assembly:

Next, it was only a matter of slowly and methodically loosening the 18 torsion bolts that hold the engine together. First the rear "iron" was removed. Nothing looks suspicious so far:

After that the rear rotor housing was removed. Everything still looks good to me besides the copious amounts of oil (is that normal?):

Finally a look at the rear rotor and intermediate "iron". All seals on the back face of the rotor are intact but what's that on the iron?

Let's take a closer look. I'm not really sure what this is but it looks like some coolant seeped out of its cavity and mixed with engine oil between the housing and iron. I still don't see evidence of a combustion chamber breach but I will take a closer look later:

After that I decided to temporarily put the engine back together until I could clean the garage some and develop some sort of organization plan for all the seals, etc. I cleaned the garage up a bit but I didn't feel like messing with the engine anymore today. Instead I tackled the rest of the A/C. All remaining lines, the condensor and the evaporator have been removed from the car. Now I just need to find caps for the lines that go into the car.

That's all for now. The next step is literally to pull the entire engine apart, clean the components and start the inspection process (need to pick up some more tools).

 

[mymmeryloss]

Good progress!

 

[eprx799]

Try selling on ohiorotaries.com or rotarycarclub.com

 

[magnumP5]

Try selling on ohiorotaries.com or rotarycarclub.com

I'll check out OhioRotaries but I'm already on RotaryCarClub and trying to sell parts!

So I may have jumped the gun with the crap on the iron. Looking at it now it looks more like a byproduct of galvanic corrosion due to the disimilar metals (Fe and Al). No big deal so the search continues. May be picking up an ECU sooner than I thought, but I'm still trying to find 4-port irons!

 

[PrinceValorum]

At this point do you have a guess as to how much of your old motor you'll be able to re-use, either with new seals, or as-is?

 

[magnumP5]

At this point do you have a guess as to how much of your old motor you'll be able to re-use, either with new seals, or as-is?

Unfortunately I've only just pulled the rear iron and housing. From what I've seen so far (apex seals and rear-facing corner seals and side seals) nothing is obviously broken but their condition needs to be verified (taking measurements with calipers). Regardless of the condition of the seals I'm thinking I'm going to get an entire new set from Mazda because I'm essentially building a new motor.

I really haven't made too much progress over the past few days. I've been battling sickness ever since Mid-Ohio (though I thought I was fine last weekend) so I really haven't felt "up to the task". Also, my wife returned from being out of town for 3 weeks so aside from other "things" I've had to start focusing on housework once again. The latter has really taken up my work bench space so I don't really have an area where I can neatly lay out seals, rotors, etc.

I did spend about 2 hours studying wiring last night; this stuff is the bane of my existence (Marc knows my ineptitude). Since I'm going with a standalone ECU and an entirely new ignition and fuel injection setup I really don't need to retain any of the stock ECU wiring. One nice thing about the RX-7 is its harness is very modular: there are two engine harnesses in the engine bay, emissions and main, and the ECU has several connections (not just one big one like the Proteges). The downside is the chassis harnesses (wipers, headlights, horn, gauge sendors, etc.) are intermingled with these two main harnesses so there will be a lot of cutting back weatherproofing and removing wires from connectors. The emissions (EGI) harness is mostly separate but I will have to salvage the wiper control and and water thermosensor wires and connections. I'm not sure what the latter is for as I'm pretty sure the sendor for the dash is located in the rear iron. The main harness is a different story. It's huge and literally wraps around the entire engine bay! This contains the ignitor/coil, primary power and ground, headlight, signal, foglight, neutral switch, reverse switch, AAS, diagnostic, oil pressure sendor, oil level, coolant temperature sendor, etc. wires. Going with an aftermarket ignition so those stock wires can go. Relocating the battery so the main power and ground wires can go (need to keep track of them though). Obviously the AAS and diagnostic wires can go and I'm thinking about ditching the foglights so I can use the openings as entrances for brake cooling ducts. Once this is all done I'll have a VERY clean engine bay. I'm debating tucking everything except the main power/ground wires as how often will you need to access the wires to the headlights? Everything engine control-related is going to be replaced by a custom harness made to my specifications by Ludwig Motorsports.

 

[Lewis7789]

I hate wiring harnesses too, mate. I just can't wait to see the bay when it's all done, nice and clean. And you'll basically have a new motor to play with at Mid-Ohio. Keep up the good work.

 

[mymmeryloss]

I will be tackling standalone someday myself, so hurry and figure it out so u can tell me what not to do lol!

 

[Signal 2]

Agree with installing new hard seals regardless of wear. The only exception might be side seals, but you had a failed OMP injector. I'd get new seal springs all around too. I think the big question will be housing wear.
I absolutely HATE wiring. If it doesn't plug into a wall-socket I avoid it like Bin Laden did a ham sandwich. But FWIW I love the silicone fusion tape for re-wrapping the harnesses. It sticks to itself with no adhesive, practically water-proof and won't harden with heat and age.