ROTAg and His FC3S Build

[ROTAg]

ROTAg and His FC3S Build

Hey all, here is my photo log of my TurboII swap. just to preface this, the original goal was a basic rebuild of the sixport 13b. After deliberation I decided to buy the TurboII motor and tranny, being that my current transmission was shot and the price for the combo is pretty decent with a little gamble. The motor I received was basically a treasure trove of goodies, most notably the amount of Knights Sports gear equipped. Well, here she is to this point in time.

now a little body work, shave badges ect.

Time to smash this cracked windshield out. Heat guns help, or just a box knife and gloves to remove the rubber sealant. clean up with a wirewheel

let's not forget all the firewall plumbing, seeing how this project just gets bigger daily....

Why wouldn't I fully seam weld this chassis? Spot welding is good, but let's go overboard, if not for anything but to test out the new welder.

A little rust proofing with primer and Por-15, the absolute BEST rust stopper.

The engine waiting game.....

HOORAY SHE CAME. Fancy underdrive pully kit, greddy coolant kit/oil catchcan random parts, Knights Sports ESB mechanical boost controller, Apexi Intake, Chipped and tuned ECU By DMY Japan Tuning, and an oil pan full of golden hued oil. Turbo with ZERO play in the bearings.

As we all know, these engines can come with, or without some critical components. So budget accordingly. Here are a few of the things I ended up needing.

Bonez 2.5" Down Pipe

Corksport Charge tube (came with a broken plastic one) and intake pipe

a good radiator, stock ones blooooooow. Koyo N-flow

While all this is going on, why would I reuse the factory bushings. At this point the word 'bushing' is a little generous. I rather call them 'crumbly oreo cookies.' The Tokico blues are still good, but I will want something adjustable latter on. But lets stay focused..... get engine running.

MOUNTED

Hooked up like Voltron. I am using the facotry JDM ECU, no word yet on success, but I will keep you all posted, so far though it requires you splice every connection 5.5 feet and make damn sure you water proof the hell outta it. I used plasti-dip and then wrapped in electrical tape, cased in plastic weather tubing. The throttle cable is another issue with the JDM engine, the throttle cams rock the opposite direction, being the cable comes out of the right hand side of the firewall. You can just buy a aftermarket cable designed for this swap, but it loops around the engine and I didn't feel like spending 60 bucks on something that wouldn't be as effective as a straight line from point A-B. I got a little creative and flipped the cam upsidedown and backwards, then ran the factory N/A throttle cable to it and mounted the Cable catch to the firewall. No Pics yet but I will post some soon if it requires a more visual take on it. Mechanically it all works great, you just can't use the cruise control anymore, but seriously. Have you not seen what I have done already..??

That is all I have for the moment, kind of at a standstill being that my wife wants me to take her on a vaction, and Leguna Seca doesn't count she says. For the record, I am one Walboro Fuel Pump and a custom drive line away from a car that moves under it's own power. Just wish I would have read into the N/A drive line not being compatible with the turbo transmission, but meh. Mazdatrix offers a good part designed for this issue but i'd rather have the gearing of the turbo. Either way it's around 350 bucks to get the rear wheels spinning. Hope you all find a little inspiration behind my work, it's a fun process, and please don't hesitate to ask questions!

 

[R242]

Nice weld seams! Don't know much about rotaries but nice work, subbed
I assume the intake filter got crushed in shipping, or maybe your turbo is hungry?(burnout)

 

[R-X-R]

this is good stuff

 

[ROTAg]

Nice weld seams! Don't know much about rotaries but nice work, subbed
I assume the intake filter got crushed in shipping, or maybe your turbo is hungry?(burnout)

haha yeah man, shipping wasn't kind. I just tell everyone it was a result of the "Suck Start" method. It gets a few (omg) every time

 

[ROTAg]

Here are some Interior pieces i've refinished. The big issue is finding a good dash, and at a certain point I was just all 'eff this noise, I'll just take a blue one if it doesn't have cat piss on it, and the plastic isn't shriveled like an avacado from heat stress.'.....more or less. I've lost my before and after photos but here are the final products.

the dash was blue, but some vynle dye, and a can of acrylic enamel brought it back to showroom quality. It comes out looking like you armoralled it, which if you do this, DO NOT use armorall on just straight vynle dye. It does something chemically to it that causes it to fade. Thus the need for some flexible lacquer topcoat. I'm a fan of duplicolor's acrylic enamel

these are some door cards that were also blue. They came out of a junkyard laying on the ground. Somone just ripped them out and used them as pads to lay on or something. I may or may not use them being that they are the 'Spatan minimal' S4 cards for manual windows. I like them but it was more of a test to see how well the plastic fur accepted the black Vynle Dye. It worked great, as you can see I tried to mimmick the Japan Base interior, grey on black.

Last little nugget worth posting, I think, is the shift knob. The S5 turbo came with a knob that was heavy and fit well in the hand. Only con is that it looks like a bedroom toy you would use on your boyfriend (now that I've planted the seed, everyone with this knob will immediately eject it from their window.) So I found a fellow member on the Clubrx7 forum who was parting out one of many FC's, mostly the S4's, and turns out they have a different shift lever and thread size. They both have the same input to the tranny so all is interchangeable. Just the S5 has a plastic guide and the S4 is a solid piece; which for reasons unknown, wears faster.

Last Item from the scrap yard is a new Oil Cooler. These damn things are like the cast iron bough of a crab ship. They just decided to stick that bastard at the furthest lowest point in front in hopes the nice soft aluminum shell will cut through the deepest of drainage dips, and proctect that god awful plastic capped radiator. I always called this point the achillies heel of the FC. Too many drunk fools go barreling down roads in their dads rx-7 in the early 90's just to crush the single most important part of the rotary, cooling and lubrication. Although this is fairly important in engines in general, standard piston driven engines are more durable and will withstand peoples idiocy for months on end before finally gasping out its last white poof of smoke. My sister in law is my barometer for this, being that she doesn't believe in maintenance.

more to come on that being mounted, I cut the hollow pipe that it hangs from out. Most people do this for the V-mount, which I have no plans of doing this, but someone decided to use this point as a tow bar....afore mentioned idiots.....

 

[fishdonotbounce]

Subbing.

 

[03MSP86]

Love those control arms. Sub'd.