FC RX7 5.0 race car thread

[Teeson1111]

Thanks I will look into that galaxy mounts. I have the trans mount that was the one part number that I was able to find still in stock.

found it! Westar part number EM-2316

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=227799

also I read through your thread, I'm curious about that sway bar from Quickor. Is it a custom bar? I've considered making or modifying the stock bar to fit around the pan, it seems to be the best place for it. Keeping it in the same place will maintain the spring rates it provides at with the same geometry the factory intended. And it keeps it out of the way of the wheel at full lock as proven by Parts Shop Max's test car:



anyone have any input?

[Skervey]

That is some crazy angle! I was told about the sway bar from granny speed. "We typically move the swaybar forward using the existing forward hole and drilling a new, more forward, forward hole, but there is also a custom larger bar that was made by Quickor for a few hundred $$..." Here is a photo of there bar.



Looks like the just put a bend in it to move it down so it may do better with tire clearance but I just don't know.




By the way this is going to be such a sweet car when its done! Reading over your thread for the 11th time and I still cant believe the work you have done! I guess mine is much simpler since its a street car not a race car.

[Mk2TinaRyan]

Love this thread. I can only dream my skills get to this level, lol. Nice work keep it up!

[LaMaR-]

Just wondering, do your turn signals work on the 5.0 car? Thats one thing that never worked on mine the first time around. Also can you post some more photos of your wiring harness? How it connects to the firewall, where it comes through and connects to the edu and whatever else you can post about it. Looks super clean man great job

[Zach Thomas]

found it! Westar part number EM-2316

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=227799

also I read through your thread, I'm curious about that sway bar from Quickor. Is it a custom bar? I've considered making or modifying the stock bar to fit around the pan, it seems to be the best place for it. Keeping it in the same place will maintain the spring rates it provides at with the same geometry the factory intended. And it keeps it out of the way of the wheel at full lock as proven by Parts Shop Max's test car:

anyone have any input?

Only input I have is that according to Quickor they do still make it, and it's $275 + $40 shipping....little steep but unless I hear otherwise I may be ordering one down the road. They also said it was a "special" bar just for the conversion, but I have no clue if there's an easier alternative. Grannies also claims an E36 sway bar will work, so I guess somebody with BMW friends might be able to test that claim?

[Teeson1111]

Love this thread. I can only dream my skills get to this level, lol. Nice work keep it up!

thanks dude! and lol I didn't either. i just went the garage and worked

Just wondering, do your turn signals work on the 5.0 car? Thats one thing that never worked on mine the first time around. Also can you post some more photos of your wiring harness? How it connects to the firewall, where it comes through and connects to the edu and whatever else you can post about it. Looks super clean man great job

they do. I re did the harness, not sure where they would have gotten disabled, is the flasher still there? hazards work? I have quite a few pics a few pages back, firewall connector as well.

Only input I have is that according to Quickor they do still make it, and it's $275 + $40 shipping....little steep but unless I hear otherwise I may be ordering one down the road. They also said it was a "special" bar just for the conversion, but I have no clue if there's an easier alternative. Grannies also claims an E36 sway bar will work, so I guess somebody with BMW friends might be able to test that claim?

E36 bar eh? ill look into that. $275 isn't terrible, I wonder what the spring rate is.
where on granny's site it say that? man I've read through all the corners of it (i thought) like 3 times and never came across that. its hella disorganized so I probably missed it

[Miroteknik]

I've been avoiding this thread on purpose but now that I see you have the PartsShopMax coils, I'm livid jealous.

[Skervey]

$275 isn't unheard of seeing as it's probably a custom bent bar. My brother has a E36 if brings it by I will take some measurements and see if it will work.

I got my motor mounts today but I'm not home to test fit them so it will have to wait till tomorrow, then my build thread should pick back up again.

I'm doing mine as a carb swap to start because it will be easier over all and faster to get it on the road. If I really like the carb I'll keep it but the plan is to run mass air efi down the road. How hard was the wiring and figuring all of that out?

[Teeson1111]

I've been avoiding this thread on purpose but now that I see you have the PartsShopMax coils, I'm livid jealous.

hehe

$275 isn't unheard of seeing as it's probably a custom bent bar. My brother has a E36 if brings it by I will take some measurements and see if it will work.

I got my motor mounts today but I'm not home to test fit them so it will have to wait till tomorrow, then my build thread should pick back up again.

I'm doing mine as a carb swap to start because it will be easier over all and faster to get it on the road. If I really like the carb I'll keep it but the plan is to run mass air efi down the road. How hard was the wiring and figuring all of that out?

I spent some time googling E36 sway bar, apparently they swap onto miatas?

The EFI was easy to me, but I'm an electrician and I was a 12V installer so its quite in my wheels house ya know?
I think for what its worth just do the EFI right away. especially if you have an EFI setup already.
You're taking a car (rx7) that was EFI and converting to a carb (read custom parts etc) to swap it back and change everything to go back to EFI. I'm in the school of thought that goes "do it once" lol, so it seems like extra work to change it later.
Fundamentally both cars have the same engine input and output wires, and between Veryuseful.com, Granny's wiring guide and the Factory Service Manual available online it can be done with some time put into research.
I would love to one day make a wiring guide but there is so many variables to think of..

I'm now kinda rambling so I'll stop.

I would update but my camera died lul. Engines back together and in the car, so ill get some pics tomorrow.

[Zach Thomas]

I spent some time googling E36 sway bar, apparently they swap onto miatas?

Yeah that's all I found too lol. I feel like grannys just throws whatever on their site and don't really take the time to verify anything. I just picked up a Turbo II hood today (coming from Subaru's I love me a non functioning hood scoop haha) and they definitely DO NOT provide any extra clearance. I'm cutting it up anyways, the aluminum hoods are sooooooooo much lighter than their steel counterparts I couldn't believe it. And grannys site sucks so I can't direct link the page, but get to the part where it lists out the index of the swap process and go onto the number 4 "Engine / Transmission Installation" and scroll down to the bit about relocating the sway bar.

[Teeson1111]

small update:




Stumbled upon this Chet Faker dude. Kinda reminds me of Citizen Cope a bit. Good beat, doesn't feel like rap tho and is chill. Not too chill that its slow to work to, but like smooth lol.
Currently obsessed with Drop The Game, which is with a guy named Flume who has a wicked sound cloud/music in general

So got the engine back together and ready to drop in, my camera battery died so I didn't take many progress pics sorry.

IMG_6748 by Teeson111, on Flickr

lol can you even tell I did anything? Still undecided what exactly to do with that tensioner. Seeing as how I want to go back to power steering i'll probably just leave it for now.

IMG_6749 by Teeson111, on Flickr

Also bought an adapter and a 45* fitting to put on the sender for oil pressure. The old one was just the stock mustang one and it was a switch really. This is a sender meant for the Faria gauges I have.

I guess I'll list all the changes since the engine was last in:

new water pump gasket
new timing cover gasket
new exhaust manifold gasket
new intake manifold gaskets (the awesome Fel-pro MS93334)
new rear main seal gasket
new trans front retainer seal
engine block painted satin black
oil sender
a lot of cleaning/greasing
heat protection on firewall

IMG_6750 by Teeson111, on Flickr

Had to solve a re-occuring problem, the rad being brass is weak. The lower inlet was warped and leaking at one point, but basically every time I remove the hose it gets worse. So I made this:

IMG_6751 by Teeson111, on Flickr

Conveniently the outlet is 1.5" (od tho) and the DOM I have bits leftover from the cage are also 1.5". So with a bit of grinder action, and some hammer time

IMG_6752 by Teeson111, on Flickr

No more warping or leaking

IMG_6753 by Teeson111, on Flickr

Also cut in my new coolant fill. This sucker is going to hit the hood, no way around it. I'll have to foam it to prevent rubbing, but I also need to make sure it doesn't kink the hose.

I'll leave you with some "my car is dirty" glamour shots

IMG_6754 by Teeson111, on Flickr

IMG_6755 by Teeson111, on Flickr

IMG_6756 by Teeson111, on Flickr

I like hoodless. And seeing it low again makes me happy.

Next up is that nagging battery box, a custom seat mount for the sparco and the oil temp sender

[Skervey]

The motor looks very clean sitting in there! Well iv got tons of questions for you!

1. What intake is that, how well does it fit under the hood?

2. Did you put spacers between the cross member and frame to give you more hood clearance?

3. How hard was the EFI to set up.

Im thinking hard about ditching the carb and going efi but I have no parts for the EFI so I would be starting from scratch. I don't think I will be able to get the carb set up to fit under the hood like I was hopping and I know that your set up fits so if you don't mind me learing from your mistakes then I would love to copy some of what you have done. Becouse you have done it the right way and your build is kick A$$!

4. I went through and I don't think I really saw much on it but what kind of racing are you going to be doing with the car?

Thanks for the help!

[Teeson1111]

The motor looks very clean sitting in there! Well iv got tons of questions for you!

1. What intake is that, how well does it fit under the hood?

2. Did you put spacers between the cross member and frame to give you more hood clearance?

3. How hard was the EFI to set up.

Im thinking hard about ditching the carb and going efi but I have no parts for the EFI so I would be starting from scratch. I don't think I will be able to get the carb set up to fit under the hood like I was hopping and I know that your set up fits so if you don't mind me learing from your mistakes then I would love to copy some of what you have done. Becouse you have done it the right way and your build is kick A$$!

4. I went through and I don't think I really saw much on it but what kind of racing are you going to be doing with the car?

Thanks for the help!

1. its from a SN95 (1994-95) mustang GT, it fits with mm of clearance

2. nope. I did cut the hood webbing though

3. fairly straight forward, for the most part I just took the harness that I bought with the engine (sn95 remember) and connected power to each thing to power outputs from the RX7. ECU did the rest really

4. drifting. it will see autoX and drag as well though

no problem, I post what I do to help other people along. People who had posted pics and info it how I got this far

[Skervey]

Thanks for the help! I put spacers in mine for more room under the hood. I know I will have to cut the webbing but my GT40 intake is huge! (Same as cobra) and there is no way it will fit under to hood. I have found that a distributer with vacume advance to run a carb will be to tall to fit, and i was planning on going efi down the road anyway so i might as well spend the time on it now and go efi. The only bad part is I have no efi parts so I will be starting from scratch. Did a lot of looking around and I think im going to go with a 88-93 set up. There are some local parts yards with some of the pieces I need, ill just have to track them all down.

Should be a fun car, i hope to try and drift with mine, as well as DD a little and auto cross and do some hooning. I am having a guy from work cut and shorten the steering arms on my spindles for more angle and faster steering. Lucky for me he will do it for nothing!

[Zach Thomas]

Looking good as always! How deep is the 5.0 rad fan + shroud? I might be able to answer my own question if I track one down soon but in the meantime I'd like to finish mocking up the radiator