EO2K

iTrader: (37)

Also, I regret that I only have ONE prop to give per post for the awesome valve train disassembly notes, pics and video.

I'm glad that tool worked with the heavy doubles. Based on the video I'm definitely going to ply Gesso with beer and compliments and see if I can get him to make a delrin bushing to fit that tool into the head without contacting the lifter bores. You know that if anyone can screw up that operation it'll be me, I'll need all the safeguards I can get.

codrus

Thanks gesso -- I have a line on one down here in the south bay, so I should be good.

thanks,
--Ian

codrus

So a local shop had an NB2 head in their spares pile and sold me the exhaust cam out of it. It had a bit of surface corrosion, but 10 minutes with scotch-brite (followed by a thorough cleaning with WD-40, brake cleaner, and then coating with motor oil, in that order) had it looking good. We did the same thing with the nicked bucket, guessed at the correct shim for it, plopped it in the head and put it all back together. Surprisingly, 6 out of 8 of the shims were bang on at .011, and the other two were .013 which is still within spec. I guess either cams don't vary all that much on the base circle or this cam just has a similar number of miles to the one I took out.

Started it up and it ran! Noisy for a few seconds then quieted down as the new oil cooler filled (the old one was leaking, so I replaced it) and then the pressure came up and it idled nicely. Yay!

Haven't driven it yet, so I don't yet know how much the ST springs have altered the behaviour near redline. With the old, ceramic core cat in the car, the turbine inlet pressure was 330 kpa. I dunno what the minimum pressure in the cylinder is before the intake cam opens, but if it managed to get down to half an atmosphere then I may turn out to have been blowing the exhaust valves open just with back pressure! It will be interesting to see how much the VE changes at high RPMs.

BTW, the super tech heavy doubles make the cam MUCH harder to turn with a wrench.

--Ian

EO2K

iTrader: (37)

Congrats man! Did you datalog your way to work today?

codrus

No, I'm actually off work today, family coming into town and we're going a hockey game tomorrow.

The other distracting thing, well....











There are six turbos in this shot!




So far the weekend is looking good. Here's hoping the Sharks can turn it around!

--Ian

psyber_0ptix

iTrader: (4)

yay

EO2K

iTrader: (37)

Oh damn you!

There were 4 of us in the office that hammered Ticketmaster trying to buy seats when it went live and only one of us actually got tickets. That one of us wasn't me

18psi

iTrader: (76)

it's so pretty and red

I want to do naughty things to it

EO2K

iTrader: (37)

The red is kinda a surprise, I thought you had your heart set on yellow?

codrus

Yellow was my first choice, but they only made 350 of them. In six months I only saw 3, none of which were in the condition i wanted.

--Ian

codrus

Drove it around for an hour, initial impressions:

- The AC basically doesn't. Supposedly it's been converted from R12 to R134a, and the claim was that it worked quite well, but it doesn't appear to do much. R134a conversions are known to be anemic, but this is hardly cold at all. It's probably just low on refrigerant -- I don't think the seller drove it much in the last couple years, and it may well have been that long since they ran the AC in it.

- Wow, I'd forgotten how non-revvy a stock flywheel is. My goal was to keep it as stock as possible, but I think a lighter flywheel may be in the cards.

- The tires on it are OK for all seasons, but it needs something better. I'm probably going to get 255 RE71Rs on 17x9 6ULs.

- It's a good thing I'm not intending on tracking this car, there's no way in hell I'd fit in it with a helmet on.

- There's a strong smell of fuel after shutdown, I think it's going to live on the driveway until I can diagnose that, just in case. There's a common failure related to the pulsation dampers on these that's probably the first thing to investigate.

I need to hook up a temporary boost gauge and check the MAP curve to make sure the sequential turbos are working properly. It's also got an annoying rattle, sounds like an exhaust heat shield or something.

--Ian

codrus

This is what the 4-post lift is really for:



​
​
--Ian

williams805

iTrader: (2)

Nice buy man. I've always loved 3rd gens. Timeless looks. Revs for days. Light.... Awesome sauce. I just need an extra 10k at all times for the perpetual engine rebuilds I'd need to do. I've driven a few and can't resist shifting and 9.5k. It's just too fun. Also love how it feels like there is only paper between me and 130mph wind.

timk

Nice having that lift, I hope you never hit your head on it when getting out of the car underneath!

Any reason you went for a series 6 RX-7 over a 7 or 8? Do you like the look of them without so much tupperware or was it a budget thing? Either way, very hot looking car!

codrus

The 7s and 8s never made it to the US, so it would have had to be a gray market import. That would run afoul of the 25-year rule and been impossible to smog to boot. Plus I think they were only made in right-hand drive.

And yeah, getting out of the car underneath the lift is something to be done carefully.

I put it up on the lift and did a quick underside inspection this afternoon before dinner. The east coast PPI was almost completely correct when they said it had "zero rust". It's got some very minor rust at the edges of the rear subframe, surface rust on the axles, and the muffler is kind of a mess (there actually appear to be a couple holes punched in the bottom). I think a new cat-back exhaust just got added to the list of things the car needs, although whether that's something to buy or something to try to make myself (now that I have a lift and a welder) I'm undecided.

--Ian

18psi

iTrader: (76)

yes

yesssssssssssssssssssss



Just keep telling yourself you won't mod it.

codrus

The flywheel would be a mod. Wheels, tires, and replacing a rusted exhaust don't count. :-)

The later Japanese FDs got a Nardi wheel similar to the one on the NB1s, I'm tempted to get one of those as well. The OEM '93 wheel is very awkward in that early-90s-airbag way.

--Ian

Ken Hill

As it should be. Yellow RX7s and Miatas are among the most beautiful cars on the planet. Congratulations on the purchase. There are not many unmolested examples left out there.

I have wanted a 3rd Gen RX7 since they came out. Just never had the garage space or money. I almost went for one back in 1998. I wonder how my life would have been different if I had bought one back then.

Ken Hill
2002 HZ Yellow LS

turbofan

iTrader: (1)

Ken, what's an HZ Yellow LS?

codrus

I think HZ is the paint code for the 2002 "Vivid Yellow" color.

The yellow FDs are "competition yellow mica", or CYM. It's a great color, but it was only available in '93 and only on the R1 package. They made about a thousand R1s, but most of them were black or red. In the six months I spent looking for an FD, I saw three CYMs. One of them was a shell with major body damage, the second had 140K miles and was gutted with a welded-in cage. Both of those would have required a ton of money and time to turn into the car I wanted. The third was closer -- it was a 70K mile car that was externally stock but had a bunch of engine mods. The difficulty with it was that the price was high and it would have required a fair bit of work and money to convert back into something I could actually smog in California. While I was discussing options with the seller, someone else came along and bought it.

The R1/R2 cars differed from the regular FDs in a similar fashion to the Miata R packages. Same engine, but different shocks and springs, suede leather seats, some external appearance bits (spoiler and air dam), no sunroof, etc. It was the car to have for SCCA super stock autox back in the day, but these days there's not a lot of benefit to one over a normal car except for the sunroof delete. The rarity is turning them into the collector versions, so an R1/R2 will go for $5-10K more than a touring or base package in the same condition.

--Ian