OK, well ive decided to start my project thread, been meaning to do this for a few weeks but never got around to it, im hoping for as much advise as you guys can give me and hopefully this will be alot of fun.

Right lets start at the beginning, after looking around for ages to get myself my next car i get myself a budget of 3-4k for something.

My criteria was that it would have to able to take a good thrashing and i didnt have to watch the rear view mirror for smoke everytime i put my foot down(5yrs of running a 12sec r5 turbo)


so i was left with an evo 4, and rx7, 200sx and a r32 gtr.

After thinking, well how fast do i want to go and at what point with would i be happy i had enough power i sat down and thought, well my 5 was 325bhp/ton and i want to go faster than that so im looking at 450bhp evo/200sx, that will cost a fortune and will only match my old car.

I then did some more research on the gtr, at 4k im looking at the very bottom end of the market and id again need 470-480bhp to match it, skyline tax is pretty bad and id need at least injectors, turbos etc to get that.

So finally i looked around and after watching many a youtube video and also alot of initial d i realised the best handling and cheapest car for big power was the rx7.

So basically lived on beans and noodles to try and set myself a decent timescale to get the money together, i then started to look at cars.

Eventually i found one in derby, pics look good and was decently priced at 3k
(pic below)


when going to see the car i marvelled of how good condition it was, not a spot of rot, with it coming into the uk in 2006 and only done 55k it was worth it, i knew the clutch was on its way out, but compared to 6k for some of the others id seen i thought it was a bargain.

Well a few weeks later it developed a water leak, because of the undertray and the cramped engine bay i couldnt work it out where it was coming from, since it only did it after driving for about 10mins i took the guess that it was coming from the overflow on the AST, so i blocked the overflow and took it for a very steady drive for 5mins, looked underneath and no water, thinking i had cracked it, i headed home and pulled outside only to be greeted with an bang under the bonnet

(im sure you can guess what happened)

The plastic AST exploded! So im stuck with a problem, OK, ill just bridge the between the 2 hoses using a hollowed out pen as it seems to fit the bill and people on the forums say they run without an AST anyway.

So drove it around for a few days, everything seemed fine, even had a couple of 160mph top speed runs...seems people on the forums were correct

Anyway came to my car one morning only to see it surrounded by water, popped the bonnet to see my main waterpipe to the top of the radiator has exploded during the night, ribbed it literally in 2 and i find its my main water hose that was leaking that caused the leak but because the water ran to almost the other side of the engine bay before dripping onto the floor it made it hard to work out it was from there.

A call to WGT to see if he can get one for me, he says he will get one ordered, we after waiting a few days and getting panicky as its my daily driver for work i ring him again to see whats happening, after some research mazda have told him that part is not currently being made anymore, the company mazda used to have make them has gone bump so thats it.

A search of ebay i find a guy selling them blue silicone ones for £29.99 for the set and he only lives 10mins from my house, beats £50 for rubber ones from mazda!

After fitting them i dashed up to WGT to get a metal AST to save the same issue happening again.

Well after a few months i decided i wanted more power so installed a set of second hand HKS filter kit i got cheap(£70) from carl at harward.

Then a month later i fitted a xspower cooler(£120) with the idea that id build some ducting in the future after fdash's decent results with his so the engine bay looks like this.


A few weeks after i decided the clutch really needed to be sorted, i could drive the car but as soon as i put my foot down it would slip madly.

Talking to pip again we discussed clutches and i went for a stage one uprated exedy clutch thats rated for 340ft/lb which i thought should be enough to keep me going for a while.

While i was in for a clutch i got the chance to watch and film this quad rotor monster being mapped(normal car has 2 rotors)


Well from this point i was pretty happy with the car, drove really well and was alot of fun, though there was no camber at the front and would understeer at the limit so i decided suspension would be my next port of call.

After asking a fellow fduk member(mattie) about his suspension he offered me his set, only been used in the dry and hardly done any miles, pretty much like new for £300


so after fitting them and messing with the dampering and ride height i noticed alot more grip on the front end by gaining camber, first test was the local roundabout that i used to understeer around, well a big second gear sideways moment definetly told me the front end gripped better!

Looks alot better aswell



So this brings me up to the more present time.

NOW THIS IS WHERE IT GETS INTERESTING


My water seals had been going for quite along time, so i just kept topping the water up but it finally got to the point of no return so i was left with a non-running rex, luckily i knew this would happen eventually so i had been saving for quite a long time in the event id need to get my wallet out.

Now im sure you have been browsing ebay and seen the adverts for rebuilds well i decided to give him a ring and see what he had to say.

Now what can i say about this guy, most companies ive ever called in the past cant get you off the phone quick enough but steve rivett was completely the opposite, if you call him you best have a good 1hr of your life free to talk.

We spoke about everything rotary from the simple stuff to everything complex, never have i met a guy so passionate about what he does, or infact so honest. He told me about the first 2 engines he built that didnt even last 500miles because of mistakes he made while he was learning, that spoke to me about how open he was, i would never imagine any other tuner tell you about there fuckups! He is a retired engineer and only started this because his son is a racecar driver and owns a rx7 trackcar.

So after a long chat i decided to take my car down there, upon arriving im surrounded by other rx7s that hes working on, he borrows a garage from a friend in return for looking after his rx7(also owns a f355 and f40!), this was all very grass routes stuff and i like the personal touch he gives.

Anyway, we begin talking about what he will be doing to the car and what i want from the car.

This is the point where we sit down and have a good think, realistically how much power do i truely want, what level will i need to be at that ill never want anymore, i come to the conclusion that 550bhp on pump gas should be enough with another 100bhp for race gas.

So he shows me this tools and we talk about porting, he owns a set of racing beat large street port templates and shows me a current engine he is in the middle of porting. We look at rjpartri dyno graph to see what he has done in the past.

this is on standard twins with 0.8bar of boost, as you can see its making good power up at 8k, if was even making decent power at 8.5k and from what ive read that means that the ports are quite large and are flowing well.

So since he has never built an engine that he knows is going for 550bhp we talk some more about the porting, using the templates to start him off, once he has done that he is going to push the porting a bit more than normal for maximum flow, also hes going to port my UIM, LIM and remove the secondary throttle.

Finally when building it back up he will fit a sump brace and fast reacting air temp sensor to help out in future mapping.

This now brings me onto bolt-ons to make the power.

TURBO kit

Im going for the rx7 store GT4088 TURBO KIT


Which according to the compressor maps should flow a nice 550bhp at 1.3bar


ill need a 3inch decat which i can get done cheap locally
a power fc to control everything

FUEL

Im going for the rx7 store Extreme Fuel System

with uprated fuel pump of course.

Now intercooler is where im unsure of, ive looked at the ebay greddy style setups but i need to do some more research on them to see what sort over power people have made on them


All in all including my rebuild im budgeting 5k to acheive this, which aslong as im careful with my money i believe is achievable.

This very much is a budget build so im not gonna be throwing £3000k t51r turbo kits around.

So what does everyone think, the car will be ready to run the engine in 2weeks time, so it will be a while before its on the dyno but im pretty hopeful.

I will update this thread as i go along but everyone is welcome to comment good or bad as im happy to learn off anyone

 

I know mazda is owned by ford but is this passionford.com or passionwhateveryoudrive.com or even passionmazda.com

be good if you get 200 though!

 

love it mate! top work and nice buy! looks clean that! hope you get the results that you want!

 

T51 like most hks stuff is very expensive for what you get, good option going gt40 should last for ever at those sort of boost levels.

The ebay coolers should be ok, the 200sx ones are fine lots of cars in the 500bhp region use them. Then again I remember Gary from apt saying the ones for the evo's were worse then the oem cooler. Whats the opinion of them on the rx7 forums?

 

dont listen to warren lol , hes being a gripe

welcome to the resto section , i like seeing other projects in here , gives ideas and inspration to our own ,


gud luck hitting the double ton fella

beef

 

Cool, will be watching this.

With the 4 rotors, many been turbo'd? if so what kinda power they make, I'm assuming alot...

 

they normally make around 150bhp per rotor on pump fuel and 200bhp per rotor on race gas N/A

300bhp per rotor if turbod

that one above was NA

The racing beat black one was a triple turbo rotor and was 900bhp(300 per rotor)

 

loving this m8. wants me wanna get myn back on the road (dropped a tip in feb) been ages but im skint. DONT GO TO HURLEYS! my engine only did 6000 miles

 

any pics of yours mate?

Ive heard a few good things about hurleys but more recently alot of bad things so im glad im giving them a wide birth!


just spoke to steve some more.

while the car is up in the air hes going to fit a new fuel filter and uprated 305Ltr fuelpump, this should cover me for fueling for the moment and makes it easy for steve to do while the car is up in the air with the engine out.

He knows about this thread so he is going to be sending me pictures of the build and all the porting, ill upload them on here to show to everyone, give me something to drool over!!

 

i was watching this car on fleabay,cheap buy mate

will be watching this thread

good luck

dave

 

myn was a bridge port, i havent stripped it down yet as thats this winters job, but its possible the bridge broke of. but yeah hurleys are a real 1 out of 10 in my books. he then told me my warranty wouldnt count becuase he could tell if the engine had been hammerd or not becuase the tips would have a blue colour. so he would strip it for me but wouldnt rebuil it.

here it is. it was never the pretiest rx7 but everyone would always comment on it being the loudest rx7 and it handled bloody amazing. had tien coilovers on it, much like urs.

 

Nice project, a few of my mates have RX7's. Pip has just built a tripple for one of them.

 

Makes a good read!

I was in a similar postion to you, needed a new car, LOVE the looks of the RX7, heard they have great handling etc... and generally reliable if they are looked after (which is what I wanted after having a RWD Saff Cos).

I also decided Id prefer to spend some quite big money and go for one already making good power with a good spec.

So I arranged to view a friends of a friends 440bhp dyno'd RX7, street ported, rebuilt with receipts etc... On a T77 I think it was...and never been so disappointed! Thought it was slow, noisy (screamer pipe), too laggy and it seemed to idle really funny. The guy who owned it was a enthauist (he had a rotary tatoo!) and told me they all idle funny when they have the seconday 1400cc (or whatever they were) injectors.

He also told me the rear diffs and boxes are weak on RX7 and after breaking 4 diffs on my RWD Saff I decided there and then RX7s werent for me!

Looking at buying a standard Evo 7 now.

 

cool rx7 mate, is yours bridgeported with standard turbos!! if so it must boost from idle lol.

Im still messing with my coilovers at the moment to find the perfect setup, need to soften the fronts slightly for helping out with the slow speed corners to cut the last bit of understeer out on the limit when i get it back.

 

im guessing that will be matts red n/a one, seems to go well and im looking forward to having a play with him when mines done as we dont live far from each other

 

well at 1200kg a T78 rx7 should dust a 500bhp cossie, if it idles weird then id say it was bridge-ported but you mention street port so im unsure.

Basically im guessing something was wrong with it, or he had a boost leak or it was set up wrong as at that power it will defo not have been slow.

Yes they arnt temprimental but uf you build them right then they are awesome, just like r5 turbos i suppose, everyone i spoke to when i bought it said id blow the engine in 5mins, but i set it up spot on and was running 2bar of boost on a massive turbo on stock internals and never had an issue, its all in the tune!

 

Thats the one, really looking forward to seeing it go on track again next year.

 

does the rotor engine take more time to rebuild then your average 4 cylinder? Do they drink oil like the rx8 or was that a design fault on that model?

I finally put a post up on my 200 build if you want a butchers at my very slow progress.

 

Its not a design fault

They squirt oil into the cylinders ( what ever they called in a rotary ) to lubricate the blade's as rotary's don't have a oil control rings like they the conventual piston

 

exactly, they OMP lines that spray it in, though they can get blocked up through age and that knackers engines aswell.

Alot of the guys remove the lines and pump completely and run 2 stroke bike oil as a premix in there fuel tank which pretty much does the same thing, alot will do it even with the lines working as the only way you will know its actually broke is when your engine lets go

 

well you learn something new everyday, never knew that.

 

well done some research on how to set up my intercooler etc.

Most people will run a front mount intercooler on a rx7 down inside the bumper which restricts the size you can go for, alot of them will go for massively thick cores to get around this, now thats not a problem in itself, but finding a core that matches what you want isnt easy or cheap

also because the ends where you bolt the pipes to are point outwards....not backwards into the engine like rs500 set up, that means you need longer pipe work and the possibilty on some of the setups you have to attack your car with a grinder and cut bits out....not something i wanted to do!.

So i did some measurements tonight, did some checking on intercooler sizes and i think ive got it sorted.

im going to use an rs500 intercooler, though ill go for a 70mm thick one to give me maximum cooling.

this is how it will look...obviously with better looking pipework but you get the idea, with the single turbo on those pipes wont have any 90 degree angles, just straight to the turbo and a custom straight pipe with to the throttle body



blue is intercooler, red is radiator, green is rad pipe and yellow are the fans

also to note there will be aluminum ducting so all the air gets sent through the cooler before anything else

 

after chatting to a knowlegable chap on rotarys i went back to my engine builder to talk more about his porting, he spent all weekend researching to see how much further he could go, then spent monday increasing the size of the ports again, should be interesting as they are now exactly the same as these pics below and the info on what it should run like.
stock verses port

overlapped each other to see the difference.


the info on this says:

Same as port style 1, but with advanced port timing. Gives awesome power through the midrange and spools turbos a lot quicker. This is the port where your idle quality deteriorates. A reasonable idle of 800-900 rpm can still be achieved, but you’ll notice some misfiring due to the extra port overlap. Vacuum signal typically between 14 and 16” @ 900 rpm. This port can be customized to your specification. Gas mileage either stays about the same or decreases slightly, but 20+ mpg on a properly tuned setup is still attainable, depending on weight, driving habits, etc…. stock turbo(s) is inadequate and should be upgraded. you’ll see the best results with an engine management system.

also decided on my intercooler setup so now its just a case of waiting to get the money together to bolt stuff on

 

got some pics from steve
engine out and bay looking a bit dirty!!

removed secondary butterflies


inlet manifolds



throttlebody

engine plate porting







Housing ex porting

nice housing surface


unfortunately he didnt take any pics of the ports after he went back and enlarged them again

 

engine ready to build


Engine block built


bolt ons added for running engine in



Well he rang me today to say it runs, its a little lumpy on tickover because of the big ports but its something to be expected anyway, going to be running it in on pretty much stock everything else as it will be below 4krpm and will give me time to save up now for all the rest of my bits and pieces

shall be fetching the car tomorow, cant wait, then its the 1000miles of walking pace!

 

those ports are the nuts m8. well impressed!

 

picked up the car wednesday

where the magic happens!


a car steve is working on at the moment, having fun with electrics


my baby!


all in and ready to go


well got the train down there, spent ages chatting the usual rotary stuff, coming up with ideas and generally trying to stay warm, my god it was cold!!

any we come to start it and it wont start, spent ages trying to work out what it was and finally found that one of my brand new NGKs had died even though it was running fine the day before.

After replacing that and getting it started what can i say....my god the noise, not quite the brap brap of a bridge but its lumpy as hell, reminds me of when you put a set of extreme cams in a piston engine. just shows how much extra air is going into the engine!

so pretty much just pootling around at the moment until i have the money for a power fc but it desperately needs it as it hunts like mad.

So thats pretty much it, all will be quiet for a while now while i save my money, so next is power fc, then intercooler/rad setup, injectors and map but its nice to do 450miles and the coolant hasnt even moved lol

 

i love the sound of ported rotarys.

 

looking good mate, can't believe things are moving so quickly! Are you still going for the GT4088? Have a look at the new bw turbo's which have extended tip technology, might be worth a look as your going all out. Apparently rod is trying these out plus i've read a few forums where there highly rated.

 

nice work and these shape rx7's are a classic in there own right , i'll keep watching

 

i have started to look at them turbos but i can buy the full turbo kit as the picture above brand new for £1200 so ill have to weigh up whether buying all the parts seperately is worth it and then buying an expensive turbo, this build is very much budget!

sorted out intercooler and rad setup

70mm core!



radiator.....twice as thick as the standard crappy one

 

got a seat from a friend today


stripped it down and repainted the back in mazda red i had spare


just need to order some bases to bolt to the floor now, think im gonna get them from a guy called atomicrex

 

Nice project. I used to have an RX7, but a mate bought it back and he's since done a lot more to it and is currently converting to a single turbo too. I think he's about a week away from finishing it all, since he's a mechanical engineer and is making his fuel swirl tank etc. himself. Should be mega after!

 

cool, have you got any pics of it, im always interested in other peoples rx7 projects

 

at the moment work has slowed down because ive ran out of funds, i didnt have all the money in a bank account ready to go, so ill justy slowly be adding bits as funds come in, first thing is an ecu, then we can start with cooling.
.

Got an email back from racing beat who ran 242mph down bonnieville about heat as they didnt run any vents on the bonnet:

Your question was forwarded to Jim Mederer, Racing Beat's co-founder and chief engineer, for review. The following is his reply to your inquiry:


Our Bonneville FD had a custom chassis with no part of the stock chassis. I made the driveline tunnel quite large to allow heated air to pass through. The entire car had a carbon fiber underpan bonded to the chassis. I used a 4" thick radiator to restrict air volume while maintaining high speed cooling. Intercooling was done with ice and water to reduce drag. I urge you to use a 4" to 5" high spoiler lip to obtain down force at the rear - critical for traction and stability.

Jim Mederer


Now he was flat out for 4miles straight so im not gonna be generating quite as much heat as he is, but its an interesting way of getting rid of heat, from what he wrote im guessing he was using a chargecooler setup, i have thought about that myself as ive got a bookmark for a company in US that will sell me a kit rated for 1200bhp for 469 dollars, im holding off on the intercooler at the moment even though ive designed my setup the best way i know until i look into it a bit more.

The aim of the car is to do it once and once only, im not going to be upgrading things i have already messed with as its a waste of time and money.

Ill admit the 5k isnt going to be achievable at the moment as i need to spend about about 3k and ive already spent 3k but the car cost 3k so if i can complete the car including buying it for 10k(give me 1k for extra kits and bobs as they pop up, w/i) i think ill have achieved something special.

Cant think of any 200mph 600bhp cars you can buy for 10k, apart from maybe an old v8 drag car!

 

wow my old rex