dabuzz

When I sold my first rx4, I kept the blower, and eventually sold it to my mate and well known drag racer Tony Markovina. For fun he strapped it on to HVATOS drag car with a JC cosmo 13B J port, cranked the boost up fed it methanol and ran a stout 9.84 1/4 mile with it! Until one fateful night they were revving it up in the shed and the front fell off the motor..... Massive amounts of damage, the motor was removed, and sat in the corner until I bought the lot back 10 years later. I have quite a few repairs to do, more pics to come, but I won't be reinstating the JPort for this build.

Nice one getting it legal Tiny, also love the new plate!

It would be interesting, but I don't have a throttle body/manifold setup to use. and because of our LVVTA/WOF system it wouldn't make sense to inject for a period of time then fit the blower as I wouldn't be able to keep a WOF on it. However, as I have previously prewired the car for ECU, I'm possibly going to set up the Microtech LT16 that I have in 'Ignition only' mode once I buy some smart coils etc and switch over to CAS That way I can have better control over the timing rather than a locked at 20deg distributor. That wont require a cert, and gives me time to save for, collect and modify the rest of the parts I need to fully convert over. Biggest debate atm is which way I'm going to go with the engine block, before I remake the manifolds, as there is a few different engine intake shapes and bolt spacings to allow for.

Boring but necessary update, have bent up and run new 3/8 fuel lines in preparation for EFI conversion, horrible job without a hoist, but had to be done. Have managed to retain the original line for now too, so can still run it with carb until ready to switch over. New lines just left long in bay until I can position the high pressure reg once purchased.

fantastic job, agree with above, you've done it justice bringing back more original. beautiful resto!

Been copping a lot of grief from many people lately about leveling up. So here it is! I dragged out the old 4/71 blower from the original RX4, and plans are being drawn up Been 20 years since I certed this on a car Stay tuned for a possible return....

great looking car, good move, rather than a tribute, get the real deal with all the goodies on it!

I bet AirRide NZ would have spindles for that

Summerbash tracking

I know what you mean, that repair cost me 43.2 cents by using those

Been messing around with the tune, the car just never felt right, very lazy to rev out, and just low on power, less than I expected for what should have been a stout 13B Bridgeport anyway. Started from scratch again, and re-indexed the gilmer drive pulley for the correct TDC mark, and set timing to 20deg Also checked IDA, the main jets were a bit big, went from 230 down to 220, still felt that it was rich up top so changed the air correctors from 120 up to 130 Still felt lazy, found chokes were 43mm, so bought some 42mm to give better air speed, definitely improved, but once again I felt there was more in it, left me scratching my head. Lastly I pulled the inlet mani off to get a better guage on what sort of porting was actually in it and - there it was all along....... Nicely flowed inlet runners into large old school style BP- Its a ROTECH motor who was legendary back in the late 90s for his port work. Anyway, somewhere along the way some numpty fitted a new gasket without matching it to the ports. After cutting out the gasket, refitting mani including doing the 20c water gallery blanking trick, and resetting it all up, the difference is night and day, far more power 42 chokes, 220 mains, 120 airs (might change those up to 130 again) Took the car to Mad Mikes summer bash at Hamptons Downs on the weekend, out on track it felt strong and pulled well, sounded badass and popped flames out the back, nice! Despite being passed out by every turbo car there it was lots of fun. Better dIff gears are definitely on the cards, gearing is far too long, 4.8 should do it

Just jaw dropping stuff, love this build Probably wasn't the done thing back then, but engineering some negative camber into it while you're there wouldn't be such a bad thing imo

You've made it pretty hard on yourself not sorting all of that before nitriding, the hardening process loosens all of those fittings including the oil gallery blanks, and are normally removed and tapped for Allen key type bungs, and screw in water pipes prior to hardening. Now it's done, it's more difficult and you might smash some taps etc trying to remedy it. I wouldn't be confident trusting the oil bungs now, as they can (not always) seep. Also don't forget to replace your frost plugs. But your builder must have pointed all that out I'm sure,

..with stripes

brown....

^^also have a spot spot for those full on late 90s style bright colours

Agree with oldrx7 chose a factory colour , that earth green is cool. Otherwise something along these lines if you're brave.

just buy the blanking plates, and '3 bond' them on, no need for a gasket. 3 bond is the best sealant around for that sort of thing, I dont even use sump gaskets anymore, just straight sealant.

Good score on that new ute, lots of goodies with it, be a cool car to just roll around in.

congrats - such a beautiful car, you've done a great job - well done!

Haha, I definitely know the feeling

keeps getting better and better! aweome work

Sparky has finished, all new power feeds, added relays for ignition, fuel pump and rad fan which was previously straight off the key. Car starts great now, and does everything it should. Have also pre wired the car for EFI, so if I decide to change over its very straight forward now. Have turned attention to the fuel system, it had a return line back to the tank, and for a carbed NA rotary you don't want any fuel running away from the motor. It also runs the factory fuel lines, so until I get a chance to upgrade the hard lines to 3/8, I've done a small upgrade for now. Blocked off the return line, fitted guage, and 3/8 hose from the regulator. Previously reg was fully open due to return line. Have slso replaced the crusty looking filter cut it open and found years worth of crap on it

Amazing skills man, lovng the build! Tech question- I noticed you dressed all the welds on the chassis, I was always under the impression you had to leave welds raw for cert purposes, as weld is stronger with more surface area?

If you're vapour blasting, you wont need to coat in anything else, the process leaves the finish very resistant to filth, if just bead blasting then a light coat of matte clear helps. paint everything else in high temp black, and it will look tidy enough. Be mindful that as you are not modifying too far, that once the beautiful clean painted block goes back in, it gets covered with ugly ancillaries, wiring and hoses etc that will do no favours for aesthetics, so no need to over think it.