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Dell'orto's unreliable modern piece


Dell'orto

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nothing like that - typical rotor homos.  Basically only thing i had to go on was a camera up its ports for a nosey to check housings were all good, stamped housing from dissasembly and different gasket poos from factory and a comp test that was min 100psi on all faces.   paid 2500 for it thinking i can just strip down once i get car finished and will be a good base for my build and have a good chance i shouldn't need to replace everything.

 

you're probably best to just rebuild yours though to be honest - thats if you're going to keep it.

 

Buy atkins oring/gasket set, mazda oil controls, and some RA apexs, lil port job and you'll be laughing.

 

Won't be keeping it, but I'd prefer to rebuild it, it always looks better for prospective buyers. If I were to keep it I'd do the wire in ECU route (sold Power FC to help fund rebuild a while back) but at this point in life it's not feasible.

 

Its a bit of a gamble but would it be worth considering rolling the dice on an import block?

something like this, they recon its done 40k, buy now at just under $700.

 

http://page19.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/x321827241

 

Yeah, not too bad but what would commission and freight be? Would definitely want to strip it and throw new seals at it anyway. Probably not end up being any cheaper than rebuilding mine!

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Yeah, not too bad but what would commission and freight be? Would definitely want to strip it and throw new seals at it anyway. Probably not end up being any cheaper than rebuilding mine!

 

comissions 15%(?), freight for an engine was $300 from memory. + whatever freight in Japan costs.

Anyway you going to flick it as a rolling body?

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Yeah, so could easily end up around $1500...be alright if you bought a few of them, there are HEAPS on there!

Nup, it's not worth fuck all as a rolling body. Guy in the last page's jew mate offered me $10k before it popped, would shudder to think what someone would offer me now!

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  • 6 years later...

Oh hai.

Figured after the better part of a decade I'd update this. In the end, I chose to rebuild the existing engine. Even though I knew I'd probably have to sell the car anyway, my ego wouldn't let me halfass the car like every typical rotor dickhead back then. Especially as it was so goddamn tidy.

I dropped a bunch of money at my local friendly Mazda dealership (Jim @ Capital City is the man) and bought all new seals, springs and a full ($$) engine gasket set. The only components I didn't replace were the oil control rings as they were in OK condition, and at a couple of hundred each (x4) it was beyond the budget. 

Spent a fun couple of evenings cleaning and clearancing each rotor 

13B puzzle.jpg

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As the budget also wouldn't allow for new housings and rotors, I picked up a secondhand matching rotor, and a secondhand housing. Haynes Rotary were doing housing resurfacing at the time, and I figured for a couple of hundred, it was worth investing in the process.

Both housings came back looking absolutely stunning 

 

Haynes housings.jpg

Then I went to Custom Works (I'd left there by this stage, divorce etc took its toll on me) and got Hayden to help me assemble the block after hours

 

 

stacks.jpg

 

Reassembling all the ancilliaries was fun, snapped the OMP lines so had to spend more money I didn't have to put it all back together. With all the shit bolted on, you couldn't even see the damn things!

 

Assembled.jpg

20150217_191755.jpg

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With the help of a bunch of friends, we got the motor back in the hole, and all plugged back together. All that was left to do was turn the key and enjoy the smooth purr of a fresh 13B REW!

Except that didn't happen.

For some reason, the thing was still running pig rich, much like it did prior to the rebuild, and the reason it spent a lot of time at PPRE. I spent a bunch of what precious little spare time I had trying to diagnose it, albeit it fairly haphazardly. I had no money to take it to a workshop, and after the experience I had with the last "rotary specialist" I was fairly unkeen to try again.

So I offloaded it, stupidly cheap in hindsight

Goodbye.jpg

Sometimes when you sell a car, you absolutely regret selling it to the new owner, but in this particular instance, it could not have gone to a better home.

@ProZac found the issue, that even so called rotary experts couldn't pick right from the outset, and I also learned a valuable lesson to verify things yourself, and not rely on previous owners notes.

Zac's 1998 RX7 - Other Projects - oldschool.co.nz for those who never read it (shame on you if not, it's a wealth of info)

Obviously I followed this with interest, because goddamn it, that car was so immaculate and I loved it. Was secretly hoping to be able to buy it back one day, but unfortunately it was onsold before I could ever hope to have the money for it. It's new owner has also done some amazing things with it, and its now at a level that I could only ever have dreamed of having it at.

13B Rotary Rich VS Lean AFR's | Our FD RX7 Project | Ep 2 [#BUILD] - YouTube you may have heard of HPA, they do some cool shit

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Conveniently, the car was in Nelson, and I'd actually booked a trip there for the school holidays with my daughter, so I paid a deposit, then a few weeks later went to go check it out.

Now my original criteria were:

* Preferably sub 100k, but not critical.  - 124, close enough?

* Closer to stock bodywise, the better - aside from a vented FRP bonnet and headlight cover, yep

* Not red - yes! Mostly.

* Unfucked with interior - bolt in roll cage and the rattiest Sparco seats I'd ever seen, and typical JDM trinkets ruggedly mounted all over the place, close enough?

* Not really after a project, ideally something I can turn key and go - uncomplied fresh import with low compression, close enough?

However, my best mate Jon offered to build the car up for me so I figured, what the hell. The car had lots of cool bolt on bits, like a 4" thick GReddy intercooler, HKS downpipe into a Knightsports highflow cat and 4" Apexi tail section, Power FC - all the typical things you'd see on a mild tune FD from the mid 2k era really - so I figured that with a fresh engine and tune, it'd be a bit of a weapon!

It duly turned up at Jon's workshop about a month afterward, and he sent me some pics that in daylight, made it look far worse than I'd recalled.

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Now epic magnetic JDM service stickers aside, it would appear that honorable previous owner-san was a bit of a tinkerer - things like the odd cut outs in the bumper, and some hodge podge installation of electronic gizzmos inside the cabin would suggest this. But it also appeared that he had a crack at replacing the front crank seal, which if you aren't careful with, can lead to bad things happening. Bad things such as this:

 

 

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On 24/11/2020 at 22:05, Dell'orto said:

"Hey, it looks like they must test run these crate motors" Ahhh, why do you say that??? 'There's a bit of rust in the cooling jacket..."

Indeed they do, and sometimes shit hits the fan and they ship the motors anyway...

 

For anyone buying a fresh crate motor, you should pull down and inspect prior to installation.

Separately, they aren't balanced all that well from factory. So if you're upping the boost or revs, best to get the rotating assembly balanced.

 

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7 hours ago, SHGWAG said:

Indeed they do, and sometimes shit hits the fan and they ship the motors anyway...

 

For anyone buying a fresh crate motor, you should pull down and inspect prior to installation.

Separately, they aren't balanced all that well from factory. So if you're upping the boost or revs, best to get the rotating assembly balanced.

 

Honestly, had Jon not attacked it, I wouldn't have bothered. I knew they test ran them, but this was the first one I'd seen pulled apart. It was perfectly fine for what I initially wanted, rotors weren't terribly off either. Have seen some big mismatches on old motors though!

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Epic to see you've got yourself another one of these, looks like you're well down the rabbit hole with it! With the way prices have gone though, its easier to justify the outlay, hah.

On the list of cars I regret selling, EEM46 is at the top of the list, but at the time I was working away from home and it was just sitting, somewhat brokenly in the garage, never getting touched. HPA are doing epic things with it, and they're promised to let me drive it when I'm down there doing work for them :-). I've seen the graphs from its new setup, makes a solid 400hp to the rears on the stock port motor (they havent opened it), and has boost in by 3000, so has pretty epic response too. The quote I have on it is that it is 'fast as fuck' :-).

I'll always have the memories of dailying it to Waiau and back and hacking it around the track up there. Back before kids when I could afford a $300 a week fuel bill, lol ;-).

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17 minutes ago, ProZac said:

Epic to see you've got yourself another one of these, looks like you're well down the rabbit hole with it! With the way prices have gone though, its easier to justify the outlay, hah.

On the list of cars I regret selling, EEM46 is at the top of the list, but at the time I was working away from home and it was just sitting, somewhat brokenly in the garage, never getting touched. HPA are doing epic things with it, and they're promised to let me drive it when I'm down there doing work for them :-). I've seen the graphs from its new setup, makes a solid 400hp to the rears on the stock port motor (they havent opened it), and has boost in by 3000, so has pretty epic response too. The quote I have on it is that it is 'fast as fuck' :-).

I'll always have the memories of dailying it to Waiau and back and hacking it around the track up there. Back before kids when I could afford a $300 a week fuel bill, lol ;-).

200 km a day in a tang? You mad?

I'm quite impressed actually

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On 27/11/2020 at 12:43, ProZac said:

Epic to see you've got yourself another one of these, looks like you're well down the rabbit hole with it! With the way prices have gone though, its easier to justify the outlay, hah.

On the list of cars I regret selling, EEM46 is at the top of the list, but at the time I was working away from home and it was just sitting, somewhat brokenly in the garage, never getting touched. HPA are doing epic things with it, and they're promised to let me drive it when I'm down there doing work for them :-). I've seen the graphs from its new setup, makes a solid 400hp to the rears on the stock port motor (they havent opened it), and has boost in by 3000, so has pretty epic response too. The quote I have on it is that it is 'fast as fuck' :-).

I'll always have the memories of dailying it to Waiau and back and hacking it around the track up there. Back before kids when I could afford a $300 a week fuel bill, lol ;-).

Yeah I think with how mental the prices have gone I'd probably break even if I were to sell it, which is insane. 

I'm sad that you never got to complete your highflow twin project with it, that would have been super interesting to see. My turbo encyclopedia friend is friends with Andre too, so have been keeping tabs on it. I still cry every time they put a new video up of it though 

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