Jamies RX7.. aka the money gobbler

[J4m13]

I thought it was about time I posted something in here.  Its not so much of a project, more a work in progress.

As i'd styated earlier in another post  i have an ocd of tryinig to keep this thing as standard as I possibly can.  Probably to the detriment of my sanity and my bank balance but just comes with the territory. 

My computer skills are lacking, and trying to get up to speed with forums and the likes, so bear with me throughout and i hope its not too painful... 

I brought this off the company that imported it, and they specialize in JDM imports.  Im unsure how many owners it had in Japan but the service book goes back to 40,000ks. I payed more money than I shouldve but I'm sort of hoping its just a one time purchase and I wont be buying anything for a while... although i have had these words pass my lips before .  Its had a respray at some stage and is in pretty good nick.  The interior is a little sun faded in parts but for a 34 yr old car, its not doing too bad.

[J4m13]

Feel free to pull the piss outa me here, abuse and tell me your thoughts.

Im thick skinned so dont hold back. 

[J4m13]

First thing I wanted to do was remove the blue silicone vacuum hoses that was all over the place

Bought some black hose and replaced

But in the process broke a vacuum switch that are hard to find....   took hours of searching but found a turkey in greece with some. A whole manifold of them.  Found a couple in U.S but they were the price of the 4 from greece not including freight.

 

[J4m13]

Two weeks in the mail, 30 euro for freight and the package arrived....

I was pretty impressed with the freight, being that i live in queensland and I had a Sata spray gun sent to me from sydney and that was $22 aud

From there i got to tacking the electrics. When i took the car they were in a pretty shitty state. No dash/ignition lights, window switches working intermittantly, rear wiper and spayer u/s.

Front window spray not working. Fuel hatch solenoid and rear glass hatch also shit. Basically anything on the car electrical put the shits up me. And with basic electric skill lacking i felt I was pretty well fucked.

Chatted to a few blokes at work . (I operate power stations... youd think i'd be a bit better schooled with electrical fault finding  )  and racked my brain back to my electrical training back in the navy and I slowly but surely ticked things off the list.

Even tackled the issue of fucked main relay to rid my engine bay of a newly installed one by auto sparky (OCD issue again)

All it needed was the top screw adjusted!!!

[J4m13]

I have an aftermarket ignition system fitted to the car.

From the quick searching ive done its an MSD style "upgrade"

Has anyone here had any experience with this?? this is really the last thing I am wanting to change and return back to standard so i'm hoping to get some feedback on this.

Let me know in the discussion page what your take is .... or knowledge

Cheers!!

[J4m13]

When I picked the car up, the bloke said he'd done a bit of work on it. New air filter, clutch etc. He reckoned it took weeks to source an air filter

And I remembe a bloke on here imported a white 12a turbo rx7 and had a hard time finding an air filter for it.  I vaguely remembered he located a K&N unit, and it having a part number so I searched and found his build post.

Located the part number and went on a goose chase to source one.  After 3 week delivery from the u s of a......

 

 

 

[J4m13]

I was out for a solo sunday cruise and about 5 k's down the rd an oil warning light illuminated in the dash....

Initial reaction of course was to check the oil pressure gauge which was reading plenty... even though its the original gauge i thought i'd better turn the old girl off and due the usual important checks.

Im vigilant with oil level and check it prior to starting it up each time.  I was confident this wasnt the issue but checked anyhow. 

Dipstick still on Full and no visible leaks to be sighted. Nothing on the road. No wires disconnected that could cause the light to shine.

Being that the pressure was perfect prior to shutting it down, i held my breath and started it again. No light,  so thought i'd better high tail it home just in case.

No sooner had I put it into gear the light came back on.

Strange I thought being I had full pressure again.  Once I got it home in the garage I thought id do another check on plugs and wiring. Again no visual issue.

I drained the oil, removed the oil level sensor and gave it a thourough clean up, scratched my head at how it worked and continued to throw a meter on it.

Took a couple of prods but worked out the current path... seems it uses the oil some how as a current path?? Not really sure as we use oil in trasformers as an insulator and for cooling. Any how... turns out theres no continuity when the cable is wiggled, so i'm assuming theres a breakdown in the cabling.

Jumped on the internet... again.  And searched. Ended up locating a part number off a japanese website and searched on amayama, and to my luck. Ordered one from Japan.

I thought i'd post some pic's for interest sake, I hate pictureless updates so thought id better include.

 

Seems one problem gets fixed, and another rears its ugly head. Oh the joy!!
 

[J4m13]

A few things have happened since i last threw something up here.  Ive had a few parcels turn up to my place here in oz, and collected some stuff on my holiday back to NZ over xmas

On my way to the airport to head back i stopped in at phils rotaries to pick up a couple of things. Picked up the horn spring mechanism from my steering wheel, mine was engineerd with foam. So now back to how it should be.

Also picked up the ignition coil mounts, i needed them to replae that aftermarket system that clutters the engine bay. And a few other bits n bobs clips and the like that was missing.

First up upon returning from holiday was to open up my packages and see what santa had delivered....

 

First was to install the oil level sensor, plugged it in I was away laughing!!!

 

After that was to open my second package... standard coils and to rid the engine bay of clutter

 

took them into work and made up a simple loom to plug into the factory harness from the ignitors.

 

[J4m13]

A few days later, started pulling the aftermarket ignition system out and see how my wiring diagram tracing, and harness fabrication skills will pan out.

 

Got to removing and this was the end result....

 

Installed the coil mount, plugged the harnesses in, mounted the coils and went for a start.

 

Started first bloody pop!!! I was well chuffed to say the least. Im no sparky, but felt good to tackle it and succeed.

Took it for a drive and noticed no difference at all.... untill 40 minutes later and everything in the engine bay had warmed up.  And a mysterious phantom miss reared its ugly head under boost.

I think I had just worked out why the aftermarket system had been installed.

Alas... I went to bed to sleep on it.

After a day of racking my brain, contemplation and running scenarios over and over I had come up with some ideas.

First was to check the Distributor cap and rotor... Now i'm no auto sparky but these I thought would contribute greatly to the issue

Not over confident that this is the entire problem, so continued on with my punch list. Not without ordering new ones from Mazda first.

 

I checked all the vacuum hoses, found one that had a kink in it, replaced.  Changed out the vacuum solenoid that I had bought the parts from greece for, filled the gas tank up, and pushed the ignition coils all the way to the back of the mount, instead of 3/4 in the engine bay in the hope the radiant heat would not warm the ignition coils as much, checked my spark plugs and last of all, resistance of the leads.

 

Now this is where I shouldve taken the experience I have gained in all my years working and done 1 thing at a time.

But I didnt, and well, the issue is gone and im boosting good and proper again.  

Ive ordered new plugs to install even though the current ones appear to be in good shape.

Anyway, im back to being original and pretty happy about it. Just awaiting the cap and rotor and will install to tick that off the list. 

 

No doubt, somehing else will break in the future and 'ill be fixing that.  i'd forgotten how much maintenance these cars take.  

There was a whole lot of diagnosing, advice gathering, and trial and error used to get it up and going again but I wont bore with that. I like looking at builds with photos so im trying to keep mine to that.

If youre curious, hit me up on the discussion page and ill elaborate. Other than that... enjoy the summer cruising

 

 

[J4m13]

Fuck…. Been ages since I’ve updated this.

and @oldrx7 has been pestering me for about a year.

anyways, been a few things happen In between drinks.

Drove this thing every now and then. While the 323 was in having an exhaust fabricated and a going over “pre-cert” inspection, my son was hankering for some skids.

took it a few streets down into farm land and found a nice intersection.

Motivated by my 3 year old son chanting “donuts dad, let’s do donuts”

we swung a few “0’s and 8’s” to the amusement of the surrounding properties.

as we exited out of the final skid there was a fantastic rumble from the gearbox… 

to which my son thought it’d be a great idea to say “ooooohhhh… dad what’s that sound. It’s noisey”

I wasn’t too worried…. Sounded like a bearing in the gearbox so promptly limped it home and parked it in the garage until I could be bothered whipping the box out.

 

a couple of weeks later I did remove it, remove bellhousing and replaced I put shaft bearing. Full of confidence and pride for fixing it I promptly started it up…..

hmmmm….. slight noise. Perhaps I just needa rotate and get some oil around to looob it all up. 
quick drive out the driveway to end of cauldersac didn’t fix it.

well fuck.

thought it must be another gearbox bearing. So did the shitty task of again whipping the box out laying on my back under the car. Took it into work and stopped for inspection….

apart from a the lay shaft bearing being a bit tighter than I’d like all seemed well.

rebuilt said box with new synchros n bearings and again lifted the box from my back into the car…. You can imagine how old this was getting.

I must confess…. I’m one of the laziest pricks so certainly don’t go to the gym…. So it’s bloody heavy lifting and locating on my back with my pipis.

cut a long story short…. Next drive also had no change…. Still a delightful rumble. No I was right fucked off. 
took a sample of the engine oil and sent it to you e lab for analysis, wanting to rule out bearing failure or suspended solids. 
 

perfect!!! Said lab tech. A little bit of carbon but that’s normal and expected. 

I was perplexed and rung the old boy who’s shop I used to kick around at to ask advice.

he asked for symptoms, I told him and he laughed. Said… come on Jamie boy. You know what this is. Your rear gear is fucked. Pull the flywheel off and check. 
so this is what I did…  but fucked if I was going to again remove the gearbox for a 3rd time off my back and remove the 54mm nut fixing the flywheel to the shaft.

took ot to the shop that had done my exhaust etc and threw it on his hoist….

guess what reared it’s ugly twisted head?!

 

 

 

[J4m13]

[J4m13]

Sooooo……

this revelation happened just after I’d accepted a new job to move states from queensland to Victoria.

I had the delight now of moving an undrivable car 1500kms.

managed to achieve that, $1500aud as opposed to free if it was drivable because the company my new work used to relocate me wouldn’t shift a car with with no running engine. Bastards

after a couple of months settling into my new role I whipped the block out and took it into work for a strip down and inspection…. Prior to this tho I’d located some replacement rotors and plates under the presumption my rear rotor, rear and centre plate were shagged.

I found the culprit pretty early on in the piece…. The moment I removed the front cover I noticed the oring used to seal the oil feed to the block was pinched/damaged and was causing low oil pressure I thought was a dicky old sender…. Hmmmm. What a dick I am.

Anyways… continued stripping the block down and was genuinely impressed, and felt rather lucky.

Front n centre plates were in fantastic condition with next to no wear, and rear plate to my surprise just had some visible hotspots.

so with my new found enthusiasm, sent my rotating assembly for a full balance, and my plates of for a skim and a nitrite.

 

[J4m13]

[J4m13]

A couple of weeks later the rotating assembly and plates arrived…. To my horror.

I didn’t remember the plates returning so harsh when nitrited back in Nz.

make a few calls, and sent a few msgs out in dismay but was resigned to the fact I was going to need to remove the slag looking surface by hand…. 
Took to the task with rum in hand on the kitchen table and spent from memory 14 hours over the entire weekend stoning and then finishing with wet n dry sand paper 

[J4m13]

Once the plates were smooth and finished, I got to tackling the other bits that needed attention.

First of all I gave it another clean, and then measured everything to ensure there were no parts out of spec that needed replacing...

 

I purchased a new FD pressure regulator to ensure the oil pressure was upgraded, I located and FD rear stationary gear as they are hardened in the factory and had it machined to 12a gear specs.

I threw the front gear in the lathe and machined a groove so the bearings that I modified with multi windows lubricated nicely.

The new rotor bearings received the same machining treatment to bring them to MFR spec.

Pressed a new  pilot bearing and seal in the shaft.

Because of the nitrite heating process, I needed to press out all welch plugs to replace, and drill out the brass factory oil gallery plugs and tap with a hydraulic plug.

[J4m13]

[J4m13]

From there…. It was assembly time.

so it received all new seals, springs, orings and gaskets.

[J4m13]

[J4m13]

From there…..

It was drop the old girl back in the hole, connect everything up, bleed the oil system, fuel system and coolant system.

yelled out to the wife and had her sit in the seat and crank.

got her to wind it until oil pressure gauge moved…. Check!!!

connected plug leads and warned her it will more thank likely spin and smell of fuel, possibly cough n fart and blow a bit of smoke.

as she held her breath… I could see her nervously about to the the key and I had a chuckle to myself. 
No sooner had the engine rolled over once it roared into life and my wife and some shit now impregnated in her undies.

only the down pipe from the turbo made for a noisey block but with the shit in her undies she didn’t give it a bit of gas so died after about 10-15 seconds.

after she calmed down from yelling and calling me a prick I let her k ow to give it a small bit of gas when it catches so I can check for leaks and ensure all was well…..

needless to say we had a winner!!! No dramas and once it was warm it settled a bit but idling was pretty shit, hunting and erratic. Anyways…. Some more pics

[J4m13]

Anyways…. Cut a long story short….

k drove it as is to get a road worthy from the local mechanic, then went on my merry way to get a set of plates and license it.

turned out the orings the injector place I had overhaul my injectors supplied me were too small and I had a severe vacuum leak.

Changed them, readjusted my secondary butterfly because it was off seated at idle and the old girl hasn’t missed a beat yet.

750ks, a couple of tanks of gas and lots of smiles has been had so far.

almost time for oil change and a few more revs!!!