Gibbon's appropriately priced FD RX7

[gibbon]

20 minutes ago, kpr said:

The 6262 is a ripoff G series  

G series as in Garrett? I thought the 6262 was a Precision ripoff? Google tells me Precision used to 'borrow' Garrett designs but not for a long time. oh the tangled, incestuous web that is turbocharger design and marketing...

[kpr]

Assuming that's a pulsar turbo?   They are a G series ripoff.  they used to even call them G series, I assume Garrett was unhappy about and they just started naming them by wheel size  

6262 is a " g35-900 "

[xsspeed]

On 04/11/2025 at 16:01, xsspeed said:

you should probably raise it and fit less dished rims with your small turbo

At least you don't need to do this now

[gibbon]

rx7 forums tell me that only the HKS specific turbo will bolt to the kit (sneaky buggers) a couple of hundred to chop and change the downpipe vs 4k on the genuine turbo is a no brainer 

[yoeddynz]

I cant help but feel that all this hassle would have been avoided if you'd just fitted a Nikki carb with mechanical secondaries, topped off with a Ramflo filter.

[gibbon]

13 minutes ago, yoeddynz said:

I cant help but feel that all this hassle would have been avoided if you'd just fitted a Nikki carb with mechanical secondaries, topped off with a Ramflo filter.

seconded 

[shrike]

26 minutes ago, yoeddynz said:

I cant help but feel that all this hassle would have been avoided if you'd just fitted a Nikki carb with mechanical secondaries, topped off with a Ramflo filter.

@cletusdoes converting from EFI to carb require a cert? 

[gibbon]

couple of SUs I reckon 

[igor]

Best carby ever mate.

[gibbon]

i did things! i did things on the car!

firstly, I fitted the new engine. the clutch is a pull-type, so when I pulled the engine, I did it the cheat's way of disconnecting the pressure plate from the flywheel, through an access panel. I did this because I lack the finesse/knowledge/patience to flick the snap ring off the release bearing like someone who does this stuff all day can achieve. then I learned the hard way all about pull-type clutches and how they can't be reinstalled the same way. (or can they? I asked the rx7 forums and got mocked viciously like it was 2007, it was the full web 1.0 experience. fortunately I grew up on the performancecar.co.nz forums so am impervious to insults)

so the engine came out again. decided to swap out the clutch at that point because the rockauto replacement item probably wasn't really up to spec

so new clutch ready to go, and may I just add again, fuck the guy who designed the pull-type system. Clearance in the FD is so tight I had to loosen off the engine mount carriers in order to drop the block past the subframe and mate it to the transmission. then I used a borescope to confirm that that stupid ass snap ring was locked in place. fuck that guy.

Meanwhile on the hot side, operation "cheap out on the turbo" came to a clunking halt as my 6262 failed to clear the sheet metal of the engine bay, largely thanks to the very very low mount position of the HKS manifold. At this point instead of getting pissed off, I decided to divert my attention to the fuel system. "the stock fuel pump probably isn't going to be able to keep up" was my initial thought. followed by "but i bet there's an aftermarket fuel pump in this thing... and I bet whoever robbed the flash engine out of it was too lazy to grab it"

bingo.

so. obviously not JDM cred spec, but definitely aftermarket and higher capacity. and OH MAN am I glad that I pulled it, as you can see it was a)originally mounted too low, causing the filter sock to become dislodged, allowing b)the shitty insulation tape on the joints to unravel and get sucked into the now-unprotected filter inlet. a little surprising that this hadn't killed the car earlier, tbh. anyway I shrink-wrapped the joints and repositioned the pump, and we should be good from here.

So here we are now, somewhat back together

 

[mjrstar]

I found with the later model evo pull clutch disconnection. Look for a really short youtube video and pay careful attention to the size of the flat blade screwdriver they use. Up until then it seem impossible/daunting.

Once you get a feel for it, it's so simple.

[yoeddynz]

I was never aware they changed to a pull type for fds. Was it all fds? What's the reason? 

[gibbon]

12 minutes ago, mjrstar said:

I found with the later model evo pull clutch disconnection. Look for a really short youtube video and pay careful attention to the size of the flat blade screwdriver they use. Up until then it seem impossible/daunting.

Once you get a feel for it, it's so simple.

yeah I watched a few videos but couldn't really see enough of what they were doing. It was always "then you just need to get a screwdriver in here..... there we go" with the camera focused uselessly on the guy's face. then I watched one where the guy mentioned unbolting the pressure plate instead 

7 minutes ago, yoeddynz said:

I was never aware they changed to a pull type for fds. Was it all fds? What's the reason? 

yip all FDs are pull type. I believe the reasoning behind it was malice

[mjrstar]

14 minutes ago, gibbon said:

 

yip all FDs are pull type. I believe the reasoning behind it was malice

Pivot ratio on a pull clutch means you get more clamp load for the same pedal effort. A lot of mid to late 90's stuff migrated to pull type including 4wd's so not just in performance cars.

[gibbon]

minor update because I'm embarrassed that it's taken six months to get to this point

on the other hand I've saved a fortune in fuel by not driving this beast. So I went down the "while I'm here" supporting mods rabbithole, ditched the powerFC for a plugin Link, changed up to 1000cc top feed injector and spent WAY too long messing around with the plumbing for them (it's still ugly as hell) and swapped the stock coils for smart coils. All of that required a bunch of wiring and thinking, neither of which I am good at. Then the car kinda languished for a few months, I finally threw some hours at it this morning and was amazed by how quickly it started coming together. 

Starting to get a little bit nervous about actually trying to start this thing. Might take it to work where there's more hands. and eyes. and fire extinguishers 

[gibbon]

as someone who doesn't do things properly it's really refreshing to work on an FD, where the advice for 75% of the engine shit you pull off is "don't bother putting that back on" 

[yoeddynz]

This is true.

All you need is a ramflo filter on a nikki carb with mechanical secondaries plus a big exhaust with a dumpy. 

The rest is all unnecessary weight. 

You can then revel in the many hundreds of ponies at ungodly revs