Gibbon's appropriately priced FD RX7

[gibbon]

59 minutes ago, yoeddynz said:

Is that factory fitted fake carbon on the dash or added by a po?

Damn I wish I'd bought one of these and bunged it in the container (we had the room) when we moved home from blighty. They were stupidly cheap because not fashionable at the time and very few decent outfits with real experience in the uk. In the early 2000s when we had our FBs you could pick up many rx7s series 1 through to 6 for beer money if you looked about - especially if not running.

It's different now and cheap ones there are hard to come by.

I'm not sure about the dash, the car seems to have a lot of added extras so it might've been a factory option, but statistically, it's probably just aftermarket crap lol. TBH I've never liked carbon fiber effect, it just screams "kit car" to me. I'd swap for factory if someone offered, wouldn't go paying to change back though.

The prices really really are coming down though (more that they were hopelessly inflated in the first place). a couple of years ago you wouldn't even get a running one for 50k, not surprising the prices weren't sustainable 

[ProZac]

On 01/11/2024 at 10:09, gibbon said:

stuff it I'm just going to ask

@ProZac why can't most aftermarket ecu's handle the FD sequential turbo arrangement? 

Oh Hey.

Because ECU companies don't want to deal with the old systems that have old fucked valves and leaky pipes and cracked tanks... and have people blame the system not working on the ECU, when its 99% of the time a fucked solenoid. Hardware wise and firmware / logic wise the system isn't actually super complicated.

Haltech support sequential turbos. You need two PWM capable outputs (for the pre and post switch wastegate controls), and 3 general purpose outputs (charge relief, charge control, and turbo control).

https://support.haltech.com/portal/en/kb/articles/sequential-twin-turbo-user-s-guide

I bet it would be possible on a Link though, I'm kinda counting on it TBH. But I wont be working on my car for another couple of years. We've kicked into a house renovation project, which is becoming a clusterfuck of epic proportions.

[BlownCorona]

that fake carbon looks like a faceplate placed over the original plastic with all the cutouts to show the control labels? hopefully they didn't use a horrible glue 

[gibbon]

MOTHER BITCH 

[gibbon]

 

th-thanks 

[yoeddynz]

Fill it with Ep90 and then it'll seal.

[gibbon]

interestingly the first time I tested it, the rear rotor was 0 - 0 - 0. so something must have freed up just doing the second test. I've come to terms with the fact that it *might* be rooted but should probably do some more testing before i pull it to bits

it cranks over very evenly which is pretty strange for zero compression I would have thought. I don't doubt the tester though (although legend has it that it'll call anything below a certain number "zero")

after I flooded it, I poured ATF into it in order to get it started, I never actually rotated the engine prior to cranking it over, so if the seals were all gummed up, odds are one of them never actually got marinated

[kiwi808]

Massive single turbo conversion time?

[yoeddynz]

Spinning over at starter speed might not be enough to unstick sticky tips. You could always try bump starting it and once it's started give it an Italian tune up. 

Worth a try. 

[RUNAMUCK]

if it does need a rebuild,

While it's apart, it would kinda be rude not to do a full cut Bridgeport, w/ semi PP.  And that big single  @kiwi808 was suggesting too.......

🤣

[gibbon]

for some reason a single turbo kit costing more than a rebuild really harshes my mellow

[Alfashark]

You've always got one of Coventry's finest/heaviest six cylinder engines pushed into a corner of your workshop...

[cletus]

@gibbonif you do pull the rotary out for a rebuild, i suggest plopping the triumph engine in the engine bay for photographs just to ruffle some feathers in the rotary community 

[gibbon]

not sure if the suspension is up to it 

I've got a spare set of twin turbos I'll bolt to the side for maximum civil unrest

 

[kiwi808]

When I lost compression in the rear housing it was due to detonation. This meant a section of the apex seal did a lap of the housing. It might be worth budgeting a couple of g for a rear housing and rotor as well as a full seal kit.

I’m only half joking about the big single turbo thing. Sure it’s massively expensive to do properly but it’s only money and you can’t put a price on smiles per gallon. Which is roughly what your new fuel bill will be (1 mile per gallon)

[gibbon]

1 hour ago, kiwi808 said:

When I lost compression in the rear housing it was due to detonation. This meant a section of the apex seal did a lap of the housing. It might be worth budgeting a couple of g for a rear housing and rotor as well as a full seal kit.

I’m only half joking about the big single turbo thing. Sure it’s massively expensive to do properly but it’s only money and you can’t put a price on smiles per gallon. Which is roughly what your new fuel bill will be (1 mile per gallon)

i can't imagine an apex seal is too kind to the turbine on the way out either

kinda 50/50 here on whether to just bite the bullet or still try to free it up. if it's buggered and I try to give it the italian tune up it might lunch the housing and or a turbo, as mentioned. the engine only has 88k on it so maybe now would be the time to rebuild it, which would pretty much outlive me from then on. BUT then again it might literally just be a gummy seal and a shitload of work for nothing! even pulling the exhaust I have been told only allows me to see a portion of the apex seal, not get the full picture

if i wasn't ass deep in a triumph project at the moment i'd probably just yoink the engine out for the sake of a story to tell

and I should add that I still LOVE the twin turbos. i don't need 500hp as much as i need nonstop spooling noises in my life

[RUNAMUCK]

How much of a cunt is it to remove the turbos/exhaust manifold?

You can look I to the zhorst port and inspect the apex seals. If they're all there, you can give them a push, and see if the spring pushes the seal back afterwards.

[RUNAMUCK]

I'm sure @SHGWAG once reckoned you could buy a brand new shortblock from Mazda for about 6k? Which is heaps of money. But doritos are not the domain  of the poors.

Plus I watched a video on youtube of some RX8 guys strip a brand new (from mazda) RX8 replacement engine, and point out all the things wrong with it.

[gibbon]

7 minutes ago, RUNAMUCK said:

How much of a cunt is it to remove the turbos/exhaust manifold?

You can look I to the zhorst port and inspect the apex seals. If they're all there, you can give them a push, and see if the spring pushes the seal back afterwards.

short blocks are about 14k these days, although a few have popped up on TM for closer to 10 (none at the moment). i've always thought about grabbing one to pop under the bench but it's still a lot of money

I've got the turbos half off -and yes its a massive bitch- wouldn't be too hard to pull the rest. but I have heard that you can only see about 2/3 of the apex seal through the exhaust port, and some of the more common failures like to occur out on the edges where you can't see them.

 

[gibbon]

also the last rebuild kit I bought was $800. now they're 4 grand, fucks sake

triumph engine suddenly actually looking like the sensible choice