vehicular
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| 06-22-2012 09:00 AM |
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For the record, filling the tank up with a ~1:1 solution of CLR and water will knock the rust out of it COMPLETELY in a matter of minutes. I like to follow that with a tank liner or POR15, but I guess you could get away without it if you drive the car continuously. |
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Sharingan 19
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| 06-22-2012 02:27 PM |
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Does it now? Never thought about using CLR but it makes sense why it would be effective.
Its hard to get an even coat with the internal baffles and such, plus I dont want anything in my tank that could compromise my fuel system in the future, so I opted not to use a liner. I also chose evapo-rust because it only reacts with rust and doesn't "strip" the tank per say. Also this is a daily driver so periods of non-use won't be an issue. |
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Sharingan 19
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| 06-25-2012 08:16 PM |
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In preparation from my future ecu upgrade I used this as an opportunity to revamp the entire fuel system:
- Areomotive A1000 fpr with fluid filled gauge
- -6 lines/fittings
- Converted the fuel system to parallel flow
- New fuel filter
- New fuel pump outlet hose
- Flushed the hard lines
- I found a set of used 720's and sent them off with the stock 550's to be cleaned and flow tested at Injector Rehab.
Unfortunately during the process of removing the primary fuel rail one of the bolts snapped. I was in a rush so I tried to bolt down the other side tight enough to hold the rail.....DON'T do this. Fuel leaked like I had a bad PD. I then tried to use and easy out to remove the bolt....DON'T do this. It snapped and it took 3 rather expensive drill bits to eventually drill out the easy out and bolt .
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Sharingan 19
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| 06-25-2012 08:17 PM |
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Also in preparation for my ecu (and eventually a turbo) upgrade, I decided to do something about that restrictive heatsoak-prone top mount. As with everything else, I set out to do this in a cost effective manner, so I gathered some supplies:  [LIST] [*]Evo 9 IC $50 [*]Various 80's-90's Volvo IC pipes and clamps $30 [/LIST] My first thought was a FMIC setup, since they are popular and well documented. However I didn't want long runs of piping, and the lag they produce. I looked into the [URL="[url]http://www.rx7club.com/showpost.php?p=7129984&postcount=35[/url]"]corksport FMIC[/URL] which has slightly shorter piping and a core thats almost the exact size as the one I had but it required some pretty specific bends that would increase the cost of the project and even a short-pipe FMIC is a decent amount of piping.  The next thought was doing a middle mount setup, positioning the IC above the oil cooler but still in front of the rad. The piping would be shorter and thus easier to route and less laggy. However the core was too large for that and I would have no place for the a/c condenser.   Finally I placed in in a VMIC configuration....like it was meant to be. Shortest possible piping, easiest routing, plenty of space for the condenser, and it looked like the pieces I had would be enough to get the job done. The problem with the v mount is that cutting and welding of the IC core became a requirement as well as fashioning mounts for the rad (at least)  Decisions decisions... |
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Sharingan 19
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| 06-29-2012 10:24 AM |
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While trying to figure out The IC situation I decided to handle something a little more straight forward. As part of the "No 10ae left behind act" I vowed to use ever part that I could from the one I found in the yard, that included the interior. Stripping out the old interior  The Red sun roof you see here is a replacement for the original which was rusted through near the drain. This water ran down the A-pillar and pooled in the floor...or more accurately absorbed into the spongy material under the carpet, which made removal a bit of a mess.  Progress! I thought for a split second about grabbing some dry ice to tear out the sound deadening, but i was pressed for time and came to the conclusion that in a daily, the minor reduction in weight isn't worth the hassle.  The old carpet next to the new one  Installed  As mentioned previously the 10ae (and Infini) had bronze tinted glass. One more item saved from an ignominious death at the junk yard  Installed with new door panels on the right, old ones on the left  |
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Sharingan 19
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| 06-29-2012 10:26 AM |
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So I made up my mind, V-mount for sure! In order to make more room for the necessary fabrication (and clean up the clutter in the engine bay....and improve weight balance) I decided to relocate the batter to the passenger storage bin. I also scooped up a pre-87 coolant reservoir which is located on the drive strut tower instead of right in front of the radiator.  Leveling the mounding brackets for the battery box  150amp breaker...check. 2 gauge welding cable...check  Platinum Power!  Since I had the interior largely disassembled and I was playing with electricity I figured I'd go ahead and replace the tired old and hot incandescent bulbs with LEDs Map lights are 30* cone single "amber" LED's from SuperbrightLEDs.com They aren't the brightest but them provide enough light to read....a map. If anyone these days is still competent enough to use one /rant. But they are dim enough to keep on without them being distracting kinda like an "attack mode" of sorts :lol:  Decided to touch up the sunroof switch since I had it removed. Not sure why mazda made these white in the first place?  Dome light is a 4-LED wide cone unit that slips right into the factory fuse-style socket. Yes, its as bright as it looks :icon_tup:  |
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Sharingan 19
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Sharingan 19
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| 07-02-2012 03:16 PM |
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Once the mount locations were finalized and the pipe routing was worked out the project started really coming together. The fans were placed on top of the a/c condenser because it was believed there wasn't enough room to fit them between the cross bar and the top tank of the rad  IC uses a 2" inlet because that is the outlet size of the stock (as well as hybrid) turbos. and the outlet is 2.5"  Going to have to work on clearing out this area. Removing the stock coolant overflow was a big help, but there is still plenty of obstruction left. Testing would reveal how much a problem it really is  |
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Sharingan 19
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| 07-02-2012 03:17 PM |
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A seemingly minor, yet important change to the setup, I swapped the fans from pushers (inefficient) to pullers (more efficient) and moved them between the cross bar and top tank of the rad. They BARELY fit, but them fit.   In an effort to provide additional cooling I also made some bumper vents. These are the V1 prototypes and while not exactly stylish they do keep temps in check on the highway  |
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Sharingan 19
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| 07-05-2012 07:03 AM |
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A Taste of things to come...   |
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vehicular
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| 07-05-2012 09:07 AM |
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You got a subscription to Super Street and built a hard parker? |
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Sharingan 19
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| 07-09-2012 11:25 AM |
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Posted By vehicular on 07-05-2012 11:07 AM
You got a subscription to Super Street and built a hard parker?
Not quite sure what you're talking about....
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Sharingan 19
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| 07-09-2012 11:25 AM |
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Even the the Infini seats are "stock" they didn't just bolt to the stock rails completely without incident. 3 of the 4 mounting points were fine, but there was one that just refused to cooperate.  Nothing a little ball bearing action can't fix.....  A little vacuum before final install  |
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Sharingan 19
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| 07-09-2012 11:31 AM |
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Next up was the "J"-spec gauge cluster I made. The oil pressure gauge never worked from day one, not sure why, and they boost gauge is in useless units that pretty much signal "some boost" or "no boost" so I needed a few aftermarket gauges. Problem is I didn't want to get a ricer pillar pod and attract necessary attention or mount them in the radio location where they are out of the line of site, and thus difficult to monitor. This was my solution... Stock S4 Cluster  Cool enough I suppose, I thought about converting to S5 for a little bit but I could never find one that wasn't pink, plus the gauges are LESS accurate than the S4 cluster, so no real point there. I bought a set of pro-sport premium amber gauges try to retro-fit them into the stock cluster, but 52mm gauges take up a decent amount of space. Once they came out with the 45mm series it was a different story however. For those interested in the fabrication involved, the Full J-spec gauge cluster thread: [url]http://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=938512[/url] Testing  Complete, with boost gague reinstalled  |
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Sharingan 19
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| 07-09-2012 11:36 AM |
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So my brother had recently picked up an FC shell back home that he planned to use for an LS1 swap/race car/daily driver/ drift machine......yea...I know. However that project would be a ways off so for the time being it made for the perfect paint stand. Duplicolor High Build primer for the "trouble spots"  Sanded with 320 grit and given a complete coat of regular automotive primer.  Sanded with 500 grit  Rattle Can FTW!  Duplicolor OEM colormatch paint (Universal Black) |
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vehicular
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| 07-10-2012 07:13 AM |
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Posted By Sharingan 19 on 07-09-2012 01:25 PM
Posted By vehicular on 07-05-2012 11:07 AM
You got a subscription to Super Street and built a hard parker?
Not quite sure what you're talking about....
Just joking around, man. Super Street being the worst Import mag since SCC's dreaded 'Burnout Era'.
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Sharingan 19
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| 07-11-2012 12:09 PM |
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Lol, I've noticed that...but they have at least 3 issues/ year with enough nice builds to warrant purchasing. By the time you do that you might as well have a subscription, lol. Unfortunately having those other 9 issues shipped to your house makes you realize that it is a pretty slack publication.
Anyways....I really wrestled with whether or not to install the front bumper before heading back up to north Florida. I eventually decided to give the paint time to fully cure, and just pack it up and install it at the same time as the other s5 enhancements.........good thing I did
So I make it all the way to Tallahassee, in the rain without incident and I'm taking the 270* corkscrew offramp into town. I've completed about 260 degrees and I'm merging onto the main road, when all of a sudden the rear just starts sliding out like I'm filming a backwards Junkhouse video...
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7NzjZ6B73c[/video]
...I start to counter steer......more counter steer.......more counter steer.......full lock.......fuck. It's still sliding, at this point I hit the brakes and it stopped spining, instead deciding to do a 4 wheel drift perpendicular to the street.
After 200 ft or so I went off the road under the overpass, smacking a few reflector sticks across the driver front corner before coming to a stop. Fortunately I had these bumper vents, as the hood release was jammed and needed to be manually operated.
Fortunately there are very few things that can't be fixed by a friend and a trip to Harbor Freight! I picked up a selection of various bodywork hammers and got it straight enough for everything to work properly.
On to the topic of this post:
To this point I had never had the car properly aligned and suspected that wacky rear camber, caster, or toe settings contributed to the sudden loss of control.
However once I started to unpack I was reminded of the 2 disassembled rotary shortblocks I had in the back. I'm sure that didn't help.
When I checked the air pressure and inspected the tires, it was apparent that they were too worn to be trusted in wet conditions. Wonderful
But the icing on the cake was when I went to replace the aforementioned tires a couple weeks later and discovered that only one side of the sway bar was connected! :facepalm:
Oh, and just so we're clear THIS WAS NOT AN ATTEMPT AT STREET DRIFTING!!! so lets nip all that in the bud. I was basically moving and the car was completely filled with clothes, books, engine parts, a bumper , and inflatable mattress etc. So I never for a second thought about trying to get sideways on purpose. |
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pistonhead
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| 07-12-2012 10:19 AM |
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If you by any chance find yourself in the Tampa Bay area and would like some decent tires for wet use I have some 205/65/15 General Altimax HPs with almost full tread on one pair and most of the tread on the other two. They are currently mounted on some Nissan Maxima stock wheels (15x6 +30) which I'll gladly let go of with them. |
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Sharingan 19
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| 07-17-2012 03:37 PM |
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I appreciate the offer, I travel to Tampa often, but this happened a little while back and I have since replaced those tires with the 225/50/16 Falken Azenis that used to be up front. |
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Sharingan 19
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| 07-17-2012 03:38 PM |
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Finally got around to installing my Rtek 2.1 , I had been waiting until I got a wideband O2 sensor because datalogging is half the point of getting it in the first place....also because I didn't feel like ripping up the carpet twice to install it later.  Pay no attention to the half-finished soldering job, I was completed and heat-shrinked before install. I went with the Innovative LC-1 wideband, install was fairly straight forward and it tucks in nicely next to the ecu under the cover plate. Although not putting a plug on the actual O2 sensor cable made it somewhat annoying to screw into the downpipe.   When I installed my gauge cluster I thought about how much easier it would have been if I had a centralized source for the various power/ground/illumination sources for gauges. This is what I came up with for the time being, it mounts by the heater core on the drivers side under the dash.  It's bulky and cumbersome so I'll keep my eye out for a more elegant factory solution the next time I hit the junk yard. I picked up this gauge pod in a group buy a while back and now I finally had something to use it for. It angles the gauges toward the driver and keeps the gauges in the line of site.  Here it is, all installed, no looking down below the radio while driving, no ricer pillar pod to attract attention. Just gotta figure out what other 2 gauges I need?  Since I had problems with the fuel system in the past I decided to be proactive this time around and rewire the fuel pump. Unlike most people I chose not to delete the variable resistor function I simply added in a relay to provide the whole circuit with a fresh lead directly to the battery which has been relocated to the passenger storage bin. First, cut the stock resistor wires up front...  Rewired the stock fuel pump connector for new direct (fused) power to battery and fresh ground, as well as added in the relay...  Got everything buttoned up and tucked away...  |
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