Project Car Update:  The V8 Edition

By Colin Holte

A quick glance at the project car column should tell you that MotoIQ has a large (and ever expanding) roster of project vehicles.  With all these vehicles it can sometimes be tough to keep the updates flowing for each.  In some cases vehicles may have even been sold but we still keep them on the project roll for posterity.  These articles are intended to share a little bit of the details with you of where some of the project vehicles that haven't seen the spotlight in a while are at in their evolution.  In this installment we check in with the V8s:  Project Mustang V8 5.0, Project Tundra, Project V8 RX-7, and Project Lexus IS F.

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Project V8 RX-7: Goin' Legit (Project RX-7 vs the State of California)

by Jeff Naeyaert

Now that it doesn't look like the world is gonna end we need to get our RX-7 smog legal and on the road!  Since the car has been down for surgery with the heart transplant the registration has long since expired. It's only a matter of time before we get busted by the fuzz for old tags and excessive hooning around.  

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Project V8 RX-7: Part 12 - The Intake & Moment of Truth! (VIDEO INSIDE)

by Jeff Naeyaert

Welp, the last day of Project V8 RX-7 Week is upon us!  If you’re a rotary zealot or Vh8er and we’ve been pissing you off all week, your suffering is almost over my friends!  All we've got left is the intake and this son of a bitch should be ready to roll! 

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Project V8 RX-7: Part 11 - Finishing the Driveline

by Jeff Naeyaert

The end is in sight!  Only a couple of things left on the TO DO list and the most glaring is our driveshaft and rear end.  Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a really big deal; you just get up under the car, take a few measurements and head to your local driveline shop where they can either modify your old driveshaft or build a whole new one.  But we've got a few other things in mind! 

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Project V8 RX-7: Part 10 - Power Steering

by Jeff Naeyaert

We want power steering!  Even though our RX-7 is pretty light at 2,843 pounds with 3/4 of a tank of gas (to be exact), doing 3 point turns in the neighborhood or negotiating parking lots sucks.  That suckness is compounded by the smaller 330mm Sparco steering wheel we're using.  Some argue you get better steering feel at higher speeds without power steering, but the best argument for NOT having power steering in your V8 converted RX-7 is that it’s a buttload easier to just plumb a bypass line on your power steering rack and ditch the power steering altogether.

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Project V8 RX-7: Part 9 - The Exhaust

by Jeff Naeyaert

The title picture already gave it away, so I’ll save the prose, it’s time to build an exhaust!  This isn’t going to be a sissy grandma exhaust either like on Project G35 whose owner couldn’t stand how loud the Berk exhaust they originally installed was… in fact, it's the same folks at Berk that are gonna kick it up a notch and help us make a super bitchin’ set of pipes that’ll make children cry and leave no question in any Rotard’s mind that our dead Wankel was replaced with a big ol' hunk of American Iron aluminum!

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Project V8 RX-7: Part 8 - The Shifter & Some Engine Dress Up

by Jeff Naeyaert

Hey guys!  Long time, no write.. I'm sorry.  We've had a lot going on and recalling the last episode of Project V8 RX-7 I hastily titled it “Bringing the E-ROD LS3 to Life (Almost),” which unless we were going to do a lame “(REALLY Close Now)” followup article, committed us to have a running engine by the end of the story.  Unfortunately, there turned out to be a lot of things we still needed to cover before turning the key—so much so that our article woulda turned into a novella and lost the attention of even our most devout reader by page 12!  Thus, Project V8 RX-7 Week was born! 

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Project V8 RX-7: Part 7 - Bringing the E-ROD LS3 to Life! (Almost)

by Jeff Naeyaert

Now that we've checked "mount the engine and transmission" off our E-ROD LS3 swap checklist we can turn our attention to all the little things needed to get our RX-7 on the road.  What's left?  We need a fuel pump, cooling system, shifter, driveshaft, exhaust and we still have all the wiring left to do.  In this episode, we figure we can tackle the fuel and cooling systems as well as the wiring before we put you to sleep.  Let's get to work!

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Project V8 RX-7: Part 6 - Installing the E-Rod LS3

by Jeff Naeyaert

In our last installment of Project V8 RX-7 we took a look at the T-56 Magnum transmission from Tremec we’ll be using for our swap, now it’s time to bolt it up to our E-ROD LS3 and get this engine in already! 

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Project V8 RX-7: Part 5 - Choosing a Transmission, the Tremec T56 Magnum

By Mike Kojima

When we were contemplating the buildup of our E-ROD powered RX-7, we planned to bolt up the same T56 six speed transmission that we had in the car when it was LS1 powered.  This plan went to crap shortly before we decommissioned the 7 for the E-ROD swap when while driving under normal conditions--nothing abusive or even brisk for that matter--the transmission got itself jammed in 3rd gear and no amount of muscling could free it.

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