Legit 1988 Rx7 Turbo II 10th Anniversary Edition Restoration

TUESDAY: New wheel bearings, new front lower control arms w/ poly bushings, I removed the stock control arms and found out that they had poly bushings too but these were more aesthetically pleasing. I also decided to do front endlinks, original ones were toast. Again, poly bushings.

WEDNESDAY: Rear suspension time!!!!! But there is a catch. I have more goodies! Because this, is going to replace the beat up subframe (delrin bushings installed) and because of that I need a fancy adjustable camber bar because were already this deep and I am pretty sure that this piece is required because the delrin bushings for subframe.

These hubs are loaded! Drilled rotors, new calipers, hawk pads, DTSS eliminator delrin bushings, new wheel bearings, new bearing seals, refurbished endlinks again and with once more, polyurethane. (notice a trend here?) lower control arms painted (nicer) and with can you guess? Yes poly bushings.

Time to swap the differential in and bolt the axles to the differential, the diff bushings are stock and appears to be great so I am retaining them. THURSDAY! (has not really happened yet) but re-assemble the rear end and then find time for alternator swap (run dual alternator/wp/crank belts) and clean up the factory grounds and loop them with some new low resistance wires and a little turbo R&R to replace an intake manifold bolt that I forgot, it is the 1 bolt for the LIM does not share with the non turbo… so I never installed it – Because I’m used to working on NAs… oops!

What, no poly bushings on the rear diff cross member?!?

VWguyBruce wrote: What, no poly bushings on the rear diff cross member?!?

Naw too much work :)

Much progress today. X2 :)

Well no updates from summer snowdrift means that brown santa screwed me, wheel spacers came in on Monday. I had everything ready to go for a Friday alignment.

The spacers fit like E36 M3 and don't even fit on the front so they are getting returned this has been a very frustrating experience just to run larger tires. Makes me wish I just got the stock size and called it good. I made the rears fit but the fronts I am going to have to go with longer studs and different spacer. Stoopid E36 M3 really...

I did find my vacuum leak though! PO only hand threaded in the OMP plugs on the block, it idles much better now, It has an intermittent hunt still between 500-1000 rpm, may take a look at the TPS one more time and it doesn't like to hold idle when cold but once it warms up it doesn't fail me really.

pics to come soon at least :)

How have I never seen this thread?

Well as a fellow rotorhead, good job!

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: How have I never seen this thread? Well as a fellow rotorhead, good job!

Not a lot of foot traffic mostly an E-back up of the work into this. I guess the title is misleading since it is absolutely a restomod now

But anyways, with the rear sub frame assembly on the car just a little alignment here and pry bar there and then lower the car onto the assembly. I have done this so many times on the ground in cold months in a non heated garage on my back with two terrible floor jacks. I think this method now shaved me a few hours of awful labor.

And then install the rear knuckle assembly

Here is a good view of all the goodies 100% together, looks much different here than the rallycross car but actually quite similar.

But at least everything is together in the back 100%

Even managed to close up a big exhaust leak on the factory DP to mid pipe area, the car is much quieter now but it was not very loud before. After that, I did the alternator double pulley upgrade and then I oriented my wheels the correct way!

Oops…

I am using my cheap autozone spacers right now for alignment purposes since they are within same size of the spacers I need to run. Right now it has a .5”(almost 13mm) in the front and 15mm in the back but for just swapping a steering rack and replacing the entire suspension the alignment was not all too bad.

Next up, fix the solders on the stock radio, when you touch the power nob the front speakers can turn off or turn on and perform the ground clean up, passenger side power window is very slow going up when it reaches the ¾ mark so that may require some small attention. Friday is scheduled for a full detail so expect some nice photos to be taken in some sunshine (Michigan permitting) and not at bad timing either, dream cruise is Saturday! But I will actually be racing (rallycross) but there is still much work to be done on that.

And with a final detail there is no real update but the project is basically done! I have a few things to tweak and sort out (grounds mostly) and just enjoy it! Factory radio is being rebuilt by a friend of mine (front speakers cut out when you wiggle the power/volume knob) and it is time to shop for some cassettes!

Car be all like... Why u no shift bra?

Took it out to the dream cruise and everyone thought it was a supra :) One guy did stop and ask if it was a real 10th AE - he had one and told me not to sell this one because I will regret it.

Okay so maybe its not finished yet but it basically is, I am just dealing with the 10-12mpg but I got a lead foot with this car - thank god its quiet.

This winter I will tear down the original engine and see whats going on inside then the plan will be a streetport with some updates on the internals as well as a knightsports turbo accompanied with larger injectors, rtek and 3" downpipe.

I am pretty happy with it so far though, really want to listen to radio when driving it but at least the boosted rotary noises are cool :) Started all of this at the end of June and finished a lot of the details by end of August. Not bad progress at all

:)

stay tuned...

eventually.

I have been chasing and cleaning and looping all ground points to get rid of the 3800 rpm hesitation and poor throttle tip in and stalling while cold issues. it runs and drives much better but still with idle adjustment and idle enrichment it is poor on the low throttle and the car doesn't have it characteristic rotary smoothness until it warms up. Idle is still intermittent good. The turbo inlet duct is cracked about .75" long at where it mounts on the turbo inlet, a replacement one arrives later this week and then I can re test the idle and possibly more TPS adjustment.

I always thought this engine was burning coolant too but when I went to clean the grounds at the ECU I found this:

Yes that is coolant and thus heater core failure, the WORST job on this car. This car is going into storage soon so this is future Kevin's problem so right now it wont be driven the 1200 mile journey to LSPR and back in a few weeks.

but in better news I dropped off the 10th AE shifter to a local shoe repair place and they cleaned up and fixed some of the stitching on the leather boot. I also had a friend of my re solder some contacts on the OEM radio and now I can listen to cassettes again!!!!!!!! (legit excited, no exaggeration - I love vinyl and cassettes)

Also I went autoxing for the 1st time in this car sunday, did okay lots of driver error and being rusty behind the wheel. I took 60th out of 110. 2nd in class. Hopefully some good pictures soon though.

I just realized I didn't put the pictures in the post... ooops - better now :)

Looks awesome. I was up in Detroit for work during the Dream Cruise but sadly didn't make it over to see things as I always end up mired in Auburn Hills.

Looks great makes me want an FC but I don't fit well.

WillrunifChased wrote: Looks great makes me want an FC but I don't fit well.

I'm 6'4" about 200lbs - I understand.

Hence why I still have a daily driver. I also drive barefoot or just with my shoes off so I have that extra amount of room. The seat bolstering is meant for someone much smaller than me in size but its comfortable in its own way for someone my size incorrectly...somehow

I'm 6'3", over 200lbs and comfortably fit in my old '91 FC for years, including a 12 hour drive once and yes, it had a sunroof.

84FSP said:

Looks awesome. I was up in Detroit for work during the Dream Cruise but sadly didn't make it over to see things as I always end up mired in Auburn Hills.

You might have seen me drive this to work then!

I haven't updated this at all because I have been lazy but

"recent updates" aka stuff I did last year -

S5 intake manifold swap, S5 turbo/turbo manifold swap, S5 JDM intercooler, S5 throttlebody (allows for a wideband TPS sensor if you want to use a standalone in the future) I sandblasted them and gave them a high temp clear coat so it looked like fresh aluminum, new gaskets and injector grommets - the works.

and I drove it for about 2,500 miles last summer with no real issues, just getting picky with the throttle adjustment, but the cable may need to be replaced.

I am about to get it out of storage by the end of the month and give it a nice clean detail - I have some stainless brake lines I want to install that will replace the 30 year old rubber and if i feel motivated a lightweight flywheel I can install.

But I am thinking of selling it to fund the rally build, if anyone is interested in this feel free to contact me this spring/summer. I will have to do a compression test but so far everything has been fine, I wouldn't say its the best compression as its got about 100k on the engine but I would not hesitate to take it on a loooong road trip. If you are worried about the engine I have the original "rebuilt" engine that comes with the sale. It appears to never have been ran but I don't think it was rebuilt correctly as it has low compression...

I am open to the idea of building/installing you a motor (wild or mild) based on the parts I do have but all of that is negotiable.

I see all the S5 stuff you put on , any chance of the later taillights? Those always looked so good to me.

Honestly, if you can fund your rally stuff without selling this I would. You'll be hard pressed to get another one done the way you've done it over the last few years. Outstanding period correct theme without going to wild on it.

I sold my FD about 7-8 years ago and while I was done with them, I wouldn't even pay what they are going for now. FC's are getting that way before you know it.

crankwalk said:

I see all the S5 stuff you put on , any chance of the later taillights? Those always looked so good to me.

 

Honestly, if you can fund your rally stuff without selling this I would. You'll be hard pressed to get another one done the way you've done it over the last few years. Outstanding period correct theme without going to wild on it.

 

I sold my FD about 7-8 years ago and while I was done with them, I wouldn't even pay what they are going for now. FC's are getting that way before you know it.

I don't want to go with the S5 tail lights as these are unique to the 10AE so I want to keep it as 10AE as possible. They do look good though...

Yeah I'm on the fence right now... Because I am in a good spot to make some coin on it if I sell it now for what I have into it but if I want to go overboard with the restoration I would get about what I have into it in the end minus the hours. I may throw it up on BaT and see if it goes for what I would be willing to sell it for, if not - it doesn't cost me anything to own it so it can stick around. Its one of those "I'll get to it when I get to it" kind of project which is nice because its super low pressure and I am very familiar with these cars so replacing things is easy since I've done it a million times before. Its like your dad/grandpa/uncle's project car, constantly working on his old nova or something - its just familiar to them to it is easy to repair whereas when you are going down unchartered territory there is a learning curve and it can get frustrating (IE frankenburban)

If I keep it I will be tempted to give it a basic haltech elite and continue to enjoy it as a Sunday driver,  the stock aging wiring causes some hiccups and finding a new turbo EFI harness is NLA so who knows I just might put the A/C back in and when the engine pops I will just frankenstein some stuff together and if none of that works out, rebuilding the rear diff would be a good idea.

This had become a street/track type of car and honestly the rx8 is way easier to drive faster and is about as fast its just not as raw and the only thing I need to that is give it tires/brakes/fuel which is pretty appealing.

expect to see this on BaT in the next few weeks, if anyone is interested send me a note before I do so.

and by next few weeks I mean I didn't get around to it for a few months...

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1988-mazda-rx-7-14/

Good luck. Its better for my marraige's sake I am so far away.

yeah lets see... I really don't want to go down the restore to 100% OEM path nor do I want a forever project, already have 2 of those lol. 

aaaand thats it folks! 

This was the action on the last 10 hours of the listing, I had a 7k reserve and BaT will cut me a check for 200 once the seller pays me the 6800.  In about 2 weeks he will come pick it up and take it back to st louis. 

Nice! I didn't know BAT would pay the difference on a reserve like that. 

In reply to crankwalk :

yeah its at their discretion which is super vague, it was pretty much automatically though because the listing went for SOLD and I got an automated email - I think its within a certain % of the reserve from final bid. They do it to keep the auctions fresh and moving.

and yes I put the youtube video for asia's final countdown during the last 2 minutes of the auction for funzees.