RX7 FC finding out what it wants to become

On the rubber line you could try insulating it by running it through a bigger rubber hose.

That's not a bad idea! I will try a carb spacer as I think it will have the best effect first and that's something to try next.

Don't know where I left off with the real build of the car but here is an update.

Went to the auto fair in the rain and walked around with my dad all day. Picked up this intake and K&N filter set up. Also came with a heat shield I might use. $25 was not a bad deal! I will have to more or less chop the top off to get it to fit under the hood, that will come later.

I also hammered the fender lip back under the car. It was scraping on left hand turns and I knew it was not the ground so I checked and sure enough the tire was catching on the fender. Anyone have a fender roller I can borrow that in NC?

While it was off the ground I grabbed this pic.

A while back I got my rear view mirror in. I went with the convex over the wink because of the size and the choppiness of the wink. This is much easier to glance up and see whats going on with this one. Made some very simple mounts and some command sticky strips and works like a charm!

Also had to use the ford racing fender cover cause you know POWERED BY FORD!

Here is the heat sleeve I picked up. Looks like good stuff but I don't know how well it will work to keep heat out, but makes the engine bay look very RACE CAR!

Its hard to see in this photo but here is the fuel line coming up from the bottom of the fire wall where the hard fuel line stops. This is where it is close to the headers and this is where I think I have a lot of heat coming into play. I was able to move the line a bit further away but there is just a lot happening on the drivers side.

Thanks more or less where I am now!

So here are some more cool photos of the car. Finally able to get it out of the shop for some shots!

The glass fuel filter scares me. I've fixed a few car-b-ques because of them.

Yeah, ditch that filter for a steel one.

Might not be a bad idea, I got it so I could see if any junk was coming from the gas tank and to see if fuel was even being pumped becouse I had never ran the car. Any suggestions on good brands/styles?

In reply to Skervey:

Generic steel case carbed application inline fuel filter, any brand will do. Not sure on a good part number, somebody around here will know. You might find them near the rack of air and oil filters at the parts store

sounds great. and good video!!

you make a quick and dirty video seem professional.

Thanks there is still a few pieces of equipment that I really need but I try my best to work around them. Really can't wait to get the car driving and do a real video and not a 2 min teaser!

Did some work over the weekend. Got a lot of little things done. Got the choke working so now it will cold start! I also tried to tune the motor a little and found that at idle it was timmed at 0 TDC don't know how it ended up there but I moved it to about 12 before TDC. Hope that will make the car feel a bit faster. But I also hooked up the vacuum gauge and tried to set the idle air again. Nothing I did seemed to move the vacuum gauge... I stayed steady at about 17in. That seemed a bit low and I remember that the needle moved with the idle air adjustments but this time it did not. So I tried to adjust it by ear but it just seems to idle to high 12-1300RPM Even messing with the carb by hand and making sure the throttle is all the way closed it wont idle down. I checked to see iv I had a vacuum leak before by spraying WD40 around the carb. I will have to try that again and I will be pulling off the carb soon to install the spacer and I will run through it again just to check.

Also I let it idle for about 10-15min and forgot to run the fan, when I shut the motor off it started to puke coolant out of the overflow bottle. Don't know if i was running it lean when I was trying to tune it but it got hot and the coolant that came out was nothing but rust color so it looks like I will need to flush the system. Might wait and see if I can do that at work don't want the mess in the shop.

You may have too much initial timing if it won't idle down.

Also, check to see if the accelerator pedal linkage is binding and not allowing the butterflies to close all the way. Happened to me a few times. Easiest way to check is to disconnect it.

Thanks!!! Took the carb off and went through it. It was clean on the inside which is a good thing. While I had the carb off I saw what the high idle issue was. Turns out the bolt i was using to hold the throttle cable was hitting on a part of the carb. I really couldn't have seen it unless i flipped the carb upside down. Took the bolt to the grinder and made it all fit nice and neat now. Installed the new carb spacer and fired it all up again. Started right up then I let it warm up and adjusted the idle down to a cool 600 rpm. The car is dead quiet and sounds more or less like a stock car! I am soo pleased with it now! Took it for a test drive and all was well but after a bit it started to squeak, though it was the belts but when I got the car back i popped the hood and found that it was coming from the trans/clutch area. So I think its the through out bearing. It changes sound with motor speed and when i shut the car off and started it back up again it takes a few seconds to start squeaking again. Any ideas? I have not messed with a through out bearing before. It is a new one I installed and i dont think it was making noise before the trans rebuild so I don't know what to do. Can I still run the car with it maken the noise or just go ahead and drop the trans.... Again....

Also the carb spacer seams to have droped the carb temp around 30-50° from where it was before. Now with the lazer temp gauge where i was getting 130-170° im now getting somthing like 90-150° it was a bit cooler the other day but hope it will be enough to fix the issue. Or at least be enough to keep the car on the road till i get the efi figured out.

Try lightly resting your foot on the clutch pedal. If the sound goes away, it's almost gaurenteed throw out bearing noise. I've driven for tons of miles with the noise. Ive also grenaded a throw out bearing that was squeaking. So, it's a crap shoot.

And good to hear that the carb is doing well.

I have been able to drive the car a little bit this week. The clutch seams to be quieter now. It only starts after a few miles of driving and is much quieter when it is making noise. So I hope that is working itself out!

So now that I have put a few miles on thew car I can give a better review on what I think about it. And its crap... No just kidden! Motor runs really well starts first time every time! Idles well and seems to drive fine. There is a touch of a dead spot while cursing and give it a bit more gas. Might be my throttle linkage but don't know yet. Going from cursing to WOT is easy and fast and the car puts you back in the seat for sure. Even in 5th gear it really has a lot of tuque and I think that 1st and 2nd gear may be useless aka wheel spin. But then again I have really crappy tires on the car now.

On to the handling, its less then perfect. I don't have the front sway bar on the car yet so don't know how it really handles but I haven't ran it hard in any kind of corner. I don't trust it yet. Also the front driver side tire rubs on left turns so I will need a fender roller (anyone got one near me I can borrow?!?). But the steering is very tight and direct just how I wanted it to be! Then my dreams fall apart the rear of the car is very vague. It feels like a loose solid axle back there. It squats under acceleration and will hop to one side or the other when you hit a big bump. Anything over 55mph it just feels like its floating back there and under hard acceleration is just seems to wiggle and jump around. I have looked up and it seems like a common issue that is fixed with either alignment, or new struts. Seeing as I don't have adjustable links I cant do an alignment but I can get a little bit of the camber if they are not already adjusted all the way. My first step might be to get an adjustable camber link and try and get the camber out of the back end.

So looks like I have a lot more to do with the car. New springs struts/coil overs would be amazing but not in the budget any time soon. Maybe bushings and the camber link will have to do.

Should be close to being a DD car. iv put a fair number of miles going up and down the road at home. I have a small list of things that need to be done to make it a DD but its mostly small things,

Wire back up lights, driver side mirror glass fell out and needs to put back in, rear view mirror needs to be reinstalled, fan relay went out, intake needs some work to fit, sway bar needs some welding on the end links, tachometer in the dash is not working little stuff like that nothing that's a big hurtle to get through. Should be able to knock stuff after work but been busy with life and kinda lost motivation after a few drives.

Sorry for no pictures! Nothing really big happening but I have some progress pic just haven't uploaded them. Also looking forward to doing a full video when the car is done!

So here comes a photo update!

Car is coming along well still very clean and looks so good sitting so low!

Here is the carb spacer, just a cheap one. The studs that came with it did not fit they are way to short so I had to get my own.

When I pulled the carb off this is what had happened to the old gasket. 1/2 was stuch the other came off nice and easy. Don't know if that means vacuum leaks or not.

After the swap got it back running and drove it around a little and then pulled the plugs. Seemed to be going good with the tunning.

Here is the lip on the intake, I cut it off with a band saw but that made issues with the carb hitting the plastic so I heated that up and tried my best to bend it out of the way it is better but needs more work.

Don't know why I have this photo the charging system is working grate and the battery has always been able to start the motor. I guess I just wanted it at 100% when I put the carb back on. Anyway you can see how much rear camber im dealing with in this photo.

Probably my favorite pic! This is my to do list and the biggest part on it is Finish It!

Been a long time but things on the car are still moving just not very photo worthy stuff. I got the stock tachometer working. Had to pull the speedo cable out of the trans to get slack to pull the cluster out. Turned out that my resistor that I installed was bent and grounding on another part of the board. Now that works and I checked both tachometers and they matched so I know its accurate.

Next on the list was the driver side valve cover gasket it had started leaking right when I would shut the motor off. I would assume that crank pressure blew out the old rubber gasket. I have already replaced the pass side with a cork one and still had the other gasket so it was a easy install.

Sway bar went onto the car as well. Just did it like granny speed said to do by moving the brackets forward on the car just had to weld new nuts into the frame for the front bolts. I also cut the end links and rewedded them while they were on the car I think it will help with any binding that they might have had. I have not drove the car "fast" So I don't know how much it really helps but I can tell that the car likes to turn in much easier and the tire does not rub on the fender while turning.

I also put some new springs on the back of the car. We have a bunch of springs here at work so I found a set of 180# 10" progressive springs so I garbed them and swapped them onto the car. found out why the car drove like crap the rear springs were just chopped stock springs. Cut from 14" down to about 11" They were much softer the the 180# springs that replaced them with. Also found that one side of the car the strut was fine and the other side is blown. That's why the car wanted to jump around when it hit bumps. The car ride much better with the springs. Put about 45miles on it this weekend and I was happy, they did lift the car up about 1.5". The back does not bottom out anymore and has a lot more feel.

I also replaced the digital tach with a temp sensor. Easy to wire with all the wires already there. Looks like the car runs about 191 all the time. The hottest I saw was 196 so Im happy with my cooling setup!

Photos from this weekend. here you can see the back sits a bit higher.

Adjustable coilover sleeves will probably fix the ride height.

I have thought about it but I think im happy where im at now. Where it sits now I can run a bit larger tire which will help with the high rear end gear.

great photos documenting this build! What sort of camera are you using?

I have a canon 70D, I love it! I will say the 18-135 STM lens that came with it sucks! It always seems soft and out of focus. I put the 50mm f1.8 and it shoots crystal clear. Need to grab a new glass and toss the 18-135mm

You should Google dtss elimination. It is related to what you are talking about on the rear end.

Also, you can adjust toe on the rear end of these cars pretty easily.

I know about the DTSS bushing and the kit to get rid of it and this is much more then just that. I have one rear strut that is 100% blown and the other that seems to be fine. I am also lower with more camber and in the middle of figuring out spring rates. So the whole car is way off its game and so its all over the place all of the time and most evident on bumps. On a good flat corner the car settles down and get around just fine, I think I can feel the rear steer coming on but its hard to tell. Now with the new springs the back of the car bounces like crazy on a bumpy road. First thing to address is the struts then the alignment. I also know after putting a few miles on the car that I need to have the tires balanced as well, the whole car gets a shake at 55mph.

I will look into adjusting the toe of the rear wheels. Every thing iv seen on say norotors and other FC forums always say get the adjustable links because you cant do anything with the rear without them. Also digging through my pile I found I have a used set of poly rear swing arm bushings that I will put onto the car sometime soon. But first I will test to make sure the LSD is working (which should be fun)if the LSD is not working I will pull out the whole rear end swap in the spare diff and get a solid diff mount and maybe some other bushings.

Not to derail, but a quick run through a few professional online reviews of the 18-135 STM seems to paint it as a decently sharp all-arounder lens. Sounds like the AF could use some adjustment with your lens/body combo.

Sounds like you're smart to check bushings in the rear. On V8 swap forums, or FC forums in general, what are you seeing on rear spring rates? A quick search makes these sound horribly soft from the factory... I'm sure others here have some thoughts on the matter.

Skervey wrote: I have a canon 70D, I love it! I will say the 18-135 STM lens that came with it sucks! It always seems soft and out of focus. I put the 50mm f1.8 and it shoots crystal clear. Need to grab a new glass and toss the 18-135mm

Look at Canon's web store. They sell refurbished lenses. And SWMBO swears by her 85/1.8. Razor sharp.

Wxdude10- I would love to have a 85mm prime but its a way down the list. Might pick up a old m42 screw mount lens some where in the 28-35mm F2-2.8 rang. They are $30 on ebay and should fix the issues I have with my 50mm 1.8F (AKA shoots to tight for cars)

pres589- Spring rates are all over the place... stock is 160lb I have 180lb progressive springs that are not cut and they seem mush stiffer. Racing beat springs are 128lb? I have also seen 350lb for the rear for racing so im lost. I have 250lb springs that I will try once I get new struts but until then there is no reason to swap springs around.

Also if you look a bit deeper on the 18-135STM you will find loads of people complain about the lens going very soft at the max aperture through the full range from wide to telephoto. At 3.5-5.6F its not a fast lens so I need to open it it a lot of times so it seems to shoot soft. So for photos I am wanting to get a new "do it all lens" looking at the 24-105 L lens they seem to do good on the aps-c sensors and I will have a lens for a FF body for down the road.

On the flip side the 18-135STM is killer at video! With it and the new dual layer auto focus system it is unbeatable. Even on high end video cameras that I have used don't auto focus as fast and accurate and smooth as this setup. For grab and go shooting video its amazing, for getting really good steady setup shots I will still pull focus but to know that im getting the shot with out even looking at the screen is very useful.