The Mid Night Club Wangan Run Touge Monster FD RX-7 RZ!
Discussion
Time for an update!
Went over to the August Haynes Breakfast Club in convoy with Jay's Pandem Boss Build _of course it broke down before we even left...) it was an awesome early morning run up on a clear morning. We met Simon with his super clean baby blue FD along the way too.
Jay decided to take pity on me and dump another old bumper on me to fix up as a swap for my poorly fitting one:
It had a few gnarly cracks in it but anything was going to fit better than the one I had
So same process as before - fibreglass repairs, filler, sanding, paintint, cutting and polishing....
..and eventually we get this:
Much better!
Did I ever demonstrate my LED headlight bulbs?
For a little while now I've had my APEXi Power FC Datalogit box / cable. This lets me plug a laptop into the ECU and monitor sensors and change settings and maps with much greater fidelity than you can from the hand commander. The idea is that I will eventually remap the fueling to accommodate my new Injector Dynamics ID1700 injectors. Now I will freely admit I'm not a great mechanic, not even a good one. I'm also terrible at body work, but before I get a backlash about how I'll blow myself and my car up if I try to map it myself let me present a counter argument: I have an A at A-Level Chemistry including extended modules on Stoichiometry and Gas Laws. I also have a degree in Theoretical Physics and 15 years as a computer programmer, I feel that adjusting a fuel map via a laptop is something that sits pretty squarely in the middle of my comfort zone.
First thing I did was rewire my fuel pump, adding in a relay to switch a brand new live using the old feed as a the switch voltage(I actually did it twice to be extra safe):
There's heaps of evidence around that old Mazda fuel pump wiring (and probably in other cars too) can cause significant voltage drops at the pump and hinder fuel pump and overall fuel system performance. My initial anecdotal experience after the wiring change is that boosting in 3rd and 4th is a whole AFR point richer than before (~10.5:1 at 9.5psi/0.68bar) and boosting in 2nd is overly rich now (<10:1). This is GREAT news it means that the rewire has done exactly what I'd hoped and is now supplying more voltage to the pump.
Before changing any injectors or changing anything else about the fuel system I want to get to know the current map a little better. Fortunately the FC-edit software built for the Power FC has some nifty logging features so I have therefore taken the car out and logged AFRs at different points in the map. This was averaged and normalised AFRs after about 30 mins of varied driving, boost on the Y axis (reversed) and RPM on the X.
This is the fuel map (previously tweaked by Ross at Dragon) the numbers are milliseconds of primary injector open time (although normalised from what actually happens which is primary injectors open then at a set % the secondaries open and pour in some more fuel at a different rate))
And here's that same map again but projected onto a line graph where lines are the fueling at different boost and the X is RPM (ignore the hole in bottom right - that area of the map isn't used for much - high RPM in vacuum
I'm going to spend more time logging AFRs and knock, then I'm going to swap my secondary injectors for the ID1700s, make sure they're setup and calibrated on the original map then incrementally adjust the wastegate duty to increase boost and adjusting fuel (while monitoring AFR and knock - retarding ignition anywhere in the map where knock seems more likely) up to about 16psi / 1.1bar (definitely not all at once!). I don't think I'd really like to map any higher than that without water/meth injection.
So that's the plan. Hopefully something I can get started on in the next couple of months.
Went over to the August Haynes Breakfast Club in convoy with Jay's Pandem Boss Build _of course it broke down before we even left...) it was an awesome early morning run up on a clear morning. We met Simon with his super clean baby blue FD along the way too.
Jay decided to take pity on me and dump another old bumper on me to fix up as a swap for my poorly fitting one:
It had a few gnarly cracks in it but anything was going to fit better than the one I had
So same process as before - fibreglass repairs, filler, sanding, paintint, cutting and polishing....
..and eventually we get this:
Much better!
Did I ever demonstrate my LED headlight bulbs?
For a little while now I've had my APEXi Power FC Datalogit box / cable. This lets me plug a laptop into the ECU and monitor sensors and change settings and maps with much greater fidelity than you can from the hand commander. The idea is that I will eventually remap the fueling to accommodate my new Injector Dynamics ID1700 injectors. Now I will freely admit I'm not a great mechanic, not even a good one. I'm also terrible at body work, but before I get a backlash about how I'll blow myself and my car up if I try to map it myself let me present a counter argument: I have an A at A-Level Chemistry including extended modules on Stoichiometry and Gas Laws. I also have a degree in Theoretical Physics and 15 years as a computer programmer, I feel that adjusting a fuel map via a laptop is something that sits pretty squarely in the middle of my comfort zone.
First thing I did was rewire my fuel pump, adding in a relay to switch a brand new live using the old feed as a the switch voltage(I actually did it twice to be extra safe):
There's heaps of evidence around that old Mazda fuel pump wiring (and probably in other cars too) can cause significant voltage drops at the pump and hinder fuel pump and overall fuel system performance. My initial anecdotal experience after the wiring change is that boosting in 3rd and 4th is a whole AFR point richer than before (~10.5:1 at 9.5psi/0.68bar) and boosting in 2nd is overly rich now (<10:1). This is GREAT news it means that the rewire has done exactly what I'd hoped and is now supplying more voltage to the pump.
Before changing any injectors or changing anything else about the fuel system I want to get to know the current map a little better. Fortunately the FC-edit software built for the Power FC has some nifty logging features so I have therefore taken the car out and logged AFRs at different points in the map. This was averaged and normalised AFRs after about 30 mins of varied driving, boost on the Y axis (reversed) and RPM on the X.
This is the fuel map (previously tweaked by Ross at Dragon) the numbers are milliseconds of primary injector open time (although normalised from what actually happens which is primary injectors open then at a set % the secondaries open and pour in some more fuel at a different rate))
And here's that same map again but projected onto a line graph where lines are the fueling at different boost and the X is RPM (ignore the hole in bottom right - that area of the map isn't used for much - high RPM in vacuum
I'm going to spend more time logging AFRs and knock, then I'm going to swap my secondary injectors for the ID1700s, make sure they're setup and calibrated on the original map then incrementally adjust the wastegate duty to increase boost and adjusting fuel (while monitoring AFR and knock - retarding ignition anywhere in the map where knock seems more likely) up to about 16psi / 1.1bar (definitely not all at once!). I don't think I'd really like to map any higher than that without water/meth injection.
So that's the plan. Hopefully something I can get started on in the next couple of months.
Time for a quick update. Unfortunately plans to install injectors and re-map have been delayed, car was basically blocked in the garage for 4 months while the kitchen was remodelled, once the weather sorts itself out (he says on a day where the sun is finally back out) I'll get on with it. I did get the car mot'd last week with zero surprises (only about 3500 miles since last year) so I'm good to drive for another year.
I bought the car a Christmas present - a new steering wheel! the old one was pretty tacky and cheap looking:
New wheel
Old wheel
New wheel fitted
Happy New Year all!
I bought the car a Christmas present - a new steering wheel! the old one was pretty tacky and cheap looking:
New wheel
Old wheel
New wheel fitted
Happy New Year all!
Things have been a bit quiet on this thread, winter and RX-7s don't mix that well so I've not really done too many miles of late with the exception of early March when I had to be in Farnborough for the best part of the week and my wife needed the X5 so I daily'd the RX- 7! Surrey and Hampshire have truly terrible pot-holed roads!
There has been one highlight in the past few months and that was a track day up in Wales at Llandow in February. I went up with a mate who was driving his 350z and we had a few laughs chasing each other around the track. The track let me stretch the car in a way that otherwise is inaccessible on the road and while also highlighting any weaknesses. I was blown away by the on-limit adjustability of this car on this suspension setup, it truly is like a go kart! The front-mid engine layout meant that the car just goes where you point it, not a sniff of understeer and the 2-way rear diff means that the rear end just dances as if the attitude of the car is directly wired to your brain as you brake and accelerate. Unfortunately the brakes aren't tip-top so as the fronts warmed up there was a lot of vibration through the steering so they're gonna need an overhaul and my other observation was that my race spec Quantum coilver setup although still hugely competent needs the at least the driver's front damper reconditioning. My mate and I also went out as passenger in each other's cars and the comparison was chalk and cheese! The 350z on track felt like a car whereas my RX-7 is an overpowering, visceral experience! The 350z definitely suffered from understeer too but then again my mate didn't disengage the driver aids so it may well be partly due to that.
Here's a little video of my over exuberance:
I hit a cone!
I also got a ride along with a mad Welshman driving a Ford Ka. that thing was hilarious and he drove it brilliantly - he managed to overtake a Corvette and an E46 M3!
A few pics of the day:
In other news I finally got round to fitting my upgraded injectors and fuel rails. A bit of steep learning curve for me since my car still had a bunch of vacuum hoses and solenoids left of from the original twin turbo setup but finally I got that all out of the way and tidied and got to my injectors. I've installed 850cc injectors as primaries and then my new Injector Dynamics 1700cc as secondaries. I plumbed it all in and pressure tested the system yesterday and so far so good, hopefully get the upper inlet manifold back on and have the car running this weekend and then I can spend some time on the map so I can finally up the boost. I'll start conservatively moving up to around 12psi and eventually work my way up to 16psi.
Here are a couple of nice pics I found of my car up at the last Haynes meet:
There has been one highlight in the past few months and that was a track day up in Wales at Llandow in February. I went up with a mate who was driving his 350z and we had a few laughs chasing each other around the track. The track let me stretch the car in a way that otherwise is inaccessible on the road and while also highlighting any weaknesses. I was blown away by the on-limit adjustability of this car on this suspension setup, it truly is like a go kart! The front-mid engine layout meant that the car just goes where you point it, not a sniff of understeer and the 2-way rear diff means that the rear end just dances as if the attitude of the car is directly wired to your brain as you brake and accelerate. Unfortunately the brakes aren't tip-top so as the fronts warmed up there was a lot of vibration through the steering so they're gonna need an overhaul and my other observation was that my race spec Quantum coilver setup although still hugely competent needs the at least the driver's front damper reconditioning. My mate and I also went out as passenger in each other's cars and the comparison was chalk and cheese! The 350z on track felt like a car whereas my RX-7 is an overpowering, visceral experience! The 350z definitely suffered from understeer too but then again my mate didn't disengage the driver aids so it may well be partly due to that.
Here's a little video of my over exuberance:
I hit a cone!
I also got a ride along with a mad Welshman driving a Ford Ka. that thing was hilarious and he drove it brilliantly - he managed to overtake a Corvette and an E46 M3!
A few pics of the day:
In other news I finally got round to fitting my upgraded injectors and fuel rails. A bit of steep learning curve for me since my car still had a bunch of vacuum hoses and solenoids left of from the original twin turbo setup but finally I got that all out of the way and tidied and got to my injectors. I've installed 850cc injectors as primaries and then my new Injector Dynamics 1700cc as secondaries. I plumbed it all in and pressure tested the system yesterday and so far so good, hopefully get the upper inlet manifold back on and have the car running this weekend and then I can spend some time on the map so I can finally up the boost. I'll start conservatively moving up to around 12psi and eventually work my way up to 16psi.
Here are a couple of nice pics I found of my car up at the last Haynes meet:
Quick update:
Injectors in, everything buttoned up. I cranked the car on the 850cc primary injector settings most people on rx7club.com seem to be using but it didn't want to catch. I went back to the original settings (set for 660cc on my car) and the car actually sprang to life and idled better than ever!? I've done a few tweaks and seem to have a solid idle but my AFRs are very rich at idle (11.5ish) so looking for other options. I can't wait to start doing some boosted pulls!
Injectors in, everything buttoned up. I cranked the car on the 850cc primary injector settings most people on rx7club.com seem to be using but it didn't want to catch. I went back to the original settings (set for 660cc on my car) and the car actually sprang to life and idled better than ever!? I've done a few tweaks and seem to have a solid idle but my AFRs are very rich at idle (11.5ish) so looking for other options. I can't wait to start doing some boosted pulls!
Nervousness, anxiety and jittery adrenaline feelings were my reward following the completion of the fuel system overhaul. I would have preferred some kind of relaxed satisfaction but to be honest relaxation is not a feeling readily associated with this car.
I realised that I had a work trip coming up which meant a long run from Exeter to Heathrow and with my wife needing the X5 for the next 3 days it had to be in the RX-7. So with a couple of days to go I needed to tie-up a few last jobs and do a shakedown and getting the mapping right.
After a bunch of back and forth (spending a lot of time on the rx7club forum reading old posts) I pretty much had the new injectors all configured in terms of size, lag, and their proportional flow compared to what my fuel map was expecting from the old injectors. I also had spent a long time in Excel smoothing out some kinks and inconsistencies in the map. Strangely though the car was harder to start than it used to be, cranking for 10-15 seconds (more on that later). I'd pressure tested the new fuel system up to 60psi (that's what it would see if I was running 20psi boost on top of base fuel pressure of 40psi) and had no leaks - in fact I had far less of a petrol smell now than i used to from under the bonnet!
So I went out very tentatively for a test drive/shakedown. I kept my laptop plugged in while I drove some local roads so that I could log all the things (manifold pressure, RPM, knock, injector duty, coolant temp, AFR etc.) My numbers looked good - well, all except water temp which the ecu was seeing as maxed out (an open circuit on the sensor). I even pushed into boost a couple of times and not only did my injectors not fly out of the rail but my new manifold blanking plates stayed firm too, did I mention I had to remove a bunch of redundant emissions crap to fit the secondary fuel rail?. After 40 mins of driving around and a few tweaks to the map here and there to fill in a bit of fuel, I was feeling a lot more confident. After a quick google I worked out where the wire for the coolant sensor was and it took about 10 seconds for me to spot the problem - somehow I had cleanly cut through the wires! Most likely while I was cutting some of the old vacuum hoses to access the injectors. Annoyingly the wire was in a very awkward place next to the inlet manifold so it was a fiddly 30 mins to get the cut wires stripped and joined back together. Now the car jumped into life after a short crank so obviously the sensor was the starting issue. The next day was the big one. I packed a huge bag of tools including the necessary zip ties and duck tape for my drive up to Heathrow. My flight was at 830 on Wednesday so my plan was to drive up to Woking on Tuesday night and do the last 20mins the next morning - at least then if the car did break on Tuesday I'd have a fighting chance of still making my flight! Thankfully nothing broke! Despite driving the length of the A303 and covering about 150 miles, the new fuel system and my own mapping got us through. I hit boost several times and adjusted the boost controller duty up slightly allowing me to see 0.89kg/cm2 which is 12.4psi.
Safely tucked away in Woking where I left it the night before!
Some max numbers on the ECU monitor
To be honest this new level of boost felt pretty scary! I'm going to have to get used to this car all over again! At this boost I was still seeing AFRs in the mid 10s and fuel duty only hitting low 60s so it would seem plenty of headroom for more as long as the fuel pump can keep up.
Arrived at Heathrow! Don't look too close it's covered in dirt and bugs!
So what next? I'm going to continue logging my ecu readings and afrs while driving around and keep tweaking the map until I'm happy and gradually up the boost to around the 16psi goal.
A prettier map
A sensor log
I'm also starting to get a bit sick and tired of the crashy race suspension and want something more streetable so looking at BC racing coilovers with 6/8kg springs.
I realised that I had a work trip coming up which meant a long run from Exeter to Heathrow and with my wife needing the X5 for the next 3 days it had to be in the RX-7. So with a couple of days to go I needed to tie-up a few last jobs and do a shakedown and getting the mapping right.
After a bunch of back and forth (spending a lot of time on the rx7club forum reading old posts) I pretty much had the new injectors all configured in terms of size, lag, and their proportional flow compared to what my fuel map was expecting from the old injectors. I also had spent a long time in Excel smoothing out some kinks and inconsistencies in the map. Strangely though the car was harder to start than it used to be, cranking for 10-15 seconds (more on that later). I'd pressure tested the new fuel system up to 60psi (that's what it would see if I was running 20psi boost on top of base fuel pressure of 40psi) and had no leaks - in fact I had far less of a petrol smell now than i used to from under the bonnet!
So I went out very tentatively for a test drive/shakedown. I kept my laptop plugged in while I drove some local roads so that I could log all the things (manifold pressure, RPM, knock, injector duty, coolant temp, AFR etc.) My numbers looked good - well, all except water temp which the ecu was seeing as maxed out (an open circuit on the sensor). I even pushed into boost a couple of times and not only did my injectors not fly out of the rail but my new manifold blanking plates stayed firm too, did I mention I had to remove a bunch of redundant emissions crap to fit the secondary fuel rail?. After 40 mins of driving around and a few tweaks to the map here and there to fill in a bit of fuel, I was feeling a lot more confident. After a quick google I worked out where the wire for the coolant sensor was and it took about 10 seconds for me to spot the problem - somehow I had cleanly cut through the wires! Most likely while I was cutting some of the old vacuum hoses to access the injectors. Annoyingly the wire was in a very awkward place next to the inlet manifold so it was a fiddly 30 mins to get the cut wires stripped and joined back together. Now the car jumped into life after a short crank so obviously the sensor was the starting issue. The next day was the big one. I packed a huge bag of tools including the necessary zip ties and duck tape for my drive up to Heathrow. My flight was at 830 on Wednesday so my plan was to drive up to Woking on Tuesday night and do the last 20mins the next morning - at least then if the car did break on Tuesday I'd have a fighting chance of still making my flight! Thankfully nothing broke! Despite driving the length of the A303 and covering about 150 miles, the new fuel system and my own mapping got us through. I hit boost several times and adjusted the boost controller duty up slightly allowing me to see 0.89kg/cm2 which is 12.4psi.
Safely tucked away in Woking where I left it the night before!
Some max numbers on the ECU monitor
To be honest this new level of boost felt pretty scary! I'm going to have to get used to this car all over again! At this boost I was still seeing AFRs in the mid 10s and fuel duty only hitting low 60s so it would seem plenty of headroom for more as long as the fuel pump can keep up.
Arrived at Heathrow! Don't look too close it's covered in dirt and bugs!
So what next? I'm going to continue logging my ecu readings and afrs while driving around and keep tweaking the map until I'm happy and gradually up the boost to around the 16psi goal.
A prettier map
A sensor log
I'm also starting to get a bit sick and tired of the crashy race suspension and want something more streetable so looking at BC racing coilovers with 6/8kg springs.
Update for anyone following, got back from Heathrow to Exeter in one shot, felt a lot more confident in the car so lots of boosting and exploring different revs and engine loads on the map and everything is always safely rich for a rotary so overall a successful 340 miles on my map following my own work on the fuel system. As a bonus the smell of fuel I used to get on boost is no longer there - I think my old o-rings must have been past it. One thing that needs a bit of tweaking is my boost controller settings, I need to find a better balance between target boost and controller solenoid duty since I was getting some boost fluctuations around max - nice problem to have now that I actually can up the boost! I really want to drive it more now - feels like a new car again!
H20DJY said:
Love this! I always wanted a RX-7, wish I had gone for it back in the day! Deffo still on the up value wise and a car thats aged beautifully.
Thanks! Get one while you still can! I've been contemplating buying a tuned/mapped 135i or 235i to replace it but on my drive the other day I saw so many newish quick BMWs to the point where they just seemed so disappointingly common and boring. I can't remember the last time I found another RX-7 in the wild while driving mine.
Slowly making a little bit of progress on things, driving conditions today were too perfect to ignore so I took the car out for a little bit of boost testing. I'd noticed a little bit of boost fluctuation when the controller was holding max boost last time I had the car out. I realised I had to try to balance the target boost setting and the controller solenoid duty to smooth this out, it turned out that this was relatively simple to do (I put the duty up and the target down) and soon had it sorted. This then gave me a chance to increase the boost a little bit and see how the map handled it. I found a completely clear straight road and set out on a few third gear pulls. I took the boost up from 12psi to 13.5psi (0.94kg cm3) and watched my AFRs and knock reading and the car took it like a champ.
At 13.5psi I'm somewhere around 380-400hp at the *wheels* (so well over 400bhp) based off what I've seen people pulling on the dyno with the same turbo on a stock port engine. This is now higher than it was when I first tested the car when I bought it when it was boosting way too high for the available fuelling but my injector upgrade means that now I'm only hitting 69% injector duty and AFRs are super safe ~10.0 AFR at max power/torque. The engine in the car has never felt this strong before and it's got me itching to go and do some quarter mile runs.
In other news the car isn't looking now too bad since I spent a mad afternoon a few weeks ago fixing the bumper. I really hate fibreglass bumpers now, I'm reasonably proficient at fixing them but being so prone to cracking and the general effort required to get a good fit is getting boring. I took a pic in the sun this afternoon and the car looks stunning in my eyes
Brake overhaul and chassis changes are next on the list maybe with some exhaust mods to make it more drivable day to day.
At 13.5psi I'm somewhere around 380-400hp at the *wheels* (so well over 400bhp) based off what I've seen people pulling on the dyno with the same turbo on a stock port engine. This is now higher than it was when I first tested the car when I bought it when it was boosting way too high for the available fuelling but my injector upgrade means that now I'm only hitting 69% injector duty and AFRs are super safe ~10.0 AFR at max power/torque. The engine in the car has never felt this strong before and it's got me itching to go and do some quarter mile runs.
In other news the car isn't looking now too bad since I spent a mad afternoon a few weeks ago fixing the bumper. I really hate fibreglass bumpers now, I'm reasonably proficient at fixing them but being so prone to cracking and the general effort required to get a good fit is getting boring. I took a pic in the sun this afternoon and the car looks stunning in my eyes
Brake overhaul and chassis changes are next on the list maybe with some exhaust mods to make it more drivable day to day.
Oh I forgot something else that I've been up to!
I found out that there has been some open source development around the ecu interface exposed by the datalogit box/cable I've been using for mapping. There's a big long thread on rx7club about it: https://www.rx7club.com/power-fc-forum-47/new-powe...
The software runs on a raspberrypi instead of my tuning laptop and lets me view ecu output in realtime (like how modern cars can connect to obd2 with phone based dashes etc.) but it can be dressed up with fancy graphics and interfaced with a touchscreen so I tried it out (I picked up the touchscreen of ~£22 during an Amazon flash sale and the case was about £8, the Pi is ~£30).
I made a video here:
https://youtu.be/7s19_Zdjyao
I found out that there has been some open source development around the ecu interface exposed by the datalogit box/cable I've been using for mapping. There's a big long thread on rx7club about it: https://www.rx7club.com/power-fc-forum-47/new-powe...
The software runs on a raspberrypi instead of my tuning laptop and lets me view ecu output in realtime (like how modern cars can connect to obd2 with phone based dashes etc.) but it can be dressed up with fancy graphics and interfaced with a touchscreen so I tried it out (I picked up the touchscreen of ~£22 during an Amazon flash sale and the case was about £8, the Pi is ~£30).
I made a video here:
https://youtu.be/7s19_Zdjyao
I really need to sort my brakes! I did some research. Initially I'd been led to believe (by the previous owner) that my front brakes are modified Brembos from a Mitsubishi Evo 6-9 but after looking at some of them it's definitely not the case. My brakes are in fact a purpose built RX-7 Brembo BBK based on the Ferrari F40 caliper design. I've found them for sale a few places and they're not cheap! I've already ordered Dixcel discs for the rear since the 314mm RZ / Spirit R size is not easy to get hold of from anyone else.
My calipers are good and I've bought some replacement Brembo pads for ~£40 but it's the rotors that are harder to get hold of. The best deal I've found is ~£480 for a pair delivered and that's getting the Dixcel parts from RHDJapan. I expect I'll probably order some soon. I actually took a bit of a gamble and tried some Nissan discs but sadly the offset/depth is wrong (they were only £80) - I'm still wondering if there's a way to adjust the position of my caliper to make them work???
In other news I've been researching the coilovers that came on my car - this is same set and once again pricey kit:
I've come to the realisation that they're just too harsh for the road and since I only manage to spend about 0.5% of my time driving on track I need a more streetable setup.
So here's the latest lot of new parts:
Another bumper (more on that in a minute), a big box there at the back, some brake pads, an oil filter, the Nissan spec discs.
This is the big box:
My new street suspension courtesy of BC Racing. They seem to be universally well reviewed and ever increasing in popularity. I opted for the softest spring setup (8kg/6kg front to rear) which is about half of the current Quantum Racing setup. The BC Racing kit also has rubber top mount bushings rather than clunky pillowballs. Ride height is also independent of spring pre-load. Not bad for about £700. I'm now in two minds about the Quantum Racing kit since it's such high quality - do I get them refurbed and keep them for track days or do I sell them to someone who can make better use of them than me? I guess I'll have to see how much I like the BC Racing stuff before I decide.
In other news I found someone selling the same wheels as mine andI love the colour so I think I want mine to be refurbed in the same colour as this:
So here's an up to date pic of the car:
If you look closely underneath the number plate you'll see the bumper is currently being held together with gaffer tape since I re-cracked the bumper on a curb after fixing it following the cone strike at Llandow. I've had enough of fibreglass - it's s
t! I tried to buy a polyurethane bumper but noone in Europe stocks them and importing from the US will cost about £400 in postage and taxes. So I'm taking one last punt with a new old stock never fitted before brand name manufacturer fibreglass one that only cost me £80 delivered. Much to my surprise this one seems a reasonable fit and lines up with the bonnet better than the previous three I've had. Gotta prep and paint it now.
And finally a new Motamec steering wheel since the last unbranded Chinese one was just a but too flimsy for my liking:
My calipers are good and I've bought some replacement Brembo pads for ~£40 but it's the rotors that are harder to get hold of. The best deal I've found is ~£480 for a pair delivered and that's getting the Dixcel parts from RHDJapan. I expect I'll probably order some soon. I actually took a bit of a gamble and tried some Nissan discs but sadly the offset/depth is wrong (they were only £80) - I'm still wondering if there's a way to adjust the position of my caliper to make them work???
In other news I've been researching the coilovers that came on my car - this is same set and once again pricey kit:
I've come to the realisation that they're just too harsh for the road and since I only manage to spend about 0.5% of my time driving on track I need a more streetable setup.
So here's the latest lot of new parts:
Another bumper (more on that in a minute), a big box there at the back, some brake pads, an oil filter, the Nissan spec discs.
This is the big box:
My new street suspension courtesy of BC Racing. They seem to be universally well reviewed and ever increasing in popularity. I opted for the softest spring setup (8kg/6kg front to rear) which is about half of the current Quantum Racing setup. The BC Racing kit also has rubber top mount bushings rather than clunky pillowballs. Ride height is also independent of spring pre-load. Not bad for about £700. I'm now in two minds about the Quantum Racing kit since it's such high quality - do I get them refurbed and keep them for track days or do I sell them to someone who can make better use of them than me? I guess I'll have to see how much I like the BC Racing stuff before I decide.
In other news I found someone selling the same wheels as mine andI love the colour so I think I want mine to be refurbed in the same colour as this:
So here's an up to date pic of the car:
If you look closely underneath the number plate you'll see the bumper is currently being held together with gaffer tape since I re-cracked the bumper on a curb after fixing it following the cone strike at Llandow. I've had enough of fibreglass - it's s
t! I tried to buy a polyurethane bumper but noone in Europe stocks them and importing from the US will cost about £400 in postage and taxes. So I'm taking one last punt with a new old stock never fitted before brand name manufacturer fibreglass one that only cost me £80 delivered. Much to my surprise this one seems a reasonable fit and lines up with the bonnet better than the previous three I've had. Gotta prep and paint it now.And finally a new Motamec steering wheel since the last unbranded Chinese one was just a but too flimsy for my liking:
InitialDave said:
While more expensive than a one piece OEM type disc, I'd think that you'd be able to get a disc and bell combination that would do what you need? Worth digging through the catalogues of people like AP?
Yes I'm definitely interested in 2-piece replacements, these are the cheapest I've found (that i'll most likely buy):https://www.rhdjapan.com/dixcel-brake-rotor-2-piec...
Quick update on the slow progress with the car, it's been sat in the garage on axle stands for a while waiting for me to work on the bumper and suspension. I waited for a break in the rain to finally paint the bumper. Conditions for painting were entirely sub-optimal, I painted with rattle cans out in the garden, outside temp was about 7C with a slight wind and in the dark! But seeing as how this is fourth time I've painted an RX-7 bumper with rattle-cans I got a better result than my previous attempts. This is how it looks before wet sanding and cutting / polishing:
Colour match looks pretty much spot on and I think I've slathered enough lacquer on there that I'll have something to cut back to a reasonable shine.
Colour match looks pretty much spot on and I think I've slathered enough lacquer on there that I'll have something to cut back to a reasonable shine.
Bumper is on, still not wetsanded or polished but it looks surprisingly ok for a rattlecan job, but now it's time for a coilover install!
Here's the new shiny stuff:
Getting the old coilovers off on the front took me too long and was a bit of a ballache despite there only being six bolts each side, I think it was about 3 hours to remove them with quite a bit of swearing even with a breaker bar and air tools.
Comparing the new and old front struts you can see one of the reasons I like the new BC Racing kit is that the spring pre-load is independent of the height adjustment. I set the new coilovers to be approximately 1cm longer than the Quantum Racing kit to account for the lower spring rates.
Fitting the rears was pretty painless in comparison to the fronts and I recruited a friend to help so overall we were left with this in each corner
BCs have this very accessible damping adjustment, I set mine to the middle (15 clicks) and thought that would be a great place to start
Yes the engine bay looks filthy, covered in dust and crap from sitting in the garage too long
After a quick oil change she was back on her wheels again for the first time in a while!
And so on to the big reveal
I'm really happy with the way she looks now, a fitting bumper makes a huge difference! The ride height is spot on for me too. A first tentative drive on the new suspension resulted in some smiles! It's a lot less crashy and much more streetable now on softer springs and since the top mounts have changed from noisy pillowballs to rubber, they're much quieter too. I think I might continue this process of making the car more civilised, I really think it's going to allow me to use and enjoy it a lot more so that will likely mean some exhaust work in the coming months. I've still got brakes on my list - I'm waiting on parts from Japan. just got some new (overly) expensive spark plugs to help mitigate against high rpm ignition break-up now I'm running more boost so I'll chuck them in soon. Then I've got my MOT later this week.
Oh I almost forgot! I managed to screw-up my sidelights and indicators by leaving the old bumper out in the woodshed too long - the copper connectors have furred up with oxidation so I've got them bathing in a cup of lemon juice then they're going back in with new LED bulbs later!
Here's the new shiny stuff:
Getting the old coilovers off on the front took me too long and was a bit of a ballache despite there only being six bolts each side, I think it was about 3 hours to remove them with quite a bit of swearing even with a breaker bar and air tools.
Comparing the new and old front struts you can see one of the reasons I like the new BC Racing kit is that the spring pre-load is independent of the height adjustment. I set the new coilovers to be approximately 1cm longer than the Quantum Racing kit to account for the lower spring rates.
Fitting the rears was pretty painless in comparison to the fronts and I recruited a friend to help so overall we were left with this in each corner
BCs have this very accessible damping adjustment, I set mine to the middle (15 clicks) and thought that would be a great place to start
Yes the engine bay looks filthy, covered in dust and crap from sitting in the garage too long
After a quick oil change she was back on her wheels again for the first time in a while!
And so on to the big reveal
I'm really happy with the way she looks now, a fitting bumper makes a huge difference! The ride height is spot on for me too. A first tentative drive on the new suspension resulted in some smiles! It's a lot less crashy and much more streetable now on softer springs and since the top mounts have changed from noisy pillowballs to rubber, they're much quieter too. I think I might continue this process of making the car more civilised, I really think it's going to allow me to use and enjoy it a lot more so that will likely mean some exhaust work in the coming months. I've still got brakes on my list - I'm waiting on parts from Japan. just got some new (overly) expensive spark plugs to help mitigate against high rpm ignition break-up now I'm running more boost so I'll chuck them in soon. Then I've got my MOT later this week.
Oh I almost forgot! I managed to screw-up my sidelights and indicators by leaving the old bumper out in the woodshed too long - the copper connectors have furred up with oxidation so I've got them bathing in a cup of lemon juice then they're going back in with new LED bulbs later!
Quick update - changed out my spark plugs, not a bad job, probably took about half an hour. Plugs were reasonably accessible under the intake elbow.
Looking at the old plugs there's a bit of carbon build-up on the leading plugs from running rich and some wear on the electrodes but otherwise nothing too bad but worth changing out since I haven't done it before.
MOT tomorrow!
Looking at the old plugs there's a bit of carbon build-up on the leading plugs from running rich and some wear on the electrodes but otherwise nothing too bad but worth changing out since I haven't done it before.
MOT tomorrow!
So yesterday was the nail-biting MOT! Thankfully since the car barely did 2000 miles in the last year there was nothing major to deal with. I did end up getting two new front tyres since camber had worn out the inner edge of my drivers side tyre. I went for a couple of Goodyear Eagle F1s which were a good price.
New spark plugs seemed to run absolutely fine, maybe a barely detectable improvement in idle although that could be down to weather? I'll see when I get a chance to drive the car on a more spirited run.
Can't wait to clean it up and do some driving now.
New spark plugs seemed to run absolutely fine, maybe a barely detectable improvement in idle although that could be down to weather? I'll see when I get a chance to drive the car on a more spirited run.
Can't wait to clean it up and do some driving now.
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