www.RX7fb.com

If you wanted to sell them, I know someone who might be interested.

(not me though)

I decided to start with the spare engine in going through everything that came with the cars. Is there anything special about an Elford engine apart from the obvious bolt-ons? I want to rebuild this one to drop into the silver car but that's non-turbo.

I started stripping off all the parts but had to stop when I got to the 54mm nut holding the flywheel on! I'm thinking about buying the kit from Maxdatrix to make life easier in future.

Please ignore the outside working conditions but the weather was very nice. I'll put it all back together in a nice clean workshop!

Hopefully it's not too bad inside but I think it's been left out in the elements for a short while. It's been sat in dirt and one of the plugs was removed and there's a little water and oil in that housing. Still I blew it all out, re-oiled and all turned over smoothly with even strong pulses. Just need to get the flywheel of to get any further.

An Elford engine is just a standard 12a with an oil return bolted to the side of the sump, the 2no pressure switches bolted to the top of the rear iron and a bit of wiring/vac hose/single solenoid mounted on top of the engine to stop the automatic advance.
You can either rebuild this engine or just put the sump onto another good engine. You won't know until you pull this apart if the housings are reusable..... most aren't these days and good ones are hard to find..... if this engine has been running a turbo, it will have had a hard life.
Don't buy a rebuild kit until you've pulled this apart and checked the tolerances.
If you've got a 12a still in one of the cars, get it compression tested and if the readings are ok, just stick the Elford modified sump onto that engine and you'll be good to go.

Get rid of that S3 beehive heater exchanger as well and get a FC or T2 front mounted oil cooler...... beehives are a bad idea with a turbo.... they just transfer the heat from the oil into the cooling system which is already marginal on FB's.... air cooled oil coolers are the proper job.

Have a read of this thread from when I converted my stock 12a to an Elford...

http://www.rx7fb.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=1775

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RB6102 wrote:OK thanks. Well I want to stick with the more modern look so I guess I'll be on the lookout for a couple more replacements. I've read around the subject on this forum and it sounds like some panels are still available in the USA so I will try there too.

Good to meet yesterday. Were you tempted by anything else on the field?
I found the wing I mentioned on Ebay It is open to offers:-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/381247062358? ... EBIDX%3AIT

Likewise, it was good to meet and also for me to see a very nice example of one of these cars. It gives me something to aim for! I'm gonna contact those guys with the wing thanks and I think I may have found some new old stock in the USA too, just waiting to hear back..

There were a lot of nice cars at the Killerton show: I liked some of the old American stuff even if it is the polar opposite to the RX7! At least they have some character.

The 54mm socket is on its way and have borrowed my mates Snapon electric nut gun. Hopefully I'll have the flywheel off and the engine fully apart soon.

So the 54mm impact socket and nut gun did the trick to get the flywheel off and I got the whole engine apart last night. It got late and dark so no photos I'm afraid. Unfortunately it would appear that water had gotten in through the ports so the housings are not great! Thanks for the heads up on hanging back before ordering the rebuild kit, I think it may be a while before this gets built up again..

The end and centre plates show wear but I think can be saved, need to check tolerances / specifications then will speak to the machine shop. Options for the aluminium housings are limited but am investigating the idea of machining 13b housings down to length then machining in the o-ring grooves as per 12a. I have access to CNC machinery, just need to work out the geometry of the path the groove follows. It's a real shame new or old stock 12a housings are no longer available..

I guess I ought to be moving all this across to the projects section by now?