1983 RX7 S2 - Flo

[Tepper]

One shiny engine, ready to go:

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This is what had been reused the last time the engine was built. They make a nice ornament if nothing else:

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And finally the engine bay almost fully stripped to start prepping for paint. Amazingly all the brake pipes came apart without a fuss so far, which was a nice surprise:

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[Tepper]

Engine bay cleaned, keyed and rust wire wheeled:

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Currently using a phosphoric acid solution to treat the rust, then I'll use Rust-Anode on top of that before carrying on with the paint:

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[Tepper]

I haven't had as much time as I'd have liked on this recently, but I managed to get the engine bay painted at the weekend. Following the rust treatment, I used Rust Anode over anywhere that had been treated. Once that had been rubbed down, I sprayed two coats of epoxy primer, 3 coats of base coat, mist coat of lacquer then a final coat. All applied wet on wet, hopefully everything has adhered properly... I think it turned out reasonably well for a rattle can job:

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Annoyingly the only runs I got in the clear coat are in quite an obvious place up on the bulkhead:

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So now I can reassemble the engine bay and think about actually dropping the new engine in. I also need to move the car over to my new workshop, which hopefully I'll be able to get done over Christmas.

[spirit r]

The fender were screwed directly onto the body by Mazda without sealing material. You will definitely find corrosion spots underneath. I would have painted them at the same time and fitted sealing tape.

[Tepper]

Thanks spirit r, I did actually take the wings off before when I had the shell sandblasted and I don't think I found anything too worrying under there. At some point I'll probably paint the whole car, when I do I might take the wings back off then and use some sealant.

Starting to get the engine bay reassembled:

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Mounted the FC fuse box by modifying the FC bracket, this is mounted using all original holes:

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I bought some crimp terminals to allow the original wiring to be properly connected to the fusebox. The choc block is what was fitted by the previous owner instead of the fusible links:

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Although I might be getting a bit ahead of myself, I started looking at wheel choices. There's not much around in 4x110, so I thought it would be worth picking up these Enkei Apache 4s when I saw them:

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And finally the car has been moved to a new workshop, it's a bit more cosy in there but as the old one is being demolished it had to move:

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[spirit r]

These Enkei rims look really great. Do you already know which tire size you are going to fit? One size wider at the rear would suit the Rx7 quite well.

[Tepper]

I'm planning to run 205/60/14 front and back, which looks like it should work:

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If you or anyone else have run this size I'd be very grateful to hear your experience with them.

[Hobbawobba]

What width is the rear wheel? They do look nice. I run 185/60 semi slicks (Nankang NS2R's) on mine and they sit pretty flush with my 7" wide wheel. They're a nice grippy tyre, assuming their won't be too much wet weather driving . They don't do too bad in the rain though IMO.

New workshop looks sweet! I desperately need to find somewhere like that for mine haha

[Tepper]

I feel for you Hobba, finding this place was a nightmare. I was getting worried I'd have to sell the car and get rid of a load of stuff when I found out we had to clear out of our old place, but luckily we're sorted now. I think there might be some more units available soon if that's of any interest?

The rims are 6" wide all round. I've ended up going for Uniroyal RainExperts in 195/60/14, I did want to fit 205s but there's very little tyre choice in that size. 185 seems to have a lot more choice, but I think that would be a bit narrow for my preference on these rims. I've ordered them anyway, will have to see how they look when they turn up and I can get them fitted.

[Tepper]

As usual, I haven't had as much time as I would like on the RX7 but I have managed to get a few bits done. Firstly I've managed to get the wheels and tyres on, they didn't have the Uniroyals so I ended up with some Nexens, hopefully they're OK. I've stuck on some modern centre caps for now but it would be nice to find some that are more suited to the style of wheel. Happy with the fitment anyway:

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I've also had a mate slot the holes on the turbo out on a mill, then ported it to match the gasket. This has allowed me to get the turbo properly fitted, although I think it's going to have to come back off to weld a V band flange onto the exhaust housing. I also need to try to find a V band fitting for the compressor discharge, it's a 2" diameter outlet but a normal 2" V band doesn't fit - I may be able to either have something turned to fit or just chop off the V band fitting and weld an elbow with a pipe bead straight onto it:

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Finally I've been cracking on with the wiring for the MS2, I haven't got many pictures of that but the relays and fuses inside the car are mostly fitted and wired and I've routed the necessary factory wiring to the back of the glovebox where the MS2 is mounted. It turned out that I built the MS to an older pinout, so when I went to wire the DIY Autotune harness into the car a lot of it was wrong. Fortunately I was able to repin the harness at the MS plug, so everything should be in the correct location now just with a few colour changes. I also had to add a two pair shielded conductor to the harness for the CAS signal, so I picked up some D sub pins and got crimping. Here is the final result before putting the case back on the plug, the harness is now ready to be wired into the car:

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