www.RX7fb.com

So as I've been saying, the FB was in need of better lighting. I searched through the junkyard and found some pretty decent halogen foglights on a Z28 Camaro that featured aimable brackets. (And just in case, I also grabbed another set of brackets off another Camaro)

Then I went about mocking up how I was going to mount them on the car, which took a while... but I think this design works well. I'm using both sets of brackets, two of which I had to hammer flat. It's very solidly mounted, bolted directly to the aluminum bumper and also the bumper support bracket. I designed it so that if the bumper does get jammed in on its shocks for whatever reason, the brackets connecting it to the bumper support will separate and not damage the foglights or the brackets. (In theory anyway...)

I bought new bulbs for em, along with new headlights and aimed them up against the side of Walmart after it got dark. Should work way better now, but I still want to add in some high powered auxiliary lights to throw light further down the road.

So like i said a few days ago, I needed to replace a wheel bearing today. It's actually a rather arduous process on an FB. Funny how the rear axle kinda looks like a rotor if you look at it like this...



After you remove the axle-shafts you have to loosen the bearing retainer beside the wheel bearing via air-chisel before you can remove it with a hydraulic press. It's quite a tedious chore let me tell you... because after every minute of chiseling you need to sharpen the chisel. It took me approximately 20 minutes of time per axle to loosen the retainers.



After pressing off the wheel bearing from the passenger side axle (the noisy one) this is what I saw...



I am holding the bearing spacer in this pic, which has formed a sharp knife-like edge where once it was flat... you can see the damage it did to the actual wheel bearing lying flat in the picture. It was literally cutting a groove into the ball bearing(s) cage after the bearing seized. And when it seized, the bearings inner race spun on the axle shaft also wearing a groove into it, ruining the axle shaft in the process.

Thankfully I had a spare axle at home with two good axle shafts in it... but that meant I had to spend more time getting yet another retainer off... argh... I don't look forward to doing this again someday.

Yeah, what Cliff said. I've got a set of new MX-5 Miata lights to swap the headlights for when I get a minute. At the moment turning on the Elford-spec Cibie foglights probably doubles the stock headlight output. They do tend to annoy oncoming drivers though I wouldn't expect miracles from FD lights, btw. Mine are just as woeful as the FB ones, just on a much faster car so seem even worse! HIDs don't help much because it's the actual reflector bowl that's the problem. I've scored some uber-rare flat glass UK spec ones to try ...when I get round to it

Sake Bomb are supposed to be the law, but you definitely get what you pay for, then

Yeah that's true you definately get what you pay for... best foglights I ever had were some FET's I had on my Z back in the day (The Z's headlights were even worse then the FB's) that I shelled out $300 for.

I plan on adding some high power auxiliary driving lights soon, I need em since I do so many late-night mountain runs.

So I've decided to abandon the GSL-SE 13B engine and swap to this...



I found this 12A engine in a pull yard a few month's ago in an earlier-model FB that was apparently junked because its differential exploded. This 12A has obviously been rebuilt, and the irons are painted the same Mazda blue that my other 12A was in my RX3. A sign from the rotary gods??? ...Of course it is!

As far as I can tell this 12A isn't ported, so I am going to pull it apart to be sure it's worth using and bridgeport it. I'll be using a Weber with this manifold...



And once this 12A is ready it's going to be mounted to this FC subframe custom-fitted to my FB. Along with FC rack-and-pinion steering, front suspension/struts, and 4-piston brakes.

You have got this this year off to a good start!

redarrow wrote:You have got this this year off to a good start!

Yessir this year I'm devoting to getting back on the track!

Some more pics of the 12A



200whp is my goal with this 12A on a streetable tune. I don't think a 12A could easily do much better then that, but a 13B could. I know the most powerful bridgeported 13B I ever heard of made 355hp! 0_0  

Ditch the oil cooler.

Ditch the thermal reactor.

That's a nice S3 motor and I hope the housings are good.