STOLEN: My 1993 Mazda RX-7

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 9:14

I was at the track the day you had oil sprayed all over your windshield and hood, is that what you're talking about?

Yeah I hear ya, I wouldn't gut it either unless I was it was my dedicated track car. Well shit, if it's been done already with just a cat, I say give it a shot! I didn't think it could be done, but you never know. I think some of us other FD guys might move into a house on a big piece of land East of CS and have a huge garage. So I'm thinking if you needed to you could use our address to say you store the car there, and actually store it there if our garage is big enough haha.

I don't know of anyone offhand selling an oil cooler setup. You probably won't spend less than about $600 for a dual setup though, unless they're stock off an R1 or something. I have the Mocal 19 row dual setup and I got it from my buddy Rich for $700 several years ago. I'd look on 7club, RCC and other places. Maybe even Ebay.

Postby **RX-7 Chris** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 9:14

I would think what you heard about an FD passing with only a cat is a rumer. First of all it will not pass visual and the problem with running a cat on a rotary without an air pump is it will clog real quick.

Ranger · Postby **Ranger** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 9:14

speedjunkie wrote:I was at the track the day you had oil sprayed all over your windshield and hood, is that what you're talking about?

Yeah I hear ya, I wouldn't gut it either unless I was it was my dedicated track car. Well shit, if it's been done already with just a cat, I say give it a shot! I didn't think it could be done, but you never know. I think some of us other FD guys might move into a house on a big piece of land East of CS and have a huge garage. So I'm thinking if you needed to you could use our address to say you store the car there, and actually store it there if our garage is big enough haha.

I don't know of anyone offhand selling an oil cooler setup. You probably won't spend less than about $600 for a dual setup though, unless they're stock off an R1 or something. I have the Mocal 19 row dual setup and I got it from my buddy Rich for $700 several years ago. I'd look on 7club, RCC and other places. Maybe even Ebay.

Nope, this was a separate occasion :lol:

That day at PMP it turns out was just the oil filter, go figure! The seal on it completely let go, it was actually hanging out the bottom. Never buying a NAPA oil filter again. During the comp school it was the seals at the end of the balance shaft tubes. I will probably try and pick up an R1 setup, or something else cheap. That should be easy to install, too. I know someone selling a huge 24 row single setup, for $600, sounds like a good deal but I'm afraid that I'll have trouble fitting it, as big as my FMIC is. What do you think? Would fitment be an issue? I'd have to make brackets, right? A better oil cooler is a necessity though if I plan on drifting with it (which I do), last time I had it at a drift event I let my friend drive it and he overheated it very quickly, haha. On a hot day, it gets real hot even just with highway driving, around 110*C / 230*F. When do you guys think you will be moving into that place? That sounds awesome. A regular rotary garage!

RX-7 Chris wrote:I would think what you heard about an FD passing with only a cat is a rumer. First of all it will not pass visual and the problem with running a cat on a rotary without an air pump is it will clog real quick.

Why wouldn't it pass visual? It's not like the emissions people even know what an FD is

And I think someone makes special high flow cats for cars with rotary engines, that don't clog, even without an air pump. I mean, I know lots of turbo FCs that have cats, and I'm pretty sure they don't have air pumps, but I could be wrong there? But I agree, probably just a rumor that they passed an FD with no air pump or emissions equipment aside from a high flow cat. So yeah, you see my dilemma now. If I HAVE to put full emissions back on it, that's going to cost a lot. Combined with the whole cooling issue thing, it's part of why I'm considering selling it. I have no experience with either of those systems and I'm not willing to pay a shop to do it and wait another couple of months before I get to drive the thing :mad:

But I think whenever I finally do get it back I'll probably fall in love with it again and not want to sell

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 9:14

Oh damn, haha. Man I'd have been pissed if I knew it was just the filter haha. Bring another along, slap it on, right back on the track haha. The second time sounds quite a bit more serious though. I've never bought a filter from NAPA and I won't now, thanks for the heads up. The R1 oil coolers would install easily, yes. Like you've seen, even the Touring models came with an oil cooler, the dual setup would still plug into the same places, just have more oil line. It would require removing your AC condenser/power steering bracket though. So it will be some work. That's because the line going back to the filter is a steel line, so there is no flexibility there. Whereas if you got an aftermarket kit, you could snake the stainless steel braided line back through there without removing anything. We had that problem when rebuilding Simon's engine, haha, we forgot to put the oil cooler lines back on before putting on the AC and PS. Live and learn though. Being that the oil cooler mounts on either side of the front, I doubt you'd have a problem fitting it in there with an FMIC, but that all depends on just how big this FMIC is haha, not to mention a 24 row is a good size oil cooler too. And I made my own brackets when the ones in the kit ended up breaking, so that's no big deal. Really easy too...bought stuff from Home Depot, modified what needed to be, installed hardware and viola. I'm trying to remember what my oil temps get to, I think it usually hovers around 160F at the highest in the summer. Sometimes when I'm on the highway at night it will be down to 140 or 130 even. CHILLY. Oh I'm not certain we're moving in together, it's just an idea I brought up cause when Zico comes back from Hawaii he'll need a place to stay, and same with Simon after he returns from deployment in 15 months. And he's getting a lift and will need somewhere to store it, and I've always wanted a HUGE garage for all my rotary toys, so it just makes sense.

As far as emissions...I agree with you, I highly doubt those doing the visual inspection would know to look for an airpump, but you never know. Regardless, can't we just add the air pump and CAT? Do you still have your emissions stuff on there? Better yet, do you have a pic of your engine bay? Haha. Specifically the passenger side of the engine, that would be golden. We could do all that ourselves. Unfortunately, before even breaking into this project, we need to determine if your wiring harness is still set up for stock so you can plug in all the emissions connections, and that you still have the piping coming from the intakes, etc. If you don't have that stuff, and if I can't find all my old stuff, it's gonna be even harder.

Ranger · Postby **Ranger** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 9:14

Cool, I think I will buy that guy's oil cooler. Gotta do something with that tax return

The A/C does not work anyway so I could probably mount it in place of the condenser. (However, I would love to have A/C...I'm pretty sure it just needs to be recharged, it's 12A refrigerant so I doubt that has ever been done.) I found out that oil cooler is the one fdnewbie on rx7club sells. Comes with lines and thermostat. Oh and I was referring to water temps, not oil temps, however it's my understanding that oil cooling is a BIG part of keeping a rotary engine's water temps down.

None of the emissions equipment is in place...it was all removed. I don't think the air pump would do anything if there was nothing connected to it, would it? However I am tempted to put it back on anyway, as it currently has an underdrive pulley in its place, which I've read can cause serious damage to the e-shaft. The wiring harness is stock from a '94 manual trans. I had to buy a new one because the old one melted when the thieves overheated it. Here are the only pics I have of the engine bay...will take some more after I pick up the car.

The shop said it is almost done, just needs to have some fine tuning done, woohoo! I think I actually believe them this time, haha. Oh and as for the FMIC, it's kind of uh, well, HUGE. I seem to recall the previous owner saying it's the biggest G'reddy makes.

Sorry to jack your thread, Chris do you want to move this conversation to my "stolen" thread? (Like from the point where we started talking about my car)

Postby **RX-7 Chris** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 9:14

moved

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 9:14

Haha, this really tripped me out cause I could have sworn that just last night it was in MY thread HAHAHAHA. I don't care man, you could have left it there Chris, it doesn't bother me one bit.

Anyhoo, I wasn't talking about mounting the cooler in place of the condenser, and I'm not sure that would even help that much unless you had ducting running all the way back to it. If anything, I'd try to keep it right up front where they're usually mounted. I was just saying if you were mounting a stock setup in there, since it uses hard lines, you'll have to remove the bracket to install it and mount the bracket back on afterwards, since it's a hard line and you can't snake it through the small space between the bracket and the engine. Sorry, I should have explained it better. Oh alright, water temps. My water temps stay around 180F, sometimes up to 190 or 200 when pushing it. I usually try to keep it cooler than that though. And I'm adding water/methanol injection this summer so that should REALLY cool the engine down.

Well, it's still doable, I'll just have to find all my stuff. I just really want to make sure we have everything to make this happen. What I mean by that, is that when I removed my stuff, I removed alot of it not knowing exactly what each component did sometimes. Like I removed my secondary butterflies in the throttle body, but I'm not sure if that has anything to do with emissions and will have an effect on it. Stuff like that. Other than that, I should have all the little parts that have to do with emissions, I just have to find them when I get back in a month. The air pump won't do anything by itself, no. There are several other smaller components that need to be in place. I'm not sure how the deletion pulley causes damage to the e-shaft though, it's just taking the place of the air pump, to apply more contact area with the belt so it spins the water pump fully. If anything I would think it would hurt the e-shaft more if you DIDN'T have that pulley in place, because you'd tighten the belt more to ensure enough contact with the water pump. Regardless, if we end up putting the air pump on for you, I'll take that elimination pulley off your hands HAHA. I've been thinking about getting one anyway.

I can't see your pics right now since I'm at work, but I'll look after I get out of work. Does your IC invade the space all the way into the corners of the bumper? I mean, can you see the IC through the holes in the stock bumper that are meant for the oil cooler? If so, then your IC is too big. If not, you can mount the oil cooler there. Your front is sectioned off into 3 parts, the IC obviously being the largest in the center. You can view the tow hooks on the bottom front as the walls between these sections, since your oil cooler won't be mounting past that, it will be between that and the outer corner of the bumper, at the most.

Postby **RX-7 Chris** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 9:14

Haha, I moved it because Ranger wanted my to.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 9:14

Oh I know, I'm just telling the both of you I didn't mind it being there. I guess some people get pissed about hijacking, but I couldn't even really call it hijacking since I had asked him what was going on with his car HAHA. Hijacking doesn't bother me anyway...especially when I'M the one doing it, BWAHAHA. Just playin.

Ranger · Postby **Ranger** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 9:14

Yeah I asked him to move it, didn't want to clutter up your thread

Yeah, those water temps are wayyy lower than my car. That makes sense about the cooler not mounting where the condenser is. I talked to the guy who is selling that big single and he said that it comes with all the brackets, too. Sounds like a really easy job that could be done with an oil change. I don't think I'll have to even remove the condenser but we'll see.

Oh, and the IC doesn't extend all the way into where the stock oil coolers are, no. It ends where the center opening of the stock bumper ends, just the pipes stick out past that. You can see it in my last pic. I take it you have an oil temp gauge too, then? How hard was that to install? I've never done one, but I need to. I have been thinking about doing water/meth injection as well, if upgrading the oil cooler doesn't help things out. Sounds more complicated than I want to deal with right now, though.

As for the underdrive pulley, I remember reading this big long conversation on nopistons...I tried searching for it, but can't find it anywhere for some reason. Anyway it had pictures of various parts from the internals of blown engines, one with underdrive and one without, and the mileage that they blew at. The ones with underdrive looked a lot worse and didn't last as long. But yeah, if we put the air pump back on, you're welcome to the underdrive pulley, only fair

Let me know what other kind of emissions stuff you can find. Are you still overseas? (Or uhh wherever it is you went, haha)

Postby **RX-7 Chris** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 9:14

I would think the pulley would make no difference. If you think about it, the car with air pump would have been closer to stock because it retained at least some of its emisions. The car without would have had more mods and would have been pushed harder. Also sometimes motors are just like that. It is hard to compare things like that unless both motors were the same in every way except the air pump.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 9:14

Yeah I'm not sure I understood what you were saying originally. I thought you were saying you had the air pump deletion kit, the pulley that mounts right there so you retain more contact area belt-to-water pump pulley. Or are you saying you just have the underdrive pulleys? I have those already. When you remove the air pump, your belt is ALOT shorter and it barely touches the water pump pulley, that's why I thought you had the deletion kit. I'm with Chris though, I don't think the underdrive pulleys would make much difference. I think the only thing they'd really affect is your alternator not putting out as much juice or something, which is why I'm moving to an alternator that puts out 140amps instead of the stock 90amps or whatever. Let me know if you wanna know more about that.

You'll still have to remove the front bumper to install the oil cooler, but it will be easier than putting in a stock setup. I agree, you shouldn't have to remove the condenser and PS bracket if you have a stainless steel braided line, should be able to snake it through that small space. And it will take a bit longer than an oil change, haha.

Hmmm, the fact that your IC piping extends into the oil cooler space might be a problem, but it all depends how much. The pics didn't come up on the computer I'm on so I STILL can't see them, it's pissing me off. The oil temp gauge isn't hard at all to install. I got a new oil filter pedestal from RE Speed for around $70 IIRC, and it has two ports for sensors, in which I plugged the sensors for oil temp and oil pressure. I'll show you the next time I see you. I don't imagine it will be too hard to install the water/meth. Honestly, after reading Howard Coleman's threads on the subject on 7club, water injection for rotaries is almost a religion for me, haha. I don't know why Mazda didn't put it on there from the factory, it benefits the rotary so much. So regardless of how hard it is, mine is going on haha.

Yeah I'm still overseas for a little less than a month, so I'll look for the stuff in my storage unit when I get back. Actually, to be honest, it will be a little later than that. I'm going home on leave a few days after I get back and I'll be gone for almost a month probably, so it'll be June before I look in the storage unit...I'm sure they're buried in there haha. I have FB, FC AND FD parts in there, it's a mess haha.

Ranger · Postby **Ranger** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 9:14

Yes, I do have the air pump deletion kit, the Greddy one. But I think that's also an underdrive pulley? Not really sure haha. I may need to get a better alternator as well as I noticed the lights dimming and such whenever I turned on the radio or used the wipers, etc. Removing the front bumper probably isn't too hard, right? If it's anything like my 240SX was it's just a matter of undoing a couple bolts on each side. And yeah they are stainless braided lines, not hard lines, I'm pretty sure. Looking at the pictures again I am actually not sure that the piping extends into the oil cooler space...will have to have a look whenever I pick up the car.

I've heard nothing but good things about water injection as well...will probably rig up a setup eventually, but I really don't like working on cars anymore so the less work I have to do the better

Oh yeah I forgot to mention this...after I got my clutch changed my car had a weird idle problem. Specifically, it just wouldn't idle at all, sometimes. I'd have to keep my foot on the gas to keep the car running at stop lights and such. If I got off the gas, sometimes it'd die immediately, and sometimes it'd idle fine. It's weird because it idles fine at startup, it only seems to happen when the car is hot. And it never did that before I got the clutch changed. Any idea what could be causing it? The shop I had do the clutch swears up and down that nothing was left unplugged or anything like that, and I don't know where to start looking...

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 9:14

Haha, GReddy doesn't make an elimination kit like I'm talking about, that is something that is made by a forum member on RCC (he might be on 7club too). Tweakit Racing I think is who made it. Actually I think I'm gonna try to buy one from him. ANYWAY, GReddy only makes the pulleys for the Alt and WP, which are only underdrive pulleys. They are a little bit bigger so it helps a little with the contact patch, but sometimes not enough. The one Tweakit makes is an extra pulley that mounts in place of the air pump, but doesn't stick out as far, so it keeps more of the belt on the WP pulley, that's all it's for. I'll see if I can find a link or pics or something. Taking the front bumper off isn't hard, there are a couple bolts in the engine bay there at the front, and there should be a screw at each wheel well, and there are alignment bolts but they don't have nuts on them. IIRC there is a total of 2 bolts and 2 screws. The only problem is you might have to take off the front wheels to get to the wheel well screws, but that might be just because of the way MINE is set up. I can finally see your pics, and it doesn't look like the piping extends into the oil cooler passage, so you should be fine.

You don't like working on cars?? WHAAAA??? LOL. I hear ya. Sometimes I get tired of it too. Overall I love it though. I'm not sure about the clutch problem. Just because they SAY they didn't leave anything unplugged, doesn't mean it's true. Although, they could have bumped the TPS and IIRC that would have an effect on it. The TPS should have been bolted down tight though. Also check the ISC (Idle Speed Control) solenoid, on the back of the UIM. And check all your vacuum lines. I've had some funny stuff happen with idle before. What RPM does it idle at when it doesn't die?

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_forum/showthread.php?t=5627&highlight=air+pump+deletion (not sure if you'll be able to access the thread, I attached pics too)

The first pic is for a twin turbo setup (the pulley looks different now I believe) and the second pic is for a single turbo setup.

Ranger · Postby **Ranger** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:14

Ah, yeah, that elimination kit is the same one I was thinking of that was posted on nopistons. I might want to go with that but I think I'll stay with what I've got for now. The air pump has definitely been removed and there is a pulley in its place. I'll have to take a look whenever I pick up the car and see what exactly it is. Speaking of which, it's almost done! Precision said it's running pretty well, but they're having trouble getting the turbo control system to work. Apparently the lines were "simplified" by another shop out of NC, Rotorsports Racing. They have a pretty good rep and I think they know what they're doing...I think Precision is just not understanding what was done, and I wasn't able to find out much from Rotorsports. They said that they bypassed a lot of the factory hard lines since they had been tampered with. Completely bypassed the FPR solenoid too. I think the thieves may have tampered with the turbo controls as well, believe it or not...Precision said they hooked up the lines just like they were when the car came to them. And it ran great when I had it. But, the FPR was not bypassed, according to them. So, sort of a guessing game at this point as to how it was hooked up. Do you know much about the turbo control routing? Hopefully, Precision will get it figured out and it'll be done by the end of the week. (I can't even count how many times I've said that now...)

As for the idle thing, I'm guessing that is not an issue anymore as they've been driving it around. Might have been something in the old wiring harness. I'll check the TPS and ISC anyway.

STOLEN: My 1993 Mazda RX-7

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