^ Normally it doesn't get cold enough in Southern Indiana to need a heater. The garage is attached to the house so it stays relatively warm. There will be one or two winter blasts in a season and that's about it. Unfortunately one of those blasts is now.

It's gonna be 40 today!!! Think I might lay out...get a tan....:P Seriously though. Family has all left after the Holidays and I have the day off. Gonna see how much I can get done before the Buckeye's game.

Here's the rotor. I got it relatively cleaned.
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._1714778_n.jpg

Bearing is in great shape
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._6507361_n.jpg

All the apex grooves look good
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Here's the polished logos. I got them down to 2000 grit and that's good enough for me. Some of the letter edges are rough but I'm not worried about it. I was really just killing time. Once the engine is in nobody is going to see the logo and after a few miles the polish is going to tarnish.

Gonna touch up the already painted housing, paint the newest housing and paint the front cover.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._7576935_n.jpg

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looking good glad your build is going better than mine.

Do tell?? What's not going well on yours?

My rebuild hasn't gone all that well. Well the timing for needing it couldn't have come at a worse time. I lost my job in 2009..same time I needed a rebuild. I'm doing better than I was a year ago...but not as well as I was two years ago before all this "economy stuff" happened.

I've had a few setbacks. Needed to replace my turbo..but now I have a core if I want to do a BNR. I needed a refund on a horrible housing some asshat tried to pass off as useable. I needed a replacement on a rotor that a seller didn't know was detonated. He hooked me up nicely.

The rest of my rebuild will either happen quickly or I may simply take my time and wait till it gets a little warmer.

yea mine is a similar story, lost my job a year ago was a stay @ home dad for a while, then when I got some money and time I took apart my fc to paint it, then bam got a job and got sepperated almost at the same time! now I have been working so much I dont have time to paint it and I need it now :(. Its been a roller coaster thats for sure! now im thinking I need to sell it and get a family car of some type or slightly more geared to that. so I wont get to enjoy the car for that long after its done.

It's warm and things are moving again.

I need to replace my OEM heatshield anyone have opinions on this one. I'm getting a few things from Prosport anyway and the price is right.

http://prosportgauges.com/turbo-heat...t-t3-Grey.aspx

Just ordered my Rtek 1.7, will be dropping my ECU in the mail to them later today.

I just wish it would stay warm out. Mother nature keeps teasing me.

This build looks awesome for a "boring stock build" lol

Keep up the good work!!

Heres a quick question, how did you clean your rotors? when i built my N/A that was probably the hardest thing. and now that i've picked up a TII swap, the rotors are staring me in the face laughin!

^Thanks, my work is very moderate and run of the mill compared to more experienced owners.

I've used the videos on rebuildingrotaryengines.com for alot of knowledge and how-to. That combined with an Atkins rebuild dvd and numerous threads asking advice on anything and everything.

http://www.rebuildingrotaryengines.com/
There's a video about cleaning rotors and they use a wire wheel and small brass brush. I followed that for cleaning.

^^ I completly forgot about those video's thanks! lol

Kudos for Pocketlogger. I get an email today just after Noon telling me they received my ECU, I get another email 40 min. later telling me it's chipped and on it's way back to me!!

S5 TII 1.7 is on it's way to me:icon_tup:

I went junkyard hunting yesterday for a Volvo 2 speed fan controller....no luck. It's awful slim pickings at my local junkyards. No 7s, not much of anything actually. There were only two Volvos on their lot that could have had that controller...both were picked clean.

I did get a newer 2 speed Taurus fan than the one I have...this time I got the full harness. Now to figure out a better way to mount it to my Koyo....

Have the Rtek

Found an industrial powder coating shop that will do small items on the side. Their choices in colors are pretty slim but the price is right. $50 for the UIM and LIM sandblasted and in any color they have. I'm thinking black, silver or white. If I did white I'll put a Rising Sun flag that will go over both the UIM and LIM.

Gonna stop in tomorrow and see if I'll get a discount if I bring in lots of parts at once. Might have some local people interested in going in all at once. Hell if anyone is local to Southern Indiana and wants some things done in any of the colors I'm getting....send me a PM.

Parts are getting powder coated a mix of gloss black and silver. Ordered all my rebuild parts from Atkins and Pineapple. Got a turbo blanket from Summit Racing. Using a Starion thermoswitch for my Ford Efan. Um...what else....??

OH....made a decision that my rebuild is going into the black vert and I'll probably be selling the red one after all the turbo parts are swapped onto the black vert.

I'm having a hard time remembering the exact numbers and I'm too lazy to scroll up and look :07: But that sounds about right. There was enough variance from one end to the other that I was concerned. The rotor would probably be useable for a 3mm apex seal. It does have the one nick in the rotor face so that would create a hot spot. Who knows I may put it up for sale or may have it powder coated and use as a display or clock.

Atkins parts arrived today. Everything looks as it should. I may end up ordering an FD OPR. One thing I forgot to order was hylomar. There is a thread on one of these forums about hylomar and their different formulas. Someone found their old formula that does not harden. Later today I'll dig that thread up and post a link.

I"m still waiting for the Pineapple stand adapter. I ordered at the same time I did Atkins and haven't recieved anything about it shipping out. I hope those don't have a long wait/backorder.

I also hurt my back/neck yesterday. Had to leave work early, didn't got to work today and have a Doc appt. tomorrow. I gotta say yesterday's pain was amazing. Just the g-force from accelerating from a stop was enough to turn me white with pain. Of course that didn't stop me from getting work in on the car. Not related to the engine, but for the black vert swap I'm modding my headunit mount. I'm using the bracket from the vert OEM headunit. Modding it so that I mount my headunit the lowest. I'll then make a front panel for 3 gauges that will fit above the headunit.

Finally got parts back from powder coater. The owner went out of town and left my parts locked in his office. 2 months or so later I have them back and he tossed in a discount on the price.
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._1756477_n.jpg

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I've got more pics but the camera battery died and I can't find the charger or d/c plug. I did all the pulleys in black. The water pump housing is silver. Did my Infini IV bar ends silver, TID silver, turbo charge pipe silver. Fuel rail silver.

Only semi-related to my rebuild.....my finances might finally be improving!!!!

Interview with the owner of a local company turned better than I could have asked. I was overqualified for that specific opening, but our conversation led to him talking about his future needs. He needs someone to train to manage one specific division of his sales/service. I'll hear from him beginning of this week.

If I do land the job I may celebrate by tossing a lightened flywheel into the mix.

A light flywheel makes a world of difference in first gear.

Congrats on the interview, I hope you land the job!

^ I did get the job! Not sure if I'll do the lightened flywheel or not, but the engine is being assembled today!! It's been a long time in coming.

So assembly did not happen today. I'm a little more than dissapointed..but tomorrow is a new day.

My inspiration

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._5468793_n.jpg

I found this in my nephew's Hot Wheels collection. It was originally mine many years ago...hell a couple decades ago. It was a gift shortly after my father bought his first RX-7...an FB. I had forgotten I even had it, but it's kinda nice to see my inspirations as a kid turned into an adult hobby.

Keep after it, you will get it eventually. Just remember that it is a project and a hobby, that should help to keep you from working so hard at it that you burn out.

^ Thanks, I got stressed out trying to get as much done as possible before starting a new position. Now that I've started I'm content waiting. And good thing. I've needed to replace a couple cracked water jacket seals. I had to decide about a middle iron that got corroded mysteriously. While waiting for the water seals to arrive I decided to buy new side seals for one of the rotors.

Story on the side seals are that I bought an FD rotor as a replacement. I meticulously kept track of the side seals and corner seals. Kept track of which slot each one came from. My original good rotor I did not keep such good organization. When it came time to spec out the side seals I found some interesting numbers. Every one of the FD side seals and corner seals were in spec between the two. On the FC rotor I could not find one that was in spec. They were all at .007, one or two was at .008. As reference FSM specs are .0025-.006.

I'm going with new side seals on the FC.

Other updates:
I've got the subframe on the original turbo vert dropped. Differential off and ready to go. I also moved the red turbo vert to my sister's pole barn to make the swap happen. The pole barn is large enough that I can put the verts side by side. Get both subframes and differentials off and swap them.

As an added bonus her family lives on a lake. When it gets too hot I jump in the lake....literally.

As soon as the heat wave passes I'll start prepping body parts for paint. Ideally I'd like to paint the hood, scoop, side skirts, front bumper, lip and touch up a few spots on the body. We'll see how much time allows for.

The waiting is the hardest part...... (in my best Tom Petty voice)

water seals are here. New side seals were on back order from Atkins and the dealership wanted $15 a piece for them. Side seals are now on their way.

In the meantime I've got all the molding off the hood. I was going to paint both the OEM and MS scoops. BUT the OEM scoop is pretty far gone and needs ALOT of work to save it. The front bumper is off. All I need is time so I can get to an autobody supply shop for my wetsanding.

Engine is mostly assembled. I have to check end play on the eccentric shaft. To do that I need to take the engine either to a friends shop or any shop that will use their air tools to torque down the flywheel nut so that I can test end play.

The other option is to research how to torque down that nut with a 150lb torque wrench and a big bar. I know it can be done but not sure what's involved with the whole process. If anyone can toss me some advice it'd be greatly appreciated.

In the mean time I was concerned about whether my turbo blanket would fit so I mocked things up to make sure I didn't have to make any changes. The blanket does touch the LIM and thats with only minimal torque on the nuts. I think it will work out just fine though. I put the UIM on for the hell of it.

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._4357876_n.jpg

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:lol: minivan

No worries about the ~360 lb-ft torque spec in the FSM.

Most 1/2" impact guns are rated around 250 - 500 lb-ft.
Just zap it with the gun for about 10 seconds.
Good enough.
Don't forget the thread sealant / locker on the threads and mating face of the nut facing the engine.


-Ted

Actually its a Prius if you took enough time to look :P I am driving a minivan at times though. What I really love is driving the minivan to my friends tuner shop and the looks the dorifto kids give me.


I talked to the friend who owns a shop. His impact gun is rated to somewhere in the 200s. I was concerned about it but he says he's put a flywheel on an RX7 and they've had no issues with it.

I've used my Sears Craftsman Professional *electric* 1/2" impact gun in a pinch - that's all we had at the time.
That gun is only rated at 270 lb-ft.
I typically use Permatex "PST" (pipe sealant with teflon) to seal the flywheel nut to the flywheel / rear counterweight and Loctite red on the threads.
I've never had the assembly loosen.


-Ted

He told me how much his impact wrench was rated for and IIRC it was in the 220s. His shop is just down the road from where I work. If his air tools will be enough it'd be an easy process to have the partially assembled engine in the van with the stand. Put it on the stand at his shop. Hit the nut with his impact gun. Test my endplay at his shop. Remove the nut and drive everything over to the garage where the swap is happening. Once the engine is fully assembled I can repeat the process just before install.

I honestly just tightened my flywheel nut with a huge breaker bar to "Frikkentight" german specs... It never came loose lol. And yes, you need to put locktight on it too.

Love the build progress. I also had some of my stuff powdercoated during my own rebuild and it looked so awesome out of the car. Then once it was in the car I couldnt see it anymore...

Point is, Think of all the stuff that goes ON TOP of the UIM/LIM/engine and get that powdercoated too! I forgot a few things (brackets mostly) and they dont look as good rattle canned as my powdercoated stuff. stuff like block off plates, AC bracket, oil filler neck, throttle cable bracket, IC piping, BAC valve.

I also went through the trouble of polishing the Mazda logo on my engine, but its kinda depressing how impossible it is to see after it's installed.

I got all the parts I chose to have done either black or silver. My cold side of the turbo is the same silver as my homemade TID and my IC charge pipe. I got my InfiniIV strut bar ends the same silver. Eventually I'll get the actual bar done in red, probably the same time I do my front brakes.

I did all my pulleys in the same black as the rest. I didn't do my p/s and a/c bracket. I have an a/c only bracket that I'll eventually be using but need to get the matching a/c compressor.

Ted, my endplay came up way off. If I'm reading my dial indicator correctly I'm looking at .005 rather than the .0016-.0028. I took the keg to the friends shop to use his air tools. I tested it there. It's still in the back of the van cause I'm waiting for someone to come home and help me lift it out.

The only things I can think of are these:

1. My Atkins dvd states that I should have 60lbs on the front bolt. I checked my FSM and it says 80-89ish.
   
2. Or maybe that I didn't put the crush washer on front bolt. I wasn't sure when to put it on. During endplay test or wait for final assembly of the front cover, oil pump, etc. I erred on the side of caution, not wanting to crush my crush washer when testing end play.

I left the flywheel tightened down and once help gets here I'll get the engine back on the stand and play with more torque and the crush washer.

IIRC my front spacer is a "K" and buying thinner spacers is an option of course, but having almost twice as much as the end spectrum of movement seems like an awful lot. I did have to replace a rotor and housing. But was hoping that using mostly the same parts would mean not having to get a different spacer.

Nah, I think you're overthinking it.
We just normally hand tighten the front eccentric shaft bolt and then check endplay spec.
I've only had to adjust one down or one up front he original spacer in some cases.
I just took a peek at the FSM on the available spacers, and you're still within the available spacer options - you need like a -0.003"?


Yeah, that's the problem with changing out housings - that's what causes the different endplay clearances. :(
0.003" is like paper thin - ever see the clearance gauge for that amount?
Stop beating yourself up about it...


-Ted

Thanks for the feedback, and yes my overthinking things is a common theme. I had a night to sleep on it. I tried calling a friend who's torn down a few engines to see if he had any spacers. Nope he doesn't.

I'm gonna see if any machine shops are open today and see about getting my spacer shaved down a few .001. I doubt I'll find any open so I'm also thinking about simply sanding it down with a block and measuring it with some dial calipers.

Make sure and get it square if you do so. If you change the length of the spacer, you should really change the letter label on it too, so that someone doesn't get confused in the future.

I have 3 spacers and they are all K's

Too much endplay is much better than not enough. Not enough usually means that the front thrust bearing is not centered on the spacer.

I'm thinking the same thing about keeping it square. Originally I was thinking I'd take some scrap wood and use a hole bore drill bit to make a trough for it to sit in. Then use a sanding block. None of my hole bits are the right size. Rather than go out to the store (I'm 20 min. drive each way from anything) I'm gonna set it on a flat surface and sand the top side of it. I've got some dial calipers and am going to take some measurements at different points for before and after.

If I screw it up I'm no worse off in the long run. I won't put it on if it doesn't measure square. I can't use it as-is.

I thought of the same thing with marking it, but am not sure what to mark it with. I don't have anything to engrave it with. Paint will come off. I've taken all kinds of notes and kept a picture archive. That way if I ever sell the car or engine the buyer has a record showing I did a quality job on the rebuild and any other little details they or I might need down the road.

I came in to check measurements on the spacers so I can start sanding this down. Who knows, if I butcher this I may be back in putting up a "Want to buy" thread for narrower spacers :P

Came in to take a beer break and announce that sanding worked. I've got written down how much I took off the spacer, more important I measured on 6 points around the spacer and it's all even. Most important end play is .0021

Awesome, glad that you got it fixed!