Me too. I can’t even complain considering the abuse this thing has absorbed! I was out racing, and drove home the night I decided to pull the motor. Who knows how long it’s been like that!

I am thankful that it stayed together. I have been the pilot of a car that slipped a radiator hose on the top end, and it was some good driving and a lot of dumb luck that kept it odd the wall. Not fun, and the steaks are obviously higher if something like that where to happen in Tijuana.

 

Things are starting to take shape!

Took the trans apart for inspection. You know you are making some steam when you put enough load into the main shaft bearing race to deform the shim behind it!! Talking to Tick-they typically see this with 1200++ whp cars. All of the gears looked good with the eye ball test.




Auto 3.9 Ring and pinion getting the good Hill Billy Posi treatment



Not pictured-rear end/subframe installed with homemade Camber arm to try and bring the camber as close to Zero as possible.

Motor and Trans back in!!! Now for turbo placement.

Details on turbo coming later.......

Whats your opinion- A or B? I like A for simplicity but it will be almost impossible to fit a full 4 inch DP. B gives me unlimited exhaust options-and direct shot for a CAI

A)

B)

 

I personally like option A. But I maybe bias

 

That looks great! But

1) its a street car, so no side exit, and running a 4inch DP back past the firewall is going to be near impossible.

2) I dont want to suck hot aid directly off the radiator. I have seen silly gains for getting true cold air tot he turbo, so I always try my best to give the turbo access to it.

 

B for the reasons given. More of an equal pre turbo length just because that would bother me. Easy short CAI and not a cluster **** of **** in one spot

 

I have a monster turbo, an actual CAI, an awesome cooling system, a full exhaust, plug changes are 5 minutes, and it has alot of room with no clusterfucks.

I can unbolt and remove manifolds, pull heads, whatever and turbo and hotside can all stay, nothing touched except the downpipe

 

If you have the room definitely go option B. My build started with turbo placement similar to "option B" & rotary1307cc. Unfortunately my cross over tubing was too close to my radiator & I would've had to delete my sway bar. In this pic my sway bar isn't bolted up but you get the idea how close everything is. I didn't want my crossover to hang below my engine crossmember. The turbo placement on the passenger side appealed for the simple fact more room for me to run my 4 inch downpipe. In the future I can run the the downpipe down between my frame rails & engine. Then continue it out to the back of the car. The fender exit was chosen to save weight & $ at the time.


The Z31 300zx doesn't offer much room for a large vertical radiator setup. So I moved the turbo to where it's at. My crossover isn't anywhere near equal length but bank nearest to my turbo loops down then back up. This was done to add some length.



I have a ducted shield/box in the works for my intake setup that'll draw in fresh cool air. With that said I have faith my Garrett intercooler core will do it's job. It appears you guys have much more room for activities in the FC than the Z31 does. If you go A2W and flip the intake like rotary1307cc did you'd have even more space. Option B is clearly the more appealing if space permits.(which yours does). Sorry about the pics I'm not trying to thread jack just sharing my experiences.

 

Indeed. Being able to work on the car efficiently is a must if something comes up on the street/track.

I hear ya. Yes, the FC has an unreal amount of room up front. I could fit 2 of these ******* in there side by side and still have room for a nice 3 inch thick AL radiator!

 

Updates are slow and progress has come in short bursts with the limited time I have for the car, but I made some big steps today after the fam left from Easter brunch.

In the last few weeks I have

Installed/filled trans (redline MTL with a quart of shockproof) Installed rear subframe/diff/filled diff with half havy shockproof half Redline 75-90

Mocked up/improved/finalized hot side. Wrapped all pipes-installed. 2.25 with a flex on the pass side. The spare alternator bolt point was perfect for a brace!





And most important-first fire! Video





This is a SBE 5.3 with an unknown (see-garbage picked) Cam. All I know is it was described as "had some pop" from the previous owner. Certainly sounds better than stock!

 

I have been working on the finishing touches to get it back on the ground for a test drive. Everything goes well I will then work on IC plumbing and the exhaust.

Slid the CHRA in, and made my feed and drain lines. The drain needed some massaging since the hole is so damn big. I made a flange to make it work.



Filter is temporary. I will be building something with a nice bell to get maximum airflow to the compressor.



First issue-BRAKES. My master cylinder was bad last year (was going to the floor on hard braking-fluid on the firewall) so I figured may as well install line lock while she is all apart. I have had a set since 2005 I got in trade-they were both locked up. With some PB blaster and a jump box I was able to get them working again. The Rx7 has 2 separate front lines out of the master, so 2 solenoids are required. Now I don’t know what idiot made these things-but they are NOT faired to accept a brake line. I learned the hard way!!! Nothing like doing the job twice. You have to get 1/8 NPT to brake flare adapters. I used some JB weld for good measure.



Brakes feel better than ever now! Once that was done I tackled bleeding the clutch. I fought with it for a good 20 minutes-it just refused to have any kind of pedal. Also noted it would not pull fluid with a vacuum on the bleeder. Odd. I ended up removing the master and bench testing it. It seemed to work as it should. I put vacuum to just the line, and POP-out comes the fluid. Must have been a clog somewhere! put it all back together and an hour+ later I have a great pedal and the clutch fully disengages as it should.

As a note, I am and have been using the stock Camaro Unit. Nothing like free.95!


Should be on the ground for a quick test drive by next week.

 

Ran into the same thing on my line lock. Ended up putting the solenoid in line with the aft brakes. I press the line lock just before I press my brakes. So with it engaged it blocks the fluid to the rear brakes. Works well and you only need one solenoid.

 

That’s backwards-but makes sense! So you engage the line lock, and then press the brakes (only using the front brakes)?

 

That is a pretty awesome setup for an automatic trans car! I honestly never would have thought of doing it that way...

 

It is! Obviously the traditional way is much easier for us manual guys since with his way but this is a really smart way to do it.

 

Clutch bled and adjusted, brakes bled. It was warm a few nights last week so I decided to try the full murder look.



I think Gloss may be better, but I will leave it for now.





Dusty ol' girl!



Paint still looks great after a quick bath- but she does need a buff




And the current status of things..





The cam, super aggressive clutch, and lack of tune makes things interesting for sure. Cam surge becomes pretty violent in the drive train with an on-off switch for a clutch! But the brakes work, the trans shifts (and sounds quieter than last season, so my reshim may have helped!!) and the fans work-so we are ready for IC pipes and possibly exhaust!

 

What turbo

 

On3 Billet 88mm. Will be posting a review/write up shortly!

 

Is that the same turbo you just had trouble with a4ls2goat? I'm sort of lost on some of these bigger China turbos that are recently available...

 

Yea mine was just a cast wheel though.
It sucks because i really wanted to see what this turbo could do. Im sure the op will haVe better luck than i did.

 

What happened to it?

This one is BB as well, so it should hold up! I have had great luck with their BB offerings.