Operation Born-Again RX-7

In reply to infernosg :

Interesting.  No, I'm pretty much doing it "by the book" as this is my first build.  Even so, I am seeing some small differences between the Mazda shop manual, Atkins video, and Aaron Cake's videos.  It will be a tense moment when I finally try to start this thing.  Hopefully soon!

When I asked my son if he remembered an orange FC, he said he did.  He also observed that the FC sounded "nasty" or some similar adjective, and he's grown up around my T2 running no more muffler than a turbo and a 3" Borla XR-1, which is straight-thru, so I'm guessing you're running some kind of port and not much muffler.

I know what you mean about kids taking priority.  I had planned to be there with my elder son, but the little guy (now 15 y.o.) had a baseball game that conflicted.  No regrets!   One of these days maybe I'll bump into you up there.

Dang, injector air bleeds/diffusers are expensive!  And fragile when they get to be over 30 years old.  Grrrrr.

Edit:  Got 'em!  Good to have a junk engine laying around.  Was able to use an X-acto knife to chisel off the old o-rings, which are so brittle they snap like a pretzel stick.

Man, I can't catch a break.  Even with the thicker of the two spacers I bought, I have about .0011" of end play.  If I squint and try to fool myself, I can call it .0012".  Minimum is .0016".  Is my engine going to seize up and cause me no end of grief?  I don't really want to back up at this point, but I don't want to have wasted all this time and money either.

Roll the dice?

Or...

Pull it apart and get the endplay right?

Sigh.  Pulled it apart.  Ordering another spacer tomorrow.

Update: 

Got spacer.  Got end play within spec.  Assembly continues.

As of tonight...

The Eagle has landed.  That is, the engine is back in the car, attached to the transmission and resting on new motor mounts.  I'll give it a good looking over in daylight tomorrow and put the rest of the stuff on there.

Surprise!

Progress is slow.  I made a rookie mistake, go figure.  I am working on getting the wiring harness hooked back up, and while my wife took a bunch of pictures during the early stages of disassembly, she was not present after the UIM came off.  As a result, I am struggling to recreate the proper orientation of the injector plugs and other wiring.

Anybody got a pic of an S4 T2 wiring harness attached to an S4 T2?

Okay, I think I've got it now.  What was messing me up was that I was assuming that the wiring went Primary 1, Primary 2, then Secondary 1, Secondary 2.  I was able to glean enough information from the factory manual to convince me that it is rather Rotor 1 Primary, Rotor 1 Secondary on one branch, then Rotor 2 Primary, Rotor 2 Secondary.  I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Pic of the engine shortly before re-installation:

Okay, let's play a game.  Who can identify this thing attached to the wiring harness on the driver's side, currently hanging very close to the starter?

A)  What is it?

B)  Where does it attach to the car?

To me, the numbers on the case suggest a capacitor, and the shape and nature of the hole suggest that mounting on say, the firewall, would be acceptable.  I'm just wanting to put it back where it came from.

The individual providing the most plausible answer will win 2 "attaboys" and a heartfelt "thanks!"

No idea what it is, cut the wire, throw it away.....

1988RedT2 said:

The individual providing the most plausible answer will win 2 "attaboys" and a heartfelt "thanks!"

https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/question-about-electrical-piece-653781/

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

1988RedT2 said:

The individual providing the most plausible answer will win 2 "attaboys" and a heartfelt "thanks!"

https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/question-about-electrical-piece-653781/

Wow!  Thanks.  My googles came up empty.  I was able to determine that it was an ignition condenser, but could find no mention of a mounting location.  Vague picture in the factory manual suggested a location near the oil filter, so that seems about right.  Any point on the engine would be as good, presumably.

And oh yes,

Attaboy1 and Attaboy2!

And a heartfelt thanks!

1988RedT2 said:

Okay, let's play a game.  Who can identify this thing attached to the wiring harness on the driver's side, currently hanging very close to the starter?

A)  What is it?

B)  Where does it attach to the car?

 

 

To me, the numbers on the case suggest a capacitor, and the shape and nature of the hole suggest that mounting on say, the firewall, would be acceptable.  I'm just wanting to put it back where it came from.

The individual providing the most plausible answer will win 2 "attaboys" and a heartfelt "thanks!"

It is a condenser.  I believe it mounts to one of the bolts for the clutch slave cylinder.   I don't believe it actually does much of anything.  The idea was to reduce noise for the gauges iirc.

Edit...  gah, d idnt read down far enough ....

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

Yup.  Thanks!  I think I've got it.

Well, because you all were so very, very helpful on that last question, I present another.

Near the throttle body, there are a trio of wiring connectors.  One is the TPS, one is the IAT sensor, and the third I have no clue.  It's a single wire connector that looks like it would slip over a male spade type terminal, similar to the coolant temp sensor, but I already have that one, and it's nowhere near the same place.

The other thing I can't find a home for is a molded hose on the back of the intake just behind (downstream of) the throttle body.  It's like a nipple fell out or something.  Hate when that happens!

Well, it runs.  Finished putting intercooler and stuff on today.  Dang 80/20 rule.  The last little stuff seemed to take forever, and the stuff I forgot and had to backtrack after I covered it up. 

But I finally cranked it over, got a little reading on the oil pressure, put the injector fuses back in and after just a few seconds, she fired right up.  The next few minutes were about finding and tightening fittings that were leaking oil and coolant, and there were a few of those.  Took her for a short drive, and the new clutch is nice!  Hoping to log a good bit more time tomorrow, but I'm bushed.

Needless to say, the 18-year-old son is very happy.  And the old man is pretty darn happy too!

Here she is as she looks today.  Just a month less than a year since the whole operation started.  I'm sure I could build another one in less than 10 months.  LOL.

Pretty sure I have a vacuum leak or three.  Need to do a compression check, just to see where the numbers are.  I adjusted the toe today and she tracks almost straight.  I do think I'm going to let a trusted pro take a crack at the alignment though.

Many thanks to those who chimed in with helpful advice and those who just posted stuff.  It's been quite an adventure.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have a Quadrajet to rebuild on the Chevy truck and a '66 Chevy II to install a Holley Sniper EFI on.  With any luck, I'll have both of those done by midsummer.

You did it faster than me. I'm at a year and 3 months and it still isn't running.

Congrats man, gotta be a great feeling to take it for a spin.

You're motivating me to get back on my 1st gen swap!

Great work.

It's not uncommon to see relatively low compression numbers on a fresh rebuild with used parts, check again after it has a thousand miles and see if it goes up.

In reply to j_tso :

Will do!

Hey, here's one for you knowledgeable rotary people:  Metering Oil Pump.  Air hoses to each nozzle.  Four into one adapter thingie.  I would assume that the single outlet on that adapter should hook to engine vacuum somewhere?  I don't recall a hose on it--not sure it ever had one-- and it currently is just hanging loose in the space under the intake manifold where the secondary fuel rail lives.  Nowhere in either the factory manual or the Haynes does it show where to hook it up.

Will this affect oil flow into the engine?  What is the purpose of the air hose?

There's a port on the intake for it. It's filtered, but not vacuum air. Vacuum from the intake stroke inside the housing sucks the oil in, so oiling would be hindered if there was also vacuum on the nozzle.

In reply to j_tso :

So, looks like the bottom one of the three nipples on the firewall side, just downstream of the throttle body?

Great work. More pics!