It’s crazy to think when my bestie offered this car to me just under four months ago that it did indeed run after he replaced the fuel system and brakes on the car. Sitting for 17-18 years certainly wouldn’t bode well for any car, let alone a rotary, but she just had the will to live.
Since buying it I’ve acquired everything needed to fully paint the car to a high level, and restore it aesthetically. That’s just where things began though. Although it runs and did drive, I decided I wanted to address everything I could from it sitting that long. I’m proud to say that I’ve done a killer job and have truly given this Turbo II what it deserves.
I just brought the new Koyo performance radiator over, and complimenting it for the cooling system is a brand new water pump, thermostat, silicone radiator hoses, silicone heater hoses, 2 gallons of fresh Zerex coolant, and even a new radiator cap. I’m measuring the massive Koyo rad to size an electric fan so we can ditch the power robbing clutch fan as well.
The oil metering pump is getting fully rebuilt with all new lines, crush washers and everything in between. I’ve got several quarts of Idemitsu premix on standby too.
The dreaded oil pan cracking issue hasn’t plagued my car thanks to just 63,000 original miles, but to be sure it doesn’t happen I’ve acquired a Banzai racing oil pan brace with stud conversion. I figure this is a perfect time to redo the old oil pan gasket and fill it up with 20w50 Idemitsu rotary racing oil and a new drain plug. The engine mounts need to be loosened to do this and that’s also convenient because we’re replacing the engine and transmission mounts with my new delrin units.
Keeping with that theme we have some delrin subframe bushings, delrin active toe eliminator bushings, delrin differential mounts, a solid front position diff mount and poly for the rest of the suspension. Speaking of suspension I’ve also got new outer tie rods and brand new ball joints.
For the transmission things are interesting because this is a manual transmission with a pan. Yes you have indeed read that correctly! So I’m pulling the pan and making a new gasket for it as well and filling it with Motylgear oil to freshen that up. The rear LSD diff still operates very well and it is getting serviced with Motul 300LS gear oil too.
On the mechanical side we have noticed many cracked vacuum lines and hardened hoses. I’ve ordered 40 feet of black silicone vacuum lines in the appropriate sizes to redo every line on the car because it desperately needs it. If you watched my engine bay detail video I show just how hard so many of these hoses are.
I’ve ordered a new intake kit to replace the old air box, and we are making our own custom fan shroud for the new fan setup. Instead of doing a front mount intercooler or the popular V mount setup I’ve decided to utilize an air to water intercooler and plan to put the intercooler core directly in the oem position and utilize the factory hood scoop and ducting for it as well.
The sad story that is the factory exhaust is about to be ditched too. My 3” down pipe arrives Monday and we are fabricating the rest of the exhaust in house. I’ve ordered a new 02 sensor for it, and we are welding a second bung on it for the wideband gauge while we are at it.
It won’t be long and the lovely RX7 will be driven to our larger shop for paint. I need to order the Dunlop DZ102 tires, intercooler setup and electric fan after careful measuring. Otherwise stay tuned because we are shooting for a mid May deadline to have it done.
It was sitting untouched for so long, and it is hard to believe that this is even the same car. I’ll be very excited to share this amazing project with all of you!