It all Started with the first car I ever drove. It was a 1985 Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE with the 13b Wankel Rotary Engine. Ever since that day I was hooked on the RX-7′s. When it came time to buy my first car I already knew what I wanted. I lived in the boonies a bit so they were kind of a hard car to find , and when I did they would be way out of my price range or in pretty poor shape. I ended up getting a 1993 Mazda mx-3 and put a 200hp 2.5l V6 in it. It was a fun little car but my Love for the RX-7′s never went away. When I turned 23 I finally found the perfect car a 1987 Mazda RX-7 TurboII chassis with no engine or transmission.with original 140k kms on it, the body was solid, there’s no rust whatsoever on it, although it was pretty dirty under the hood, and the red hood ended up getting damaged so it came with a black TII hood on it . heres a picture of the car when I first got it. I paid $1300 for the chassis
The Engine Bay
As you could see the engine bay was pretty Grimy when I got the car, everything was covered by a thick greasy sludge.
I’m not a big fan of the spray on engine bay cleaner….Dawn dish soap and time works a lot better in my opinion, and it’s not harmful to your paint and driveway.
It probably took a good 4-5 hours of scrubbing to get the engine bay to this point
I’m not a big fan of the spray on engine bay cleaner….Dawn dish soap and time works a lot better in my opinion, and it’s not harmful to your paint and driveway.
It probably took a good 4-5 hours of scrubbing to get the engine bay to this point
I got a sweet deal on a “modified” turbo engine from my japanese engine importer.I didn’t really know much about it other than it had a Garrett turbo on it. So when I picked it up I found out it had all kinds of goodies on it. The engine was a JDM S5 13B-T built and tuned by Tom’s Racing in Japan. Total I paid $2600 for the engine, Trans and a bunch of goodies
What the engine came with:
JDM S5 13b-t
5-speed transmission
N374 tom’s racing ecu
Garrett a/r.60 with t70 wheel, hybrid turbo
2x 550cc injectors in dynamic chamber
Dual alternator belts
OS Giken Twin disc clutch and Lightweight flywheel
Old school greddy intercooler piping with greddy elbow
2x 550cc injectors in the IC piping
Greddy Big Type-R BOV
3” downpipe
Apexi Series 5 airfilter and AFM
What the engine came with:
JDM S5 13b-t
5-speed transmission
N374 tom’s racing ecu
Garrett a/r.60 with t70 wheel, hybrid turbo
2x 550cc injectors in dynamic chamber
Dual alternator belts
OS Giken Twin disc clutch and Lightweight flywheel
Old school greddy intercooler piping with greddy elbow
2x 550cc injectors in the IC piping
Greddy Big Type-R BOV
3” downpipe
Apexi Series 5 airfilter and AFM
motor pics
The Engine and Chassis had 2 different style wiring so I had to splice the 2 engine harness together to get everything to work.Here’s a picture of the engine after I put it in
I had did all that work in my Dad’s driveway over the winter , my friend had sold me some rims and tires to replace the stock ones and in May of 2008 I finally got it all on the road and running.
It needed a tune bad, it was just chugging the fuel back. So I ended up getting an Apexi AFC Neo fuel controller. Once I got that all figured out and got it tuned decent , it was time to hit the Drag Races! The Engine was runnging 13psi with the adjustable wastegate actuator my best was 13.2@108 on street tires
After the Drag Races I wanted to go faster! So I bought a manual boost controller turned it up to 15psi got a decent tune and took it to the dyno to get it tuned nice and good. I was only running a 2.5″ turbo back exhaust so it was alittle small but i squeezed out 313whp 289ft-lbs which was pretty amazing for a little 1.3L engine.
I was pretty excited with how well the car was doing and how little I had spent on it so far. And with it all dyno tuned at 15psi I couldnt wait to take it back to the drags. The last day the drag races were open for that season I was planning on going, I went out to go get coffee’s in the morning, when tragedy struck.
I went to go around a slow moving vehicle and my throttle had stuck. Which I found out that it’s more common on rx-7 due to the intricate design of the throttle bodies compared to the ones found on a normal piston engine. To keep it simple there is 5 butterflys in a rotary TB compared to 1 big one in a piston engines throttle body. Anyways back to the accident I was stuck behind the truck for a few minutes we ended up stopping at the lights both making a left turn. We both completed the turn into the inside lane then i changed into the right lane. i sped up a bit in first into 2nd because it went back to one lane again to go through a tunnel i got around him and when i went to let off it kept goin. before I realised what my throttle was stuck I was sideways driving acrosss the oncoming lanes. I thought I was going straight over the curb when i finally got it to turn right, dodged 2 cars got it back on my side of the road and I remember thinking “WTF!” and it kicked back left going right infront of a van i just cranked it hard right missed the head on collision with him and ended up clipping the back corner. of my car off his back drivers side wheel. and it had knocked my throttle loose. It all happened within a few seconds, one minute im going around a truck the next minute im drifting around oncomming cars like I’m in the Tokyo Drift movie. It took a second for it to all sink in. I got out to make sure they were all ok. But he was a 74 year old man, He wouldn’t even talk to me and a 65 year old guy who was waiting on the opposite side of the intersection 150meters away had stopped as the witness. they were treating me like I was some crazy street racer. Before that I had not even had so much as a warning let alone a ticket I had my Federal drivers license with the Army for 6 years. I drive responsible and obey the rules of the road. I was just driving the 3 miles to go get my morning coffee.I had told them all my throttle stuck. in the police report the officer had asked the old man witness if he could hear me accellerating. and He said I was just standing on the gas. What person in their right mind is going to be standing on the gas while their car is fishtailing out of control in on comming traffic. Anyways the cop issued me a ticket for Careless Driving. I took it to court and the charge was dropped due to insufficient grounds for prosecution. I proved that the throttle sticking is more common with rotaries , and I had been driving normal before it stuck.
That was the end of my season, and I’ll end off Part 1 there. check back soon I still have a couple seasons and more mods to go through to bring you guys up to speed. Hope you enjoy!
heres a pic I made up for court when i fought that ticket
