Canadian FD3S RX-7 Semi Peripheral Port 13B with EFR 9180 Build

[RWDragoon]

Hey Everyone,

This is my project. It's making slow and steady progress with the hopes to be on the road functional early Summer 2014!

My 1993 Mazda RX7 came to me in pretty rough shape but was an Ex-Time Attack car built by Stillway Japan. It's a RHD vehicle and the more I dug the more I found out about it! I'll try and dig up some pictures of it when I originally purchased it, but cosmetically it was bad, the paint was totally faded, missing the front bumper, and at least 3 different spoilers had been installed on the hatch that was installed. But it's power train was above average and a decent starting point for me so I decided I would build it!

Originally it had a heavy street ported 13B in it, but it had a vast amount of small details and aftermarket parts that made it a jewel in the rough. The car came with a very old Blitz KKK Turbo kit, but the turbo was a little special it was the K28 Version (largest and special order). This was then cooled through a poorly welded Greddy FMIC. The intake manifold had 4 additional side feed injectors welded in, and it was running an HKS Vpro V3.0 ECU to control them. The throttle body was a Knightsport unit, and it had a Stillway Intake elbow as well. On our Dyno-Dynamics dyno at 3500+ ft above sea level it still managed 395whp at only around 14psi of boost. This is very good power for our dyno and altitude.

When I pulled the engine to paint the engine bay and do a refresh on things, that's when it really snow-balled! A few good surprises include finding a OS Giken R3C Triple plate clutch installed. This clutch was amazing to drive, very easy to engage and rated to 1200hp so that was nice to find! Still has about 75% life left too! I didn't like how much the differential clunked around low speed turns so I removed the differential to find it was a Cuscos MZ Unit. I then sold the complete differential to a guy who blew his up, and using is blown core I fully rebuilt it using a brand new OS Giken LSD as they are the best we have ever used.

At that point I ran across Pro-Jays Typhoon manifold, and this really struck my interest. Not only did it realistically simplify much of the engine in my opinion, lots of small details like good throttle body, proper fuel rails, and clean fitment and looks really fit what I was going for. Unfortunately for me this means re-building my perfectly good engine to properly utilize the Semi Peripheral port design of the intake manifold. Oh well might as well go big or go home!

My Irons were in good shape with some pretty big ports on it, but we decided to lap them and they would be a good base of this new engine. For the rotor housings I decided to go with brand new Xtreme Rotaries Semi P-Port housings as I felt they were the best designed on the market and would work well with this intake manifold. My rotors were TII Low Compression rotors in good condition but because of my expected RPM, and power levels we decided to CNC lighten them, Balance them and clearance them as well. All the housings and plates were also machined for the Xtreme Rotaries Stud kit to keep it all together. My end goal is to run 2mm Ceramic seals, but to allow for some error in finding the limits and the less overall destructive possibilities I am going to run RX7 Specialties seals, as I have had great results with them in the past.

Just prior to assembling this engine I decided to experiment with WPC Treatment as it had come highly recommended to me from other large power Rotary guys, and we have had really good success with it on piston engines we have built in house. The treatment was very reasonably priced, and about 50% of my budget was shipping from and to Canada. I didn't have much to loose but perhaps new technologies and longevity to gain so we went for it! Everything is back from WPC and assembly should start mid February.

This engine is going to be built around a Twin-Scroll Borg Warner 9180 EFR turbo, we are custom building the manifold locally and will utilize all Inconel tubing, fully divided into the turbo, and dual TiAL MVS-A Wastegates.

I just want to give a huge shout out to my friends who have helped me with this build!

Thanks to Adam at RX7 Specialties for working with me and building this engine!
Thanks to Chris an Unobtainium welding for Fabricating some of the nicest parts on earth!
Thanks to my friends and crew at VEX Performance!

I think the easiest way for me to keep updating with pictures is on my facebook build album and the Link for Pictures is below

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=7e37a42558

[DeleriousZ]

Looks like you got the right guy to weld the cage in for you! Car looks great from what I can see of it.

[Hallowed_point]

395 rwhp on a DD at our altitude is serious! Subbed.

[01RedDX]

.

[ekguy]

oh how i love rotary builds!!!

[Errol.]

Love rotary builds. Any reason why you're not going to run 3mm seals? How much power are you hoping for on pump gas?

[amear]

Originally posted by Errol.
How much power are you hoping for on pump gas?

[RWDragoon]

3mm Seals have pro's and cons. Guys used them more commonly back in the day because they are very strong, but at a sacrifice of sealing capability. I should be able to lean on these 2mm seals with pretty decent results. If I push them too hard we are more likely to warp the seals as opposed to having them shatter destroying everything else so that is also a bonus.

My plan is to do all my tuning and find out what this engine can handle with these seals this summer, then over next winter tear it down and inspect how the WPC Treatment is holding up, and if everything looks good go into a set of 2mm Ceramic seals.

I don't have specific power goals in mind. It's hard to find anyone in north America running this turbo, with this type of Semi P-Port engine, so it's a bit of an experiment.

With modern Haltech engine management and Aquamist Water/Meth I expect to run 2-4 psi more boost then before, with a larger turbo, and significant changes to the porting and VE of this engine, power should be significantly higher then 395whp, but how high.... only time will tell.

With Race gas we will see what it can do!

[pfis300]

[i]Originally posted by RWDragoon

In for updates

[rx7_turbo2]

Originally posted by pfis300
In for updates

There's a whole bunch of ingredients in here that were a recipe for disaster, not saying it ended that way but it might be fun to find out I guess.

[Sentry]

He got distracted by another FD he picked up with a 3 rotor.

That's being built at VEX right now for, hopefully, may long weekend.

[RWDragoon]

Long Story Short:

Unobtanium built and installed a beautiful 1/2 cage for the back end.

I had the body fully painted and a Ronin Widebody rear installed and the shell is in perfect condition ready for the transplant!

The shell was originally a time attack car in Japan and you can see that there was a full cage installed at one point, and all the creature comforts like a heater, stereo, and basically the full interior was stripped.

I purchased a 2nd RHD FD so I could swap the full interior, heater, ect and essentially convert this race car back into a decent street car. At this point I started shopping around for insurance and couldn't get anything that would allow full coverage for less than $1500-2000/year as a occasional driver. This discouraged me, and driving around a widebody FD RX7 that was essentially ground up re-done without full coverage sounded like a recipe for disaster.

So essentially this project has been back-burnered. I have both Shell's at my house, and still have almost all the original parts I intended to use apart from the turbo and the smart wire. My plan right now is to build my 3rd FD described below as a nice street car and enjoy it this summer, and re-purpose this back into a racecar as it was last used. I'm not really sure what sort of racing to focus on but likely time attack or maybe drag racing!

I could start another build thread if you guys are interested on #3 but I haven't been doing a good job taking lots of before and after pictures.

I've been working hard on a 93 USA LHD Black FD with a 20B swap. I'm aiming to have it running this summer with the goal of driving it to Kelowna for May long!