88 RX-7 JDM 13B-RE Twin Turbo

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FC3Sguy

88 RX-7 JDM 13B-RE Twin Turbo

Postby FC3Sguy » Mon May 21, 2012 9:14

Formerly known as FD3Sguy, I thought it fitting to change my user name since the FD is gone and now sits an 88 FC in its place.

After selling my FD I decided I wanted to go FC hunting and I found a couple that caught my interest, mainly a 13B-RE twin turbo cosmo swapped FC. Found the ad on Craigslist where the guy was asking $5k for the car located in Santa Fe, NM and I was willing to pay the full price. Upon further investigation I recognized the car from 4 years ago in a for sale ad on RX7club. The Albuquerque based rotary shop known as Rotary RX built the motor, performed the swap, and tuned the microtech for 18psi on pump gas. Well, I had to hassle with the owner to get me pics of the car and actual info of the condition. Decided to roll the dice and make the 3 hour trip and to my disappointment the car was in ROUGH shape! I couldn't believe that someone would spend their hard earned money on a really clean FC and then turn around and destroy it the way this person did! The owner was drunk off his a** upon my arrival and the entire passenger side from the quarter panel to the door was crushed in and peeled back (he stated that he just wrecked that side by going into a ditch while taking ONE LAST drive just 10 minutes before I arrived at 1030pm)! The entire roof was scratched with deep grooves like a giant tree branch caught the top of the car! The driver's seat adjust was broken and would not lock in place and would just crush you when you hit the brakes as you slid forward! No seat belts, only crappy 4 point harnesses that wouldn't lock! The exhaust was busted all to hell and dragging on the ground! There was a HEAVY vacuum leak at the Apexi bov due to a missing vacuum nipple! The only lights that worked on the car were the headlights but they did not retract, NO dash lights OR tail lights OR side markers! The car was running PIG rich and not boosting at all (1 or 2 psi MAX)! The two rear tires were bald and the passenger rear was almost flat! I could keep going on but I decided to make a final offer and rescue this car from a very sad sad owner! I gave the guy $3k knowing that the short block motor build alone was at LEAST that much. Just to recap here is a list of known problems:

Passenger side wrecked and roof scratched all to hell
Big vacuum leak at BOV
No boost
Broken dragging exhaust and rich running condition causing flames beneath the car on high revs
ZERO tail lights, side markers, dome and dash lights
Bald and flat rear tires
Air intake CAKED with mud
VERY high idle (2600rpm)
Spotty starter that must be pumped at the clutch to catch and start
more I can't think of right now...

So I brought the car back to Colorado Springs and with my work cut out for my I began this PROJECT lol! So far I've fixed:

Had a machine shop fabricate me a new nipple and press it into the BOV
Ran new vacuum hose for the BOV and fixed the vacuum leak
Had the dragging exhaust cut out and new stainless piping welded in place
Replaced the two rear tires with good ones
Fixed ALL the lights in and around the car that did not work
Replaced the 3" open intake
Found that the clamp at the intercooler inlet was not tightened down at ALL and was robbing my car of ALL boost (solid 8psi now without adjusting the boost controller)

The car is currently under the knife at a paint shop getting all pretty again with fresh new stock body panels and ruby red paint! I should have the car back from the shop by the end of the week. The only problems I have yet to iron out are:

The spotty starter
Super high idle (2600rpm)

I also bought a Dell D630 laptop last weekend that has a 9 pin serial port for tuning the Microtech and I have verified that it indeed works well with the ecu and software. I've tried just about everything i could think of trying to get the idle down to something reasonable but to no avail! Anyone have any ideas?

FC3Sguy
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Posts: 32
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2009 9:14
Location: CO Springs

Postby FC3Sguy » Sat Jun 02, 2012 9:14

LOTS of progress with my FC! I got the idle down finally and got a good street tune on the car. Got the idle down to 1,000-1,100 rpm which is good enough for me knowing that the motor is ported very aggressive.

My light switch dash harness was getting really hot and blowing my ILLUM fuse and when I put in a bigger fuse the harness started to SMOKE! So I went in and disconnected ALL the old wiring from the stereo and an old alarm system (I don't use either of them) and I got rid of about 150 lbs of junk (head unit, amp, huge 12" sub and box, and about 50 feet of random cables and wires)! Now all my lights are working again and no more hot wires!

Car is painted now and everything seems to be in order! Looking forward to meeting up with some rotor heads in the area soon!!!

Would like to possibly do a photo shoot in the near future with some other RXs!

eliminster
Senior Member
Posts: 202
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2011 9:14
Location: colorado springs

Postby eliminster » Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:14

yay look like there is another red fc with a cosmo swap in the springs to join me lol. nice job on saving such a great engine, you are correct in that that engine alone built fully is worth around 3k plus.
87 red rx7
running 13b re cosmo motor
03 yellow wrx
yes it is a stock color
00 black s10 zr2
yes i have it to tow cars when they break.

FC3Sguy
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Posts: 32
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2009 9:14
Location: CO Springs

Postby FC3Sguy » Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:14

Only thing i need to iron out now is the cold starts when the water and air temps are ambient. Once the car is warmed up the idle is fine but at cold engine temps the car has a hard time staying running.

FC3Sguy
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Posts: 32
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2009 9:14
Location: CO Springs

Postby FC3Sguy » Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:14

eliminster wrote:yay look like there is another red fc with a cosmo swap in the springs to join me lol. nice job on saving such a great engine, you are correct in that that engine alone built fully is worth around 3k plus.


Really looking forward to seeing your setup compared to mine!

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boosted12a
Posts: 247
Joined: Sun May 29, 2011 9:14
Location: Fort lewis, Washington

Postby boosted12a » Tue Jun 05, 2012 9:14

nice!!!! post pictures
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] GTU Turbo II

FC3Sguy
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Posts: 32
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2009 9:14
Location: CO Springs

Postby FC3Sguy » Wed Jun 06, 2012 9:14

I will be posting pics up later today.

FC3Sguy
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Posts: 32
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2009 9:14
Location: CO Springs

My 13B RE TT FC Project

Postby FC3Sguy » Wed Jun 06, 2012 9:14

The first set of pictures is from the first day that I bought the car and brought it home. Then a couple from the body shop and lastly are the current progress.

BEFORE:
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BODY SHOP:
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FC3Sguy
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Posts: 32
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2009 9:14
Location: CO Springs

Postby FC3Sguy » Wed Jun 06, 2012 9:14

Current:
Image

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:D

FC3Sguy
Member
Posts: 32
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2009 9:14
Location: CO Springs

Postby FC3Sguy » Wed Jun 06, 2012 9:14

So today I pulled everything apart and changed out all my vacuum hoses on the engine and the turbos. I also pulled all the charge pipes off the twins and I replaced the o-rings on the center pipe and sealed all the charge pipes back on with rtv. Once I got everything back together I retuned the microtech and she is boosting HARD now! Very happy with the results and I can't wait to get some track times!!!

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boosted12a
Posts: 247
Joined: Sun May 29, 2011 9:14
Location: Fort lewis, Washington

Postby boosted12a » Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:14

they did a good job in the painting
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] GTU Turbo II

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VRx8
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Location: San Antonio, TX

Postby VRx8 » Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:14

I saw an FC just like yours in the Fort Carson Auto Craft, was that you?

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boosted12a
Posts: 247
Joined: Sun May 29, 2011 9:14
Location: Fort lewis, Washington

Postby boosted12a » Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:14

thanks for the laptop i was able to get it tune !!!!!
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] GTU Turbo II

FC3Sguy
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Posts: 32
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2009 9:14
Location: CO Springs

Postby FC3Sguy » Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:14

VRx8 wrote:I saw an FC just like yours in the Fort Carson Auto Craft, was that you?


I was there yesterday around lunch time so it probably was. What were you driving?

FC3Sguy
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Posts: 32
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2009 9:14
Location: CO Springs

Postby FC3Sguy » Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:14

boosted12a wrote:thanks for the laptop i was able to get it tune !!!!!


No problem bro!


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