1974 Mazda RX4 Coupe

[RobMatthews]

Looking like your progressing a fast rate now, nice one!

Dont suppose in all those spares you have the back window chrome, Im after the corners and sides?

Rob

[Brett]

This is really coming along now

Some great work being done here

[SSScoupe]

Looking like your progressing a fast rate now, nice one!

Dont suppose in all those spares you have the back window chrome, Im after the corners and sides?

Rob

Hi Rob,

I believe i do somewhere, although the spares i have have been painted black :Hammer I ve definately got more chrome than i need !  I ll have a look over the weekend for you!

[SSScoupe]

This is really coming along now

Some great work being done here

Thanks Brett, the pace has picked up thanks to Bumpstart who works pretty quick!  Any delays are due to me being a poor student and having to wait to be paid each fortnight to buy new bits!   But definately headed in the right direction!  As Bumpstart said, engine run in is next but need to get a better steering wheel boss first as mine is cheap chinese crap and feels like the wheel and boss may part company!

[Brett]

....hope you\'ve got some good brakes in the interim then :Giggle

[SSScoupe]

ironically the brakes whilst all pretty much new ( new cylinders, rear shoes, front pads, new fluid etc etc) and not exactly adjusted ... as i found on my test run the other day :Hammer a job for next weekend i think!

[SSScoupe]

Managed to get out on the road today for 50km... had to do a few tweeks first...



2 stroke bike plugs and some tuning jets ( for another day)


Interior all put back together, plus a cool old school SAAS wheel to match my SAAS gear knob!



Quick headlamp swap as full beam wasn;t working!



Tweek of the brakes...



draining the fuel pump to add a new fitting, I grabbed the first pot to hand... school boy error as the petrol are straight through it! Doh!



Still pump works well with new fitting!  No leaks which is the main thing and its now lower in the boot to help with head pressure to the carb.



Xworks filters socks on...



And all cleaned up for the first proper run!

I managed to use 20 liters of fuel in 50kms... running a bit rich I think!!

[shaunwil]

Looking very lovely

Shaun

[SSScoupe]

Looking very lovely

Shaun

Thanks Shaun, getting there!  Not sure about the 7mpg i achieved yesterday though :Giggle

That big selection of jets should help change that!

[SSScoupe]

Fitted my ebaytastic rev counter... shift light works nicely although rev counter is about 500rpm slow I think!  Wanted to get some kms on the clock to bed the seals in and be able to to start the car on the button, but an oil leak as stopped this for a week or two....




Hairline fracture in the RX7 oil cooler was the cause... shame as the cooler was in good condition, these are usually pretty battered.



Had another series 4 cooler in my spares, but the oil feeds I had didn\'t fit....






So I brought a 8 bar RX4 oil cooler from bumpstart, cleaned it up and painted it and with some brackets my dad made up for it eventually got it in and working!  

Managed to get two runs in the car yesterday totaling about 30kms ... such good fun!

Brought this little gizmo too from the UK, it\'s an electronically controllable exhaust valve



   Legal limit here in WA for a car of my age is 96db... mine is 94db so legal but its pretty loud and i decided that for cruising etc, its abit much so im going to fit this butterfly valve after the hotdog in my exhaust system to control the airflow into the 3" pipe over the diff.



 Decided thats probably the best place for it as the heat should be a little less that far back.  Hopefully it will keep my neighbours happy at least..... i set off a burglar alarm 3 houses along the other day when revving it in my drive   won\'t be popular if that keeps occuring!

[bumpstart]

little tip is to now change your oil.. unknown oil coolers can have lots of little nastys inside and its likely your filter is now blocked and in bypass .. also all that flooding with needle seat issues will have thinned your oil already... replace with something relatively cheap that you will be happy to flush out around 1000 kms .. after the that oil change i expect the needle /seat and tune to be settled and then you should expect 5000 kms or more between changes

[SSScoupe]

I ll do that with oil, i ve got plenty of $12 20/50 Valvoline i stocked up on when it was on special at the motor factors!

Hmmm fitted the valve, but not a massive noise difference, just changes the pitch more than the decibels!  Is noticeable when you drive it though as the restriction slows the acceleration right down!  Really proves how sensitive these little rotaries are to free flowing exhaust!


Bit of grinding to fit....


Fits a treat... all wired in and after my first pull by the local law, I think the reduced noise may have helped.

The police here in WA are allowed to issue defect notices for vehicles.... this can be anything inc oil leak, tinted windows too dark, bald tyres, car too low etc etc  They look like this:

Often the stories you hear here are that police are over zealous, pulling people for non existing oil leaks or seatbelts that don\'t retract fast enough .... its due to WA not having an annual vehicle check like the UK, putting the decisions on whether a vehicle is roadworthy or not in to the hands of the untrained.  My brother who is 17 and has a 2.0 16v n/a Nissan Silvia S13, only mod being a non standard back box has been pulled 3 times in last 3 weeks, and was advised he would get a defect notice for his \'noisy\' back box if he didn\'t go and get a shovel to help dig out his mate who had crashed his car into some rocks... its all a bit hit and miss how its done but my experience was very different...

The police woman said she had pulled me over as my car looked \'jerky\' as it came down the road.  I explained that a rotary under 3.5k rpm on a fresh built motor is a bit \'jerky\'....  I left the car running as I couldn\'t turn it off as it won\'t start on the key yet due only having 100kms on it since rebuild!  The police were as nice as pie, checked my UK driving licence ( falling apart as its an old paper one!), checked the vehicle was licenced and let me on my way..... didn\'t even follow me when I pulled off in a cloud of two stroke smoke and scrapped my way over the nearest speed hump...

[Brett]

Hows the valve holding up?

Have you got it ruin in now?

[SSScoupe]

Hi Brett not been on in a while... Nor have u done much to the rotary for various reasons, one of which includes buying a V8 ute for a daily drive which is fun

Valve is holding up well, although if im totally honest doesn\'t really do much for noise, its more like a power button with my freeflow exhaust!  Power on... Power off... lol

Still not run in really, still on tow starts although i ve done about 400kms now.  I think i ve made a mistake with my headers having fitted 13b ones rather than 12a one... oops!  So im about 10mm out which is enough for big rotor sparks to escape!  I\'m on the plane to UK tonight for a month, unfortunately not in time for rotor stock But the coupe will get some love when i return!

[SSScoupe]

Haven\'t really done much on the 4 recently... in fact its been pretty much 8 or 9 months!! Just been turning it over and taking it for the odd run during winter, until the exhaust gasket blew about 4 months ago... and since then it\'s been a weekly engine turnover only

However last weekend i got some motivation have another look...


Carb off to access the manifold!



Studs removed!



The offending gasket!



Decided to start sound/heat proofing the rear of the car so out with the rear seats!  Not much to the these tin boxes so the insulation has probably doubled the floor thickness



Decided to replace the filter socks while the carb was off with a spare set of X worx ones i had in the shed.  The others had been ruined from petrol over flow when the tests on the carb kept causing flooding!



And two badges you won\'t see that often on a drive together!  V8 and Rotary