My Rex rebuild

[mikey-t]

purchased the basics of my fuel system today, can figure out the right fittings once i have done a general route

so sprayed up the wing supports just to protect them from lovely salted roads



and stripped off the oil coolers,

the one of them has been bent beyond all recognition, it doesn\'t leak but i am not happy running it with bends and cracks






i was going to run braided lines for my oil coolers and do away with all the push fittings until i went into pirteks and listers and found out just to trace the original route with AN fittings would cost me £300 +++  maybe not


so focusing on fuel now i went to my local place to get the basics for my fuel system ready for when the engine turns up and i can do a rough route and cut and then go get all the fittings to suit the rail for etc

he told me the price and i laughed! then he told me he was serious.
seriously expensive stuff, i will go all out on fuel lines purely because of what they carry but any other braiding is going to be ebay special i think!

[mikey-t]

well back from work with a stinking man flu paralysing me but i did come home to some mail! whoop more parts


my bargain ebay oil coolers, turned up

on ebay they average at £30-£40 each in good condition,
also i checked up on what it would cost to have the lines braided and ended, £300 all in
so when i went on ebay and saw BOTH oil coolers, in good nick, with braided line i decided £25 would do! haha kerching


also got my super stupid expensive gasket through in the post, feel a little better as it came with two tax disc holders,
whoop





very layered etc I\'m guessing this is what makes it a thermal barrier, just unsure what kind of torque i should seal it all up with, do i crush it or do i put a heat cycle through it and retorque




so the same guy i brought the oil coolers off, i searched through his listings and he also had a nearly brand new air filter, not going to argue for £16 now am i







also have you ever started a job and wished you hadn\'t?
i have never had my dash out and i don\'t want too as i know it can be a very destructive process, but parts of my dash were loose or rattly plus i needed to check some wiring so i decided to strip the glossy bits off for a clean ,repaint and a inspection behind them, big mistake



nearly every clip, every screw, every screw hole is damaged or missing,

i think out of the 40 + screw holes i found (of which maybe 20 hadn\'t collapsed) there was about 15 actual screws, so now i have to replace all these bits or spend an age filling, repairing and generally farting about with bits i shouldn\'t need too,

track day boys have it made

[boosted]

Nice work fella...your progressing at the same rate as me...fast!

[mikey-t]

was going to be a busy day today but unfortunately schedules did not match and i didn\'t get the engine i like i was planning,
instead i have sat in my bed all day with the man flu sulking eating minstrels and shopping,

contacted a guy in the states about a lovely new fuel pump kit, if it is what i think it is i will be paying for that tomorrow ,

because i couldn\'t pay for that right now i got even more upset and found a list of every light bulb used on a rx7 and raped ebay for can bus LED equivalents,
my car will either be really bright for ages or really bright from the fire that ebay LEDS have produced we will soon see.

still bored i decided to order my inline fuel filter, i was going to get a tasty item i spied awhile ago that has a fuel line lock lever so you can replace the element without getting a fuel bath (not ideal with cheap ebay electronics hanging around)
went to actually look at the price and it was £189 oh well...
i knew demon tweaks were knocking out sytec items pretty cheap so went to order through them instead £58 was the price, that is until you select the fitting you want and then it jumps up to £70+
damn my life, so ebay it is again find a guy selling what i want and it comes out to £50 with free shipping, buy now blah blah and then have the sense to look at his ratings, mostly good but pages of negative about how he is rather slow at shipping items if at all....

so all in a bad day

[boosted]

I had a day off due to night shift tonight ! God I\'ve had enough of shift work!  1 positive is Im cleaning all my engine parts in the washer this week!

[mikey-t]

my work is all over the shop, hence why some months i can buy turbos and everything i need the next i can\'t afford a gasket.
just brought a fuel pressure regulator aswell

[mikey-t]

right,
been doing a bit of research and a few sums etc etc and i have started rethinking my plan,

my initial plan was for the rebuild, turbo conversion and haltech ecu
i have been looking a lot recently and the sheer amount of work that my car needs and expense it needs the haltech isn\'t looking possible YET

my supplier reckons for my planned ecu , loom and stack dash I\'m looking at £1800 plus import duty and delivery of maybe £400
thats a lot of money. especially when you have to add on mapping.

so option b is

buy the apex pfc and commander at about £450-£500 and make a loom or get one of eds looms and I\'m still saving  Â£1200

and I\'m sure i can find a stack dash that will fit the apexi,

values seem to be holding on apexi gear so in future if i do get the money i need i could always sell on the apexi stuff and then get the one i want,

any help, input , advice on this subject would be awesome cheers guys

[shaunwil]

That is just for the parts, expect to pay quite a bit of cash fitting and tuning. I bet I\'ll have spent another £500 in bits (partly due to rearrange coolant system, whole car wiring etc, connectors etc). My Aim dash was almost 900 quid too with the CANbus connection.

I\'ll be putting my pfc up for sale soon.

Shaun

[mikey-t]

May be  interested in that mate,
And yes that is the exact reason why I think apexi is the way to go, nearly 2.5g just on my ecu isn\'t what I call fun

[JayDee]

The pfc will be fine for you, a few are changing to haltech because they want to run xx boost which is crazy. The haltech will give you a smoother running car and lots of safety features if used.
Another ecu that can be had quite cheaply secondhand is the motec m2r it is dos based, but can be made to run the car very nicely.
All in all speak to your tuner, to see what they are most happy with, as you can have the best ecu in the world if your tuner cannot use it, it will drive worse than a cheaper ecu.

right,
been doing a bit of research and a few sums etc etc and i have started rethinking my plan,

my initial plan was for the rebuild, turbo conversion and haltech ecu
i have been looking a lot recently and the sheer amount of work that my car needs and expense it needs the haltech isn\'t looking possible YET

my supplier reckons for my planned ecu , loom and stack dash I\'m looking at £1800 plus import duty and delivery of maybe £400
thats a lot of money. especially when you have to add on mapping.

so option b is

buy the apex pfc and commander at about £450-£500 and make a loom or get one of eds looms and I\'m still saving  Â£1200

and I\'m sure i can find a stack dash that will fit the apexi,

values seem to be holding on apexi gear so in future if i do get the money i need i could always sell on the apexi stuff and then get the one i want,

any help, input , advice on this subject would be awesome cheers guys

[mikey-t]

agreed, i was never bothered about the boost etc that the haltech could cope with was always more bothered about how safe it can be, so easy to monitor etc plus have got previous experience with haltech.

i just need to wind back a bit and remember this is a road car so theres no point putting half of its value into a ecu

[mikey-t]

THE ENGINE IS BACK IN!!!


and yes i know


CHOP CHOP

[mikey-t]

postman came this morning!!! goodies





this is my bargain ebay oil cooler braided setup! normally £40 per cooler plus however many hundreds for the braiding i paid £25

[boosted]

THE ENGINE IS BACK IN!!!


and yes i know


CHOP CHOP

Good work fella....:yes

[mikey-t]

woke up to more parcely goodness this morning, nice little fuel pressure regulator




this inspired me to get down the factory and capitalise on the fact that the engine is now IN

i was left a couple of little jobs by my engine builder as we ran out of time and light last night, some of the most simple jobs going and i still :censored::censored::censored::censored: them up, all i had to do was get under the car put in the last couple of bolts through the bell housing, reconnect the slave, and engage the fork,

needless to say couldn\'t figure out which bolts go where, fluid in my eye and a large amount of dust and i gave up,



thought it would be rude not to offer up the manifold turbo lim etc whilst it was there and this should be more fun














manifold needs a bit of a chop and reweld as it produces the turbo where the lim should be, put the lim in and it pushes the turbo half inch away from its flange, don\'t know if i can be bothered with all of that especially as i can run out of skill with anything requiring more then a lump hammer and brute force, will have to look at what my options are

so i walked off and left all the stuff in a pile and went for some retail therapy,

had to replace all my fuel lines as they were not teflon based, and premix would eat through them quick smart, also picked up a few bits that i needed to replace due to excursive play or damage, and picked up this lovely rad / intercooler combo,

big thanks to my new local "parts supplier" and his rx7 treasure trove







i left a few kebab sticks, a cloth and some metal polish in the kitchen next to it for my mrs, she loves that kind of :censored::censored::censored::censored:, might delay my dinner by an hour or so but shel get it shiny shiny