Author Topic: 1988 Turbo 'Vert Project  (Read 36892 times)

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Offline ~Groll69~

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Re: 1988 Turbo 'Vert Project
« Reply #135 on: July 15, 2015, 09:53:13 AM »
the Miata is just the RX7 convertible continued without the rotary.  Take a good look at the first years of the miata compared to the rx7 vert.
"Long Live Rotary"

An RX-7 is like having a slut as a gf! She will love you, but she will also screw around with the guy at the parts store, most of the local cops, your insurance agent, your apex seals, your bank account and your credit card!!!

Offline murz

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Re: 1988 Turbo 'Vert Project
« Reply #136 on: July 15, 2015, 11:15:14 AM »
I like the 300zx idea, but I love miatas as well, i think a modded 13b RE ran naturally aspirated in a Miata would make a fun combination. Miatas really are the little sis of the rx7 vert.
1986 AS GXL Turbo swapped
1993 VR R1

Offline fidelity101

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Re: 1988 Turbo 'Vert Project
« Reply #137 on: July 16, 2015, 07:48:14 AM »
Corvette

Offline toplessFC3Sman

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Re: 1988 Turbo 'Vert Project
« Reply #138 on: July 17, 2015, 12:49:57 PM »
A C4 'vette is tempting - its very rare that a C5 is in the price range, and I'm not a huge fan of C3s

However, the car we just agreed to purchase is....

A 2006 Mazda5 with manual transmission, sliding doors, and that's about it.  This will be a lot better for the dogs, camping, hauling stuff for this house & garage we're trying to buy, and will serve as a much newer car for Helen instead of the Celica

Offline fidelity101

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Re: 1988 Turbo 'Vert Project
« Reply #139 on: July 20, 2015, 06:44:52 AM »
I like the idea of the C4 with a 20B everyone expects a C4 corvette to be slow anyways, congrats on the mazda 5 purchase! They are hard to come by manual but they do exist and with its platform sharing parts are reasonably priced and relatively in stock for simple stuff like Advance O'Autofart places.

Offline toplessFC3Sman

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Re: 1988 Turbo 'Vert Project
« Reply #140 on: July 21, 2015, 05:53:21 PM »
A 20B C4 would be a lot of fun... I like the idea of dropping the 2.0 Turbo DI engine from the Solstice GXP into a C4 as well. 275 hp from an aluminum turbo I4 would be more than most of the iron-block V8's originally installed.

Anyway, Marcus came through & had a spare thermostat housing radiator cap plastic piece thingy. I messed up the sealing surface on mine when drilling a hole to add the expansion tank nipple, and then it wouldn't hold any pressure.  That's definitely not going to help my cooling problems.



Thanks Marcus!

Offline murz

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Re: 1988 Turbo 'Vert Project
« Reply #141 on: July 21, 2015, 07:54:54 PM »
Glad I had the right one for the job! Let me know how it works! You're welcome man.
1986 AS GXL Turbo swapped
1993 VR R1

Offline toplessFC3Sman

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Re: 1988 Turbo 'Vert Project
« Reply #142 on: August 12, 2015, 07:35:25 AM »
I've been trying a few things to combat the coolant loss and smoking on start-up, and oddly seem to have found something...

I drive 50 miles to work, and if I check & top up the coolant when the engine is cold before leaving, I can make it to work, but on the way back the low coolant buzzer will go off. Regularly topping up the coolant also leads to nice large plumes of smoke on cold-starts when the car's been sitting more than a day or so.  However, if I DONT check or top up the coolant level, the problem seems to be lessened.  I've gone 5 trips total now without checking it, and while I don't know the level, the buzzer hasn't gone off, there haven't been problems with smoke on start-up, and the temperature has been very normal.  Now I'm very puzzled about this problem...

In other news, the driver's side window regulator is dead - again - for the 5th or 6th time. This time it's making a stripped-drive-gear noise; every time it's failed, it's been something new at least.  Anyhow, I ordered a new regulator from a newer car, and will see what I can do to retrofit the original track & slide with this new regulator.

Offline murz

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Re: 1988 Turbo 'Vert Project
« Reply #143 on: August 12, 2015, 07:47:19 AM »
When the car is running do you see bubbles in the coolant? Not sure if you mentioned that yet.
1986 AS GXL Turbo swapped
1993 VR R1

Offline toplessFC3Sman

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Re: 1988 Turbo 'Vert Project
« Reply #144 on: August 14, 2015, 07:46:29 AM »
Yea, I had seen bubbles in the coolant when running with the rad cap off.

Since the last post, I made 3 more trips between home & work without adding coolant, including a trip up & down Woodward from 696 last night - I went right past the lot but didn't see anyone there at that time. Anyhow, no overheating issues & very steady temperature.  The driver's window regulator finally died again, depositing a nice blob of grease on the window when it did.

Offline toplessFC3Sman

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Re: 1988 Turbo 'Vert Project
« Reply #145 on: September 10, 2015, 02:00:28 PM »
Still burning coolant, but I'm still driving it to work a few times a week. Last week the Saab was down waiting for brake calipers, so the 7 was my DD again. My guess is that the coolant is only leaking when the engine is cold; once everything warms up & expands, the hole closes up & it seals again.  I've had to add coolant about once every 3 days of driving. A rebuild is in the future, as soon as I get this garage!

Anyhow, over the long weekend, I finally had enough of the driver's window regulator failing repeatedly. Time to retrofit the one I bought for a '97 Accord Coupe.  I originally picked this specific car as the donor since it had longer doors & likely heavier window glass to fill them, the door height looked similar to the 'vert for packaging the window track & motor in, and in general the layout & details looked very similar, just newer. Also - $35 for the whole assembly & they're still widely available, unlike the ones in the 'verts.


The Accord regulator is laid on top of the RX-7's; The track itself is slightly longer while the sheathed part of the cables is slightly shorter for the Accord.


The accord uses a pulley wheel in the top guide while the RX7 doesn't, but the accord's guide points the cables further downward which would interfere with the front window stop in the RX7's door. The lower cable guide (black on Accord, white on RX7) in both window guide assemblies is the same exact part, so I used the newer one.


The basic idea was to reuse the whole window guide assembly from the RX-7 and retrofit the motor, cable, & cable sheaths from the Accord onto it. The motor & cable orientation is very similar, but the mounting plate on the Accord's motor sticks off the wrong side - easy enough to fix since it's just screwed on using some of the 4 holes in the regulator housing.


The accord's regulator & winding spool is 1-piece, which does not allow you to adjust the tension. The RX-7's is 2-piece which makes rebuilding & accounting for different cable lengths a little easier. No problem, we'll just need to measure & cut the cable to the right length, and possibly shim it at some point if necessary (of course it will be necessary...). I decided to use the new Accord cable sheaths, which meant I needed to cut 34mm off of both ends of the cables after mocking the whole assembly up.  I cut this off of where the cables would attach to the window guide, since I still needed to add the rectangular washers & crimp/pound on new flat cable-stops to go into the RX-7's window guide.



There we go!

I had hoped to mount the motor in the same spot, using the same holes as the original. Things looked promising since I could pretty easily flip the Accord's mounting plate, drill 1 hole & cut off 1 stud. Then using a creative combo of longer bolts, nuts & washers, you could create the same bolt pattern as stock while keeping the motor and cables in approx. the same spot.




Things were looking promising... until that bit about the accord's cable sheaths being shorter reared its ugly head. With the window guide in-place, the motor could not reach the original mounting spot - it seemed to need another 3" or so of cable & sheath length. Well, we've come this far, lets at least see if it works & holds up well, so time to make some new mounting holes. The motor fit pretty well between the inner door panel & the front window track (between the fixed & sliding windows), slightly below & forward of where the inner door handle is. 3 holes later (well, 4...  oops) and it all bolted up & seems to work great! Its faster than the passenger's side, seems very consistent going up & down, and doesn't appear to catch on anything.  No pictures of the new mounting location - I must have been excited enough that I forgot to take them.

Wiring-wise, both motors had a thick green & thick red wire - I just matched the colors and soldered the RX7 connector onto these two wires coming off of the Accord cable. The Accord has 2 more thinner wires - possibly a switch for reaching the end of travel (or when the motor stalls) to cancel auto-down or auto-up window relays? I didn't test these. Works like a charm!

I'll call that a victory!
« Last Edit: September 10, 2015, 02:06:33 PM by toplessFC3Sman »

Offline ~Groll69~

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Re: 1988 Turbo 'Vert Project
« Reply #146 on: September 11, 2015, 07:30:05 AM »
great mod effort.  always looking for ways to improve the vert windows.
"Long Live Rotary"

An RX-7 is like having a slut as a gf! She will love you, but she will also screw around with the guy at the parts store, most of the local cops, your insurance agent, your apex seals, your bank account and your credit card!!!

Offline toplessFC3Sman

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Re: 1988 Turbo 'Vert Project
« Reply #147 on: September 18, 2015, 09:03:47 AM »
I've been thinking about it, and if I were to do it again, I would either:
- Cut about 10mm more off of each end (so 44mm off of each ends), since I needed to shim each cable sheath by about that much.
- Not cut any off (the accord cable-ends would fit & work as-is in the RX-7's window support/shuttle-thing), try to retrofit some bicycle cable tensioners into the top guide, and take up the slack that way in a more adjustable manner. This would also allow a little bit more freedom in placing the motor assembly within the door.

I had spent a bit of time making the mounting plate for the accord's motor match up with the orientation & stud pattern of the RX-7's motor, which I didn't need to do in retrospect since the cables weren't long enough and couldn't make it to the original holes anyway. Just un-bolting the mounting plate & flipping it onto the other side of the motor would have done enough.

2 weeks on & the whole thing is still working great, and it operates the window about 50% faster than the OEM (but recently re-greased) passenger's side - both sides are using relays after the switches. Considering the cost, I may just do this mod on the passenger's side so that they're the same speed.

Offline murz

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Re: 1988 Turbo 'Vert Project
« Reply #148 on: July 01, 2016, 10:55:39 AM »
How's the car been? Make any progress at all?
1986 AS GXL Turbo swapped
1993 VR R1

Offline fidelity101

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Re: 1988 Turbo 'Vert Project
« Reply #149 on: July 05, 2016, 08:26:27 AM »
random question but what turbo blanket did you use Pete? I want to put one on the 10AE because the factory shield is sharp, pointy and rusty.