10th AE restoration project

[ITSWILL]

I think Pete already asked about it...

Who's car was it?

[~Groll69~]

It was my little brothers car that he didnt want to sell to me.  I was the one that picked it up from the guy while my little bro was stationed in iraq. 

Besides, i asked in person about it, pending verification of who my little brother sold it to.  The lineage adds up and the fact he had put the 2+2 in it.  I am not sure if he still has the original bins from the car, but i think he does if they didnt go with the car.  His forum name was woody

[ITSWILL]

I was thinking that might have been whose it was. 

[~Groll69~]

I wouldnt care about it if it wasnt his and didnt know the history of the car down to the dealership it was purchased from.  It is something the wife and I would certainly love to have.

Sorry for the side bar discussion, please keep us updated with your 10AE

[fidelity101]

anywhoo, back to the build.

They appear to have switched places…



But first! Here is where the 2 build threads briefly cross paths. The 10th AE will not be a race car so around town driving with the occasional autoX or spirited driving. I need the PS ratio (15.2:1) compared to manual rack ratio (20.3:1) in the rallycross car, I kept fighting the wheel and the ease of steering and lack of parts in the engine bay is nice on the t2 since many other parts are taking up space, much easier to service the ignition side of the engine bay. More details on steering in franken wankel thread.





See!? Much easier! Also note the thicker aftermarket sway bar, it is red. Ooooohhhhhhhh reddddddd bar, bonus!

Okay so, the other car. Well it was a friend of mines that he ran for rallycross, started messing with it. Gave up bought an ecoboost mustang and wanted it out of his driveway. Ran when parked and ran until partily disassembled, the car has 100k on it.

I bought it for the shocks and engine, engine showed 80psi on both rotors, so it was properly worn but would still run, I wanted to get into this project at the end of the year but this was a good deal and I had nothing going on over the weekend so an rx7 friend came by and we shared parts, beers and tools and got to work!

STEP 1: Remove the engine from ebony.

STEP 2: remove the engine from ivory:

[fidelity101]

Step 3: mix and match engine parts:



10th AE came with new clutch/throw out bearing so that was transferred over to the engine from ebony. Ebonys clutch was on its last leg, good spare though.


Step 4: insert ebony’s engine into ivory:



Step 5: Do not have intake manifold gaskets or turbo gasket…


Step 6: PBR

Step 7: like in rally, press on regardless! So with a few days lead time on those parts we got busy doing everything else we could do which was chassis oriented.  Because it was a rallycross car my friend graciously decided to buy new racing beat springs and slap them on billstiens with new rubber, so I graciously installed them into the 10th ae:



The former owner who repainted this car, painted EVERYTHING. Literally. Some parts nicer than others, he did do new calipers/pads/rotors/ball joints/tie rod ends so this wraps up the front suspension (minus end links) being fully cleaned up/”restored”

And onto the rear!

[fidelity101]

Again the prior owner replaced rear calipers/pads/rotors then painted the calipers but shocks were still bad. Matching brand rear sway bar, doesn’t look like racing beat, maybe RE speed? Not sure. Some suspension bushings look worn/tired/aged but that will be a next summer concern and the endlinks are in poor shape.

You will see that there just isn’t fancy suspension going on back there…



Its my old non turbo racing beat cat-back! (you can tell by the dented muffler) and it is stainless, should add a nice touch to the sound, looks, and performance.

After installing the exhaust and bleeding the brakes we tossed the wheels back on the car and got back to business, with the parts car we can swap over the reflectors to de-rice it!



Good news for the rear tail lights though….




Its film! But swapping it over is much easier than removing this and cleaning the adhesive off.


And ta da!


Back inside the car the new engine is. Oiling system is hooked up, chassis is squared away, fuel lines are ran, ignition is hooked up and organized with various new NGK plugs/wires to choose from between the two cars 

Had minor wiring repair, brake fluid level switch, oil level sender and something else that is probably useless:



More updates soon to come.

[fidelity101]

Another neat thing about these 10th anniversary cars is that they have a unique momo shift knob with boot, these are hard to come by but mine is in bad shape but I may try and salvage it (Read, pay some shoe/leather store to deal with it). PO decided to do nice shift boot and e-brake boot so I don't mind right now.



Took a few more things from the donor car and these seats were in much nicer shape than my stock beat up ones and I once I have the car mobile, I can concern myself with finding correct seats once AC is re-installed. (long term goal)



Since this car was supposed to be a cruiser and around town kind of car, It must have a radio and it currently lacks one…




I had to do some repair work  too:



Ah, here we are!


 The front speakers don't seem to work and the antenna did not want to go up, harrumph! However, at least I still have working intermittent wipers!


This thing was last registered in 2011. It has sat around for some time and I found that I needed to replace the tires because they were even older and dry rotted, average tread life on them so I decided to go with 225/55/16s via continental DW variety. Very good wet traction and I enjoy them on my wagon with 18s, SUPER soft sidewalls that will roll over but are great around town summer car with spirited driving and maybe a handful of autoXs a year.

[fidelity101]

Then it was time for ebony the T2 to go its new owner, another long time loyal Mazda enthusiast. Frankenburban happily abided.





There was some emission delete/removal and oil injection system removed to simplify the stock setup. This is a very handy diagram for when doing said emission deleting/engine simplifying.







When you perform this task you can also remove the double throttle plate setup on the throttle body and then port&polish it like so:



And this is a stock one:


(ewwww)

It was starting to come together!




It is a good time while you’re in there to replace a few gaskets, hobble together exhaust parts, tweak this or that here or there, run new vacuum lines and etc. Good enough to run eh?

Because it had been sitting so long once I had everything hooked up, it should fire, right? Nope, added 5 gallons of fresh gas (with premix of course) got it to kind of kick over with enough fogging of persuasion fluid (starting fluid) and start but instantly die.  Diag’d a bad fuel pump …
These screws are a PITA!

Rusted and usually stuck in there, these were and then PO painted bedliner over them so I had to grind them out but (I love my carbides)  then vice grips got them easily.

Out with the old in with the new!

Also, the new fuel pump came as a kit with new filter and hardware as well as stainless steel allen head hardware for the fuel pump body to gas tank – bonus!

When the repaint occured there was bedliner done on both sides and then a plastic sheet was above that and below the carpet! Nice added comfort touch.

[fidelity101]

I finally had some open free time over the weekend to get at this and I got it running., even enough to put about 18 hard miles on it and did a little woodward cruising  Lots of updates scattered around timing and life etc but don’t worry just because you don’t see an update here doesn’t mean I have not been working on it I just get slow to updating this.



And while doing so… THE ANTENNA FIXED ITSELF! IT’S A MIRACLE!!!!!!!!!!!



And its current status:

Still a few tweaks to adjust and sort out but mostly complete and capable! Next up is  finishing the chassis, prior owner did have a good start and my Bilsteins setup was a nice touch but wait to you see the next update 

[ITSWILL]

What's all that plastic under the rear carpet?  I have never seen that before.  Looks like a door inner.

[fidelity101]

its under the whole carpet. When the previous owner painted it he took out the interior then bedlinered the floor then put this plastic over the paint but under the carpet.

[~Groll69~]

Personally i would remove that plastic to keep it from traping moisture

[murz]

Build looks great man! Can't wait to see it in person!

[fidelity101]

Well I got the battery cables better hooked up and battery tied down. A little more TPS/throttle cable adjustment and it idles much better, still sounds like a little bit of a boost leak/vacuum leak under boost, you get that cool spaceship whistling sound but I put about a tank of gas and netted 10.2 mpg. I was having fun on the loud pedal quite a bit.

But the loud pedal was quiet and it became the zoom pedal.
Got bored and starting picking at the rear, the film came off very easy, much more original.

Well in a few days they having summer sno*drift, the normal snow stage rally I frequent in January, however they are running a regional rally of the same (or similar) roads as they do at sno*drift. Each day will be progress. THE GOAL? Alignment by Friday and then drive up Friday afternoon to our ritual meeting cabin spot up north. It will be a good break in/shakedown for the car after the chassis will be essentially refreshed.
 Monday I was sick so I didn’t get much done but Tuesday I was feeling better and decided to tackle the front suspension/steering: