I dropped the RX-7 back to Marcus Fry Racing Enterprises to tackle the aforementioned adjustments and bug fixes, and get the running condition to be perfect. In a twist of irony, you can start to feel complacent after undertaking a large project like the LS3 swap… the initial motivation starts to wane. However, all the work that went into it would be shorthanded if not completed to a 100% mark, so it’s important to stay on task.
While the car may still drive fine, it’s not done until ALL the minor bugs are worked out.
The priority item on the list was to resolve the clutch’s feel. There was a dead zone at the beginning of the clutch pedal’s travel and the engagement point was too low for my liking. Marcus played with the bore and pushrod of the master cylinder and re-bled the system with the car tilted at a severe angle.
This worked because the difference was night and day. ZERO dead zone and the engagement is near the top. Resolving this really transformed the driving feel of the car.
Next, the holes in the rear wheel well left behind by the old Auto Power roll bar were welded up.
Granted, leaving the holes be would have made no difference in structural integrity, but knowing there were holes with no purpose irritated me.
Since the car was in Marcus’ hands anyway, I took the the opportunity to spruce up a detail item – the brake and fuel line holders along the under chassis. The stock ones with the plastic clamps worked fine, but it wasn’t ideal to have the larger -6AN stainless fuel hardline jammed in there.
I asked Marcus to replace them with more bespoke versions.
Due to the nature and design of long tube headers, ground clearance will invariably be reduced. On each header, the 4 collector pipes have to group together and extend under and past the bulkhead. Having 4 pipes collected there obviously increases the girth and is the lowest point of clearance.
The driver-side header hangs slightly lower and has taken the brunt of road scrapes. This only happens at freeway speeds when there is a contoured dip in the road, as this causes heavy compression of the suspension. Unfortunately, the scrapes accumulated so far have been forceful enough to completely flatten the bottom of the header. To prevent it from creating a rupture, stainless steel plates were patched on.
Lastly, an additional ground point was added near the battery to help alleviate the intermittent ignition issue. We also plan to replace the starter solenoid with a heat-shielded replacement.
looking good! how is the clutch compared to a s2000?
Never drove a S2000!
The clutch feels similar to the FD one, at least when I upgraded the pressure plate to the ACT. It’s relatively heavy, which I like.
Been following your page for quite a a while and very impressed with all of the work. I have a fd with a single turbo conversion and lately I’ve been working a lot and wonder how you have free time to work on yours haha. When you are ready to sell this one, I call dibs :)
Thanks. To answer your question, I leave the car in the hands of a pro instead. I used to do all the work when I had more time… but I’ve gotten busier and the projects I’ve undertaken have grew grander.