Tweety and Sylvester, Two RX7s are better than one!

[ian65]

12A cover in place


I then carefully torqued the front cover bolts, then installed the pulley driver and torqued the front E shaft nut to spec. I didn’t use Loctite.

looking good.... did you check the end float?

[gt_james]

No, I don't have a DTI. Does checking the end float need to be done with the front cover off or can it be done with the front engine assembled and e shaft nut torqued?

[ian65]

as you haven't rebuilt the engine or built it up from random parts, just changed the front cover, you are checking for a small amount of movement back and forth on the e-shaft so no real need to get an accurate measurement from a dial gauge. If one of the torringtons has slipped and you've torqued the pulley back on you will pinch the bearing and lose the end float.
Try moving the flywheel in and out and see if you have some movement... if you do you should be ok.... no movement at all is a problem.

[DKWW2000]

You can do a 'Quick & Dirty' check with a feeler gauge on the flywheel, it shows you how in the Haynes at end of engine section just to check as it so easy to crush the bearings unwittingly, this is with the cover in situ.

[gt_james]

Thanks for the advice lads will check tomorrow

[Hobbawobba]

Can't even see all the muddy cat footprints on the bonnet man! Nice hiding that my car is jacked up and on axle stands too . Looks good bro

[TOOL]

You should feel and hear a tick-tick when you move the flywheel back and forth.

When upping the oil pressure, make sure the cooler and lines are in good nick so they don't fail. You'll put more stress on them.

Racin Beat have information on oil pressure mods in their tech section I think.
Double check that.

Looks good dude.

[gt_james]

I moved the flywheel in and out and there was a small amount of movement, there was a tap noise as it moved in and out. Also the front hub is not stood proud like in this link so the front cover swap seems to have gone well. http://www.aaroncake.net/rx-7/damage.htm

I have read racing beats advice on oil pressure, and I am not intending to increase it a lot, only to around 80PSI. I know lots of people go to over 100psi but this seems excessive. The cooler lines are in good condition, although I would like some nice new ones at some point. My oil cooler was replaced last year, but I will probably use the low mileage FC oil cooler I have instead.

Last night I started removal of the primary injectors. The injectors themselves pulled out, simple. There are horrid plastic diffusers under the injectors, these are known to get very brittle and often break when trying to remove them. They are even known to break when the engine is running, and the engine then eats the end of the plastic diffusor and damages the engine internals

As I had already installed my inlet manifold I was extremely careful not to damage them during removal, if any broken bits got into the intake runner I'd have had to remove the manifold again to clear all the bits out so they don't get into the chambers.
Using lots of wd40, a small hook and very tentative movements I got both out intact.

I then tried the injector blanking plugs I have in the iron, but I still need to get some "O" rings and make a retaining plate.

[gt_james]

My thread is rather overdue an update, Sylvester had the engine swap finished up, new exhaust fabricated. CX Racing header and custom header back, all 304 stainless steel. It’s a long primary system with a big presilencer in each primary staggered like the racing beat system. The primaries are 2” OD. Then merges into a 3” rear section on the over axle bend, 120” primary length. Then a custom 8” round repackable silencer. This is to get around trackday noise limits, it came out great, sounds nice and deep, very quiet for gentle driving but still plenty of volume when you get going and no baffles so should be very free flowing. I used the car on a trackday since.

The biggest change though is I bought another FB. I had intended to strip out Sylvester and prepare it for trackdays, but an already track prepared car came up for sale so I instead bought that, so Sylvester won’t be getting the track car treatment and is actually and very comfortable road car now.

The new car was built by Dwayne of silver fern performance, it’s a 12A half Bridgeport with Weber IDA. The car is bright yellow with purple stickers so I decided to name it Top Cat, sticking with the cartoon character names

[gt_james]