Couple more things figured out.

Dual aluminum overflow



Started planning for air filter fitment:



Checking intake manifold fit:



And then pulled the heads off it so I can fit the LF4 heads and check turbo fitment!

 

This has got completely out of hand....

Don't try to do this, its a bad idea. Nothing fits, everything requires time consuming and expensive thought/solutions.

But, since I am stupid and make bad decisions, here is my progress doing so. Most still in mock up stages and I am running out of time....

 

 

Great work. The more difficult the design, the better it will be when completed.

 

Time keeps on ticking ticking ticking... into the future

Btw, I know my harness bar height is way too high and it will be coming out to be re done!

Never looks like much has changed between pics, but I promise it has lol!









Lots more goodies coming in this week, hopefully only a couple more weeks of ordering parts and reminding myself I have a racecar instead of a kickass house down payment....

 

Another weekend passed, another 27 hours invested into the RX8.

Not as much as I would have liked as I worked until 2pm on saturday...

Hood passed test fit, even some space to spare!



bit more progress fitting the coolers



Started building a splitter template

 

that mazda 3 tho

 

The girl that drives it is fit too

 

The C7 corvette hood duct came in, and was able to play a bit.

Not really the best option, but none the less it will work well. Wish it mounted from the top, but such is life.



Got back to work on ducting mock up







Got rid of my old harness bar, fit the new one and welded the cage up!



I had to cut out the seat mounting in the car, and I am replacing with DOM tube so I can get my seat to mount about 2" lower down in the car so my head can sit straight with a helmet on... lol


Managed to get it completely torn apart again on sunday, and have started to prepare it for paint! Aiming for wednesday this week for it to go in, hopefully less than a week or so before I have it back with fresh skin!

Thankful to have friends who dont mind sanding as i f'n hate it LOL



Thats all for now.

Next weekend I will be building the engine

 

If I'd seen this a couple of months ago, I would have suggested a 4.3 V6 with a 67mm turbo. Insane power. cheap.

fyi I have a spreadsheet to calculate ideal brake caliper and master cylinder sizing. It will take some data logging to refine your specific car model.

 

The thing with the 4.3L V6 is it is even more limited in after market options than the HFV6 family of engines.

The benefits of the LF4 over the Ecotec3 4.3L:

-Turbos each bolt to head
-Insanely short intake system
-Packaging with the turbos fitting to the sides of the engine
-Intercooled intake manifold
-just a bitttttt more information available on how to go fast haha!

 

Nothing too exciting to follow up on, as I have been working on getting it ready for paint. Goes in tomorrow!

Found a good deal on some 18x10 +22 wheels, think they fit good! will need some fender love of course.





Started doing some work on porting the heads, but have a long way to go!

 

i want my like button back

 

Damn, I didnt realize it vanished!!

Roxanne is finally at the body shop for her fresh coat of Arctic white paint!

 

looking forward to it

 

Hands down the best colour! No bias here...

 

Alright,

So the past week has been both more and less eventful than I wanted. More eventful in problems, less eventful in progress :|

Anyways, of the biggest problem I came up against this week, the drivers side fender has too much rust on it to save, and the front bumper cover is cracked where the side markers go.

Given the car is completely stripped, and right now we are working to make the paint job a mint coat of paint, I would rather do OEM replacement panels. Strangely, the Series 1 RX8 fenders are more expensive than the Series 2 ? After pricing out a Series 2 front bumper cover and fenders, comparing to the series 1 parts, I have opted to convert the front end to the series 2, since im at a now or never point, and really, whats another change at this point ......

I havent found much on anyone doing the conversion before, but given my lack of a OEM RX8 rad support, or even Mazda OEM parts lol, this is probably going to be the easiest conversion project on this car LOL.

Moved it into the back of the body shop to start getting it sanded in the jam's and through the bay



Idea for the look other than the wheels, and I am makign my own skirt setup.

Oh, plus a hole in the hood




Also, brakes have become a pain in my *** again. Found a caliper that is 1/6 of the Viper caliper @ my cost, and can use the stock GT RX8 front rotors. I am going to fit these for an immediate solution and if I still find the 24mm rotor cant hold enough heat, I will step them up.

For now, I am trying to finish this thing as fast as I possibly can!



Finally had everything I needed lined up to be able to start building the short block tonight! Managed to get the crank in, and 3 of 6 pistons/rods installed. Clearances checked and are excellent!



I never will get over my hatred for torque to yield bolts.

A bolt is an accountant's decision, a stud is an engineers decision.





Planning to have the engine completely assembled by the engine of the weekend!

 

Did some more stuff in some more places with some more things


The amount of views on this thread is pretty wild, and knowing the RX8 community... This little response is the best thing I could hope for




Engine thangs n stuff



Ghettofab valve spring compressor LOL. What ever.. free, 20 min to make, hilariously effective!



Turbos n stuff. Turbo fluid lines will be here this week!



Assembling cylinder heads is a really f'n annoying job that I would always prefer to avoid lol.



Clutch line sorted out, will run up to the wilwood clutch master from here.

 

Keep them coming! Excited to see the project coming along.

 

Fenders have arrived for Series 2 front end setup. Bumper cover is in tomorrow!



Worked a bit more tonight on the heads and fluid lines to the turbos.











Obviously still a ways to go on them but pretty much figured out how I want them to work out.

 

God damn, looks like photobucket went to **** tonight. Update soon lol

 

Trying this again










Idea for outcome (x100 of course)




This thing finally went to chinese fab tool heaven

 

You aren't wasting any time! Progress looks great! Can't wait to see more.

 

Be aware that with that ducted vent on the hood the cabin air will always be hot unless it's on recirc!

That's a Corvette vent right? Are they plastic or carbon?

 

For your weekly scheduled program of stuff in places with things

Chains going in. Used all Cloyles parts and I am a fan.



Spent a bunch of time making a steel lower pan section to fit to the milled aluminum upper part mostly because A. I can weld steel, B. It can take more impact should it ever happen and C. It make a baffling system easier lol



Then finished the engine and figured out how to route the belt to not interfere with turbo inlets. Not overjoyed on limited waterpump wrap but we will see how it goes.



More parts showed up so I mocked some more **** up.



Made the engine prettier



Worked with Ram on making sure their clutch was in it

Things also go all over the place back here.



Finished the bash bar and brought it in to make sure it still fits good behind the R3 bumper




Also, even if your friends tell you that its easier to cut the lip off the inside of the 1/4's of your car to avoid a need to roll them, you should tell them to shut the **** up and roll your fenders anyways.

Im going to leave body work, and big sticker applications (vinyl) to the pros for now on and stick to making mediocre quality metal fabricated parts and fairly well thought out electronics systems.

Testing wheel/tire fit as I repair the 1/4's lol. There is no rear rotor on the car here so the wheel will stick out a bit more than this. Tire is 245/40 and a bit on narrow side..