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Whats up guys? Just wanted to introduce the new build, and have a place to document some progress...
I joined this forum a little while ago with my 2004 RX8.
Ended up selling it and then immediately regretting it for 6 months while I passively looked for an opportunity on an R3. Cut to September of 2022 and a colleague of mine finally posted his for sale. Him and his wife had been sitting on it with a blown coolant seal for some time and they finally decided to get rid of it. I was able to pick it up for a decent price and have it shipped from Georgia to Colorado where it has sat at a friends house for the last 8 months while I collect parts and save up for an engine.
Finally got my engine from rotaryengine.com. Its a standard renesis, street port setup with RX8 rotors cut for RX7 apex seals and corner seals and balanced rotating assembly. Also decided to go overkill and have it studded as I'd eventually like to snag a brettus manifold and boost it..
Despite the blown coolant seal and not having been started for who knows how long, it was able to fire up and drive onto the trailer, then fire up again and drive into the shop. There is no coolant left in it to flood the engine, but catastrophic damage has been done as evidenced by the chocolate milk oil...
Tires on it were garbage so I pulled the wheels and sent them off to be powdercoated in what is as close to oem color as I could get. Haven't got them back yet... I also picked up a racing beat header on the used market and sent it in to get a thermal coating. Having read through the forum quite a bit, I fully expect to gain nothing from the header except maybe some sound and some extra lightness. I just came across it for sale and couldn't pass it up, what with it not really existing anymore...
Current status of build is in process...
I have pulled the blown engine. (note to self... remove ac compressor before attempting to remove engine)
And now I'm transferring parts over to the new engine. Have been getting delayed by random things that are broken or in need of replacing. Broke a few clips on the wiring harness and decided to get a new one from Atkins Rotary. The one they sent had the E Shaft sensor lead clipped off so they are gonna send out a new one along with new oil metering lines/banjo fittings (snapped one off while trying to remove it).
Have a new coil kit coming from Bennett Built, and I also got motor mounts and oil lines from RRP. Was able to get them installed today.
Currently waiting on the Header to be done with coating, Coil pack kit, the new oil lines for the oil metering system, a new harness from Atkins and a few other odds and ends I just ordered from Atkins. I also just dropped the coolers off to be cleaned and have the fins straightened.
I am not looking forward to trying to figure out the vacuum lines and coolant lines on this thing. I have all new coolant lines to install, and gotta try and remember how the vacuum lines were all routed under the upper intake manifold. So if anybody has a diagram for those things, I would greatly appreciate it!
The car came with Fortune Auto Coilovers, an HKS exhaust, an AEM intake, and Koyorad radiator. I am excited to be finally making moves to get it running and will update this thread as I continue to make progress on this build.
This looks like a stellar build man, good work doing it right. I'm not sure if they changed the R3 UIM, but here's a link to another post with the vacuum diagram. I was worried about the coolant and vacuum lines too, but it's really not a big deal. If you need help finding where something goes I'm sure you can post a picture of it and I or someone else can help you figure it out. Definitely keep this thread updated though, I'd love to see it as it comes together
This looks like a stellar build man, good work doing it right. I'm not sure if they changed the R3 UIM, but here's a link to another post with the vacuum diagram. I was worried about the coolant and vacuum lines too, but it's really not a big deal. If you need help finding where something goes I'm sure you can post a picture of it and I or someone else can help you figure it out. Definitely keep this thread updated though, I'd love to see it as it comes together
Thanks for that! I'm sure I will be having some questions as things start going back together. Hoping to be able to get everything back in the car by next weekend.
Not a ton of S2s in Colorado. I've seen all of one in person in the last year +.
I don't think I've ever seen one. One popped up for sale at the Sharpest Rides about a year ago and that was the closest I've come to seeing one in person here.
I made an appointment to go see that car within an hour of it hitting the market. I could see some panel gap issues in the photos, looked up the history, and asked the salesman about it. I was already down in Denver for the appointment, when he called me to cancel because they sent it back to auction. On and off the market in something like 24 hours. Not unlike the R3 on CL currently from what I'm told, only they kept theirs and made even dodgier repairs instead of sending it back.
I made an appointment to go see that car within an hour of it hitting the market. I could see some panel gap issues in the photos, looked up the history, and asked the salesman about it. I was already down in Denver for the appointment, when he called me to cancel because they sent it back to auction. On and off the market in something like 24 hours. Not unlike the R3 on CL currently from what I'm told, only they kept theirs and made even dodgier repairs instead of sending it back.
I went to look at it too, but they had either sold it or pulled it at the time. I thought it looked pretty rough in the pics too. I was expecting it to be badly repaired by them as most of their vehicles are.
So the salesman's "other guy" was real, and not the usual "other guy (subtext: buy it now without thinking at an extravagant price!)".
You need to hurry up and get this thing on the road so we can each finally see another S2 in the wild!
Made some progress today. And I'm fairly sure the last few parts I need are in the mail. I'm hoping to have everything I need to put the engine back in the car by the weekend.
Got my header back from coating, got my oil coolers back from repair/cleaning and I've installed them and the RRP oil cooler lines. Got my new coils in and installed on the engine. Installed rear brakes, and got one of the banjo bolts for the oil cooler drilled/tapped for oil temp sensor. I still need to run wires through the firewall for my gauges and I intend to do that tomorrow. I'm hoping to have it on the road by the weekend after this coming weekend.
Update... got wires ran through fire wall today for gauges. Oil temp/Oil pressure and coolant temp.
Since its a series 2, I can't use a sandwich plate so I'm using this 1/8th npt port on the back of the engine for pressure. Though the plug seems to be 1/8th npt, the sensor doesn't quite fit so I need to find some kind of an adapter that will thread in there properly.
And I drilled and tapped this banjo bolt for the oil cooler for an oil temp sensor.
Installed the Racing Beat coolant temp adapter here in the heater core hose.
And I got the freshly coated Racing Beat Header mounted.
I have a new harness coming from Atkins along with new oil metering lines/banjo's. That should be all I am waiting for to get this engine back in the car.
Update from yesterday.. didn't get to do anything today cause I was at the track all day with my WRX.
But yesterday, I was able to get a few things done.
Gauges wired up. Gotta figure out how to fit the third gauge in the middle (doesn't fit with the other two), and how to get the center console installed. I think I can unscrew the faceplates for the gauges and then slide the console in and then reinstall the faceplates. I have Coolant/bat voltage on the left, AFR will go in the middle at some point, and Oil Temp/Pressure on the right.
Got the new coolant hoses installed along with the Bennett built coolant tank. Have a few hoses left that I need to figure out where the go...
Also got the coil packs installed from Bennett Built as well.
Went ahead and connected the oil lines to the freshly cleaned coolers. Paid to have them professionally cleaned. The guy said he got tons of sludge out so glad I went ahead and did that.
You can see the oil temp sensor in banjo bolt.
Had to order a 1.8th BSP to 1/8th NPT adapter because apparently this plug is BSP and my oil pressure sensor is NPT. And it won't screw in... waiting on more parts... lol!
Got the engine back in the car today. It was a pain at first to get it in since I didn't remove the trans, but then I had the thought to rotate the crank pulley to try and get the splines to line up and it popped right in. At least enough to get a couple bolts started and get the trans and engine sucked together. Engine is fully mounted to trans now minus the starter through bolt, and motor mounts are placed but not bolted down incase I need to move the engine up or down for clearance on something. Lots of progress has been made and now its down to the "button up" phase of the build.
Got it started up yesterday. Seems to run okay... plugged in with versatune and made sure fuel trims were within range and all the monitorable sensors were reading like they should with oil metering working and all that. Did two full heat cycles (let warm up till the fans kick on, then turned it off and let it cool completely down). Hoping to get it on the ground tomorrow. I do have one small oil leak on one of the RRP oil fittings that connect to the block. Its o-ringed, so I must have pinched the o-ring when I installed it. Its small enough that I think I'll let it slide till I do the first oil change, then I'll pull that fitting off and replace the o-ring or just clean it up and reseat it.
I got my EBC Apollo BBK installed on the fronts. Just gotta connect all the new stainless brake lines and bleed the brakes tomorrow. Then throw on the freshly powder coated wheels, the front bumper and hood, and take it for a spin.
Power went out at the shop so this is where I left it for the afternoon.
Alright guys... the first part of this build is concluded. The car runs and drives. I got to drive it around the block a couple times this afternoon and everything feels really solid. The Fortune Auto Coilovers are much nicer to ride on than I expected so may end up keeping those a bit longer than I planned. I need to bleed the brakes again, and I had planned to raise it up a little, but after seeing it on the ground with the 20mm spacers, I don't think I can raise it up cause it just looks so perfect. Check out my instagram (@tunedbyalan) for some videos of it driving around. I'll be going through the break in process for a bit, then I'm going to get it on the dyno and tune it up and see what it makes. This will be the most effort I've ever put into something for the least amount of horsepower, but I really don't care. This car rocks and I love it!
Also, incase anybody is wondering... I had the wheels powder coated, and speedway grey with gloss clear top coat is as near as makes no difference to the factory color. The wheels came out looking great!
I have been driving it around a bunch and it runs great so far. However, my oil leak has gotten worse so I'm going to go ahead and fix that this week. I also noticed my front passenger brake line seems to be leaking a bit so I'm going to get that fixed tomorrow as well. From there, back to getting miles on it for the break in period.
Its fixed. I didn't really get any good pictures of this as I was pretty oily... but the leak is no more.
Here is a pic of where it was coming from...
I replaced the o-ring on that fitting nearly a dozen times trying to get one that would seal, but it ended up being from an internal o-ring I didn't know was supposed to be there and turned out not to be there at all. RRP was able to send a video explaining how to take apart the fitting and I was able to get it taken apart and install an oring and get it back together with no more leak. Very happy to have it back together and working properly.
Minor hiccup with a P0335 code today. Turns out the belt got nicked and shredded a little on my and was freaking out the e-shaft sensor. Replaced belt and it is running great. No codes and the car is happy as a clam. Worked a little today to tweak the MAF curve for the AEM intake using versatuner. Hoping to get the break in miles done soon so I can get it on the dyno before I move to Texas and no longer have access to a dyno.
Been putting the miles on. Car is running great! I just love the way this thing drives. I'm not sure what front sway bar it has, but it is definitely aftermarket. The rear is stock. With the fortune auto 500's and alignment specs at -2.5 in the front, -2 in the rear, and about 1/16 toe, this thing corners on rails. My S1 would push/understeer on the stock suspension, but this one rotates like a dream. Will hopefully get some track time later this season to shake it down.
Found nearly empty parking garage while out getting some break in miles done. Couldn't pass up a quick pic stop.
05-08-2023, 06:35 PM
