bse50

I hear a headjob is like 30€ here man... just don't get caught!

kickerfox

Time for you to start dating again.

bse50

jokes aside, knowing street prices really tells a lot about the economy. They went up from 50.000£ to 50€ (almost doubled) when the € was introduced, and now they're around 40% off, just like our recession.
Bitches know how to stay in business!

kickerfox

Dare I ask HOW you know all these details? lol Off the top of my head... I can come up with 3 -maybe- 4 names (but #4 is a butter face) on where to acquire various services FOR FREE! :D

As for the American economy... I don't know if anyone really knows wtf is going on. All I know is corporations have been raping people for years. Hell, look at the cost of forged pistons these days!

bse50

I actually only read an article a while ago on a local newspaper and...the **** hit the fan when they let Romania in the EU, some streets are flooded with hookers and pimps. This creates traffic... and they YELL their price list at you!

We are truly reverting back to a third world country.

kickerfox

Made great progress on the Isuzu harness tonight with some help from my friend Jeff who shouted out pinouts off the screen while I traced wires to verify. Here's of pile of what's left over. Mainly it's automatic transmission wiring, 4x4 solenoids, idle-up signals from lights, a/c, rear defrost and cruise control. Since the RX-8 ECU controls idle, all the idle-up signals are already wired. Hopefully that 75mm throttle body doesn't idle-up the v6 too far.

kickerfox

Found a reluctor from someone on this forum.

Now to make these two go together. I sent the pulley and the reluctor wheel off to the shop for machining. I'll have to make a bracket to hold the 8's ESS on the Isuzu engine but that's simple. So with the Isuzu harness narrowed down to the essentials, and the RX-8 ECU ready to cooperate, It'll be a short order to get things running once the plumbing is done.

Shown below is the RX-8's reluctor sitting on the Isuzu crank pulley. The ID of the reluctor needs to be opened up some and the crank pulley needs a slight cut for the two to mate up. Four bolts will hold it to the pulley.

kickerfox

Like this... (I think it's backwards)

kickerfox

Here's some pics of some of the goodies that have been showing up or on the way. The fuel rail and injectors are still in the mail.

Isuzu used 24 lb (250cc) injectors and since I'm going to be NA for awhile I went with the same size but from a Ford Mustang. They are 6 port, affordable, and easy to upgrade later with many sizes available. My next jump would be to 52lb (550cc).

I found adaptors that fit the slave cylinder to convert it to AN3 instead of GM's quick release garbage. This saves me having to locate and modify a Solstice clutch hose.

I've done a lot of research on flywheels. Although I could use the Isuzu v6 setup, I want something lighter. Going back to the Ford Mustang; The 4.6L GT and Cobra had an aluminum flywheel from the factory. I'm going to check one out tomorrow and see if I can modify it to fit the Isuzu crankshaft and ring gear. If the OD has to be turned down to the point where it hits the friction disc, I'll drill it out and put something else on it. Those discs are cheap. Custom flywheels are not. The Mustang flywheel center ID is smaller then Isuzu so I only have to open it up to fit the Isuzu crank. The 8 mounting bolts are unlikely to line up but I can slot them, or drill eight additional holes, or fill and re-drill them. Isuzu used eight 10mm bolts in the crank so I trust any of those three solutions would work.

kickerfox

Checked out the Mustang flywheel. Wow those are light. No-go. It didn't have enough meat on the back to resize it for the Isuzu ring gear.

I picked up three other candidates to try. A Subaru, a Toyota 4runner, and an NA Nissan 300zx. Out of the three, the 300zx should do it. The ring gear is the same pitch, same distance from the block, but 3 more teeth. I may be able to shim the Isuzu starter to work with it. If not, I'll have to cut it down a bit to fit the Isuzu ring gear. So there's that machining step plus the center hole needs to be opened a bit and the mounting holes elongated. I've found 300zx pressure plates rated for 650ft lbs of torque so that's not an issue and a Solstice clutch disc is the same size as the 300zx disc. I may have a winner but those Solstice clutches are expensive. I'm going to take another look at the 3.8L Camaro pressure plate and see if I can make that work. The 300zx pressure plate limits me to a 9.4~9.5" disc. The Camaro is 9.875" so not a lot bigger, but a lot cheaper.

My injectors showed up so now I can take measurements and get started on the intake flanges.

CRO8TIA

I wish I had the availability of parts you guys in the US have. It seems to be coming together well for you Kicker. Do you think the ESS will work okay in the position it is in the picture, or have to be centralised ,as in space the reluctor wheel slightly ?

bse50

Remember, we have the women.

kickerfox

I'm not sure I understand your question. I've already determined the 8's ECU only needs to see the ESS pulse train and have the oil pump connected to stay out of limp mode. That's all I need for the 8's tach, throttle, and idle control to function. The direction of the pulse train also has to be correct. Since the 8's ECU isn't firing my injectors or coils, timing doesn't matter. The Isuzu engine has it's own CAS (mounted on the center of the crank) that the Isuzu ECU will use the same way it did in the vehicle it came from. I'll have to make a bracket to position the 8's ESS so it's centered on the reluctor but that shouldn't be an issue. It's a little close to the pulley but a few washers will take care of that. The 8's ECU is pretty forgiving as to what the waveform looks like but the signal level is sensitive. That could explain why a dirty ESS causes issues due to a weaker signal.


It's coming together but the winter months really slow me down. All I can do is buy a few parts here and there and prep what I can so that when it does warm up I'll be ready to go.

CRO8TIA

How can I forget G, theyre in my face everyday

dahozzman

Your preference and knowledge of the Thunderbird Supercoupe 3.8L V6 is understandable given your long term activity on their forum.

skydivr7673 JOHN B. AVOID !!!!!!!!!!!!

kickerfox

I wish this winter would END!

As for the Ford 3.8L. I didn't want a cast iron, push-rod, balance-shafted engine. If I was going to put in an engine that heavy I'd have used the LSx. I do know the Ford engine fairly well having owned a '96 Mustang. It had a bit of torque but quickly fell on it's *** as the revs climbed. It doesn't seem like a sports car engine to me. Not to mention the 15~16mpg city mileage sucked. I'll get 20s city out of the zuzu and probably break 30 highway.

kickerfox

Started on the engine ...finally. Picked it up this morning. There's a light smear on the #3 main in the block. The #3 cap doesn't show any damage at all. I'm positive it wasn't there when the block went to get prepped. Hopefully it doesn't cause any problems. A good shop would have caught that and informed the customer BEFORE they did anything else.

Time to gap some rings.

EDIT - Rings done. Mains in. Should have the shortblock finished by this weekend.

kickerfox

Pistons in. Almost done with the bottom end. I can't find my torque wrench! I know as soon as I buy another I'll find it.

speedfreakrx8

I don't know why people were complaining about you doing this engine swap, its not like it was their car . Anway, great build can't wait to see it finisehed

kickerfox

Well, Isuzu isn't known for making anything worth a damn but I disagree. Those v6s will run and run and run. I had a lot of trouble finding any with low miles. Plus there's always "that guy" who says they're going to do this that and the other thing to their car and never finish it. I talked about it for some time before deciding. The flaming seems to have stopped once I started buying parts. I kinda miss it. It gave me something to look forward too in the morning. It was good for a laugh.

I'm having fun playing MacGyver and I know I'll be happy with the end result.

dahozzman

No mystery I'm generally not a fan of putting boinger motors in an RX7 creating what I term as oxymoron-mobiles. BUT, I've been the first to compliment such a swap when:

1. Attention to detail is such that the under hood view looks like it came off the assembly that way.

or

2. If it involves a non-mainstream engine retrofit such as yours requiring fabrication love and care.

I've seen a number of swaps that fall into #1 (DCrosby and Frijolies comes to mind). But so far only one that falls into #2, that being Brismo (who still needs to return my hat).

By the looks of your progress reports, it looks like Brismo is about to get some company. Keep the updates coming.

kickerfox

I'd like it to look clean but it won't look stock. The wires will be nicely wrapped in black loom. Black hoses. No gawdy "muscle-chrome" here. There will be some stainless braided fuel lines but all black AN fittings. Black fuel rail. Purple injectors? (thanks Ford). The intake will be a dead giveaway that whatever it is isn't normal. That and the 3" pipe from the bumper up too it kind of says something too. All my intercooler couplings are black as well.

Who's Brismo?

dahozzman

That is definitely a build that falls into my category 2.

Link to Brismo's profile. Perhaps someone to trade ideas with? If you do, please remind him about my hat.

RX7Club.com - View Profile: Brismo7

speedfreakrx8

I know what you mean, people disagree because its not their cup of tea. Its funny that they gave you crap becuase you actually did your research. My friend down the street from me has been working on his 71 camaro for a year now. He would always talk about it, but for a while now he hasn't mentioned anything about it. Some motivation wouldn't hurt lol

Brettus

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