Street / Time attack LS1 FC build thread

[ChriS2000]

Hey guys, this is my build thread from norotors.com .  The car should be track ready by next month 

Hey guys, I bought this car last fall from a forum member down in Kentucky.  Figured I'd toss my build thread from another forum over here to see what your thoughts / advice might be for the car. 

:wavey:

As some of you guys already know, I ended up picking up the FC from Kentucky last weekend... if you aren't familiar with the car, it's an LS-1 swapped 2nd gen RX-7 with light modifications to the suspension and motor:

Factory Options:
-Sunroof
-Leather
-Power locks
-Power windows

Exterior Modifications:
Aluminum hood

Performance:
-Stock LS1 w/ Hinson mounting kit
-JTR cooling kit w/ Volvo fan
-Custom CAI
- Supra fuel pump
- Corvette fuel filter/regulator
- Descreened MAF
-BrianCWS6 ported throttle body
- !EGR
- eBay shorty headers
-2.5” y-pipe to single 3” exhaust with Flo-pro twister muffler
-LS6 intake
-Thunder Racing ported MAF ends

Suspension/Chassis:
-KYB AGX's with Racing Beat springs
-Racing Beat swaybars
-Poly transmission mount

Drivetrain:
-Stock T56
-Series 4 Turbo II rear diff
-Hurst shifter

Electronics:
-Scangauge

Initial driving impressions are that this car is absolutely insane, spins 245's all the way through third gear

On the way back from Kentucky the rear end started howling, which the seller told me about prior to purchasing.  We did an emergency pit stop in the ghetto of Louisville at an autozone at midnight and did a diff flush, although it didn't fix the problem. 

Upon full inspection of the car at my friend's shop in Detroit, we found that the rear swaybar endlinks were snapped, some of the wiring was a mess, etc. tons of random things that are easy to fix but should have been done right when the swap took place. 

The good news was that the motor is completely healthy, and the recently rebuilt trans shifts great and makes absolutely no noise.

I somewhat feel that I paid too much for the car and should have done it myself from scratch, but overall it's a very solid car with tons of potential and a good head start with the swap being done!

[ChriS2000]

Pics:









annnnd one of the race support vehicle:

[ChriS2000]

Some parts on the way:







Also, my friend Nick and I have already installed solid subframe, diff, and toe eliminator bushings in the rear end, and have the lsd torn apart awaiting all new bearings and seals.  The car should be back on the road by the weekend and starting to feel like a race car!

[ChriS2000]

Still in pieces, but the car is coming along slowly.  Should have the rear end rebuilt and back in the car by monday. 

In the meantime, ChaserAero has been cool enough to hook these parts up at cost for me via a small sponsorship:















Coilovers should be here on monday, endlinks and almost all of the bushings are already installed.  :wavey:

[ChriS2000]

So Christmas came early for the fc, got a couple parts in the mail today via a semi truck in front of my house







Relocated heater hoses, tucked wiring, Aerocatch hoodlatches installed, coilovers installed, hood installed, cooling panel installed.

Also ordered a camo vinyl wrap for the engine covers, and some waaay nicer parts to make a new intake (which will also be camo, I'm going for a jdm redneck theme here).

Pics for those who don't like to read:

Camo vinyl wrap:


Hood latches:


Car (don't hate it's not done yet):


Engine progress:

[ChriS2000]

So I got a LOT done today

      Here's the scoop on the wheels, the rears are actually fitting decently on the stock quarters.  Nice roll and pull might save me from cutting up the rear fenders :beerchug:     The fronts, however, are poking and 1/2 inch on the outside and pressing on the coilovers on the inside... I'm gonna try a 5mm spacer tomorrow and see if they clear the suspension.

Onto the pics











Engine covers and cooling panel installed







So I started fitting the wheels and bodywork, ran into a couple speedbumps. 

First I was having some interference between the wheel and coilover, which I remedied with a 5mm spacer (better hubcentric ones with studs are on the way).

 Check out this pic after the spacer went on, the lip of the wheel is actually INSIDE the space between the bottom spring coils lol



Now that the spacers are on the front, the front fenders aren't wide enough under any kind of compression the tires will murder the fiberglass arches.  I might make some sort of metal fender extensions to fix this, might look pretty cool too

Anyway here's some pics and a walkaround vid.












Click here for vid:

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[ChriS2000]

New stuff on the way:

LS7 Clutch kit w/ arp hardware



RAM aluminum flywheel



Ichiba 5mm hubcentric spacers for front



My bank account hurts

18x10 all the way around...... TUCKED!


Well.. sort of.  Did you know that you can flare a fiberglass fender?  You can't really, but I tried it anyway with mild success!  The fenders are now about 1/2 wider and twice as shitty looking!   















I drove the car more than 10 feet for the first time in months today, verrrrrry happy with the way everything is going.  Although, now that there is serious rubber underneath it the clutch is getting seriously overpowered.

Over the next month the car will get:

Rear overfenders installed + spacers

Clutch, flywheel, slave cyl etc.

Power steering rack, pump, lines, etc.

Header wrap

Motor mounts

Bigger radiator

[ChriS2000]

Ordered a steering wheel (suede)



And a fresh set of kouki lights to replace the ones I destroyed... oops :lol_hitti



Also,

I got these solid rubber diff mounts (to replace my delrin mounts). 



Too much solid mounting in the drivetrain is creating a lot of noise and vibration, these should soak up some and still be nice and firm.

More to come, I'm selling stock parts so it'll be time for more new stuff soon!

Installed lights and steering wheel, deleted the rear wiper and pump stuff.

The car is about to go on Jackstands for a long time for installing the following:

Clutch/Flywheel/Slave cylinder
Power steering pump, rack, custom lines
Header wrap
Engine mounts
Diff mounts
Side skirts
Delete the rear swaybar

... probably more that I can't think of, shits gonna be sexy though.

Got the car back on the road over the weekend. 

Lots of improvements, puts the power down great now

Installed fresh tails and NRG suede wheel





Tore everything out of the car, installed racing beat diff mount bushings, wrapped and coated headers.



Installed a Ram aluminum flywheel



Installed LS7 (c6 z06) clutch, slave, rear main seal, throwout & pilot bearing / arp hardware



Put everything back together





Removed the rear wiper and sway bar, took it to the car wash, and started breaking it in :evilgrin:

[ChriS2000]

Next up:

New radiator
Finish the widebody / paint
Finish suspension / bushings / alignment
Cage and seat(s)

Ordered one of these to go with the scangauge


Then it should be time to go 'racin!

I might look into those if I can't get these to stretch any more without destroying them, tires are 265/40 r888's all the way around. 

These are coming.....and they're knockoffs lol





Oh also installed the oil pressure gauge and digicammed the din panel today, pretty sweet. 

The sandwich adapter gives me the option to add  a temp sensor and cooler later too. 





Got a pair of these coming, not exactly cheap but worth it for the added safety. FIA and SCCA certified until 2014 



Took the car to cars and coffee today, surprised a few exotic owners  :cheers:

Installed sideskirts and painted the tire lettering. 

The car looks 1000x better now with the skirts on, totally fixed a lot of the bad fender gaps. 

I decided that the tire letters would look cool in white, so I painted them too I think it looks really cool!












Engine covers are from Ebay, they came in grey gelcoat and I wrapped them.

2 purrs of nomex harness pads




Joe @ Chaser Aero is hooking me up with an FD diffuser next month for the rear :phatyo: 



Random snap w/ all tires painted



Mocked up the rear fenders for install, gonna go conservative with a 15mm bolt on spacer most likely.  Then it's off to paint!

[ChriS2000]

So check it out...

Got the seats installed, still working on the bracket spacing (little crooked) but I think they feel and look great!







Cut, riveted and coated the wheel arch in POR15 (will go back and seam weld later).



Coated both rear wheel wells in POR15



Installed rear flares (still have to remove again for final fitment, seam sealer and expansion foam).



So much wider!



Annnd some crappy cell phone pics in my school parking lot. Measuring for rear spacers tomorrow, just from eyeballing I would guess about a 20mm should do it.









Ordered front and rear strut bars. For now I'm going to mount the harnesses to the rear strut bar, haven't heard any issues with doing it that way until I get a hold of a cage. 

I might have to notch the front bar to clear the intake mani, we'll see.



Next up this month:

Rear spacers
Power steering
Rear diffuser
Front control arm bushings
Alignment
Corner balance

Someday this thing might get painted too!

Had cars and coffee again this past weekend, some peeps to some pretty good shots of the car!












Strut bars tomorrow.

[ITSWILL]

Looks great.  Nice build thread.

[fidelity101]

I gotta see this in person/action

[~Groll69~]

the car was looking good, he had it out at the silverdome drifting it on sunday.  In fact there was quite a few people from the forum that showed up at that event and no one had posted it here.  Rotaries and rx7 was well represented.

[fidelity101]

I would go to the silverdome drifting event but gotta finish the dash and I got plans already, any other time this summer for drifting there? its a great lot, I turned autoX into gymhkhanna there.