Another FC 5.0 "race car" thread!

[Zach Thomas]

Yeah so progress has been almost negligible lately the radiator blew up on my WRX so I had to waste a week spending all my time prepping the Subie for the new radiator and bumming rides to work until the new radiator finally showed up. Then I went to the dunes in Oregon last weekend to ride my Banshee and now here we are a month later will hardly a worthy update But I did take out the little beast this morning and gave her a wash, the car hasn't been moved an inch since I dropped the engine in because I still didn't have the trans in til a couple days ago (just laziness on my part that it wasn't in sooner). So there are finally no blocks under the oil pan to balance the engine and I can roll the car around!

Bought some foxbody valve covers, looks like I'll be doing a little modifying to get them to fit (as I expected):


The pic makes the paint on the car look so much better than it is in person lol



And you can see the giant mess I've made of the wiring so far:


But I bought some of these to help clean up the wiring:


So hopefully over the next few weeks I can get the wiring mostly buttoned up. I might need more fuse blocks, but we'll see what ends up happening with the wiring.

I also decided to say screw it for the sunroof motor, the mechanism is completely rusted and stuck in place. So after breaking a few pieces I'm on track to do a manual conversion of some kind. More on that when I figure out how I want to approach it.

So the running total has gone up a little bit:

Grade 5 and 8 bolts for the trans: $15
Foxbody valve covers: $20
Fuse blocks: $25
Transistor for heater + random interior plastics from JY: $20

Running total: $2137

Also, saddest thing ever was the greatest $500 CL deal I've ever seen. But I didn't have $500. Full 5.0 conversion less engine and trans, guy had a clutch setup, driveshaft, exhaust, granny's kit, distributor, engine harness, all kinds of stuff that came from a driving swapped car. Ugh. Oh well!

EDIT:
Adding another $30 to the total for an order of a bunch of terminals from Digikey. I went with non insulated crimp types, which are used on old aircooled VWs and other German cars. Despite the jokes (and truths) of German cars having awful wiring these crimp connectors are pretty nice. Totally overkill as I'm sure the crappy aluminum (or tin, whatever they use) pre-insulated ones at the local auto store would do just fine. But how else can I justify spending $60 on a fancy ratcheting crimp tool?

New total: $2167

[Zach Thomas]

Lol I thought it was a pretty good deal myself! For $350 I didn't expect to get nearly as much as I did. Especially now that I've seen inside of it and everything looked so clean. Should run just fine Now if only I had more time to work on it...

Not as great of a deal, but I am supposed to pick up another set of S5 tails and a full set of Turbo 2 calipers for $150! I don't need either, but my S5 lenses are pretty busted up and these ones have an ugly "custom" paint job on them but I should be able to sand and polish them up. I'll keep both sets, use the worse pair on track days so I won't cry if I tap a wall. The brakes I'll end up selling the fronts most likely and keep the rears so I can run a dedicated, separate hydraulic ebrake! I might end up close to breaking even on the deal overall depending on how clean the front calipers are.

[Miroteknik]

Is no one going to talk about how you bought your V8 for the price of $Burger.99?

[Zach Thomas]

My ghetto build has been moving along still, albeit extremely slow.

Got my ugly as sin S5 tails set in place to start more wiring:


I'll be cleaning those up down the road and fixing the broken off chunks. For now nothing is getting cleaned cause I want everything mocked up first! In the bottom of that pic you can see my supposed Feed bolt in cage. I probably won't even use it, and I haven't even bothered to see if that's even the actual brand of it. Oh well, it was included with my shell so whatever.

I also got my nearly mint manual door cards ($20 on ebay for the pair with armrests and crank handles!) mounted up. Too bad they're in such good shape because I want a black interior so eventually I'll do something with them. Racecar or not, I want a matching/nice interior!



Also ordered a complete lockset (mainly for the ignition switch) with a key off eBay...$110 I don't know why, but it pained me so bad to spend the money on it. But I wanted to keep the factory ignition location. The matching door locks and trunk just happen to be a bonus, cause even though I was missing the key I was just gonna leave the car unlocked all the time

Total cost:

$1947
Manual door cards: $20
Ignition switch w/key (plus door and hatch locks): $110

Total cost so far: $2057

Broke the 2k mark. I won't lie, I was hoping to be a bit further along at this point of spending. But I haven't been including any of the costs I've recouped. Which is probably somewhere in the ballpark of $250-$300 (the car was a shell...not much money to make back!).

Next update will be another few weeks. Hoping to start more wiring and doing my manual headlight conversion (I'll do a fairly detailed post on that).

EDIT: also, because I'm car ADD I might be selling my 62 Ragtop bug and buying a Miata I swear I'm not a Mazda fanboy, in fact I ***** everything Mazda made until I learned more about the RX7s and Miatas. Regardless of what happens there, the FC is my baby and she's here to stay.

[Zach Thomas]

I beat the dirty cheat that is the Logicon heater control. Stupid me assumed a wire I didn't hook up was for AC, but it wasn't! Only thing that isn't working is the blower, but my test setup for all of it was extremely sketchy so I think I might just have something loose. I tested the motor standalone and it was worked fine.

I know, completely worthless update and a "WTF does this have to do with the 5.0 swap?" but it's the small successes that keep me motivated. I will likely be working 60+ hours a week starting Monday so this might be the only update for a while. Plus I have parts coming today for my ragtop and my wife's CBR to lower both...once the FC is done I will only have one stock height car - my wife's Hyundai haha.

Oh, also wanted to post that I fixed my driver's side door handle thanks to this thread: DOOR HANDLE FIX FOR FC Saved me some cash, only took about 25-30 minutes. Don't waste your money on another handle that will break too, just hack it together with that fix!

Edit: local parts store is ordering my trans mount ($15, gotta love domestic part pricing lol) so hopefully I'll get the trans in before I start living at work.

Second edit: Picked up trans mount, no updates worth creating another post for

Trans mount - $12

Total so far: $1947

[Zach Thomas]

No pictures to update with, dash and wiring harness is completely ripped out. Lucky me the guy that owned the car before the friend I bought it from completely hacked up EVERYTHING behind the dash half the fasteners were missing, wiring was hacked a bit, etc. Oh well.

On the note of wiring, trying to get my heater to work standalone has been a nightmare. I think I've spent 6 hours tinkering with it already and all I've got it to do is illuminate I think my heater control might be bad, hopefully the local junkyard still has the base model S4 I saw there last time I was there....

[Zach Thomas]

glad to see progress!
hows the fit on the grannies kit? me and a local guy were comparing notes and there was quite a bit of fighting to get the engine in place..

I have a trick for my sunroof, ill have to explain with pics when i update next. taking the sunroof assembly from 50 lbs to about 6 lbs lol.

It actually fit really easily for the engine at least! I don't have the rubber trans mount yet so my transmission is just supported by some chunks of wood shoved between the Granny's bracket and the trans case I think it helps that my kit already had some holes slotted by the guy I bought it from

And do tell on the sunroof! I know a lot of people that end up making a panel to replace it but they kind of hack it up. I am building this car primarily for track use, but I don't want to have a whistling and leaking sunroof lol. So I'm curious to see what you come up with!

I'm hoping to get a little bit more progress this week and next because after this quarter ends I will probably be living at work for a few months I'm glad to be employed, but Boeing really needs to rehire everyone they laid off last year. Picking up the slack isn't as easy as one might think!

[unii]

glad to see progress!
hows the fit on the grannies kit? me and a local guy were comparing notes and there was quite a bit of fighting to get the engine in place..

I have a trick for my sunroof, ill have to explain with pics when i update next. taking the sunroof assembly from 50 lbs to about 6 lbs lol.

I took mine apart and I'm going to make just the metal part bolt in with some mounts off my cage.

[Teeson1111]

glad to see progress!
hows the fit on the grannies kit? me and a local guy were comparing notes and there was quite a bit of fighting to get the engine in place..

I have a trick for my sunroof, ill have to explain with pics when i update next. taking the sunroof assembly from 50 lbs to about 6 lbs lol.

[Zach Thomas]

So I haven't made a whole lot of progress lately, but I did drop the engine in to start mocking everything up Still haven't replaced all the gaskets on the engine yet, so it's completely temporary. But I need to start doing some actual work on the car instead of spending money (considering my wife is spending 3k on an 05 CBR600 F4i tomorrow and I just blew $300 on front Brembo calipers for my WRX, time to save for a little while!).

Here's how she looks:

Wrinkle black VHT paint on the oil pan:


Mid process:


Set in place


I don't know if I have the newer or older Granny's kit, but I trimmed the inside of the hood and it looks like I might be able to shut it without spacers or anything else Granted I have not fully test fit the trans to the engine so we'll see what the engine sits like with the trans in all the way. Sway bar will definitely need to be relocated and I might have to hammer the oil pan slightly to give me a tiny bit more clearance between it and the steering rack.

Also did some race car work and pulled all the wiring out of the doors. Converted to manual windows as well This bad boy will ONLY have engine wiring, headlights, taillights, heater controls, sunroof wiring (might try to convert it to a manual setup), and maybe the rear defroster and power mirrors. That being said, there's a lot of wiring in the stock RX7 harness. It'll be fun stripping it all down/building/rebuilding a harness.

Cost add-up:
BBK 70mm throttle body with all sensors - $70

Total so far: $1935

BTW, I apologize for the horrendous quality of the photos. I'm lazy and only have my phone as a camera and the lighting in my garage is mediocre so I tried to cheat and use filters that fixed them up slightly. But all the photos it took were all pixelated and ugly.

[Zach Thomas]

Got a bit of cleanup to do in here. I mean, the whole car needs some clean up but the wiring is pretty hacked up in the engine bay. My buddy cut the engine harness when he sold the Turbo 2 since he was going to build a whole new harness and whoever owned the car before him messed up a bunch of wiring for whatever reason.

But I got my Granny's kit Scored it for $250 from a friend of a coworker who had supposedly used it in a twin turbo 5.0 FC that is now powered by a Mustang 2.3 turbo! Super excited to have the brackets, now I just need to order my gasket set and start reassembling the engine.

Current plan is seal up engine, test fit drivetrain in car and have a driveshaft made up, then pull everything back out to clean up the bay for final install. Hopefully that'll be accomplished within a few months

Used Granny's swap kit: $250
Total so far: $1775

Edit: also got a set of good condition S5 side molding for $90. Overpriced? I dunno. Necessary? Definitely not, but those simple little trim pieces plus the taillights and front and rear bumpers of the S5 make it look so much better!

Total so far: $1865

[Zach Thomas]

No picture updates, but just got the block painted up. I've been sick the last 3 weeks and helped a buddy outside all day in the 35 degree weather trying to fix the windshield wipers on his WRX (literally took us all day haha, but most the time was spent catching up) so not feeling too great. May have done a pretty awful job on painting the block, but I won't admit defeat until I look at it tomorrow once it's dry. Coming soon will be gasket set and reassembly of the longblock

BTW, to keep with my total costs:
3 cans of engine enamel - $20ish (only needed 2 to do heads + block)

Total so far: $1525

Feeling like I'm doing so-so on costs so far all things considered. Not the least amount spent, but not the most by any means. Really hoping to make some good progress on the engine this week and start pricing powdercoating for the engine bits.

[Teeson1111]

gimme your rear subframe stuff!

you never drive your FC your all about that coupe now lol

lol true that, Blake you not done any suspensions yet?

Sounds like you'll have you're hands full! I don't personally know if the turbo 2 hood fits any easier but from what I've read and been told it does give a little more room up top. And the SN95 is the lowest profile factory intake, not sure how much shorter it is than a Fox but apparently it's a noticeable difference. You can also get the intake milled down a little bit to help that much more

the Sn95 is the lowest, but after mocking it all up I'm more concerned about the distributor hitting… anyone confirm the t2 hood has more room? makes sense with that scoop there
looks like you have a Edlebrock Performer intake? probably worth cutting in the hole for those extra ponies

car looks good btw Zach and Lamar

[Suped]

Sick project. In for this. American muscle and Japanese style, marriage made in heaven.

If you need any parts, my buddy is parting out a couple FCs. I think one is a base model.

[Zach Thomas]

Sounds like you'll have you're hands full! I don't personally know if the turbo 2 hood fits any easier but from what I've read and been told it does give a little more room up top. And the SN95 is the lowest profile factory intake, not sure how much shorter it is than a Fox but apparently it's a noticeable difference. You can also get the intake milled down a little bit to help that much more