FD3S Single Turbo Build(Kinda)
Thanks for the advice mate, I put some strip lights in a few months ago however it doesnt add that much when I am under the car. My head torch has packed up so I need to invest in some more lighting anyway. Now Christmas is apon us I wont be working on the car so I will sort some extra lighting, also I only have one can of degreaser... I think I might need some more.
One of the best degreasers on the market (get the one litre size and dilute it down to 1:10 then spray it on)
http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk/bilt ... litre.aspx
I bought some of these recently and find them to be pretty good
http://www.faithfulltools.com/p/XMS13FREESTL
Essentially as LED they produce no heat, they're rechargeable and emit a nice clear and sharp light (if you want to borrow Surfex and lights and replace them later, let me know
)
http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk/bilt ... litre.aspx
I bought some of these recently and find them to be pretty good
http://www.faithfulltools.com/p/XMS13FREESTL
Essentially as LED they produce no heat, they're rechargeable and emit a nice clear and sharp light (if you want to borrow Surfex and lights and replace them later, let me know
)http://www.auto-genie.co.uk
07733 527430
stuart@auto-genie.co.uk
Valeting, detailing and undersealing
07733 527430
stuart@auto-genie.co.uk
Valeting, detailing and undersealing
Stu cheers for the recommendations, tested that degreaser on a few bits and it works a charm. I have also got a mains powered led light for working on the car after your recommendation, really makes working on the car a lot easier and it will certinaly help with the cleaning.
I am going to start degreasing the underside of the engine and the underside of the engine bay. I have bought a load of drip trays and put some plastic sheeting down. My plan was to spray a 50:50 mix of this degreaser on the affected areas and scrub it in, leave it for 30mins, then rinse off. I am going to buy like 20 cheap toothbrushes off eBay to help. Sound OK?
I am going to start degreasing the underside of the engine and the underside of the engine bay. I have bought a load of drip trays and put some plastic sheeting down. My plan was to spray a 50:50 mix of this degreaser on the affected areas and scrub it in, leave it for 30mins, then rinse off. I am going to buy like 20 cheap toothbrushes off eBay to help. Sound OK?
50:50 (i.e. 1:1) is really strong mate; I've cleaned seriously filthy engines at 20:1!! Toothbrushes are cool; I'd suggest buying yourself some cheap microfibres from B&Q, Asda or the like so that you can mop up puddles or areas of more liquid gunk!
(Not only will you use too much product by using it too strong, but you'll also stand more chance of staining the metalwork and damaging rubbers and plastics etc)
(Not only will you use too much product by using it too strong, but you'll also stand more chance of staining the metalwork and damaging rubbers and plastics etc)
http://www.auto-genie.co.uk
07733 527430
stuart@auto-genie.co.uk
Valeting, detailing and undersealing
07733 527430
stuart@auto-genie.co.uk
Valeting, detailing and undersealing
Just leave it to dwell for about 5 minutes and then tackle it; really should be fine 
http://www.auto-genie.co.uk
07733 527430
stuart@auto-genie.co.uk
Valeting, detailing and undersealing
07733 527430
stuart@auto-genie.co.uk
Valeting, detailing and undersealing
Re: FD3S Single Turbo Build(Kinda)
Time for a update...Warning pic heavy….
Those of you have been following my thread will know on my last trip out in 2013 my clutch slave decided it had enough of life and shat itself all over my gearbox bellhousing and left me 5 miles away from home without the full use of my clutch.
When the clutch worked it felt like I was trying to move a cannon ball using a cocktail stick, after speaking to a few people about after market clutch slaves I decided to take the plunge and order a FEED clutch slave from RHD Japan… As hard as I searched I could not find the overnight shipping option so I had to wait for the parts to arrive
After a lot of do I? dont I? I decided to also fix some long standing issues which have been bugging me, my oil leak.
Once I had the car up in the air I had a good look around the whole engine to try and work out where the oil was coming from. This proved quite difficult as the whole underside and other areas of the engine had oil and gunk all over them. I always thought my oil leak came from my oil sump (really common on RX7’s), looking in the inspection plate for the clutch my heart sank. I could see behind the flywheel there was a oil trail, this meant the oil was coming from the back of the engine, not good.
I could just leave this, however I didnt want to do this for two reasons...The rear bearing in the engine would not be getting as much oil as it should, also, the oil was coming around the side of the engine next to the exhaust manifold so I figured this could also be a fire risk as well.
So off to Google and several nights spent reading and researching, there are two possible causes of the oil from the back of the engine, the ‘rear main seal’ which is on the exterior of the rear of the engine. Or the rear stationary gear O ring, which you have to remove the rear stationary gear to get to...yeah you heard me...you have to remove the rear stationary gear to get to.
Only way to find out which one is leaking (and fix) is to remove the following:
Exhaust
Prop shaft
Power plant frame
Gearbox - including draining it
Clutch
Flywheel - which includes the Brucey bonus which is the Flywheel nut from hell!
Because I couldn't be sure that the oil sump was not leaking as well, I decided to reseal while I was feeling daring. So I also completely removed the front subframe from the car to get good access to the lower part of the engine. This also gave me the bonus I could clean alot of the lower parts of the engine and subframe which had been caked in oil, brake dust etc.
So I got the engine supported:
Dropped the required components, including the gearbox:
Removed the fly wheel nut of hell using this bad boy :
So I could get to the back of the engine:
At this point, I could see that it was just the rear main seal leaking (rear main seal is the orange seal around the eccentric shaft). However, as it had taken so many expletives (and time!) to get to this point I decided to replace in inner O ring like a hero.
This is what a engine looks like with no rear stationary gear, I will be honest I felt quite sick at this point!
Once the new O ring was back on the rear stationary gear and back in the engine I could breathe again!
Then onto the sump, to give myself the best possible chance of getting the sump to seal I bought a sump brace from DM MotorSport.
Then started cleaning everything (Pic below I took halfway through)
This was how bad the subframe was:
To then give me….Taadaaaa!
I did clean a lot of other areas like the steering rack but I didnt take pictures of it all.
While I did all of this I have replaced the following as well.
Oil and filter
Transmisson fluid
Steering rack gators
Steering rack bushes have been replaced with polyurethane bushes.
Pilot bearing has been replaced
Clucth release bearing
Brake and Clutch fluid
Once this was done, I fitted and bled the new clutch slave. Which also has the bonus of reducing the pedal effort required to engage and disengage the clutch.
I ran the car up to test everything and there were no leaks, I did get a slight weep from the sump however after re-torquing when hot this weep looks to have stopped. The oil seals on the back of the engine are bone dry.
I also took the front suspension off to clean and protect the threaded part of the dampers, I have also added some pre load to the springs.
Before:
After:
The car is now ready to have the wheel alignment sorted so I can start using it again, hurrah!
I will be honest this has been the biggest job I have every done on any car, there were several points where I could have sold up or set fire to it.
Big thanks to people who have helped me along the way with various bits of advice, encouragement, Gareth for helping me get the gearbox off and my wife for putting up with my shit.
Thanks for reading, I hope the next posts from me are of me driving the bloody thing! The car is now sat waiting to be taxed ready to go to APT….
Those of you have been following my thread will know on my last trip out in 2013 my clutch slave decided it had enough of life and shat itself all over my gearbox bellhousing and left me 5 miles away from home without the full use of my clutch.
When the clutch worked it felt like I was trying to move a cannon ball using a cocktail stick, after speaking to a few people about after market clutch slaves I decided to take the plunge and order a FEED clutch slave from RHD Japan… As hard as I searched I could not find the overnight shipping option so I had to wait for the parts to arrive
After a lot of do I? dont I? I decided to also fix some long standing issues which have been bugging me, my oil leak.
Once I had the car up in the air I had a good look around the whole engine to try and work out where the oil was coming from. This proved quite difficult as the whole underside and other areas of the engine had oil and gunk all over them. I always thought my oil leak came from my oil sump (really common on RX7’s), looking in the inspection plate for the clutch my heart sank. I could see behind the flywheel there was a oil trail, this meant the oil was coming from the back of the engine, not good.
I could just leave this, however I didnt want to do this for two reasons...The rear bearing in the engine would not be getting as much oil as it should, also, the oil was coming around the side of the engine next to the exhaust manifold so I figured this could also be a fire risk as well.
So off to Google and several nights spent reading and researching, there are two possible causes of the oil from the back of the engine, the ‘rear main seal’ which is on the exterior of the rear of the engine. Or the rear stationary gear O ring, which you have to remove the rear stationary gear to get to...yeah you heard me...you have to remove the rear stationary gear to get to.
Only way to find out which one is leaking (and fix) is to remove the following:
Exhaust
Prop shaft
Power plant frame
Gearbox - including draining it
Clutch
Flywheel - which includes the Brucey bonus which is the Flywheel nut from hell!
Because I couldn't be sure that the oil sump was not leaking as well, I decided to reseal while I was feeling daring. So I also completely removed the front subframe from the car to get good access to the lower part of the engine. This also gave me the bonus I could clean alot of the lower parts of the engine and subframe which had been caked in oil, brake dust etc.
So I got the engine supported:
Dropped the required components, including the gearbox:
Removed the fly wheel nut of hell using this bad boy :
So I could get to the back of the engine:
At this point, I could see that it was just the rear main seal leaking (rear main seal is the orange seal around the eccentric shaft). However, as it had taken so many expletives (and time!) to get to this point I decided to replace in inner O ring like a hero.
This is what a engine looks like with no rear stationary gear, I will be honest I felt quite sick at this point!
Once the new O ring was back on the rear stationary gear and back in the engine I could breathe again!
Then onto the sump, to give myself the best possible chance of getting the sump to seal I bought a sump brace from DM MotorSport.
Then started cleaning everything (Pic below I took halfway through)
This was how bad the subframe was:
To then give me….Taadaaaa!
I did clean a lot of other areas like the steering rack but I didnt take pictures of it all.
While I did all of this I have replaced the following as well.
Oil and filter
Transmisson fluid
Steering rack gators
Steering rack bushes have been replaced with polyurethane bushes.
Pilot bearing has been replaced
Clucth release bearing
Brake and Clutch fluid
Once this was done, I fitted and bled the new clutch slave. Which also has the bonus of reducing the pedal effort required to engage and disengage the clutch.
I ran the car up to test everything and there were no leaks, I did get a slight weep from the sump however after re-torquing when hot this weep looks to have stopped. The oil seals on the back of the engine are bone dry.
I also took the front suspension off to clean and protect the threaded part of the dampers, I have also added some pre load to the springs.
Before:
After:
The car is now ready to have the wheel alignment sorted so I can start using it again, hurrah!
I will be honest this has been the biggest job I have every done on any car, there were several points where I could have sold up or set fire to it.
Big thanks to people who have helped me along the way with various bits of advice, encouragement, Gareth for helping me get the gearbox off and my wife for putting up with my shit.
Thanks for reading, I hope the next posts from me are of me driving the bloody thing! The car is now sat waiting to be taxed ready to go to APT….
Last edited by dom187 on Fri Mar 28, 2014 8:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: FD3S Single Turbo Build(Kinda)
I raise my cap to you Dom you took on a bjg challenge their especially in the tight confines of your garage.....
Well done mate...
Well done mate...