Petawabit's 93 R1 and now 93 Touring build

[petawabit]

Finally getting off my lazy butt to create a thread, chronicling my project(s).

Originally had purchased a 93 R1 that was painted Ultrasonic blue. Previous owner purchased the car as a roller and although he completed a bulk of the project (subframe, engine swap, trans, and ronin 8/8 rear end), there were TONs of small knick knacks that I've had to source.  From small plastic triangle pieces in the trunk, to the rear license plate light bulb holders, to new inner door cables for the door locks, i have pretty much removed every bolt that this car has to offer, except most of the engine bolts.  10k later, I had it tuned and running and when I went to take it off of PNO that it's been under for a year, i found out (again) that the car possessed a salvage title.  I say again, since I do recall about a year prior that when I received my insurance renewal, that it suggested that the Rx7 had a salvage title that i asked them to verification and they showed me the carfax, that showed it being issued a salvage title in Texas. 

The previous owner had mentioned something about a small fender bender to to the front driver side, but even when replacing all the bushings and suspension, couldn't discern any evidence or an accident or repair, or they were just very thorough with the repairs.  He showed me a clean autocheck and dealing with him, thought he was a good, credible guy, so I didn't question anything at the time.  You live and learn.

From there, I thought for awhile on next steps on just proceeding with a salvage title vehicle, paying a little more for insurance for half the coverage and also about the fact that I will be keeping this car forever (so I hope). I would peruse the forums for either completed cars, projects, and even rollers, since I have all the hardware and can make the swap and ultimately came across a car in Vegas that I ended up driving and picking up one Friday evening.  Just as I was getting the R1 prepped for daily driven duties after having the car for 4 years, it's a little discouraging to have to almost start anew with a new chassis, but trying to tackle a little here and there after work and on the weekends to finish this, hopefully by end of this year/beginning of next.  Hoping this thread gives me incentive to keep pushing.

Here are builds for each car:

1993 R1, Ultrasonic Blue

Exterior:
Ultrasonic Blue from the Lexus IS-F
Chassis was stripped to frame and painted, door jambs, trunk, everything
Authentic 99 Spec front bumper
99 Spec Rebar
Depo front turn signals
99 spec oem front lip
18x10.5 CCW SP510, +50 in front, +70 in back with 25mm spacer. 285/30/18 advan neovas front and rear

Drivetrain:
02' LS1 from a corvette, 50k miles roughly
*Rebuilt T56 with viper forks off a 06' GTO (triple synchros) brand new bell housing with 48" slave cylinder hose.,
Samberg front subframe kit with engine mounts,
Ronin rear 8.8 rear kit, Ford racing Trac loc LSD 3.27 ratio, poly bushings, newly built, powdercoated 94 subframe
Drive shaft shop 3.5" Aluminum Drive Shaft
Stage 2 Diamond Clutch and lightweight flywheel
Wiring specialties, LS1, 3 pin maf, AC harness equipped, EV1 injector option
30 Row external oil cooler with improved racing thermostat installed directly on oil pan, stainless AN lines(new)
15 Row Power steering cooler, stainless AN lines
B&M Ripper short shifter with white Hurst style shift knob
90mm aluminum throttle body
Turn 1 PS restrictor
Rebuilt OEM PS rack with superpro steering rack bushings
Aeromotive Stealth fuel pump with FPR, AN lines coming from tank
JTR 1 7/8 headers, Full stainless dual 2.5 inch piping going into a Mac Prochamber, dual 2.5 going to a dynomax 2.5 in/out muffler.Vbands throughout, Racing beat dual tips
Brand new spark splugs
4 new Denso coilpaks
Lokar Cable Bracket
Lokar Adjustable Ls1 throttle cable
929 brake Cylinder
Tuned by Tom at Izzy Performance, ~335whp, 353 wtq with 75% max WOT. Being remedied by adjustable throttle cable
Dakota Digital speed correction (not calibrated)
10w-30 mobil 1 and filter
motul brake fluid
gm trans fluid
rear diff oil,mobil 1 75-140
Wiring specialties Coolant sensor adapter - works
Oil pressure needs a new adapter to adapt the Mazda sensor with the GM block
Improved racing F-body oil pan with improved racing baffle
4.5 to 3.5 inch intake to Spectre air filter with filter water protector sheath, located in driver bumper area (new)
Wilwood clutch master cylinder
Ls3 water pump, silicone lines to heater core
Billet manual belt tensioner, forgot the brand, ICT?
Aluminum radiator with dual SPAL Fans, has separate LSX relay wiring


Suspension:
New control arm bushing, powerflex black bushings, front and rear control arms, w/ pillowballs
Samberg Bumpsteer kit
Stoptech brake pads
Newly rebuilt Cusco Zero 3x

Electronics and Interior:
DEI Boom mat coated whole interior
Underside coated
Brand new drip seals, door seals, OEM Mazda
Napa Leather wrapped Dash, kick panels, sun visors, a pillars, center console, cluster cover
Sakebomb Aluminum door handle installed
Brand new black headliner
Deka ETX30, mounted to rear passenger bin, inline fuse
Recaro SPG x 2
Momo Monte carlo 320mm wheel with Worksbell quick release
Momo hub



1993 Touring, Montego Blue
Chassis has 154k miles.
LS1 T56 Swapped.

Engine Details:
Edelbrock Extreme RPM Heads
65cc , 2.02in/1.57ex valves
ARP Pro Series Head bolts
Chevy Perf OEM LS1/6 Head Gaskets
Comp XFI 212/218 .522/.529 114LSA
Comp Pro Magnum Lifters,
Comp Hi Tech Chromoly pushrods,
Summit Racing 1.7 Alum Roller Rockers
Mahle PowerPak Forged Pistons
OEM Polished Crank
OEM Rods
SLP Heavy-duty BluePrinted Oil Pump
New Acdelco waterpump
New Acdelco Thermostat
Sikky Oil Pickup Tube
Sikky Oil Pan/Remote filter kit
ATI SuperDamper
Sikky Stainless Ceramic Coated Headers
Sikky Engine Mounts + oil pan + oil filter relocation

T56 Fbody Transmission
Hurst Shifter
SPEC Stage 3 Clutch
NEW OEM Slave/Hyd Throwout
Sikky Wilwood Master Cylinder Kit
Remote Bleeder
Sikky Aluminum Driveshaft
Custom Xmember for 3" dual pipes

Vbanded Stainless 3" duals Y piped to 4" single exiting a Magnaflow Muffler and Dual 4" tips.
Rims
Samberg V2 Radiator and intake kit
Wiring specialties Pro Harness
Custom AC lines
Custom AC harness
Optima Yellow top Battery 34 series

Fortune Auto 500 Coilovers
R1 strut bar
Custom LS1 swap Sway bar brackets
Poly sway bar bushings
Improved Racing Adjustable end links
Bonzai diff brace
Stock brakes with drilled/slotted rotors


The Goal:
-Retain the samberg subframe kit from the R1, since the position of the engine dictates the positioning of the tranny, which affects the driveshaft, which is already set for the ronin 8.8 rear that the R1 had, move that over to the Touring
-Remove the touring drivetrain, mainly because the block has a rod knock, take the heads and throw that on the LS2 shortblock that came as a spare and build it on the side
-swap black carpet and black headliner from R1 to Touring
-Have a new non-sunroof roofskin welded onto the touring when it goes to paint

-Exhaust, fuel system, coilovers, suspension arms, sakebomb headlights, sakebomb sway bar mounts from R1
-Samberg, radiator/intake, ATI damper, AC accessories (lines, dryer, condenser) from Touring


Wish me luck and thanks for looking and the support

Edit - attachments are failing because they're too big. Will need to resize later

[digitalsolo]

So are you parting the R1 to work on the touring, or building both?   Looks like a lotta work!   

[Venom13132]

I like that blue.  Looks like a lot of work ahead!

[petawabit]

So are you parting the R1 to work on the touring, or building both?   Looks like a lotta work!   

Parting the R1 and selling as a roller once I finish transferring stuff over.  I was just nearing the end with the blue car and was a tough decision to make to pretty much start over anew.  Yeah, I try not to think how much work is ahead of me and will just keep plugging away at it

I like that blue.  Looks like a lot of work ahead!

I did too! I almost wanted to suck and run it as is, but figured it would bother me down the road.

[petawabit]

I know the samberg front subframe is the gold standard when it comes to mounting an LS, but was thinking of retaining the sikky kit that is currently in the touring.   I was initially going to swap all the samberg stuff over, since I know for certain that I can re-use the driveshaft that I'm currently using, but reading that the stock FD diff and the 8.8 are in the same general location, allowing me to use the driveshaft from the touring vehicle.

From reading the stories on the forum, I was seeing that the engine is placed further back, but slightly higher up, but when looking at how the engine is currently sitting in the touring, I can see the engine further back, pretty much against the firewall, but the height looks to be lower?  There was slight cutting towards the front where the samberg silicone intake hose runs, but the R1 strut bar actually fits, which suggests that it's sitting at about the same, if not lower, height as the samberg?

Previous owner of the touring also mentioned that a shop owner had driven his car and made a mention about how well the car handled, better than any other Rx7 with a v8 swap that he's driven including ones with the hinson and samberg subframe.  The other con of retaining the sikky kit though, is that I wouldn't be able to use my JTR longtubes.

[Venom13132]

The sikky kit sits higher than the Samberg.  The Samberg kit utilizes a bump steer correction, where the sikki doesn't.  Personally I like the Samberg kit better since it replaces the stock sub frame and uses a stock F-body oil pan.  The Diff braces and trans mounts are pretty similar I think.

[petawabit]

I'll have to put that same r1 strut bar on my samberg car. Or take measurements,as the sikky car seems to have the engine lower than the samberg car