I have a follow-up to the original post I placed on the "tension bolt modification".

I found that the clear "hobby" hose found at most pet shops (of all places) works well. The trick was finding something with both the right inside dia. (1/4inch in this case) and the right outside dia. (3/8inch). The hose has to be tight, but flexible enough to fit tightly over each bolt and then thin enough to slip into the dowel pins.

I still had to shave the outside of each rubber a little for it to fit cleanly, but this size seams to work the best.

PK797@excite.com

Ya with regard to the apex seal springs:

The trick is to do the springs last. In other words you start with the front housings (rotor+side) in-place and attached to each other on your stand etc, and then you install a assembled rotor minus the apex seals, apex seal springs and rear side corner seals. Once the rotor is in place inside it's respective housing you can now install your seal and springs. Starting with the apex seals themselves, followed by your springs and then once everything else is in place you can put in your back side corner seals before moving onto the next housing.

P.S. You guy's should really get your hands on the workshop manual for your car. All of this stuff is explained in great detail inside.

PK797 NYC

When taking apart your engine block, make sure to account for EVERY seal and spring, even the little triangle pieces of the apex seals. It is easy to have them stick on the plates due to oil tension and then fall off and disappear to "who knows where" like INSIDE a rotor or something. They could then fall out later after you have rebuilt it with terrible consequences.



Another tip... any time you're working on the car, keep all the holes plugged with paper towels or a shop rag. It is easy to accidentally drop a nut or small part down an intake runner. Also, if you are doing a rebuild and trying to mess with the key on the oil pump, be VERY careful that it doesn't fall down into the oil or water passages! This is easy to have happen if you have the engine standing up on the flywheel. I lost the key down one of the passages once and it was jammed in there good! Luckily I was able to retrieve it by tipping the engine over. Keep those holes plugged or covered at all times!



When rebuilding an FD tranny there is a step in the manual that says to hold the mainshaft in a vise and to engage 1st gear.... this lets you prevent the shaft from turning so you can remove a large bolt. If you don't have a vise, you can remove one or more of the roll pins (using the PROPER sized punch and a hammer) for the shift forks and then you can manually engage more than one gear at once (say 1st and 4th). This will cause the transmission's shafts to lock in place so you can remove the bolt without the vise. Use new rollpins on reassembly!



When doing a clutch/tranny/engine job on an FD make sure you understand how the pull type clutch works. Also make sure it will properly engage before you go shoving the engine/trans back in. You can do this by removing the release bearing from the trans and then using your hands you can see how it engages the pressure plate and confirm that it WILL properly lock in place when you put it all back. There are always posts from people complaining about the fact that these two parts won't lock together when the WHOLE problem could have been avoided if they had confirmed 1) how it works and 2) that it will work.



Brian

What a story!!! This thread, and the many others on this forum, are of the best out there. There is so much helpful information on here that I will be printing it all out, reading it twice, then rebuilding my engine:)



Question, has anyone every done a "dry" run when rebuilding their engine for the first time? Like just stack all of the pieces to get an idea of how to do it? I might try that just to understand it a bit better for my first rebuild.

If you screw up clearnecing a side seal, and make it a few thousanths to large, try it in the other side seal locations, they are all slightly differnt. This can save you from buying another side seal.

when measuring rotor to faceplate clearance,measure rotor housings in approx. 8 different places & pay particular attention to the exhaust port area of the housing as this area is commonly a different size due to the heat in that area...

a few for those that a building something that will work much harder than stock ...



simple:

use Renesis bearings



not-so-simple:

teardrop the oil passages on the eccentric shaft

port the oil pump passages

use the FD rear oil pressure regulator

When rebuilding an engine that uses an aftermarket engine management system, dummy assemble the front half of the engine and confirm TDC. Clearly identify TDC on the front pulley, particularly if you are unsure on the origin of the pulley, that way static timing will be correct.

One thing I use is a Racing Beat/rx7.com underdrive pulley. This aftermarket pulley is actually a main crank pulley and front hub combination all in one with known-good timing marks that are directly indexed to the front keyway -- from right to left: 20BTDC, 10BTDC, TDC, and 10ATDC.



I use it to double-checked the timing marks on a stock pulley/hub combo as sometimes a mismatched set can occur. You can manually align the motor to TDC w/ the Racing Beat pulley, remove it, put the stock pulley/hub combo back on, then chisel a new TDC mark on it. Works very well and ensures the spark is firing exactly where ya want it.



B