Small block chevy T56 FC RX7 build

So I picked up this car for $400 a few months ago. The body is pretty clean with the exception of a massive dent in the passenger rear quarter panel. The car had a SBC with a TH350 in it previously but had been removed before I picked it up. It did still have the granny's cradle in it 8)

The car had:
5 lug conversoin
TII diff
Hacked up harness
Destroyed dash from sitting in the desert sun for years.





You can see where someone cut up the mount. I welded in some new metal and re drilled the holes. Good as new.

So First things first was to find a motor and trans for the thing. I picked up a seized LT1 with a "good" T56 bolted to it for $1000, sold the motor for $250.

Next I found a 350 that was in a 3/4 ton chevy truck, had to buy the whole truck. The motor supposedly had 50 miles on a rebuild. Flat top pistons, RV cam, bored .060" over, new bearings throughout.

I started on the car by removing all the unneeded wires from the harness since it was all hacked up anyway. So I tore the dash out... permanently... and got to it.



This has been a nightmare, Im still not done and have removed A LOT of wires. I hoping to get it down to the bare essentials, lights, signals, and the ignition. This will be a stripped down hooptie. :drive:

Last night I tore the motor out of the truck, took me 4 hours by myself which seems like an eternity when you consider how simple this thing is!





Got her all dressed up. New oil pan gasket since the old one leaked like a sieve, as well as a new rear main seal. Threw the Spec conversion flywheel, clutch, and T56 on there today.



4 bolt mains








I got the motor in place in the car today but it looks like the oil pan is hitting the steering rack AND the granny's mount By then it was getting dark so I called it a day. The plan is to clearance the pan either with a hammer or by cutting and welding, really don't want to re do that oil pan gasket though... I hear some guys run washers to space the engine up too, sounds kinda sketchy to me.

More to come, I hope to have it driving within a week, I still need to shorten my driveshaft and mount up my clutch hydraulics.

 

Nice...I saw one of these blow up on the freeway a week ago.

 

A rotary RX7 or a 350 chevy?

 

Not sure...probably a rotary.
An RX-7 I mean.

 

Oh ok, yeah they tend to do that... a lot

 

Sweet build. More cutting than your truck build


Sub'd.

 

Lol well the truck cost me $8000, car was $400. I'm poor so yeah.

 

Nice looking motor. How many horses is it pushing?

 

ive had 3 2nd gens......i love them i had an 89 turboII that was getting prepped for an ls1 t56 when i was stabbed 4x protecting some friends and had to sell the car,bike and project truck i had ill built one again some day!!!!! good luck with the build

 

Me likes. Good luck! Actually, I know a guy that has an RX7 convertible sitting in his garage; can't recall the year but I think he thought it was pretty rare.

 

Well if it ran right it should be right around 300 crank HP, but it ran terribly in the truck, burning a bit of oil. I think the dude that rebuilt it didn't know what he was doing. The plan is to run it till I can afford to do a nice rebuild. Vortech heads, bigger cam, P&P, maybe a stroker crank.

That sucks! I really want to LS1 one of these bad boys some day.

They're getting pretty rare just because the rotary isn't real reliable/popular. Normally I would love to have a built rotary in this thing but it was so hacked up anyways, I just had to put something filthy in it haha.

Anyway, I used a big steel pipe I had laying around to dent the oil pan up. Worked like a charm and I made sure the rod bolts clear by turning her I've by hand a few times. Got it in yesterday, still need to mod out the trans cross member that came with the car. It was used for a th350 so it doesn't fit.

 

Oh yes



LOL

 

Alright I got the trans mount made and installed, driveshaft shortened, engine wired up, and the clutch bled.



Also made this sweet shifter handle in my school's machine shop. It's a cue ball threaded onto an aluminum shaft.



Finally, I got the engine started today. It still has no headers on it because the old ones dont fit so I only let it run about 5 seconds. The correct set of headers should be here friday. In the meantime I need to figure out the cooling system and fuel.

 

Drove it for the first time today

First of all, I still have no radiator cap so I only got about a mile before I was spewing water Also, conveniently a mile from my house, I found out I wired the alternator wrong so the battery was dead. Had to run home and get the truck to jump it.

All else seems good though, Im surprised how good the brakes are on the car, as well as the condition of the transmission. The 3-4 synchro feels a little notchy but not bad.

Sorry no pics, it was dark. I had to shove the positive wire for the headlights and tail lights into the + battary terminal to look somewhat legit at night Need to get on that body harness ASAP.

 

terrible vid of it running. Don't mind the experimental duct tape rad cap



When I test drove it it was EXTREMELY sluggish, like maybe 100 hp. Im hoping it's just the timing since I just kinda did it by ear. If that's not it I guess it's time for a compression test.

 

Damn dude that thing is gonna be a monster when youre done. I just got a massive urge to drive down to see it.

 

haha I hope, I need to get it running right, then hopefully my ghetto shortened driveshaft holds up to burnouts.

 

First thing that came to mind when I saw this build thread.

http://youtu.be/ZcjpXbMiCtg

Good luck with the build.

 

My inspiration

Im actually thinking about making a fuel gauge like that if I can't make the stock one work. Only difference here is I only have 2400 bucks into this thing total. He was in like 10 grand or something ridiculous.

 

So I finally got a timing light on it today, looks like timing it by ear put it at about 14*, a little on the high side but not bad for having no clue what im doing!

Dialed in 10* and called it good. Once I get the exhaust built and can actually hear if it's pinging, I may try and advance it a bit.

It looks like I need to take a good look at the carb though because it has a BAD hesitation in the lower RPM's at WOT. I was doing some launches today, reving it up a bit and launching. I could get about 2 feet of wheelspin then it would bog really bad. Once it gets past about 2500 RPM it absolutely screams though. Time to do some research because I know jack squat about automotive carbs although I've done tons of work on vacuum motorcycle carbs. Hoping they're similar