build 1 my 88 mazda rx7 ls1 swap

[SS Shaun]

here is the story my rx7 has been with me for a very long time! i love this car for some reason! i just cant seem to give it up! I had a 13b NA in it and i said well i want more power so i swapped in a 13b turbo

so after blowing yet another seal i got sick of the motor and i was going to sell the car off. then a buddy told me put a v8 in it and call it a day. I thought he was crazy but then i started searching and sure enough people started swapping v8s in them! so i picked up an LT1 from a junk yard



after the machine shop got it it was bored out 30 over.

new pistons

all together well the short block



now don't laugh but at the time all i had was this bright blue paint..lol


all together


intake after a nice hot tanking and paint



flywheel resurfaced



all together now

[SS Shaun]

mount kit installed

motor fit in pretty good and i was shocked to see the shifter in the stock location



after a few more weeks i finally got it running


then i bought a house and had some time and space to work on the car
now don't laugh to hard at my wife no clue why she thought the camera was not picking up audio!

lol

yes those are mustang wheels

i had some issue with it and it was electrical! and boy did it bother me but i finally got it working again man i miss having a cammed motor..lol

and my first time auto crossing

then i started having electrical issues again and i ended up like this

[SS Shaun]

yup you guessed it opti spark again! then i said ok thats it i am tired of this time to get an lq4. so i got my LQ4 home and then a buddy came over and said to me "hey what are you doing with that motor?" told him its going in the 7 and then i he told me something i will never forget! "lets trade block for block" you cant even imagine the smile i had on my face i was like hell yeah!
so i got it home and this is what i had!

inside the vally

inside the valve cover

with the ls1 intake back on it!

ported ls1 TB (thanks jamie)

fuel rails and lq4 turck coils on it


maf and water pump bolted on

ls1 flywheel bolted on with arp flywheel bolts and apr pressure plate bolts


the things not on yet!
f body crank pulley, because i don't have a puller for it yet

f body altenator, because i don't have the mounting bolts yet


and the wiring harness and pcm in the box not ready to start modding it yet..lol

[SS Shaun]

got the wiring harness as much together and apart as i could in the bay

headers are unbolted


oil pan, tray, pick up, and dip stick all came in the mail


as to much suprise i had another knock on the door today and it was my race proven racing baffle with trap does on it!


so i said let me clean the oil pan up and get the new baffle in it
before

after

[SS Shaun]

sitting in the working out room

radiator sitting in the background





half way out


out just need help steering it out




out and trans is off


the motor is ready for the new owner




playing with the slave cylinder to make sure that i can use my setup


i took the stock quick release from gm so i can use my SS line from the lt1


happy to see that it fits well and i am going to buy a new fitting so is 180 not 90 degrees


thats all i can do for now until i get some parts solds so i can buy more parts to finish off the swap!

[SS Shaun]

some stuff came in the mail today

my long tube headers!



and my t56 for the ls1 is here!

[SS Shaun]

how to convert the ls1 slave cylinder
rusell fitting

out the box

aparts

with the new fitting installed

stock bleeder with the remote bleeder

all together

on the t56

on the face plate

[SS Shaun]

some more stuff showed up in the mail






i got new mounts too because i noticed my old ones looked like this

and for 8.44 i got two new ones

[SS Shaun]

i finally got off my butt and did some work tonight!
clutch installed, bellhousing on, new f body oil pan with race baffle installed.




i had to sneak away from the wife and take the 25 mins to get it together!





Hi i am Shaun and i approve this swap!

now get in the car mister!

now i am waiting for my power steering rack to come in the mail get that all together and drop the motor in over thanksgiving break! (i hope!)
o and some where lucky enough to see the happy fat man dance! because i got it done so quick with out the wife noticing i was gone (it was my turn to change the baby and give her a bath and i just turned into a vapor...lol)

[SS Shaun]

finally she is in and bolted it on her own power!!








- - - Updated - - -

pure sexiness!

[SS Shaun]

Some stuff done today!
ran my fuel lines today! and put in my vette fuel filter and ran the lines the way it needs to be. I ran it the same way Granny shows on the website


ran the line from the master cylinder to the slave cylinder


and installed the oil pressure sensor


things not pictured the water temp sensor is in

I think all that is left for me to do is the headers, get the lines from the heater core to the water pump. mine are to short so i am going to route that this week!

ran the hose for the PCV,

if you guys can think of anything i need to do please let me know. if not i think i am almost done. all i need is headers done, a small pipe from the headers to the exhaust, O2 sensors, starter bolts and bolt the starter to the block. wiring and ready to go!

greg doing what he does best! wiring



then busting a groove on the welder!

but getting welds like this!


Chris finally getting off his ass and doing some work!


he did a great job on my gauge cluster! The stock rx7 cluster is a cable speedo so we took an integra speedo and wired it up to the VSS and its almost perfect! when it should of been 60mph it was reading 57 i can live with that much better then having nothing or having one that says 45 and doing 63 like my old one was!

[SS Shaun]

grinding down some of the welds from the tack fittings



ANGERED!!


but they turned out good!


passenger side ! DUMB easy to do!

driver side OMG what a pain!

[SS Shaun]

greg had to put all 125 pounds on it to get it in place! LOL

still not there yet!

you can't see the hammer but i am beating the hell out of the firewall for about 1 inch of room for the header to get in there!



finally got it to line up right!




now i have to figure out what i am going to do with the pcm



finishing touches before we start it up



and finally this!!

[SS Shaun]

finally off jack stands and moving under is own power!!

well i worked on it some today. i spent yesterday and today trying to find some intake piping so i can make a nice cold air intake but i couldn't find anything that was 3.5, since my MAF is 3.5 i figured i would be able to find something man was i wrong. A & A had only ricer intakes that where2.5 or 3 inches but no step downs so i could at least put the 3inch intake on. So i ended up going to home depot and went to the PCV section and i fould a 3 to 3 but when i messured the inside of it, it came back 3.5 on one side and 3 on the other side. so i took it home and used all my old LT1 stuff and came up with this



what do you guys think?

i am proud of myself! i actually sat there with a wiring diagram and found the illumination wire so when i flip the headlights on the gauge turns on



now all that is left is to put the rest of my interior back together mount the pcm,wheel alignment and exhaust. I should have my interior back together this week I hope

i got her back on all fours and started getting things together. i have so many small things to work on. but here is what i did today
don't mind the open master cylinder i was about to bleed it but my garage is such a mess i couldn't find my bleeder..lol enjoy!

[SS Shaun]

and then i took it to the dyno just to see how she would do untuned and man she put down more power then my cammed lt1



hope you enjoy it! i have a lot of work left to do but she is up and running and will stay this way until my chevelle is ready for the road

[KahanaReef]

Impressive

[0rion]

very nice.......you should make a poster out of all those pics to hang in your garage.

[BLK2KSS]

nice job man

[FinZ28]

Very nice.

[SS Shaun]

lol i like the idea of the pictures but i have over 300 pictures of my builds...lol hell right now in my chevelle build i have almost 300 pictures and i haven't even touched my lq4 yet..lol