flight_of_pain

I have made a bit more progress, but had to juggle a handful of other projects in the past year that have just sucked away every spare moment I had. I will put the pics up this week of where I am at. Isaac

I have run them at intake .15mm exhaust .20mm with no ill effects, paired with a 4eat it doesn't get revved out much. I have found oil makes a bigger difference, Mobil Delvac or castrol gtx is what i run in my subes. The mobil is for the clackety ones

Awesome! I just assembled a similar frankenmotor for my legwag. I used an ej25d shortblock and ej223 heads (single year '99, roller rocker, single port). I put it together the week before christmas, started it on the 22nd, and just got back from driving it to Seattle then Port Angeles. I always pull the coil wires and crank until oil pressure is built, then start it up. As for valves, this is the fsm specs for 99 phase 2 heads. (essentially the same heads as sohc 2.5) Valve clearance Intake mm (in) 0.20±0.02 (0.0079±0.0008) Exhaust mm (in) 0.25±0.02 (0.0098±0.0008) Happy motoring! Isaac

If you haven't checked already make sure you didn't swap the fuel send and return hoses where they slip onto the metal sections. I just fixed a no start issue for a guy with a rebuild that way

I have a mill up here on the north side... just FYI Isaac

Power-braking results in no noise, any gear that results in movement/load causes the noise to disappear. I ran out and grabbed a quick video (excuse the lighting, its dark here) The camera is directly under the oil pan facing the rear of the car. You can hear the rattle quite well in park, then it goes away in gear, reappears in neutral, goes away again in gear. Isaac

Axles were one of the first things I checked, sorry I should have said that. This is a metal on metal knock from, as near as I can tell, inside the bellhousing/flexplate/TC. I am going to run out with the cam and try to get a quick video. Isaac

I just finished swapping in a high-comp frankenmotor due to the original ej22 self destructing on the freeway. Flexplate to TC bolts are torqued to spec, and the flexplate showed no signs of any cracks when swapped onto the new motor. When I pulled the old motor I made sure the TC stayed with the tranny, and was not pulled out. Before installing the tc to flexplate bolts I spun the tc by finger and it was smooth. Now that I have it all assembled and running the front of the tranny area is making a knocking/rattling noise when in park or neutral. The noise is RPM dependent, and shifting into any gear causes the noise to disappear. The tranny appears to shift/drive normally. This is not heatshields or any contact between a hose/coupling and the frame. Probing with a screwdriver, the noise appears to be coming from the bellhousing. Any ideas? Isaac

That is a no, but with some time and a welder you may, in fact, build your own I will get some pics up in the next few days, I built the tranny mount, rear trailing arms/brackets, and am working on the front diff mount now. I will try to keep the thread here updated more often, you would be surprised at how much bull************ I get about this project/fab work on the rx7 board. Isaac

Its too bad the z31 isn't an r180, it sounds like the key to this question is having the STI and non-STI side by side for comparative purposes.

A z31 will indeed have an r200, I didn't say z31, I said 280zx. There are multiple ratios available from nissan, but they are quite expensive. according to the Zcar guys the 720 4X4 from 1/83 to 6/83, had a 3.9 r180. Theoretically the ring and pinion should swap, but without having them side by side, who knows. Isaac

Unfinished rotary swap

I parted out a few 280zx's years ago and they had r180s.

Having rebuilt/restored vintage motorcycles for many years, and to make a living, I can only suggest you take the idea of CVs and throw it in the proverbial trash. They tend to not like large pulsing vacuum draws, and on a sube that is what we get. A carb set up for a 2-stroke is also going to be unhappy without changing it completely over to 4-stroke operation. Isaac

Are your plastic fender liners intact?

On my rotary Ea81, I plan to mount the master cyl. on the driver side frame rail forward of the firewall. A hole drilled in the clutch arm just above the dogleg should mount the clevis end of a lengthened rx7 clutch rod. All she needs then is a nice grommet to go through Isaac (I assume you looked and noticed there is absolutely no room in any other reasonable location except inside and remote reservoir)

It taught me to never trust anyone else on safety items, and double check everything yourself. A lesson I recommend everyone adopt Isaac

Me too, it means i get to avoid the pricks on your side On a side note, having a competent driver in the car being towed (if using a tow strap) makes it quite pleasant. Towing anything with a chain is a horrible idea. Towing with a tow bar behind the brat is quite nice, and easily done. Isaac

Both ways, once on the same trip because I lost a bolt out of the tow bar Isaac

Anything bigger than a tent trailer will require trailer brakes as previous posters have said. Just to put it out there, I have towed many different cars home with my brat, including a 3900lb cressida, 2 rx-7s (2500lb), countless subarus (pig heavy legacys included), and it does an admirable job every time. It will tow an rx-7 at 55mph all day long Isaac

I am no stranger to suspension tuning and everything you say is correct, but the are a few items I have not yet set up in the suspension that will fix some of these problems. The rotary is significantly taller than its subaru counterpart, even the distance from the oil pan bottom to the crank center line is significantly larger on the rotary than the subaru. In order to maintain the low CG I am keeping the rotary under the hoodline. There is no way to get the engine lower without fouling the steering rack, as it is I have ~5/8in between the rack and the oil pan. The FB rx-7 front suspension is the same basic setup as the sube, just mirrored front to back (rx tension links are forward, instead of rearward to the tranny mount). In the rx world we use offset roll center adjusters that space the suspension arm down by bolting between the ball joint and hub. Towards the end of the project I will be milling these out. The other consideration is that the legacy wheel/tire combo has a significantly larger rolling diameter so I wont be lowering the front suspension as much anyway. Next year I will be swapping in the Legacy front suspension, which by my measurements gives me almost an extra inch to work with as far as oil pan clearance goes. This leaves me with only 1in of subframe spacers, and custom roll center adjusters to set the arms where I want. All in all this car will spend most of its life slammed and sideways, so the spring rates will be very stiff, and likely large sway bars added to the mix. thanks for the comments its always nice when someone spots a potential problem. Isaac

LMAO, wtf are you doing here? small world. Isaac

Either mount up a 6lug wheel on 2 lugs and use it to drill out lug holes in your hubs, or do the reverse and use a spare drum to drill your wheels to 4lug Isaac

3 bolts hold the outside mirror assembly to the triangular door mount. 3-4 bolts hold that triangular mount to the door. The easiest way, by far, is to only remove the 3 bolts holding the exterior mirror assy, and swap away. I just replaced one a few weeks ago, pop off the trim inside, remove tweeter, 3 bolts and the mirror falls off. You do not need to remove the door panel. Isaac

I would go so far as to say the "rump roast in the air," or "stinkbug" stance is the defining factor in the ea81 lineup Isaac