1980 RX-7, with a V8?

Well it has been a long time since I have posted anything. I thought I might take quick moment just to say I did not die and have not abandoned the project. The summer was extremely busy and did not yield any progress on the project. The last 2 months free time outside of work has been consumed by school work (I know, going back to school after 16 years of being away kind of stinks). The only thing that has changed since my last post is the engine is back from the machine shop. I ended up having to go .030” over on the bore, but crankshaft did not require any machining. Machine work came out to $1200. It included boiling, decking, boring, line honing, pressing pistons, machining flywheel, a new balancer and balancing the rotating assembly. I was happy with the price. The long block build should keep under $2K including the GT40 heads I picked up. My current goal is to have the long block built by January 1. I will try and get regrouped over thanksgiving break. This will include cleaning the remaining parts, painting the engine and obtaining the rest of the needed parts.
I hope to be back soon. Thanks.

Glad to see this build thread get an update. Hope all goes well with the continuing education. Keep the build moving forward.... slow and steady will get you across the finish line too.

Sweet! What camshaft are you thinking of running? I am trying to decide if I want a cam in my 5.0 in the FC.

I will be running the stock camshaft for now. I intend on getting the vehicle street legal, and that requires going and seeing a SMOG referee to certify the vehicle (I live on CA). So I want to keep it simple until it is smog checked. Maybe later I will go with and install one of the Ford Motorsports alphabet cams to compliment an Explorer upper and lower intake manifold.

With the pace this project is going I am mostly anxious just to have it start and run. Driving it will be even better. I am becoming less focused on things I would like to have versus thing I need.

I was the same way! Get it one the road and then start upgrading. Well thankfully smog is not a issue here in NC. I am running a explorer gt40p motor and it has the stock cam which is said to be trash and ya its not that great and it falls on its face at 5000rpm. My issue is I have 4.11 gears (not many gear options for the IRS) and 26" tall tires so my gearing is crazy and I really need more RPMs to play with. I was thinking of the E or F camshaft. There are kits for $380 on jegs plus another $160 for new valve springs.

When I did heads on the 5.0 in my FFR years ago, I retarded the stock cam 2 degrees. My friend Jeff (who was an engineer for an OEM at the time and a long time Mustang guy) told me it would move the powerband up the scale a bit. I can't recall how much, of course. :)

FWIW, "everyone" tells me that the alphabet cams are yesterday's news.

Ya thats what iv heard to but ford racing has a kit with all the gaskets for cheap. If i find something better for about the same I might go with it. And if im going deep enough to move the cam timing then im just going to swap it for something better. The explorer cam is the worst stock cam a 302 came with. A HO cam from a mustang is a upgrade from it

One of the alphabet cams is CARB legal which would be important for me. But I am a long way from having a chassis and diiferential that can hadle much more power than Ithw stock 5L.

If I remember my days of knowing about camshaft theory, I though retarding a cam adds low end torque but sacrifices top end HP. And advancing the cam does the opposite, ups HP and decreases TQ. But I can't remember anymore.

Hello world. I am trying to make some progress with the build and am about to purchase the remaining parts for the engine build. I have ran across a question however about pushrod lengths. My block and heads have been resurfaced, will this require me to make changes to my pushrod lengths?

I want to replace my lifters, I figure this is probably a good idea with an engine that has 120k on it, and when I called Summit to confirm the lifter application for my engine, they said I need to check push rod length. I have never heard of having to make changes to pushrod lengths on a stock engine build, but I don't have a lot of experience with pushrod engine either. Any thoughts?

As a reminder, I have a 1993 roller cam engine with the stock pedestal style rockers arms.

Don't know all the details, but I'm thinking you'll need something like this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OICpeYPh83g

I know "Engine Power" on Spike TV has info on how to properly check hydro pushrod lengths-I just don't remember the episode (sometime this year).

I would just get stock replacement lifters and push rods. The little amount of material removed from the heads & block won't make a difference.

The minion who helped me put my 302 together has done at least 100 of these and he still uses an adjustable pushrod every-time to confirm that the pushrod length is what it needs to be.

Thanks for the advice. The lifters I'm getting are from Ford Motorsports and are suppose to be OE replacements parts. I called Summit again and spoke to someone else and I liked this person's answer better. After I spoke with him I confirmed what he said with my favorite how-to reference YouTube.

The directions I got were to adjust the valves to zero lash, and then torque the bolts and monitor how much the bolt turns. If you have to turn the bolt more than 3/4 of a turn to achieve final torque then the lifter preload is too high. If this happens then I can add shims between pedestal on the head and the rockers arm to raise the head up a little. Sounds pretty easy, so I went ahead and placed my order and made sure to add a set of shims to it.

Sounds like a plan!

I am hoping someone maybe able to lend me some advice. I am trying to remove the smog thermactor plugs from the GT40 cylinder heads I purchased on EBay but can't seem to get them out. I'm not sure if the installer used Loctite or something, but they are in there pretty good. I'm thinking of heating them up with a torch.

Anybody have any ideas? Is there a special tool or something I can use?

Well my Christmas presents to myself arrived today.

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In the boxes from Summit and LMR are main bearing cap, cylinder head, lower intake manifold, and timing cover & water pump bolts. I also stepped up and got new timing chain & gear set, water pump and lifters. I didn’t care for the rubber/cork oil pan and valve cover gaskets that my engine rebuild kit came with, so I up graded to the Ford Motorsports ones that are rubber reinforced with steel just like the OEM gaskets. I also purchased a new timing cover from LMR to replace the one I butchered on disassembly.

The timing cover looks good. It is a direct replacement and intended for late model EFI engines. The quality looks to be pretty close to OEM. If it mounts up nicely this will be a great deal for $50. I should now have all the parts I need to assemble the long block.

In addition to purchasing the parts, I have been also able to spend time cleaning parts over the last week. And today I took the valve covers, oil pan, and upper and lower intake manifolds to the machine shop to get hot tanked and cleaned up real nice. It’s not a whole lot progress, but compared to what was accomplished over the last six to nine months, it’s a lot for my slow moving project.

Before I can get too much more done; however, I have a few honey-dos to accomplish. I have promised my wife a new front and back yard and I figure this will keep my busy for two to three months before I can spend some time putting the engine back together.

My New Year’s resolution for 2017 is going to be to hear the engine run. And maybe if I am lucky and can get enough time and the remaining brake parts needed for the rear end swap, drive the car around the block. We’ll have to see though, because that maybe a little ambitious for my rate of progress. Without setting goals it will never run though. Anyhow, it’s nice to end the year on a positive note.

Happy New Year’s everyone!

Hello everyone. I actually spent some time working on the seven today. I tackled some bulkhead modifications for the clutch system and engine fitment.

The first undertaking was fitting the larger-bore clutch master cylinder. Granny’s instructions make it sound simple and all that needs to be done is enlarge the main hole to 1 3/8”. So I used a step bit and enlarged the hole, but come to find out there are few extras steps that are needed. The first obstacle was the clutch master cylinder hits the brake booster. To overcome this I shaved down the body of the clutch master about 0.6mm on with a file.
I then ovaled-out the hole with a file to shift the clutch master over to the left ever-so-slightly. The master cylinder now just barely clears the booster. I think I am going to leave it as is for now because I don’t want to take too much more off of the cylinder housing or off-center the master cylinder from the pedal too much. Finally I had to enlarge the mounting holes on the master slightly to make them align with the mounting holes in the bulk head.

So there it sits.
Before I permanently mount it I need to do few more things. One is weld a standard thread pitched nut onto the clevis to match the threads on the master cylinder pushrod. Mount the reservoir, and then get a sheet of gasket paper to make a gasket.

I then turned my attention to modifying the shape of the firewall.
In order to fit the thermactor/air injection pipe that goes to the back of the cylinder heads, Granny says you need move the fire wall back about ¾” to 1” in a couple of spots. On the right hand side they have you measure 11” down from the washer fluid hose and inboard ½”. On the left hand side they have you measure down 4” from the speedo cable and then inboard 1” from there. The left hand side is tricky though because it ends up right on the curve of the transmission tunnel.

I’ve never had to beat body panels in before to make things fits, but one inch is a lot! I managed to get the right side between the ¾ and 1” mark fairly easily.

The left side was more difficult to move and to measure how much it moved because it was on that curved edge. I think I only moved it back about a ½”, but I am going to leave it and see what happens. Tomorrow I will go back and sand the paint and get some rattle can paint to protect the bare metal I exposed in the process.

There is one thing I was hoping I could get some help on. The pull type clutch slave cylinder Granny’s sent me did not include any instructions and I couldn’t find too much information online. I think I figured out and hopefully you guys let me know if I have it right or not.

The end without the boot is what I anchor to stationary or fixed point. Granny’s recommends make a bracket and attach it to the LH engine mount. The booted end point towards the clutch fork. I will need to extend the rod, but I think put it through the fork and adjusts the nuts until there is just about zero freeplay. I do this with rod fully extended. And because it’s a pull type, I will have to periodically have to adjust it as the clutch disc wears down. Does that sound right?

Thanks for the help.

I had that same setup but I got it used and never got it to work. I ended up using a slave from a Toyota pickup and a wilwood master.

Just curious - why go through all the effort to install the smog crap? That EGR crossover tube thing is usually one of the first things to go. Hell, yours even has the nice block off plugs in the heads, most people have to resort to 5/8" bolts....

EDIT - disregard, didn't see the CA part. You have to SMOG a V8 swapped 1980 RX7?!?!?! Holy crap, I thought it sucked here with the 25 year rule.

In reply to CLynn85:

Yup They don't actually give a crap about what comes out of the tailpipe, even though they say they do. It needs to pass a VISUAL inspection of all the factory installed emissions gear, all period correct, but then they say it has to blow modern numbers which get tighter every year.

It's bullsht. The smog cutoff year is locked it an 1975 too.

if they actually cared about the EMISSIONS of the vehicle, they would only measure what comes out of the tailpipe. They just want to punish enthusiasts and get all the old cars off the roads.

^agreed. And since they don't do inspections like the east coast, we have some serious buckets on the streets, no rust but bald tires, no brakes, ball joints ready to let loose, etc...

Nice progress OP, keep it up!

Not that I entirely agree with all the SMoG laws, but the air Injection is to address cold start emission. Which they don't test on the car, just that the equipment is there to minimize them.

In a weird way, I kind of see the passing SMOG as a fun challenge. There's a lot of locals that think it will never happen. And if I get smogged it's an an opertunity to show you can have fun with 80s cars in California.

A question about main bearing cap bolts. I had the block line honed with the stock bolts, but I bought ARP bolts to install and the directions say to line hone the mains with the new bolts.

What are your thoughts using the ARP bolts and not line honing?

Should I just use the original bolts?

I wish I knew this before I had the machine work done.

I'd guess it will be fine. But peace of mind is worth something. Is it worth the $xxx they'd charge to redo the bore??

In the big picture, probably.

I'd say just do it. :)