LS2 Powered FC RX7

I had been wanting to do a V8 RX7 swap for quite a while and spent the better part of a year trying to find a suitable car for the swap. Turns out it is getting harder and harder to find these cars in the condition that I would consider clean enough for a swap. I ended up finding a never winter driven Arctic Silver Metallic 1987 Turbo II coupe that was VERY clean. Car came with the wheels seen in the picture and also had the stock Turbo II wheels with the original tires.



First order of business was to remove the stock drivetrain and all other parts that wouldn't be needed for the swap.



Engine bay needed some good elbow grease to clean up, then three coats of base and two coats of clear to get it looking brand new again.



I started working on the interior to remove all wires not required for the swap. This meant the dash had to come out for access, also enabling me to access the heater core so that I could reroute where the heater hoses come through the firewall so they wouldn't come out over top of the intake manifold.





I had originally planned on using an LS1 dropout from an F-body but found that it was hard to find a clean one with low milage. I had to start looking at getting one out of the US and having it shipped here. The availability of LS2 dropouts was much better in the US due to the fact that they came in the Pontiac GTO in 2005 and 2006, a car which never made its way north of the border. I ended up finding a nice LS2 dropout from a 2005 GTO with only 31,000 miles on it. Had it shipped from Alabama to a shipping depot in Dorval and then trailered it home. The only added difficulty of using the LS2 over the LS1 is that it is drive by wire which would mean I would have to mount the DBW pedal and do a little extra wiring, small price to pay for the added power right out of the box.



After doing lots of research on tires I decided to try out the Hankook Ventus RS3s. I needed a really grippy tire as I could only get 255's in the back without rolling fenders. Went with 225/45-17 up front and 255/40-17 in the back. I like the look of 2000 Mustang GT wheels and they fit great on the car, they are also pretty light for a 17x8 wheel.



For suspension I went with Tein SS coilovers with 9K springs up front and 7K in the rear.



Removed Rear hubs and installed DTSS Elim. bushings.



Back to the drivetrain....I tend to be a little obsessive when it comes to putting "used" parts in my car so although the engine and tranny only had 31,000 miles on it decided that it would be good to give the heads a fresh valve job and some new valve seals to prevent any surprises once the project was complete. The car would also get a brand new LS7 clutch kit including a RAM aluminum flywheel, new slave and release bearing. Because of the front sump oil pan on the GTO's I had to remove that in favour of the rear sump pans found on the F-body cars.

LS2 bottom end ready for LS1 windage tray pickup tube and oil pan



Also installed new rear main seal and pilot bearing.



Fitting the LS1 oil pan onto the LS2 block, Alignment of the pan and torque is critical to prevent oil leaks.





Installing the freshened up heads onto new OEM head gaskets.




Rockers installed.



Engine ready.



RAM aluminum LS7 flywheel



Flywheel installed with ARP bolts.



Disk installed



Pressure plate installed with ARP bolts.



T56 6 Speed tranny ready to bolt to the engine with the new slave and release bearing. I also opted to install a tick performance remote bleeder to make bleeding the clutch a little easier.




All ready to drop in.



For shifting I went with the MGW F-body T-56 short shifter, Can't say enough about the build quality of this piece.

Nice !!!!!!!!!!

Wow..

Very cool project and looks like you know what you're doing.

I have a swapped FC ( LT1 , T56 ) .**See signature**


I'd love you to post your built on the www.norotors.com , there's not much people working with the FC chassis but it is one of the strongest chassis + the rear ( Turbo II ) end is pretty much bullet proof is you use it in the street with around 400 to 500 RWHP.


I found your thread by hasard.

Copy it to the Domestic side of Montreal racing forum too a lot or people will droll over your project.

Shell looks very clean. ( Canadian Car ) ?

Before I could drop the engine in there was a few more things that needed to be done under the hood. I installed the mount brackets to make sure they fit properly before removing them for paint.



The long tube headers I am running required some firewall clearance and I decided to build some heat shields to reduce the heat in the cabin.




Heat shields and mounts ready to go.

mpcv2000 said:

Wow..

Very cool project and looks like you know what you're doing.

I have a swapped FC ( LT1 , T56 ) .**See signature**


I'd love you to post your built on the www.norotors.com , there's not much people working with the FC chassis but it is one of the strongest chassis + the rear ( Turbo II ) end is pretty much bullet proof is you use it in the street with around 400 to 500 RWHP.


I found your thread by hasard.

Copy it to the Domestic side of Montreal racing forum too a lot or people will droll over your project.

Shell looks very clean. ( Canadian Car ) ?

Click to expand...

Car was found in Sudbury, ON. I spend a long time trying to find one this clean.

Damn that's a clean chassis.
Nice build. Can't wait to see more.

Now that everything is sorted out on both the car and the drivetrain it was time to shoehorn it in!!








Shifter fits like a glove



Here is a good shot of the tranny mount.



Final install, WAY more room around the engine than I had anticipated.

After installing the intake manifold it became quite clear that some slight firewall cutting would be required to achieve adequate clearance for the last intake runner.



Installed headers



Fuel delivery would be handled by a Walbro 255 in tank pump through a corvette fuel filter regulator installed right at the tank and then a single AN-6 braided line to the fuel rail.

I made a bracket to enable me to install the GTO DBW pedal to the stock rx7 mounting point.



I picked up some adjustable camber links from Mazdatrix to dial out some of the rear negative camber once the car is at its final ride height.



Ordered a 36" braided line from tick performance to run from the new clutch master to the slave. I covered it in Aeroquip fire sleeve as it will run close to the headers.

For cooling I am running a custom made Ron Davis Racing dual core aluminum radiator, I built a shroud to mount a 16" low profile electric fan.




Ordered a union for my upper rad hose that has a bleeder and a sight glass in it, also found some pretty cool thermal clamps to use in place of hose clamps that make for a really clean install. They are called "power grip" and are made by Gates.




Had a terrible time finding a lower rad hose that would fit well so I had a 90 degree union made to make things easier.

wow nice another rx7 v8 welcome in the family!

For the exhaust I had originally planned on having it built for me, but then decided it would be a cool experience since I had never built an exhaust before. I ordered a bunch of 2.5 inch bends from federal and got to work.





For mufflers I went with Magnaflow 6 inch offset/offset to try and match the OEM mufflers.



once I finished the exhaust I removed it a coated it in high heat black paint. Here is the final product

To Keep the rear end held firmly in place with the increased torque I changed all the diff mounts with mazdatrix competition mounts and also installed a pinion snubber.



Final location for the heater hoses run down the right hand side of the engine bay much like the GTO and have been covered in fire sleeve to protect them from heat. The red wire is Batt+ from the battery which is mounted in the passenger side storage bin.

Kart72 said:

To Keep the rear end held firmly in place with the increased torque I changed all the diff mounts with mazdatrix competition mounts and also installed a pinion snubber.

Click to expand...

Good choice.
I have the same setup.

Works great in the street.

Very interesting built.

Nominated for Car Of The Month.

Took advantage of the nice weather to take some pictures of the car

very sick. Love it man!

Clean as fuck !

soo clean !

TRES beau projet sa doit etes débile a chauffer !!!