ORX-626 - My Mazda 626 13B Turbo

L10B · **Posted:** Wed Jan 05, 2011 3:15 am

So in March 1995 she finally hit the road rotary powered.

I drove her like this for the remainder of the year as I'd pretty much used up what spare cash I had with the conversion. In October 1995 I got my first job as a Professional Mechanical Engineer which gave me the opportunity to continue with the build.

Like with everything there are always improvements that can be made and the first on my list was to replace the series 3 Rx-7 oil to water heat exchanger with an oil to air heat exchanger from a series 2 RX-7 mounted in front of the radiator.

As you can see I even fabricated rubber mounts for it

. Even though the front bumper blocks a fair bit of the direct cooling air flow it still worked far better than the oil to water heat exchanger.

Custom made oil lines

The exhaust system that was fitted to get the car on the road was pretty woeful/restrictive (luckily no photos :lol:

) so I had a local exhaust shop tidy it up for me...and still no photos!

Anyhow, whilst on the way to the exhaust shop I noticed that my cold oil pressure was down to 50 psi from the usual 70 psi and as I turned into the drive way the engine oil pressure light came on! :shock:

I'm sure some of you will immediately know what had happened

.

Yep! The 'O'-ring on the main oil gallery from the oil pump between the front plate and the front cover had blown out....I wondered if it had ever been installed properly when the engine was built. It was quite a learning curve for me to disassemble the front of the engine (including removing the sump) whilst the engine was still in the car (at my parents house where I still lived luckily :oops:

).

The port that the 'O'-ring seals is just to the right of the oil pump drive chain in the below photo. After a few late nights over a couple of weeks she was back on the road. I also took the opportunity to replace all the rusty through bolts and nuts with nice new zinc dichromate plated Caterpillar items.

A couple of other things I did during 1996 was the removal of the crank driven fan and installation of a thermo fan......

....addition of the original 626 fan shroud for the "standard look", new ignition leads and a general tidy up of the engine bay (paint, wiring etc....)

In early 1997 I embarked on my first ever brake upgrade for the 626....to go from the solid 231mm brake rotor to a vented 246mm brake rotor from a GC 626. I was very happy with the upgrade and it performed very well at Lakeside many times over the following two years.

From this....

To this....

Here's the upgrade specs....

Cheers,
Danny

1997 was the year it all started to happen...stay tuned for a big pictorial post :mrgreen:

.

rx7s2 · **Posted:** Wed Jan 05, 2011 4:04 am

As you can see fresh from uni as you displayed with your very I mean very detailed description of all parts used in the brake upgrade. Fantastic, love every bit of it. And you can type with one hand too impressive.lol

Blur · **Posted:** Wed Jan 05, 2011 4:33 am

Yes Marek, I was wondering about the 1 handed typing too!

What an awesome step by step transformation you have there Danny, theres only another 15 years to go! I wish I had half as many photos of my old cars as you do.

Carry on!

L10B · **Posted:** Sat Jan 15, 2011 7:10 pm

Would you believe that only having one usable hand :tu:

has had minimal impact on my typing prowess! :lol:

The good news is that the bits that got the chop appear to have been successfully grafted back on :tu:

. The wires that have reset the bones aren't to be removed for another 3-5 weeks...so I'll be bitterly disappointed if I'm unable to drive a suitable vehicle to the SOC JNC Show on 20th Feb!

Marek, the detailed description of the brake upgrade was imperative as Richard wasn't going to issue a modification plate for any less...and rightly so! :wink:

Yeah Adrian having a reasonable photographic history of the build is priceless...especially when I've had the car for 20 years now.

rx7s2 · **Posted:** Sun Jan 16, 2011 5:53 am

L10B wrote:

The wires that have reset the bones aren't to be removed for another 3-5 weeks...so I'll be bitterly disappointed if I'm unable to drive a suitable vehicle to the SOC JNC Show on 20th Feb!

.

Mate you'll be there even if it kills you you'll be there!

L10B · **Posted:** Sun Mar 06, 2011 1:10 am

Out of uni a couple of years and still living at home saw me get a bit of cash together in 1997 to fund the biggest visual changes in the 626's life.

It started with the purchase of a set of the newly released ROH ZS in 16 x 7" - 20P. These took some 10 weeks to arrive as they were the first set to be drilled in the 4 x 110mm PCD bolt pattern. They even made the beige look acceptable!

Oh yeah, at some point I fitted a pair of Series 2 RX-7 wing mirrors.

In June 1997 I began the strip for its major transformation.....a full strip and respray. Here's a series of photos documenting the engine & gearbox removal......

Series 1 RX-7 5-speed Gearbox

RX-4 13B RE - Large Extend Port....good enough for 150rwhp with a modified 4-Barrel carby.

ewokracing · **Posted:** Sun Mar 06, 2011 3:32 am

I'm having flashbacks to the 90's and thinking of all the car magazines I used to buy back then. Great thread.

L10B · **Posted:** Tue Mar 08, 2011 2:59 am

ewokracing wrote:

I'm having flashbacks to the 90's and thinking of all the car magazines I used to buy back then. Great thread.

Cheers mate!

I still can't believe I've had her for 20 years! :shock:

Next was the stripping of the body...right down to just about every last nut and bolt before heading off to the panel shop (within reason....well she still needed to roll! :lol:

).

Dash out!

Carpet and sound deadener gone!

For its age there was virtually no rust....just a tad under the door strips, along the bottom edge of the boot lid and in the bottom corner of one door. So there wasn't much body preparation required...the odd carpark ding repaired and a rub back. It was now ready to go to the panel shop.

Cheers,
Danny

rx7s2 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 08, 2011 5:48 am

Nice Danny, you always stop when it gets exciting......Continue please! :wink:

L10B · **Posted:** Wed Mar 09, 2011 4:36 am

rx7s2 wrote:

Nice Danny, you always stop when it gets exciting......Continue please! :wink:

.....as you wish Marek!

Not much left of her!

I'd decided on completely changing the 626's colour package...external paint and interior trim. The colour I'd selected was a Mazda option from the early 90's - Coral Silver (F6). The first items to get a lick were the undersides of the bonnet and boot, and inside the door jams.

The time had now come to apply the new hue to the rest of the car. The paint was made by Spies Hecker and was of their high build type. The base colour is flat and was applied in three coats. This was followed by two top urethane clear coats for the gloss and toughness.

On the tilt tray bound for home.....how good did it look?!

The photos were taken right on dusk so the lighting was pretty poor for a good old 35mm camera. :wink:

Cheers,
Danny

B1500boy · **Posted:** Wed Mar 09, 2011 5:36 pm

Sweet mate, that's the panel shop on Elliott Rd isn't it?

L10B · **Posted:** Wed Mar 09, 2011 7:43 pm

B1500boy wrote:

Sweet mate, that's the panel shop on Elliott Rd isn't it?

Well spotted Tim! :tu:

Herston Smash.

The body prep work was done there, however the actual paint job was done in a new booth (at the time) at a panel shop down beside the Brekkie Creek Hotel.

Cheers,
Danny

Kopasan · **Posted:** Thu Mar 10, 2011 7:41 am

L10B wrote:

In early 1997 I embarked on my first ever brake upgrade for the 626....to go from the solid 231mm brake rotor to a vented 246mm brake rotor from a GC 626. I was very happy with the upgrade and it performed very well at Lakeside many times over the following two years.

From this....

To this....

Here's the upgrade specs....

It looks like an easy and cheap but effective brake upgrade to me...

I`ll try to make same upgrade to my 626 but before that I need to ask couple questions:
1. Stock 13" rims will fit after this upgrade?
2. Brake rotors only reduced in diameter or new mounting holes should be drilled to connect them to Mazda 929 (LA2) hubs?
3. Don`t you have photo of Caliper Bracket Spacer? Or maybe you have blueprint of it?
4. Is it necessary to use Rotor Locating Ring? What shape & size should it be?

Thanks!

Dave77 · **Posted:** Thu Mar 10, 2011 8:57 am

Fantastic! I admire someone who can hold on to and upgrade the same car over the years.

serrasalmus · **Posted:** Fri Mar 11, 2011 12:53 am

I need the front right windos of a car like that. -Does anybody have one? :roll:

RestoreMaz · **Posted:** Fri Mar 11, 2011 3:05 am

I remember reading about this car in fast fours and rotaries magazine when i was young.

Good to see the build up photos after all these years.

L10B · **Posted:** Fri Mar 11, 2011 3:28 am

Hi Kopasan, my responses in "Blue".

I`ll try to make same upgrade to my 626 but before that I need to ask couple questions:
1. Stock 13" rims will fit after this upgrade? Could possibly fit with 13's, but definitely will with 14's.
2. Brake rotors only reduced in diameter or new mounting holes should be drilled to connect them to Mazda 929 (LA2) hubs? Yes, only reduced the diameter of the rotor...IIRC the bolt holes lined up with no other modification.
3. Don`t you have photo of Caliper Bracket Spacer? Or maybe you have blueprint of it? The caliper bracket spacer has the same profile as the caliper bracket mounting face on the front strut/upright. I don't have a drawing for it as the conversion was a one off. However, it is very similar to this one (shown below) that is part of a brake upgrade kit I do for series 1 & 2 RX-7's using FC & FD 4-piston brake calipers and rotors.

This brake upgrade kit was upgraded some years later....which I will detail a little bit later.

4. Is it necessary to use Rotor Locating Ring? What shape & size should it be? Yes it is necessary as you run the risk of not centering the brake rotor on the hub and having a rotational imbalance (eccentricity). Once again, sorry but I don't have any dimensions. The ring is just long enough to spigot the rotor to the hub.

Cheers,
Danny

L10B · **Posted:** Fri Mar 11, 2011 3:33 am

Dave77 wrote:

Fantastic! I admire someone who can hold on to and upgrade the same car over the years.

Thanks Dave. 20 years this year...she'll be 30 next year and will have been rotary powered for 17 of them.

skunk wrote:

Oh man, a perverse part of myself (I hadn't met it 'til now) was really hoping that you were painting the car dark brown to go with the chocolate/caramel interior.

But silver works too, as long as you have access to new interior trim. Very nice.

haha

...yes the interior was definitely being changed to work with the new colour. Stay tuned!

RestoreMaz wrote:

I remember reading about this car in fast fours and rotaries magazine when i was young.

Good to see the build up photos after all these years.

We were both young then RestoreMaz. I had hair! Yeah I always thought about doing a build up thread and have finally got around to it!

Cheers,
Danny

L10B · **Posted:** Sat Mar 12, 2011 10:26 pm

The pressure was on to get her back on the road as I was still living at home and had commandeered both garage spots for the build!

I had the wheels on immediately!

This time around I decided to build my own exhaust system including the mufflers. They are of straight through design and can be repacked as required. Even after 14 years of use (including plenty of circuit work) I still haven't needed to repack them! :tu:

Yes I have inspected them!

The freshly recovered dash installed!

Engine bay items detailed and fitted.

Almost ready for the engine to go back in!

Cheers,
Danny

rx7s2 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 15, 2011 5:30 am

Timmy beat me to the punch regarding the panel shop being in Elliot Rd, literially I can throw rocks at it from my place. lol. Once again you left us hanging Danny ! :lol:

ORX-626 - My Mazda 626 13B Turbo

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