Page 01: Introduction
Page 02: White RX7
Page 03: Green RX7
Page 04: Engine
Page 05: Let the fun begin!
Page 06: Engine bay work
Page 07: The V8 drop-in
Page 08: IT'S ALIVE!!!
Page 09: Clutch & Radiator
Page 10: Driveshaft & Exhaust
Page 11: RX Unleashed
Page 12: Dyno and Weigh-in
Page 13: Alternator, Fans, Gauges
Page 14: SUSPENSION!
Page 15: Seven Not Stock, 2006
Page 16: Paint & Quarter Mile
Page 17: Saying Goodbye
Page 18: Conclusion.

My two weeks home was nearing its end. Before I left for Michigan, I needed solid evidence to assure myself that the car was to the specifications I anticipated. For starters, I brought my car to the local speed shop to make a few pulls on the dyno. I found it rather humorous to pull up to a lot filled with classic muscle (GTO, firebird, mustang) in my RX-7. But I soon gained respect from the technicians when I revved the engine blaring it's unique tone through straight-pipe exhaust. They were impressed and asked the usual questions after I popped the hood to reveal the LT1, and wasted no time getting my car lifted up onto the dynojet.

After a quick brief of how the run was to happen (It was my first dyno session ever), I jumped in the car and slowly went through the gears until I reached 2,000 RPM in 4th gear. A nod was my sign to give the car wide open throttle... I slammed the accelerator down and fixed my eyes on the tach, I watched it slowly climb. I thought my engine was going to absolutely explode as it roared, quite honestly that first run scared me to death. The tach finally reached 5500 RPM and I let off the throttle and popped the shifter into nuetral. I looked anxiously at the tech, anything over 250hp and I would be a happy camper. At first, it sounded like he said "178", my heart sunk... how could this possibly be? The tech recognized the dissapointment on my face and reassured me, "No, you should be quite happy with a 278"! My emotions did an immediate 180* e-brake pull, now that's some power!

The next run the motor put out 273 hp, the number was a little lower, but still nothing to be ashamed of. My temp gauge was a little high after the run so we took a 15 minute break to let the temp drop. While waiting, I happened to mention to the techs that I was running no alternator. They immediately informed me that a low battery can net less power and they told me that we should try the next run with a battery charger on to simulate an alternator. We did this, and to my amazement, my faithful LT1 showed a 283 hp maximum. It was a GOOD day.

There's a printoff of the runs. The lines are a little thin for the quality of the picture, but you can definately make out the key features of the curves. One of the most amazing things about this graph is as my buddy Steve said, "the torque curve is as flat as North Dakota"! It's a really great sign that the car pulls hard (300+ ft/lb hard) through the whole RPM range. A few internet engine gurus tell me that these are some very strong numbers for a stocker and the guys at the dyno seemed quite impressed as well. As I mentioned before, these numbers are calculated at the wheels (whp), assuming a 15% drivetrain loss, my engine is putting out approximately 325 hp at the crank. That's less than 9 lbs/hp... not too shabby :).

It is speculated by many that dropping a V8 into a car that normally was home to a 1.3L rotary will completely throw off the weight attributes of the car... . A stock 1987 RX-7 GXL weighs in at 2,625# and the TII of the same year tips the scale to 2,840#. I weighed my car at the local track, the overall weight was 2876#. This particular weigh-in included 3/4 tank of gas and no driver. In my opinion, I think that this was quite accomplishment to add approximately 180 horsepower with plenty of torque and still weigh the same as if not less than a stock TII RX-7. Most importanly, RX-7's are known for their perfect 50/50 weight distribution characteristics. It is no suprise that the V8 weighs a little more than the rotary engine it replaced. To help offset this weight, I moved my Optima battery to the passenger compartment to displace double it's weight to the rear. For a rough estimate of the distribution, I measured the weight on the front wheels followed by the weight on the rear wheels. The resuls were F: 1508# R: 1368# which calculates to a distribution of 52.4/47.6, a full tank of gas would have made this distribution even closer to 50/50.

I left redeye saturday morning. I left so happy, I had come home with hopes of driving the RX-7 to storage instead of towing it, and left well beyond that level of success. It was such an awesome summer, everything turned out absolutely perfect. All I can say is, bring on the fall semester... I'll be back to buisness in December!