Marcus ls2 FD build

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the "other forum" grabbed my thread by the heel and dragged it down to a firey depth. i have to reconstruct my build thread.

currently, ive got the entire swap completed, its awaiting gregs arrival to troubleshoot the wiring issues. i tried to salvage the mazda relay location for the fuel pump, it doesnt turn off during key on position, i may have to make my own relay for it. but the issue greg needs to help me out with is that i have p0222 and p0122, i have 0 throttle response and the thing idles funny. im confident greg will get it working after he arrives, he doesnt even have to do anything to it, just stare at it, and itll fix itself.

i start my build thread a little before i purchase it to show the journey of the car. i bout it as a roller, the car lost traction and went off in a ditch, ran over a few bushes damaging the pannels up pretty good. the owner thought it would be best to salvage the car and repair it which he did.



the damage was all cosmetic, the frame rails are straight according to a digital frame scale, 3mm within spec. fenders hood bumper and windshield replaced and it was good to go. when he had it it had some carbonfiber widebody that fit perfect, but i could not afford, so he swapped them out with white pannels, including the doors and hatch which were also carbon fiber. so this is how i bought it minus the enkei wheels, on september 4th.



i bought it in san jose, and trailered it to ontario, a good 7 hour drive. by the time i got home i started removing pannels off it. ok i was pretty tired, so i had liz, my fiance do it.



it had black interior from the seats forward, behind the seats was completely gutted. i bought a partout of all the remaining interior trim with a few black pieces that i painted. all in all the interior bits cost me 100$



i freed all the wires, abs, etc from the engine bay, sanded, paint thinner bath, sanded, simple greened, dish soaped, pressure washed, and 6 hours later it wassqueaky clean and prepped for prime and paint

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i started making the 1st required cuts in the engine bay before i painted, these parts were pretty fun








got some help and encouragement, so i had my buddy over and help me paint the engine bay and bring over his TT supra (the encouragement)


its all ready ready for paint so heres some 1200 degree flame proof vht primer, 2 coats


1200 dgree flame proof vht base, 2 coats



and 1200 degree flame proof vht semi gloss, 2 coats

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i tested out a 99 spec wing, didnt like it much so i sold it


also cleaned up the interior, painted the tan pieces and installed them, dont mind my finger streaks agaisnt the dust lol



i didnt care much for the bose system back there either, i put it in there cause it was part of the 100$ interior part out, but i later swapped it and the carpet for a non bose carpet



also tested out the accessory lights windows sunroof etc





installed my -6an fuel line to feed the ls2

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making room for the new parts, all this gotta go


found bent end links, looks like i need to beef up this area


subframe out, now its looking like theres some good ol V8 room


i need to remove the control arms, those castle nuts are hell to remove


i used heat to get them off, expected for an 18 year old

its off now i can get the arms off

i order a samberg kit to hold the ls2 stuff up

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i powdercoated all of justins stuff red, along with the calipers and started installing them





i also replaced those bent endlinks with spherical bearing endlinks



while i had all the arms off i cleaned those up and got a set of superpro bushings to put in



steering rack oem bushing vs superpro

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cleaned/painted mounts


bumpsteer/tie rods installed


bushings installed on cleaned/painted rack


installed onto new subframe with ls2 spacers


routed for manual for now, will do power steering after i get her running


got all this done just before thanks giving

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the new bushings look good!


gave them a good cleaning


fresh bushings and boots and grease!


installed on the car







meanwhile the clutch master cylinder came in


as well as ss brake lines

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the next day this came in, justins radiator/cai/ac kit


Zo6 K&N short ram cold air intake built right in, oh my!! soo huge!

beautiful polished shroud

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:lol:

OM NOM NOM!!


i finally finished the work under the hood pre motor

finished the brake and cluth master cylinder install. here the clutch compairo



side angle for the vmount rad. gotta clean up the wiring with a little tape and sleeving. headlights rewired and installed. motors work perfectly


a pic of the intake/shroud installed. looks great fits perfect


 also got started on the rear


its pretty dirty, the diff pinion seal must be torn. got a lot of cleaning up to do


dropped the entire rear cradle easily. cleaning and bushings should be a ton easier now. but i dont know if i can get it all in in one piece lol


its not too late to throw a cobra solid rear end in! must not stray off the plan =/

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just loaded it on the truck

unboxing

inspection. psh, as if i know what im looking at

checkin it out with my buddy mike

tricky getting her off the truck, shes a fat mofo

obligatory fuel rail cover shot

obligatory ls2 drive by wire thingy??

obligatory displacement shot


so yea i wasnt finished with the rear end yet, and the motor already arived.

the diff cradle was a little tricky. with the center bolt in it would not line up on the left or right side. taking it out made it line up. after i assemble the subframe ill try using the jack to line up that center bolt

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wiring harness and pcm off, sent it on its way to greg


unmarried the engine and trans to replace the clutch/flywheel/slave


took off all accessories and inspected them, replacing the motor mounts and stands


lower motor mounts


2 piece oem trans mount vs 1 piece solid polyurthane mount and justins subframe




dbw vs mazdas cable pedal


changing the oil pan and windage tray

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mgw short throw shifter and pedal adapter came in


it wasnt too bad converting the pedal...

heres a comparison of the pedal height, you can see that the rx7 protrudes into the firewall, the DBW pedal does not
gm dbw pedal left, fd pedal right


without finding a solution to the prodruding part, the gm pedal would mount deeper into the firewall, you can see at the left how the pedals compare, the gm one is significantly lower with the pedal arches


mounted the fd pedal to my cherry picker as i dont have a workbench


took a sawzall to it, got the block off in 2 minutes


here it is


clean cut, you wont run into the medal parts if you cut past the lip and not before it


heres the void the block must fill


filled


hinson adapter in place, i only got 3ish threads on the nuts, hinson has a recessed section to get this much threads, its obvious they wanted you to cut the pedal, but they didnt tell me i had to when i called, i asked for documented instructions in email or in the package, i did not get it. anyway, the process wasnt bad at all


pedal installed. i stepped on it etc it feels fine, you could easily make some spacer if you wanted it even higher, but it feels fine for me, much like the FD was stock. i used a GTO pedal. it was fairly painless. for about 30 bucks for the adapter from hinson, i would recommend this product. its not on the website, but you can get it by calling.

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gto header manifold doesnt fit, so i got ls1 camaro headers. heres a comparo


also got an ls1 camaro pan kit to clear the subframe



new pan at the bottom


new windage tray/pick up tube at the bottom


both pans are facing the same direction, ls1 pan collects at the rear of the car, this gives me the clearance i need


another internal shot for fun


the old pan had the dipstick hole, the new one does not, the block supplies a plugged dipstick hole. i punched the plug out before installing the new kit


new tray covers 6 of 8 cylinders, this is to provide clearance for the new pickup tube


un interfered pickup tube




new pan in

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i noticed all this oil behind the flywheel. somethings leaking. another setback


also, pilot bearing is chewed up


ordered new rear plate gasket, pilot bearing, throwout bearing/slave cyl,  and resurfaced the flywheel. also ordered an ls7 z06 clutch kit, which no one had in stock, so ive got to wait for it before i make the engine and trans. also shows a new rx7 FC water temp sensor, and blind slide hammer. the hammer tool is used to easily remove the pilot bearing




with the hammer, pilot bearing came out in 2 minutes in all its glory


all assembled and cleaned

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got some trans work done, installed new slave, remote speed bleeder, and ss clutch line
ls1 fittings do not fit my housing


changing the fitment issue by grinding a clearing


cleared



trying to get the ls7  clutch to work with my ls2. the ls7 is the c6 z06 and holds more torque than the gto clutch, but has great life, reliability, and stock pedal feel. its got a little more surface area. however, i found out the hard way that my flywheel doesnt work. i have an ls2 gto flywheel from my gto trans (the corvette trans was longer, too long for the 7) the ls7/ls2 flywheel was suppose to be the same. well they are but they are not the same as the gto ls2. i dont know why they call the corvette ls7 an ls2/ls7 flywheel when its not. anyways....

well now i have the right flywheel. flywheel clutch pp and slave are all new. this give me good peace of mind. got it all installed and im just waiting for the remote bleeder before i get back to dropping it in. bleeder should be here friday. also finally got an update about the wiring. it shipped today. hope it gets here by friday or saturday, that way i can do it all together.