My Newest Ride & Lots Of RX7 Updates

"Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru" (matt-powershiftmedia)
11/08/2020 at 21:47 • Filed to: RX7, Project car, turbo dodge

It’s been a while and I apologize for that everyone; my work/home life balance has been absolutely insane. So I’m here today to update everyone on what’s been going on in my life.

I apologize for the not so great pictures of the new car, I just got it off my best friend (same one I got the RX7 from) and snapped these pictures as it sat. The car does run and drive extremely well and it has a fun story as all of my cars do.

It’s a 1986 Dodge Lancer ES 2.2 turbo 5 speed. Nathan brought it home and I immediately fell in love after looking at it and driving it. The car ran rough but has only 80k on the clock and had a Mopar ECU and swirl port head conversion. I was hooked.

We did some diagnosing and realized the fuel pump was garbage. We had a Walbro 255 pump laying around for a 1G DSM, and as luck would have it, it just fit perfect. Long story short, this completely fixed the car.

After annoying him to sell it to me, he did last weekend. This upcoming weekend I put new brakes on it, a thermostat and some other little odds and ends. It’s also getting new wheels and tires to boot. The rocker rust you see is also getting repaired next month. I absolutely LOVE this car to pieces and it is truly a charming car to drive. I figured this crowd would enjoy this car as much as I do.

Now on to the good stuff!

The RX7 got all of the goodies I promised on here a while back. All new delrin bushings, Greddy front mount intercooler (we had to get creative to make this fit) , clutch and flywheel, all new suspension and steering components, big injectors and everything in between. 15k dollars worth of work later I was able to put 50 miles on it.

Yes you read that correctly. 50 miles. I was headed to pick up my daughter with the RX7 when the car would no longer hold idle. I had to limp it home. We diagnosed it for weeks before coming to the conclusion the ecu is fried. So it is getting a Haltech over winter.

With that being said, those 50 miles were absolutely worth it. This car is EXTREMELY fast and handles extremely well. I’ve never felt a more connected car, and it makes you feel like a bad driver because the car surpassed my rather high level of skill.

So while the car is a headache; I don’t mind. I love it more than anything I’ve ever owned. Don’t even get me started on the sound it makes. Anyhow, I’ll just let the pictures tell the story.

DISCUSSION (14)

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru
11/08/2020 at 22:08

www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo

dogisbadob > Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru
11/08/2020 at 22:14

ooo a Dod ge Lancer!!

The hatchback is really cool

Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
11/08/2020 at 22:16

Just filled it out

Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru > dogisbadob
11/08/2020 at 22:16

I absolutely love the damn thing

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru
11/08/2020 at 22:22

That is awesome! I do love the interiors on that gen of RX7....orange fonts look awesome.

A MAJOR NOTE: As it’s been awhile, you may have missed the very massive and huge news that G/O is officially killing Oppo (and all other user personal/community blogs) on November 10th...no joke (confirmed by Jalopnik staff and the Oppo mods)

:(

Keep posting on Kinja as most of us are also still checking it, but y ou might want to sign up on one of the ‘life rafts’ ( if you haven’t already) for the time being for updates as to where our new home will be:

https://oppositelock.kinja.com/the-current-various-life-rafts-post-1845599665?rev=1604838175782

The Discord is very active, as is our DriveTribe community....and Opponaut Jminer is working on a replacement Oppo home that is in beta-testing at http://opposite-lock.com , so sign up there and check it out to give feedback so we can improve it!

Sorry for that above blast of information :(

Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
11/08/2020 at 22:23

This makes me so sad :( I’m glad you’ve updated me as I’ll be signing up now!

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru
11/08/2020 at 22:37

Glad to hear it friend...don’t forget to sign up to RustyVandura’s email list in my ‘Life Raft’ post too, just in case....he’s going to send out any major news via BCC to the emails on that list for those that don’t like to follow the Discord, etc.

Hope to see you on the Discord, or DriveTribe or Jminer’s site (the more the merrier on Jminer’s test site as it means we can keep tweaking it!)

Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
11/08/2020 at 22:39

I signed up for the list and just posted to drive tribe :)

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru
11/08/2020 at 22:45

OK, awesome! Check out the test site too, though I think Jminer was taking it down for maintenance to upgrade it tonight, so if you can’t load it or get an error, that’s why ...it’s his own personal server and was a dual-core with all of 1GB of RAM and was a trooper for handling like 50 of us by this even ing as we were testing, but it was starting to get taxed XD

sony1492 > Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru
11/08/2020 at 22:46

Good to here from you.

It seems every fast project car will work for approximately 1 day, just l ong enough to hook you, before breaking for another 4 months. Hows the mirage doing?

Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru > sony1492
11/08/2020 at 22:49

The Mirage has been amazing! Hilariously; everyone loves that car it seems. It’s done amazing on YouTube for some reason. It’s my biggest hitter.

I’ve upgraded to LED headlights, it’s about to get coilovers and wheels as well as a 5spd swap.

Mark Tucker > Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru
11/08/2020 at 22:56

Nice! The Lancer/LeBaron GTS were always my favorite K-car variants. Never understood why they didn’t take off...

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru
11/09/2020 at 01:06

Neat. My parents also had an 86 Lancers ES, Turbo/manual in that color! It was mom’s car/the family truckster (dad had drove an 82 Cutlass coupe at that time). They bought it new in 86 and kept it until it was traded in for a new 1991 Mazda MPV after it ate the headgasket at about 60k. It blew a coolant hose on a family road trip and overheated in rural Nebraska. After a couple of days at the local Chrysler dealer they got a replacement hose in stock and we were able to limp it 625 miles back to Albuquerque where is promptly got traded-in.

Powershiftmedia-ResidentDSMGuru > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
11/09/2020 at 01:22

That is a crazy story. Time for me to check my previous owner list ;)