How much does a 1/4 gallon of water weigh?
~2lbs
how about kiolgrams?
Jiggawatts?
Jiggawho?
the million niggawalts march
Well, after sorting through some of the wiring, and a lucky search on Craigslist, I found a 1987 GXL shell with no motor/transmission and full interior for $500. I’m going to be picking it up this weekend and swapping all the shit from the old car over to the new car next week in hope of making it to the BRA. The shell already has the TII rear end, so I wont have as much to swap over, just engine, transmisison, wiring, and coilovers.
wow, good luck with that. I realy want to see this car there
Over the weekend I went and picked up a shell with no engine/transmission for $500. For the work involved in changing over the drivetrain and suspension, it will be well worth it. The interior is in excellent condition, I also got a mount, driveshaft, and radiator setup from Granny’s with the car. I transferred all the old suspension over today, and plan on pulling the motor tomorrow. I will be sending my wiring harness over to Pez to be reworked.
I also plan on parting out the car to recoupe some of the money from the shell. The shell was a GXL, so it already has the better LSD differential, 5 lug, and better brake setup. I will be putting up a for sale section soon with everything I an gutting from the old TII. Now onto some pictures.
Having a two car garage is spoiling me. I’m lacking in some tools, but an electric impact gun and the other basic tools will get me through this. Still need to pick up another set of jackstands and a engine hoist.
New shell prepped for motor.
5.3l with T56 for the GXL shell.
Clean interior!
Old GXL suspension vs. Megan coilovers.
Overall I am quite happy with my jump into the RX7/V8 realm, I planned on having the car running in two weeks, but I think I’ll be taking my time on this one.
I know how that goes… haha
very nice el douche0…got your work cut out…
nice find sean. was that car always from north? the new one does seem fairly clean
glad to hear shit’s movin along bro. 
I know I give you non-stop shit but it’s a cool project and I like the fact that you’re reworking the previous owner’s shit-show and putting it all in a clean shell. I have a lot of buddies w/ LSX RX7s (including a CA smog legal high-9 second FC) so let me know if you have any Qs.
-TJ
I have a lot of buddies w/ LSX RX7s (including a CA smog legal high-9 second FC) so let me know if you have any Qs.
Last i heard, engine swaps like this were not smog legal swaps…regardless if it passes emissions or not. Not to get off topic I just wanted to know for sure.
I like this project. I always wanted an FD lsx based car but now there is one of those on this site already and now an FC sooo I dont want to copy haha.
I don’t know PA laws, though I doubt they could be worse than CA. In CA you can swap any NEWER engine out of a vehicle in the same weight-class (i.e. you can’t put a medium-duty commercial class engine in a regular passenger truck, but all ‘cars’ are the same class anyway) into an older chassis IF you put ALL emissions equipment from the car the engine came from into the vehicle receiving the engine. That even includes stuff like the EVAP system back at the fuel tank etc. To become legal the car has to go to a “SMOG REF” who will run over it with a fine-tooth comb, and there are NO smog refs you can buy so you have to get it right. You can fail it and try again though (I don’ t know anybody that passed on the first try). If you pass they put an official BAR sticker on the driver’s door sill that states the vehicle smogs as whatever the engine came from (i.e. my buddy’s '93 FD smogged as a '02 Camaro V8). It’s 100% legal, and from there you are still subject to the regular aftermarket parts rules (i.e. they have to carry CARB EO#s on them). My buddy’s FC that goes 9s has all CARB EO# parts other than the little n20 hit. It actually “only” goes 10.3 or something like that in 100% true legal form.
-TJ
Hey TJ thanks for posting the info
Long time since for updates. I’ve come to have a new found love for these cars. They are quite easy to take apart and tinker with. I had the full suspension on the old car including brakes, spindles, control arms, coilovers, front swaybar off and on the new car in a morning. I’ve also dropped both rear subframes with differentials to install the TII rear onto the GXL. I plan on dropping the engine tomorrow along with the transmission.
For having basic tools only, I think I have come along a good way. I don’t have much to spend on the higher end stuff, so a Harbor Freight electric impact gun, some wrenches and basic hand tools are doing the job for now. With no suspension being under the TII, I had to get some roller dollies. I can now move the car around a bit in the area I am working in and get the engine out. The engine should be rather straight forward.
The wiring is the biggest nightmare I have to deal with. I plan on going through the harness, taking out what I don’t need and hiding anything I can. It might take some time, but I would rather do it the correct way once then have to pull it apart again. Nothing really worthwhile to post pictures wise, just enjoying having a project again.
Sounds like its coming along, keep it up man!
Definitely, clean car fore sure. Keep on building!