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continued from above
MAINTENANCE ITEMS + A LITTLE BLING!
This section covers a lot of gaskets, lugs, sensors and other maintenance items we replaced - which is a good idea before taking an unknown engine to be dyno tuned. and there is some bling, too. This first one might seem trivial but the P2R billet piece covers up an opening in the timing belt covers that normally has a big cast aluminum engine mount bracket there.
We removed the 1.8 pound "engine mount" - which was on what we now call the front of the J-series and replace it with this P2R billet cover. It seems extravagant but his prices are amazingly low.
The stock piece was 1.8 pounds and this P2R cover was 0.5 lbs - and it looks a lot like what the IndyCar Honda V6 used, as you can see above (a derivative of this Honda V6 was used from 1994-2002 in CART & Champ Car with twin turbos). Look at the front timing covers and exhaust ports and tell me that is NOT a J-series!
I ordered a new water pump, NGK spark plugs, serpentine belt (a stretch belt without a tensioner), and a lot of water pump and valve cover gaskets from various suppliers. The water pump is behind the timing belt, so its a damn good idea to do both at the same time - especially on a used engine.
The timing marks were lined up and the old timing belt then water pump were removed. We ordered a new timing belt, tensioner, pulleys and lower plastic timing belt cover from P2R. The old timing belt looked OK but why risk it?
Here the P2R front cover was added, then the Gates blue timing belt, new pulleys, and new OEM tensioner. The P2R sourced lower timing cover makes the engine look brand new.
The valve covers are cast aluminum and always look pretty bland - so Christian bead blasted them in our cabinet and I had them powder coated "Bengal Red" - a color we use for many tow hooks and other items we regularly powder coat. They came out great!
Last piece of engine bling were these red translucent upper timing belt covers. Yes it is a little JDM Yo but it ties the whole engine together.
Last bit of maintenance is an OEM style replacement balancer. The old one looked a bit rusty and the rubber was starting to crack, plus it never hurts to have a fresh balancer on any engine. This was a RockAuto special that was inexpensive.
After the A2 valve covers were powder coated we realized that the P2R upper plenum - which we had chopped .700" out of the lower straight section - now contacted the bolt shown above on the driver's side. We did all of the plenum work on the A1 valve covers which are totally different. A little clearancing on the plenum and we were good to go.
FINAL PARTS TO ATTACH + INSTALLING THE J37A2
The last things we needed to attach to the J37 were the clutch, the bellhousing adapter, steel crank adapter and the rear TrakTuff cooling parts.
With these bits installed (see the Clutch and Cooling system sections above for more pics) it was time to install the RX8 transmission. Then they removed the plenum, to get the engine hanger installed.
The image above shows a lot of the research, engineering, machining, and hard work needed to get these parts to mate up, and the mounts bolted to the block for the mounting into the engine bay.
On March 12, 2026 the guys were stuffing the J37A2 and RX8 transmission into our little FRS for the last time before the new engine fired up.
That was a nice moment - seeing the actual engine in there, and not the mock up lump. Now it was time to get to work getting it fired up. We were quickly running out of time to make the April time trial event, and my stress level was peaked.
REMOTE OIL FILTER + OIL SYSTEM PLUMBING
Our oil cooling work consists of three main components and several hoses. The first item is really two things you should buy together form P2R. Took us doing it wrong to realize we needed this special 90 degree fitting Sean makes.
The P2R relocation adapter is also reasonably priced and takes the place of the huge oil filter housing - which sticks way off the "front" of the J37, and both J engines we had (the junker A1 and the fresher A2) had bashed up oil filters. It just sticks way out there in the way, easy to be bonked when transporting or removing engines.
Christian removed the oil filter housing and replaced it with the P2R piece using the bolts they include and new gaskets. Then we added a -10AN ORB to straight -10AN adapter... and that was a bad idea.
As you can see above left, the silver "straight" adapter was very close to the balancer. We then sourced the P2R 90 deg fitting (above right) made exactly for this spot, which gained us a lot of clearance the serpentine belt.
We already had sourced an Improved Racing remote oil filter kit with a thermostatic bypass set to open at 185F - this way engine oil doesn't go through the cooler until it is warmed up. This is the same remote oil filter housing we have used many times, and that has let us settle on a single oil to keep in stock filter for many cars - a giant filter that dwarfs what the OEM J-series uses.
Then it was time for Brad to build -10 AN hoses to connect the two lines to/from the P2R oil filter adapter to the Improved Racing filter mount, then 2 more to/from the filter to the oil cooler. Done!
NEW MOMO RACE SEATS
I ordered a pair of MOMO Safari Daytona seats in November and they arrived in early January, then they sat for 3 months as we were busy on too many other aspects of this build.
I picked this Halo style seat for many reasons, including the fact that these were on crazy 20% off sale for Cyber Monday, but mostly because I wanted to see how these Daytona seats looked. These FIA rated seats fit both Amy and I in their "XL" size. Any Italian made seat is going to "run small" so always try to "test sit" in any Sparco or MOMO seat, heck ANY racing seat, before you buy.
We installed these with our Vorshlag 86 "seat bracket base" kits, our ultra-wide side brackets (made just for the 86 chassis), and two Sparco sliders.
I took this seat install opportunity to video the steps it takes to mount racing seats in the 86 chassis with our parts, which you can watch above.
I have since driven the car in these seats and they feel great. I can't wait to get out on track with this car to see how it feels strapped in and driving in anger!
FINAL FUEL SYSTEM PLUMBING
All we lacked to finish the fuel system was in the engine bay - connecting the regulator to the fuel rails. We used an adjustable Holley regulator (which we had on hand, normally we used a DW regulator) and ran a single -6AN line out, then a "Y" to two lines into the back of both fuel rails.
Normally we would run one hose into the back of one rail, have a crossover hose, and then a hose back to the regulator - but we had a clearance issue with the plenum up front, so this is how it has to be to fit our unusually tight plenum setup. The ends of the P2R rails are simply plugged.
OIL PRESSURE ACCUMULATOR
Any time we have a wet sump oiling system we pause and ask - what do we need to do to make this engine not starve for oil in high g corners? Nobody had a trap door baffle kit for this oil pan (we might have to make that).
With these fresh 315mm A052 Yokohamas + aero we will see north of 1.5g on most road courses, which can make oil slosh away from oil pump pickups. We know almost nothing about the factory oil pans on the J-series so we're pre-emptively adding an accumulator for oil, aka: "Accusump" - but we're using one from MasterLube.
Why not use the Canton branded Accusump? Because we had one of these units sitting new and unused from another project, and it packages much better than a 2qt or 3qt Accusump. We mounted it on the included bracket as shown above, and after some plumbing challenges settled on this -6 to -10 AN fitting stack. I will watch oil pressure LIKE A HAWK on my first track laps, of course. And our first test will be without aero.
Brad built a -10 AN sized Fragola hose from the MasterLube and T'd that into the oil pump output line to the remote filter, ahead of the thermostat. We can also precharge the system from a switch on the dash to prelube the engine before we start it, or wait until after it is running to arm the system. To keep the tank charged we have to "close" the solenoid before the engine is shut off. Like with an Accusump, if oil pressure gets low enough it will send pressurized oil from the tank into the oil flow path. Then recharge on the next straight.
WHAT'S NEXT?
I've been writing on this off and on for 3 weeks, this post ran super long, and I have to stop here. We probably lost the short attention span folks 100 words in, but there were a LOT of little things we did to make this J-series swap work. Then even more work to make it run and drive right, with remote tuning and some wiring re-work.
The car runs and drives and goes to the dyno tomorrow for final tuning steps. Hopefully soon after I can put in some track miles to test various systems. We will cover the final swap work steps from March - April 2026 in the next post.
Until next time,
Thanks for reading!
MAINTENANCE ITEMS + A LITTLE BLING!
This section covers a lot of gaskets, lugs, sensors and other maintenance items we replaced - which is a good idea before taking an unknown engine to be dyno tuned. and there is some bling, too. This first one might seem trivial but the P2R billet piece covers up an opening in the timing belt covers that normally has a big cast aluminum engine mount bracket there.
We removed the 1.8 pound "engine mount" - which was on what we now call the front of the J-series and replace it with this P2R billet cover. It seems extravagant but his prices are amazingly low.
The stock piece was 1.8 pounds and this P2R cover was 0.5 lbs - and it looks a lot like what the IndyCar Honda V6 used, as you can see above (a derivative of this Honda V6 was used from 1994-2002 in CART & Champ Car with twin turbos). Look at the front timing covers and exhaust ports and tell me that is NOT a J-series!
I ordered a new water pump, NGK spark plugs, serpentine belt (a stretch belt without a tensioner), and a lot of water pump and valve cover gaskets from various suppliers. The water pump is behind the timing belt, so its a damn good idea to do both at the same time - especially on a used engine.
The timing marks were lined up and the old timing belt then water pump were removed. We ordered a new timing belt, tensioner, pulleys and lower plastic timing belt cover from P2R. The old timing belt looked OK but why risk it?
Here the P2R front cover was added, then the Gates blue timing belt, new pulleys, and new OEM tensioner. The P2R sourced lower timing cover makes the engine look brand new.
The valve covers are cast aluminum and always look pretty bland - so Christian bead blasted them in our cabinet and I had them powder coated "Bengal Red" - a color we use for many tow hooks and other items we regularly powder coat. They came out great!
Last piece of engine bling were these red translucent upper timing belt covers. Yes it is a little JDM Yo but it ties the whole engine together.
Last bit of maintenance is an OEM style replacement balancer. The old one looked a bit rusty and the rubber was starting to crack, plus it never hurts to have a fresh balancer on any engine. This was a RockAuto special that was inexpensive.
After the A2 valve covers were powder coated we realized that the P2R upper plenum - which we had chopped .700" out of the lower straight section - now contacted the bolt shown above on the driver's side. We did all of the plenum work on the A1 valve covers which are totally different. A little clearancing on the plenum and we were good to go.
FINAL PARTS TO ATTACH + INSTALLING THE J37A2
The last things we needed to attach to the J37 were the clutch, the bellhousing adapter, steel crank adapter and the rear TrakTuff cooling parts.
With these bits installed (see the Clutch and Cooling system sections above for more pics) it was time to install the RX8 transmission. Then they removed the plenum, to get the engine hanger installed.
The image above shows a lot of the research, engineering, machining, and hard work needed to get these parts to mate up, and the mounts bolted to the block for the mounting into the engine bay.
On March 12, 2026 the guys were stuffing the J37A2 and RX8 transmission into our little FRS for the last time before the new engine fired up.
That was a nice moment - seeing the actual engine in there, and not the mock up lump. Now it was time to get to work getting it fired up. We were quickly running out of time to make the April time trial event, and my stress level was peaked.
REMOTE OIL FILTER + OIL SYSTEM PLUMBING
Our oil cooling work consists of three main components and several hoses. The first item is really two things you should buy together form P2R. Took us doing it wrong to realize we needed this special 90 degree fitting Sean makes.
The P2R relocation adapter is also reasonably priced and takes the place of the huge oil filter housing - which sticks way off the "front" of the J37, and both J engines we had (the junker A1 and the fresher A2) had bashed up oil filters. It just sticks way out there in the way, easy to be bonked when transporting or removing engines.
Christian removed the oil filter housing and replaced it with the P2R piece using the bolts they include and new gaskets. Then we added a -10AN ORB to straight -10AN adapter... and that was a bad idea.
As you can see above left, the silver "straight" adapter was very close to the balancer. We then sourced the P2R 90 deg fitting (above right) made exactly for this spot, which gained us a lot of clearance the serpentine belt.
We already had sourced an Improved Racing remote oil filter kit with a thermostatic bypass set to open at 185F - this way engine oil doesn't go through the cooler until it is warmed up. This is the same remote oil filter housing we have used many times, and that has let us settle on a single oil to keep in stock filter for many cars - a giant filter that dwarfs what the OEM J-series uses.
Then it was time for Brad to build -10 AN hoses to connect the two lines to/from the P2R oil filter adapter to the Improved Racing filter mount, then 2 more to/from the filter to the oil cooler. Done!
NEW MOMO RACE SEATS
I ordered a pair of MOMO Safari Daytona seats in November and they arrived in early January, then they sat for 3 months as we were busy on too many other aspects of this build.
I picked this Halo style seat for many reasons, including the fact that these were on crazy 20% off sale for Cyber Monday, but mostly because I wanted to see how these Daytona seats looked. These FIA rated seats fit both Amy and I in their "XL" size. Any Italian made seat is going to "run small" so always try to "test sit" in any Sparco or MOMO seat, heck ANY racing seat, before you buy.
We installed these with our Vorshlag 86 "seat bracket base" kits, our ultra-wide side brackets (made just for the 86 chassis), and two Sparco sliders.
I took this seat install opportunity to video the steps it takes to mount racing seats in the 86 chassis with our parts, which you can watch above.
I have since driven the car in these seats and they feel great. I can't wait to get out on track with this car to see how it feels strapped in and driving in anger!
FINAL FUEL SYSTEM PLUMBING
All we lacked to finish the fuel system was in the engine bay - connecting the regulator to the fuel rails. We used an adjustable Holley regulator (which we had on hand, normally we used a DW regulator) and ran a single -6AN line out, then a "Y" to two lines into the back of both fuel rails.
Normally we would run one hose into the back of one rail, have a crossover hose, and then a hose back to the regulator - but we had a clearance issue with the plenum up front, so this is how it has to be to fit our unusually tight plenum setup. The ends of the P2R rails are simply plugged.
OIL PRESSURE ACCUMULATOR
Any time we have a wet sump oiling system we pause and ask - what do we need to do to make this engine not starve for oil in high g corners? Nobody had a trap door baffle kit for this oil pan (we might have to make that).
With these fresh 315mm A052 Yokohamas + aero we will see north of 1.5g on most road courses, which can make oil slosh away from oil pump pickups. We know almost nothing about the factory oil pans on the J-series so we're pre-emptively adding an accumulator for oil, aka: "Accusump" - but we're using one from MasterLube.
Why not use the Canton branded Accusump? Because we had one of these units sitting new and unused from another project, and it packages much better than a 2qt or 3qt Accusump. We mounted it on the included bracket as shown above, and after some plumbing challenges settled on this -6 to -10 AN fitting stack. I will watch oil pressure LIKE A HAWK on my first track laps, of course. And our first test will be without aero.
Brad built a -10 AN sized Fragola hose from the MasterLube and T'd that into the oil pump output line to the remote filter, ahead of the thermostat. We can also precharge the system from a switch on the dash to prelube the engine before we start it, or wait until after it is running to arm the system. To keep the tank charged we have to "close" the solenoid before the engine is shut off. Like with an Accusump, if oil pressure gets low enough it will send pressurized oil from the tank into the oil flow path. Then recharge on the next straight.
WHAT'S NEXT?
I've been writing on this off and on for 3 weeks, this post ran super long, and I have to stop here. We probably lost the short attention span folks 100 words in, but there were a LOT of little things we did to make this J-series swap work. Then even more work to make it run and drive right, with remote tuning and some wiring re-work.
The car runs and drives and goes to the dyno tomorrow for final tuning steps. Hopefully soon after I can put in some track miles to test various systems. We will cover the final swap work steps from March - April 2026 in the next post.
Until next time,
Thanks for reading!
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