sommmatt

iTrader: (2)

Hello all,

I'm looking mostly for some opinions and direction, maybe advice, on what to do and where to go with my car.

It is an 81 RX7, black with black/grey interior. Believe it or not the body has 327xxx KMs on her, put on mostly by the original owner. I have a large file of receipts from work done to the car since new. At around 250xxxkms the motor and transmission were replaced at Mazda with brand new units, according to the bill.

The original owner had somewhat of a sound system installed in it in the early 90s. Beyond that, the car is very stock. Here a few pictures.





The interior has seen better days. The dash and plastics are not too bad, but the seats are very old and torn, with a lot of wear. The headliner is ripped in a few spots, the rubber seals are all very old and don't do their job too well. The trunk struts don't do too much, the rear wiper has been removed and the defrost does not work. Beyond that, the power windows, headlights, cruise control, electronic releases and climate control all work very well. Minus the fact that the A/C was removed from the car many moons ago!

I enjoyed driving the car around all summer and have only recently taken it off of the road. I took it to the track for fun during a club day this summer as my other car was off the road, and made a few passes.




The car was a lot quicker than I thought it would be. 15.9@86MPH. Neat.

Anyway, the car is away for the winter now. The seats are going to a family friend to be redone, and I plan on buying all of the seals, struts etc etc to get the interior back into tip top shape. Black Dragon Auto seems to have a lot of the things I need. Once the car is back to "original condition" I would like to start doing modifications here and there.

sommmatt

iTrader: (2)

Continued, the car I want to build is a reliable, fun weekend driver that looks badass. This is a car that would see occasional road course usage (not trying to break any records here, just go to have fun) and street use the other 99% of the time. So where do I go? I've been reading the FAQs and finding a lot of old information or links to sites that no longer exist, and I have a bit of an idea of what I want to do but I would like some real world opinions on things.

Steering rack converison from Re-Speed. Who is using this, who is enjoying it and who is hating it? The steering on my car is pretty dismal. The linkage is all tight but I would imagine the box is pretty old. The rack conversion looks pretty appealing.

Lowering the car. What do I need to do it right and keep (mostly) correct suspension angles? I'm not looking to have to fabricate arms or third members or whatever, so if the rear end has problems dropping, I would rather not bother.

Engine things. I have absolutely no issues with the way this car runs, but if there are cheap and easy things to do to give it a little more or help it out, I am willing. Otherwise I have no plans on messing with carbs, swapping intakes or even getting rid of the emissions garbage. The first problem I had with my 240SX was when I decided to take apart a perfectly running car.

Brakes. The car seems light and agile but hasn't seen any hard repeated stops. I would be guessing the usual good rotors and EBC brake pads should do me just fine, but wondering if there is anything else out there.

Putting the A/C back into the car. Is this a pipe dream? It looks like none of the parts are in the car anymore at all. Massively expensive and a waste of time? I don't know where anyone would source half of these parts, evaporator, condensor, lines... A man will pay a lot of money to have cold air blasting in his face.

Belt drive. When I'm driving it like an idiot and ignoring the tach, I tend to blow the alternator belt off, or snap it in half. Keeping it below 7kRPM of course keeps everything happy, but I am hard on cars, always will be and refuse to apologize for it. Dual alternator pulley is some talk I have heard.

Rear End Gears. There's a junk Sportage in the junkyard near the house, begging for me to take the 4.88s. I'm assuming I have a worn out LSD but haven't actually gotten in there yet. Behaves like a LSD until very hard cornering. I was told working on these rear ends is like working on a miniature Ford 8.8. Anyone have any insight as to how well changing the gears works for city/track usage and what working on one of these rear ends entails?

I apologize for a lot of my ignorance on the matter but I haven't been this excited about a car I have owned in a long, long time.

Thanks for looking, let me know if you have any insight!

DreamInRotary

iTrader: (49)

Do a search, or maybe someone will chime in here.

Racing Beat springs and Tokico springs seem the most popular way to go. Racing Beat has the best prices and reputation it seems.

There's the Rat's nest removal, DLDFIS, battery relocation, small things like that. Should be on the FB FAQ page in the archive section.

There's a big brake conversion that people with much money on here do - someone will chime in with the name as I have forgotten.

Are all the components with the car or are they long gone?

You DEFINITELY need to do that dual pulley and run two belts. Pretty inexpensive and will help you out sir.

Many have done this mod - I am interested in it as well. Some quick searches give you the best info on this subject.

It's always good to be excited, glad to hear it! I'm looking into similar things for my 7 as well. Keep us updated - and welcome!

Qingdao

iTrader: (3)

keep it stock and don't modify anything.... The stock equipment lasted 300k+ km's right? you think you know more than Mazda does? You think you can engineer something that will last longer and still give 16 sec times?

Sorry for the rant. I'd kill the previous owner of my car if it would take it back to factory condition.

Any rate have fun with your car.

sommmatt

iTrader: (2)

The key part of this is I don't want to do any engineering, just buy stuff from the people who already have!

That stock equipment has been replaced many a times over the life of the car, believe me this. Some of the receipts are very interesting.

85rotarypower

Answers to a few of your questions I have experience/opinions about.

I have been on the forums pretty much since the steering rack conversion from ReSpeed was introduced and I rarely read anything bad about it. I don't know if I could justify the cost myself, but its all personal opinion. I have no problem with the stock steering box in general everyday driving and I was surprised how well it performed on the track. My suggestion is to find a decent steering box to put in your car or see if you can get yours rebuilt.

Racing Beat springs seem to be where its at when combined with Tokico shocks. Combine this with roll center blocks (space the front control arm down to bring it parallel again) from ReSpeed and you have a decent suspension I think. Throw in the Racing Beat sway bars if you think the car rolls too much.

I agree with your statement about problems popping up after starting to mess with stock equipment. If you don't have to worry about emission testing, I do suggest removing the rats nest as per the tutorials you can find in the 1st gen archives.

You are about on the money here. With stock to nearly stock power, the stock brakes can keep up with the car fairly well. I personally use the Hawk HPS pads on the front of my 79 which greatly reduced brake fade even with stock drums on the rear. I can't say enough good things about the Hawk pads. They are very smooth in most driving conditions, very controllable at the limit, and generally just provide a pleasant brake pedal feel. Don't bother with big brake kits unless you want to get into the 200+hp club.

Dual alternator pulley and dual belts as mentioned above or remove the stock clutch fan and replace with an e-fan. I run a single belt on my 79 with the clutch fan removed and have seen 7500rpm without a problem. I also ran the dual alternator pulley and dual belts on my old 82 and while it worked well, I didn't like the decrease in alternator output at idle, not the greatest for a daily driver caught in near freezing weather at night trying to defog the windows. This creates a major draw on the electrical system that the stock alternator has trouble coping with even on a good day with the stock pulley. BTW, to my knowledge there are no stock sized dual alternator pullies on the market. The are all larger in diameter which slows down the alternator.

Qingdao

iTrader: (3)

That is really dope that you have all of the receipts.

Its just your car is real nice as is. If I was in your shoes I'd hunt down a beater to make something a little bit hop'd up.

sommmatt

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for all of the info so far. Decreased alternator output from the dual pulley being larger is unfortunate, this alternator already seems like it's pretty low output!

I can't help but tinker with my cars. I just have to make them mine, just have to go about such things in a smart, slow and patient manner.

mazdaverx713b

iTrader: (91)

my input is to keep the think as it is now, other than tossing a set of nice oem wheels on the car. its a super clean survivor and since there aren't many left, i would keep this one stock and buy another that's pretty ratty that you can build and learn on.

cfamilyfix

iTrader: (15)

Early 90's subaru have a dual alt pulley that bolts right up and is just a tad smaller than stock pulley. Check the bone yard...cant be more than 15 bucks i would say.

sommmatt

iTrader: (2)

Here's my other car. I have been around the block a few times.

I'm not going to hack the car up, but there's no reason for me to start with a rotted chassis because I'm going to mod it. Just want to do the right mods.

It's just a car.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

IMO, while the wheels on the car are period correct, they are also not badass. i'd think some cooler wheels (panasports always work.... Rota makes the RB which is nice too) would do wonders, the rest of the car looks great.

RB springs will work fine if you have no aspirations to go racing.

quite a number of things can be done, by far the best bang for the buck is the exhaust, followed by modding the stock carb. removing the emissions makes the engine bay simpler, but it won't add any power.

re speed has a big brake kit, and you could also run the GSL-SE stuff, which is similar to what you have, but bigger

nope! you wouldn't be the first one to do it. the hard part is finding all the pieces, finding a complete system from a donor car is probably the way to go

RX7 1975-1985: Cooling System: Alternator and Main Drive Pulley Set - Double Sheave - 74-92 Rotary Engines (All) - Respeed has one as well

the Mazda diff is like the 9" ford in design, its been my experience that the Mazda diff is really easy, the average Ford tech can set one up with their eyes closed.

that is why you should be a little careful to keep the Rx7 nice, if you're excited about it, its not just a car.

attached pic is just my car, same thing, just different wheels and some stance, and a bunch of silly stickers

sommmatt

iTrader: (2)

Mazda diff being like the 9 inch in design, does that mean it has no rear cover and a removable pig so you can set everything up on the bench?

DivinDriver

iTrader: (15)

Congrats; you're already finished.

Clean the engine bay, get a new battery hold-down, reinstall whatever that part is that's sitting on top the right strut tower, and enjoy a reliable, fun car that looks badass.



Yep. Common term around here is "Pumpkin."

sommmatt

iTrader: (2)

That makes my life exponentially easier.

codyholdridge

i like your rims. i would spend lots of time reading and decide what you like.

project7s

iTrader: (5)

yeah another 1+ on the wheels there is no way i would take them off. i would like to have some like that or either the ones that look like whats on starsky and hutches torino, but i also love the 70s