Hi everyone,

Just joined the forum hoping to gain more knowledge about these excellent first-gen Rx-7's. I just picked mine up today from a guy on craigslist. Its a 1984 with 30,000 original miles. Still looks new, been garaged all its like and never seen rain.



I'm going to go over everything with a fine tooth comb to make sure everything is set up properly, change spark plugs, replace air fliter & oil, the usual. This is my first rotary, but I do have some experience from being around my friend's Rx-8 for some time now.

Having said that, if everything is working properly, I'm really looking forward to customizing and adding some performance parts. I don't plan on making this into a race car, but I would like to do some basic upgrades, performance exhaust, wheels & tires, head unit, intake.

I would love to hear any input, suggestions, ideas, etc.. Also, I've got some questions:

1. Can someone recommend a good exhaust system. I would like one that has a single wider muffler tip, instead of the double, and NO cat.

2. Have you seen the "Zero F*cks Given Rx-7" video on youtube? As much as it pains me to see the condition of that car, I really like his choice of wheels/tires. Does anyone know what size wheels/tires he is running?

3. How difficult is it to turbo charge these cars? I wouldn't mind adding a small, modest turbo if it isn't too much work. I would like more power, but I do not want to compromise reliability.

4. Pre-mix? Yes? My friend who drives an Rx-8 always pre-mixes, says I should too.

5. Any other performance upgrades you would recommend? If this was your car, what would you do to it?

 

I'll answer your last question. If it were my car?
First of all, I would not want to be the idiot to F up a 30 year old, mint, low mileage collector car.
Let's just get that out there.
With that said, if you want to modify things, modify things that can easily be changed back.
Like the exhaust and air filter.
Make the car the best it can be in stock form. It will give you years of pleasure. My FD and FC are modified. I would never mess with an fb or sa.
It's not like there are a ton of 30 year old Rx-7 collector cars with 30K miles.
If you have to have a fast rx7, get a high mileage one and go crazy.
If there's no rust on this car, I would not drive it in the winter EVER! But that's just me.

You buying this car means you have a responsibility to take care of this car. If you can't help yourself, keep it looking stock looking and drop a later model rx7 turbo engine and tranny. But that ain't cheap even if you do it yourself and do it right.

Oh and clean the wheel wells and use Adams Under Carriage spray on them. There's lots of things you can do to make this car awesome. OK I'm done.

 

Beautiful car, and the perfect color, too.

As for what I'd do, you can see what I've done to mine over 25 years of ownership.

But I'm not you; your car, your choice, just try not to do anything you'll regret before you understand the value of what you got.

 

I'm with the guys above. Maybe a Racing Beat exhaust, a bigger front sway bar, a light steel flywheel, maybe even a set of racing beat springs. But carefully save everything you take off.
It was a great source of pride for me to have the 911 guys asking why they couldn't lap me in my stock port 12a. The mods above were all I had.

 

I would not change anything. period. It would be a shame.

 

Hey ZZ - er… welcome!

you have now been duly lectured by us Fan-boys. Obv a point of passion for us Old Timers here, and I have to agree: tread down the Mods-Path with care and caution. There is a lot than can be done without a lot of chopping-and-swapping and its always nice not to go down a path you can't get back from.

My thoughts on your Qs:
Exhaust - as said by others, Racing Beat makes (still!) what is regarded as one of the best exhausts for early RXs.
And these are nicely made, bolt in systems. But no I don't think they make a single-outlet bazooka that is popular in the Ricer crowd. Be aware rotaries burn HOT and unless the system is designed to take the heat, they don't last long AND exhaust tuning on rotaries is pretty specific (and Racing Beat is a leader in this Tech), so if you want muscle then a rotary-tuned system is a must. AND - rotaries, incorrectly mufflered, can make some pretty cheesy audio (loud! metallic!). The RB system has a nice deep tune.

Wheels: whatever. Certainly the 13" are problematic for decent ones, tho they CAN be found. Not cheap (or: cheap chinese).

Turbos have been done. Kits prob still exist. I personally would not try force-inducting a stock 12a that is this vintage. Things can break and if you haven't already discovered, the engine block components are mostly extinct now.

Premix: Can't hurt. I do it every gas-fill. 4oz of 2cycle oil.

I would suggest before you jump on the performance bandwagon you get the basics out of the way. In spite the low mileage, some components will be failing just from age and sitting. I would:
-replace ALL hoses: fuel, coolant (!!!!!) and heater.
-all fluids. I guess this is obv. Redline in gearbox and diff is very popular here.
-I would run a full can of Seafoam thru the gas tank. Excellent for internal clean-up, esp carbon, which can be an issue with long-storage rotaries (I run a can thru once a year too)
-check your weatherstripping. Its all still available.
-battery cables if original, can be a source of mystery-electric gremlins, even if they look fine…
-lube the headlight motor arms!!!!!! 2 arms on ea lamp. These fail and cannot be fixed. Clean and lube yearly.
-likewise the wiper transmission. lube pivot points.
I am sure I have forgotten a bunch of stuff. Others will chime in (whether you like it or not…)

This looks to be a beautiful car. The world is full of banger, ratted RX7s. The ones that get the nods are the stock(ish) ones. Like it or not you now own a Collector Car. And there is wrath to be had on those who abuse them.

enjoy!
Stu Aull
80GS (with a few wee mods)
Alaska

 

^^^Good tips Stu. Guess the same would apply for my gem in transit!

 

that is a beautiful car I would try to keep it as stock as possible

 

Original cars are always worth more than modified, so you can probably re-sell this for enough to get 2 beat-to-death FCs if cheap speed is your thing. Or one FC and an LSx swap for it.

 

welcome to the forum from cloudy Wheeling WV. looks like a nice score there! I can't leave anything alone, but at the same time, if you have a time capsule there, leave it OG as much as possible. it will get due respect.

 

Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions! I definitely didnt know about lubing the headlight arms. Will do for sure.

I totally agree with all of your concerns about keeping the car original (mostly) and doing things right.

In reply to some of your comments:

-the fender wells are not dirty, it appears to be some kind of undercoat that was applied very long ago. But like I said, this car has never seen rain, so the undercoat is still in good shape. Maybe I can try to clean some of the dirt off the undercoat without removing it.

-I was tossing around the idea of adding a small turbo, but I probably wont. I think the entirety of my upgrades will be just some basics, such as exhaust, hi-flow air filter, sway bars, wheels, maybe some carb mods.

-I have heard the beat exhaust is really nice. I just really like the look of a single can. I wish somebody made one that would hold up to rotary heat.

-I promise all of you that this car will be well cared for. The only mods I intend to do are non-permanent mods that will simply make the car more efficient. My favorite thing to do with old cars is remove all the EPA garbage that chokes the engine and robs HP. I'm currently reading into how to "simplify your niki."

 

The rats nest removal really wont get you any more HP unless your putting a header on. It needs to be done right or the car will not run correctly. Several people on here have actually put the rats nest back on.

 

First thing I would is remove the rear tires, and check out the rear wheel wells. Where the upper link attaches to the body is a notoriously rusty spot. And check behind the storage bins for rust.

Next thing is to get 14 or 15 inch rims. Last I checked, there are only two tire companies that make 13 inch street tires.

I say, you should treat the car like a vintage ferrari or porsche, As for me, I found the interior has a tremendous amount of wasted weight, space and materials taken up by plastic. The door panels weigh 10 pounds more than they need to. Who uses arm rests and map pockets? The center consul has a bunch of metal, and plastic that doesn't need to be there. Storage bins are another example of 20 pounds that doesn't need to be there. An the rear speaker/shock plastic covers sacrifice space for no reason. But mazda engineers should of made the door handles as stout as the storage bins. Then again, my car wasn't a cream puff when I bought it TWENTY FOUR years ago.

 

I will check anyways, but I can tell you there is no rust on this car. I dont think the car has ever seen rain. The only reason the fender wells look dirty is because of how the sun is hitting them in the picture. The underbody still looks new, even the factory exhaust.

In response to what you said about the interior, are you saying I shouldn't modify anything? After reading your post, I am very tempted to start tearing up the interior to save weight, jk.

On another note, I think I've decided some of the mods I want to make. I have a lot of down time at my job, so I've been browsing the threads for days.

1. Wheels - I've decided to go with the diamond racing black SC wheels. I think 15x8 in the rear, and 15x7 in the front, zero offset.

2. Holley carb intake kit from racing beat. I figure this is nicer than adding a turbo.

3. Racing beat header and pre-silencer (havent decided which muffler to get yet)

4. Racing beat suspension upgrade kit

5. Remove OMP


What do y'all think? Too much? I think these are all good upgrades that wont negatively affect the reliability or collectability of the car.

 

Keep the Nikki and the oil pump.

 

Nice car. I'd be patient. Go through it the way it is, see what needs fixing while comtemplating what you may want to modify or change. Thirty thousand mile, un-molested cars don't come along every day. Like DD said, "don't do anything you'll regret before you understand the value of what you got"

Also, if the OMP is operating ok why tear it off to premix? Are you really going to see a performance improvement by saving a combined (pump and lines) pound and a half? Unless you have some modified motor requiring additional lubrication, I don't see any real advantage to premixing while still running an OPM either. Your only making it run richer just in case the OMP system fails in some way. To me, the stock system is very reliable.

 

I just figured that if I remove the OMP, I can run whatever oil I want in the engine, since it wont be burned. Im a big fan of synthetics, and I still havent been able to find any proof on either side of the argument (whether synthetics are good or bad for our rotary cars). I figure if I none of the oil is being burned, then the argument against synthetics is null.

You say I should keep the nikki. Any reason for that? I am trying to keep this car mostly stock, but I cant stand the idea of having a thousand vacuum tubes running around the carb, definite points of potential failure. The Holley just seems like a good way to simplify things and gain a couple HP at the same time.

Either way, I'm will be doing this slowly and one thing at a time. Not like I even have time right now to do any work on the car. It runs as is, so I will enjoy it in stock form for a while until I decide for sure what to change modify.

 

Keep the Nikki. Keep the OMP. Learn how to simplify and mod the Nikki. It ends up better than a Holley.

 

Welcome!

 

Thanks for the welcome, glad to find this awesome forum.

Any reason why I should keep the nikki? Have other forum members tried the RB Holley setup? Looks like a really nice upgrade. Comes from RB already configured and ready to go! 20HP gain!

 

If you are determined to run a specific oil, deleting the OMP is not going to make any diff. The engine needs supplimental oil to run reliably no matter how you add it, and the pump doesn't care what it runs thru it (the engine may have other opinions, but that is not our subject here). Do I understand correctly you are NOT going to run extra oil thru the fuels system to compensate for the deleted OMP? That would be a mistake, since it would seem obvious that with the Million$ Mazda R&D has sunk into rotary-design, these motors must be induction-lubricated as well as via traditional internal oil supply.

In rotaries, oil-in-fuel is a vital part of the lubrication chain.

Personally I run BOTH the OMP AND 4-oz 2-cycl oil-shot into each tank of gas. No harm, no foul

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

 

Some of us have tried the Holley.

Back in the day, the RB Holley setup made sense because no one, outside of factory race teams, knew how to mod the Nikki. The RB Holley setup was also pretty affordable, and Holleys were everywhere so anyone could work on them.

These days a lot of people know how to mod the Nikki and EFI is everywhere. The RB Holley setup goes for like a grand now.

So you're looking at a grand for 20HP gain. Money well spent.

 

Here is some inspiration for you.
The picture is not mine. I just found it on the forum here. https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...issues-665910/

 

RED95FD I think sums it up in one sentence when he says : "First of all, I would not want to be the idiot to F up a 30 year old, mint, low mileage collector car."

Fella's - the lad hears you but is not listening. Why waste your breath.

Just buy the car when it is listed in the classifieds about a year from now, torn apart in the OP's garage, parts in boxes and Tupperware bins because he tried to mod this or that or got in over his head, instead of keeping the car like we are suggesting a low mileage, stock collector car appreciating in value just the way it sits.

We've all been there and seen this scenario before when we go look at CL ad's cars and the PO's have tried to do this or that only to end up with a roller, the original AC and other rare parts discarded because of "weight issues", the engine torn down so they could see how it works inside and **** scattered all over the garage floor and in boxes and baggies.

Otherwise welcome OP. Nice car you had there.

Yeah , I am a cynic.

 

Wow, lighten up bro.

I am definitely listening to what people are saying here, and I trust me when I say that I dont plan on doing anything to harm the integrity of this car.

I will say though, that with almost every car from this era, there are a lot of things we can do to make engines more "efficient." Why not improve exhaust flow? Your rotary will run better without all that restriction. If I want to put some different wheels on, damn, why not? Takes two minutes to change them back to stock if I wanted. I have been considering eliminating the OMP and just run a pre-mix, but if you all say I shouldn't, then perhaps I wont (still not sure why this is a big deal). Overall, I just have a love for simplicity and efficiency. I'm not trying to build a race car, just want to free-up the engine and reduce complexities created by the emissions systems and other things.

That said, keep in mind that every mod I've mentioned are merely ideas. I'm still totally new to this rotary thing and have a lot of reading and research to do before I decide on anything. ALL of your suggestions are noted. I promise you this car will remain mostly stock. I friggin love this thing, she has yet to see rain and I'm making sure she never does.