So Im still planning on getting an 84 7 in a week and I was wondering what some of the best cheap mods there are for the car. Its the 12A and an auto, which Im not terribly excited about but I can deal for only $500 lol.

 

Save your money and learn to drive the car. Spend your money on a good fluid flush, some new tires, and freshen up your braking system.

 

I suppose I should be a little more specific. I'm not looking to like turbo the crap out of the poor thing. I'm just looking to do little mods and tweaks here and there to make it run like a dream.

As far as the mods that are coming on it, i know he's swapped the entire audio system, new deck and speakers all the way around.

I'm thinking next summer I'll buy a nice set of wheels and tires for it. I'm thinking black rims? Its a white 7

 

As stated, go through the and make any needed repairs to bring all of the systems up to new specs. If any of those parts has an aftermarket upgrade then go for the upgrade. For example, most 1st gens are in need of a new idler arm if the one on the car is still original. Upgrade to Moog unit. If the exhaust is shot, headers will give you the biggest hp gain besides opening up the engine. If the carb needs rebuilt, go for the Sterling modded one.

First priorities should be brakes, steering, cooling system, fluid changes and a full tune up.

 

5 speed.

 

Im thinking after I'm out of college I'll swap in a 13B and a 5 speed.

Im planning on getting it, figuring out whats causing the oil leak (still guessing its the o rings on the oil filter pedestal), new fluids, checking everything over, a bit of elbow grease on the engine bay, and a good coat of wax.

Should I just plan on getting a new air filter and spark plugs?

 

You could find a 5 speed tranny for about 50 dollars if you look around, I saw a second gen tranny for 50 bucks about 2 months ago, I just didn't have 50 dollars to spend at the time.

You will also need
Clutch master cylinder
Flywheel, and clutch
pedal assembly
shifter and ****

Don't do anything but tune the engine up until you swap the tranny. Modified automatics are just lame. IMO. Loose the a/c if you want some more power for free. also save you 6 bucks on replacing the old belt, and about 40 pounds of weight savings witch helps a bit also. free Mods include,
No A/C
Hollowed cats
advanced timing
weight reductions i.e. No rear bins, carpet, plastics, ect. ect. You will find a lot to remove.

Also using a manual tranny will give you more HP to the wheels since there's less power loss through the drive train. So its a power mod to boot.

If you shop around I'm sure you could find one with manual tranny for about the same price. I found mine for 800, with 7000 miles on a rebuilt engine. Has some issues but I'm slowly getting them fixed. I've put in about 600 into it so far.

general rule of thumb If you bought a car for under a grand, expect to be replacing a lot.

 

Full tune up, including the air filter (get a K&N, only because they have that whole million mile warranty thing going for them) spark plugs, plug wires, rotor, cap, alternator belt ( buy two, you'll want a spare, trust me) and fuel filter. The fuel filter is very important. They suck as it is and just a little clog can cause problems. After that have all fluids flushed, and freshen up the brakes. From there new tires in the form of Sumitomo HTR 200's in a 205/60/R13 size will do wonders for your grip levels. With that out of the way, or maybe even save the tires til after you tighten up the steering gear, new tie rod inner and outers along with adjusters, new idler arm, tighten up the steering box, etc. After that its time to tackle the suspension. Here you need to spend a bit more, but it'll be worth it, so start saving your pennies ASAP. First off, go to www.re-speed.com, check out their coilover kits decide if you need the race version or can get along with the street version. Also get the Tokico Illumina dampers, full polyurethane bushings and the front anti-roll bar. All fantastic pieces, beautifully crafted, and high quality. With that as your basis you'll have a great handling car, and after that 13B & 5spd swap she'll be good n quick too. Normally I would recommend a Sterling carb, but since your already planning to swap out the 12A I'll leave that alone. However until you swap the engine you may want to check out my cardomain page at the bottom of my sig to see my Sterling, and then go to www.sterlingmetalworks.com to read up on alot of useful carb tuning info as well as join the forum there. You'll need the info there to get your carb running in tip top shape until the swap.

 

tune up parts
distributer Cap and roter
spark plugs and wires
new belts (e-shaft, waterpump, alt)(e-shaft, waterpump, smog pump) and the AC if you want
fuel filter
Oil fiter and Oil
Air filter
Fuel return valve

also if you want the most out of your car
Auto trans flush
new trans filter and fluid
rear end gear oil change
coolent flush
Brake fluid flush

 

Technically I think its worth a lot more. The car actually belongs to my room mate. Its got a good bill of health, total maintence has been performed. The only reason hes selling it is because of the oil leak when its running. He didnt have the money to fix it and isnt a car nut like me so he decided to just get rid of it.

Im thinking I'll fix the oil leak, replace the plugs, and replace the air filter. The car has been sitting for a while now so you think there would be sentiment in the tank? If so, i should probably get a whole bunch of fuel filters lol

 

Spend as little as possible, just keep it safe and reliable. The car will be slow as hell, but pleasant to drive. Cheaper to buy someone else's finished product with a 13b swap than to even consider going down that road. Make it safe, clean it up, tune it, and enjoy the little car and then pass it on to the next rookie when you have the money to fulfill your yearns for more. Trust me! I put tons of money into my car and I could have bought a rhd fd for what I have invested now.

 

It'll seem like a bullet to me haha. I'm used to driving a conversion van and a chysler pacifica. almost anything will be faster lol. Thats good to know though. Thats more or less what i want. A nice car to just kind of cruise around in and enjoy the weather. I just love the character of the car itself.

 

They are a lot of fun. Here's some cheap mod suggestions from a real cheap skate, me.

After taking care of the basics as listed above, you can get a big HP and MPG gain by simply replacing the three cats with a straight pipe or bonez racing pipe ($150 delivered, 1-2 hours to put in, that's what I did). Even if you still need to pass inspection you can swap the cats in for that, then swap back to the racing pipe for day to day.



Here's the web site:

http://www.rx7.com/store/rx7/saexhaust.html

I used one of these for 8 years (same pipe) on three different cars before I forked over the $800 for the racing beat street exhaust. The pipe is now on a friend's 85 GS.

The second cheap mod is a 2GDFI (second gen direct fire ignition). All you need for this is a second gen leading coil pack, if you can't get one for free the market price is around $25 shipped for a used one. Takes less than an hour to put in, feels real good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3Va3xwWzVQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwKlbX0DSRk

 

I found a full header and pre-silencer for my first rx7 at the local pick-n-pull for $25.......got treasure hunting!

 

make sure if you do switch over to the five speed. you get the tranny mount and the bolts. s2-3 mounts are different however innerchangable as long as you have the bolts and washers. likewise the pedal assemblyies are different. the brake booster is in a different location. and tap the threads where the mount goes!! you will not use the same hole as the auto tranny.

 

Yeah, I'll be doing more research on that as i get more money and am sure on doing the swap. It wont be for at least 3 years though I would imagine

 

Let's see, grades 10-11-12, yep adds up just right;

 

Try college... lol

 

lol. you should buy 2 fbs... one you turbo and one you keep stock

 

Hey there Funk, thought I'd throw my opinion in here.

First of all, don't be too upset that you got an auto. The engines in the auto cars tend to be underused and are usually great powerplants. But you'll need to get rid of the auto before you really get the car feeling lively again.

Don't sell the 12a short. They are actually great motors even though they are smaller than the 13b.

For mods, if you don't have emissions testing in your area then ditch the emissions first thing. You'll pull about 80 pounds out from under the hood, and really simplify what's left.

Remove anything that doesn't need to be there, then clean everything that is left. Nothing raises the value of a car like having an immaculate engine bay. It shows that you care.

I'll also second the mention of Respeed. Billy is a member of this forum, listens to what we have to say, and is always willing to answer questions and help people out. They also have outstanding products and customer service. In my opinion, Billy has earned our patronage.


.

 

What would all the emissions stuff be on the engine? Its my first rotary lol

 

If you're handy with a welder make yourself your own cat delete pipe. But yeah man, we don't have any emmisions testing in MN so get those out of there as soon as you feel ready. Don't try messing with **** until you have an understanding of what you are doing and have a backup car just in case.

Mods come second though man, as much of a modder I drove my car bone stock for 6 months before I started hopping it up. Theres enough power there to keep you happy for a while.

 

Yeah I figure I'll leave it stock for the first year. I'll be busy paying for it, my new laptop, and insurance for this summer lol. All I want to do now is clean it up and show it off more or less.

I'm familiar with normal piston engines and I know the way a rotary works, I've just never actually worked on one before.

What do they put on them to "smog" them?

 

If you search "rats nest removal" there are some good write ups about it.

 

http://maz_tutorials.ten15.net/Tutorial_1.pdf

Something like that look right?