I have a guy thats offering to sell me a 79 with a 85 12a in it for 800. I know carborators need to be tuned and stuff. How often do these need to be messed with? I know hardly anything about carborated engines or how to tune them and stuff. I am willing to learn though.

 

The stock carb doesn't need much tuning. Once the idle mixture and idle speed have been set, you're pretty much done. Living in Florida, you don't have extreme temp changes, therefore, even the seasonal adjustments that are sometimes needed should not be needed. The stock carb was well designed to be capable of many years of trouble-free use.
Going with an aftermarket carb totally changes this, though.

 

yeah i plan on keeping it stock. i just would like a nice back up car for my turbo FC. Preferably rotary and i know 12a first gens are really relighable. Thank you for the help.

 

Yeah, a stock carb that is in good condition will give years of hassle free use. Mazda really set them up quite well, so they worked great for the masses, without many issues. Flooding is the biggest issue with a carb, even one in great condition. Hard to resist the temptation to press the pedal when starting.

 

Besides the normal rotary/old car maintence is there anything else i should know about these cars?

 

Check the body for rust, as they are prone to rusting. Primary areas to check are the floorboards and areas around the rear suspension mounts. 79 models did not have the storage bins, which makes it a little harder to look at that area under the bin location. If the car has a sunroof, you really should inspect that area, as any leaks around the sunroof will tend to puddle there.

 

Also, check to see if it has the 79 point-type ignition, or the later (81-85) dual ignitor electronic. If it still has the points, you will likely want to convert to the later style. Much less hassle, as it is maintainance-free.

 

Since i bought my first gen, i haven't had to mess with ithe carb. I got it in May

 

The Nikki carb is a simple efficient mechanical carb, one of the last after 80 years of development. Good for 150,000+miles without attention, certainly no change of jet sizes with old age. There is no need to change stock settings unless you want more performance by combining with other bolt-on mods to get up to 50% more power.

Then they invented efi, with its usual failure rate. The only advantage is you can tune better over the whole power range, but at the 3-4,000rpm normal driving range for which the Nikki is optimized there is minimal difference in output.

The better tune of efi over the rpm range is a factor in meeting emission control standaeds imposed in the name of saving the environment.

 

Anytime one gets an opportunity to pick up an SA, they should jump at the chance. The SA is the true heritage of the RX7. It represents what a sports car is supposed to be, light, nimble and basic. The nice thing about them is they are also reliable, unlike thier British counterparts.

 

Very well said Paul

 

+1 (from another Paul)