I figured someone could probly help me with this. I want to know what i should start out with to give my car some real power. I have all stock 12 A motor and i want to definitly bring it past 150 hp. What steps should i take. And can a 85 gsl handle a turbo with factory clutch, drive train, tranny??

 

See the FAQs. This horse has been beaten many, many times.

 

Read the FAQ and do a search for tips on how to increase power. But in a nutshell, get the engine rebuilt and streetported, slap some headers on that baby, get a good flowing muffler, get an aftermarket carb and tune it properly, upgrade ignition, then go turbo. And yes clutch, drive train and tranny of an 85 GSL can handle a turbo.

 

NAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWZZZZZZZ!


(I'm serious)

 

listen to the man. he kids you not.

 

If you want 150HP and still be able to drive hard and have fun,you can get there with some igntion,exhaust and intake mods.Porting will help,but is not neccesarily required to hit 150HP on a 12A.I did it with my 12A,Yaw carb,RB exhaust and MSD directfire.175HP can be had with porting on top of that.The stock drivetrain will be able to handle it because while your increasing HP substantially,the little N/A 12A still lacks much torque,and torque is what kills drivetrain parts.
A turbo will definately increase HP quickly,but it also raises torque substantially,so drivetrain failures will be much more likely,especially if you beat it.
Going turbo will change the engine's personallity completely,your driving habits will have to change too.Wailing on the RPMs and treating the car like a go-kart is part of the fun of a slightly underpowered sportscar.A turbo engine with lots of grunt requires more respect and control,so it will really change the cars driving behavior when you get on it.

 

 

so what ure saying is it would be a lot harder on the engine when u bag it after u make all those upgrades, also, would it pay to soup up my 12A 80,000 k on body and engine, or would it be better to just buy a rebuilt 92 turbo 13b

 

Pumping the stock 12A up 50% will increase fuel consumption but not really affect lifespan.Your still N/A and you should still observe the 7000-7500 RPM redline.

The 12A can and did produce much more factory power than the 101HP that the RX-7 was saddled with.But Mazda toned it down for fuel economy reasons and to nearly eliminate engine failures.This was to be their crown jewel and they didnt want any F-ups.The same was done with the TII engines.They were easily capable of 20-30 more HP,but at the expense of fuel and some wear and tear.To prevent any problems with the first exported turbo rotary,they played it safe.The FD was the first,"no comprimises" RX-7 to hit the market.....and look at its track record for reliability!

All the mods listed for making a 150HP N/A 12A are pretty much to undo the strangle hold Mazda put on the stock 12A......
Crappy,un tuned manifold and restrictive stock cats/muffler
Low CFM flow carb
Mearly adequate ignition system and conservative timing

80K is nothing for a 12A.If you wanna soup it up,go for it.Just dont expect to pass smog or get 25MPG anymore.The rest of the car will handle up to 200 non-turbo HP no problem,theres still not much torque.
If you wanna go turbo and make BIG power/torque,thats good too.Just be prepared to have some setbacks,drivetrain failures and a few *** pucker incidents!Or spend a substantial amount more money to upgrade the rest of the car to handle the power/torque.Thats the tradeoff.You gotta pay to play and turbo engines are very addictive and hungary!

 

I agree with Steve. Been car poor since I converted my first gem to turbo! Somedays I regret it...some I dont.

 

push it with a mustang!


lol, im done now. time for you to search

 

is a 12A more durable then a 13B?? And what kind of cost am i looking at to get my 12 A up an extra 50hp excluding labour

 

12a's are beast and very fuggin durable. i've been punishing the **** out of mine with 16psi from my turbo setup and it just slaps me in the face with fun. for another 50hp it could cost anywhere from a couple hundred bucks to over 2000.00. it's all in what you buy, and whether it's used/ new.

a good carb alone could rack you up to atleast 300.00 (modded nikki).... 500.00 if you start looking at the higher end oer's. you could be thrifty and get a basic holley and a used RB intake manifold for a total of 200 give or take (but you gotta know what you're doing). just keep your eyes open for good deals.

build your own custom exhaust to save $$$ and weight. but if you got the flow.. hit up the RB.

just keep searching and reading bro, you'll start to see what works and what doesn't.

 

Look around Pittsburgh for cracked out hippies. I bought a car off some for $80 and it had a full Racing Beat exhaust, a Mikuni carburetor, MSD Blaster coils, brand new radiator, etc. Easily 1,500 worth of parts. I've had trouble here and there with exhaust leaks and carb problems, but it sure as hell beats paying full price for stuff

For added power with low maintentence, you really can't beat a streetport. Most people go for mild streetports, but if you ask me a more agressive streetport is the way to go. A small loss in torque, which is completely made up for in horsepower. The porting itself isn't that expensive, but the rebuild that goes with it is.

But yeah. Do a search. There is all kinds of stuff to do to these cars.

 

Just check my sig for details. The exhaust system was the only high dollar mod ($800.00), next most expensive was the RB filter setup w/Sterling carb that I picked up for $350.00 (slightly used). Other than that, its just a matter of ripping out anything that doesn't need to be there, and adding a few cheap parts. Total cost for the ignition setup was about $50.00 (which made a HUGE difference). The E-Fan setup ran me less than 40 bucks. You can get to 150 hp on the cheap if you take your time and find the right parts used. Good luck man!

 

Depends on what 13B you compare it against,but yea,12A's are very reliable.They have the advantage of being shorter,so theres less flex in the Eshaft.This means more revs and since the internal parts are smaller,they are also lighter....again,good for revs.
Add to that the stock 3MM apex seals and youve got an engine thats quite resistant to abuse.The higher compression ratio means you have to go easy if you turbo or supercharge,but the thicker apex seals will hold up better if you goof up the tuning and detonate.
Probably the most common failure point on the 12A is the oil passage o-rings.While not a full engine failure,it does require a rebuild to fix,and if it leaks enough,you can lunch the engine from lack of oil/pressure.
Ill probably stir up a hornet's nest with this,but I attribute many of the o ring failures to the crappy beehive water/oil cooler of the 83-85 cars.Using 175* water as a heat transfer medium,they dont move as much heat as the bigger,air/oil coolers that utilize ambient temperature air.Hotter oil cooks the rubber seals quicker and then they crack and leak.Indeed,the VAST majority of cars Ive seen with the "leak O death",have been 83-85 12A cars.Almost never seen it happen to an FC,SE or older 1st gen.A good mod on a built up 83-85 12A is an older or newer model air/oil cooler.

 

yea that's why i just dont run an oil cooler at all..... LOL

 

Huh? You're kidding, right?

 

how much does 3mm apex ceals cost and do u put them in

 

sry how* do u put them in

 

there not that much but u gotta take your rotors out whatnot and u dont need those untill u get a rebuild.

 

u got them already neways

 

Yea,all pre-86 RX-7s had 3MM seals.They arent "better",in fact the 2MM seals are superior in many ways.The 3MM seals are just more resilient to breakage from detonation,which is nearly unheard of on an all motor N/A rotary.