l28etman

Hey everyone. My name is Len and Im fairly new to Rotaries, but not working on old school import and domestic cars. I have previously owned at least 8 different 70-78 zcars, at least one of every year except a 70, 74 and a 77. Besides that Ive owned several 81-83 zx cars and one z32tt for a short while. Ive done almost everything you can to one of those cars, triple carbed sixes, efi turbo sixes (l28et), high compression dual carb six, and one V8 zcar that I destroyed by twisting the unibody and breaking most of the spot welds on the front suspension, God that was a rush!. Having worked on so many of these cars, I have become extremely resourceful at raiding junkyards and using parts from other cars and different years of nissan to do my bidding. Each one of my project zcars has been a hybrid of different makes and models melded together in order to make the performance happen. Being at the junkyard so often, I often look and see what other cars are a common sight in order to have a parts supply and upgrade possibility, and I marked to rx7 as the 2nd most common sports car in the junkyard next to the 84-89 generation of 300zxs. . Ive been a fan of the first gen rx7 for a while, but never really got into it.

Until now. About two weeks ago I picked up a beautiful 83 rx7, I dont know what trim it is, it has no sunroof, no AC, manual windows and steering, and drum rear brakes. It has 117,000 miles as of today, when I bought it it had 115,7xx miles on it. IT averages 25mpg, and judging by the condition of the suspension and the undercarriage of the car, I believe the mileage to be correct. Knowing a little about rotaries from my friends, i prompty changed the oil and coolant, and cleaned the engine bay so I can spot leaks of either immediately.
To celebrate the 4th of July, I installed a GSL-SE rear end and disc brakes I bought from a aquaintance of mine, using links from this site to guide me on what I can and cant swap. It took me about 6 hours (learning curve) to pull the drum rear end and swap in the disc LSD rear end. It was a complete bolt in with the exception of the brake line to the T on the axle, my gsl se rear had the rubber line cut and I really needed the fitting. I ended up using a 280zx rubber clutch hose, and all was well, car stops good now. It looks to me that the rear end of this car is very well located in the chassis via the watts link and the unequal four link setup, I love it, Ive wanted a solid axle import car for the longest time!, and that the ring gear of this car should support fair amounts of hp. Hopefully I can find compatible ebrake cables for this car. For the rear I used (suprise) 280zx aluminum wheels, 14x6 six spokes the rim sits flush with the fenderwell, leading me to beleive that the gsl se rear end is a little wider. . I want to change the front to GSL SE in order to use the two other matching wheels. I am currently collecting spares of everything that typically malfunctions in imports, mainly ignitors and fusible links. My new ride is pretty clean, except the door panels, which will probably only be a matter of time before I find some.
My goal for the time being is to understand whats going with the car and learn where everything is, I jumped on the rear axle swap because it came with two things I have to have in a sporty car, LSD and four wheel disc.
Ultimately I would like to do something simple, a streetport S5 rotary/T2 trans with a holley carb, header and exhaust. I love turbos but I dont know how to tune boost with these engines, and one of my buddies with a s5 fc t2 had his tuner blow up an rotary at idle while he was getting his haltech tuned, thats enough for me to put that on the backburner. I will eventually get over it and seek the power of boost, my buddies fc runs so damn hard!
Anyways just wanted to introduce myself. I am a resourceful and ambitious person and hope to one day be able to give help, but right now I am still learning, but I do tinker like no ones business, I used to wrench for a living, Im not afraid to make things that arent supposed to be there behave, and the project is the FB.

88t2romad

glad to ahve you on the forum!! ive owned rotaties for about 3 years now and still learn somehting everyday.

Paradox

iTrader: (1)

welcome! sounds like you've had a fair share of experience monkey wrenching but dont know a lot about FB's, im also in the same boat since i've been working with Supra's for years, now i'm toying around with these little FB's. its a lot of fun, i've learned a lot off these forums as im sure you will.

as for your wheels, im guessing the 280z wheel you put on were 114.3? the non SE Rx7s are 110mm which makes finding wheels hard, you can just use adapters, or swap the front suspension. however ive also seen 114 wheels go on 110, not sure how... but it works for my buddy.

g'luck with your project, you dont happen to have any pics do you?

l28etman

I will post some photos up soon. Are the gsl se front brakes any bigger than the non se brakes? If the only thing that changes are lug pattern, I may just use the spacers.

vipernicus42

iTrader: (4)

It's always good to have resourceful people around, so welcome to the forum

You've wasted no time in getting to know your car better, and I think you'll find that these cars aren't very hard to work on at all (as long as you have some penetrating lubricant and a strong arm!).

For more information on the rotary engine as a general concept, you can check out:
www.rotaryengineillustrated.com
and
www.howstuffworks.com

If you're looking for aftermarket parts, there are a few online sites that many people here frequent:
www.racingbeat.com
www.mazdatrix.com
www.victoriabritish.com (order their catalogue, it's free and the only way you can figure out what they have)

also of interest (rotary rebuild videos available here):
www.atkinsrotary.com
www.rotaryaviation.com

From what you've said I'm guessing that you've already been into the FAQ and archives, but if not, they can often be a great source of answers to common questions.

You'll want to pick up a Heynes manual at your local part store. It's very well done for our car, and I don't know how I'd live without mine. From the FAQ you can also find the Factory Shop Manual for an '85, and though yours is an '83 there are a lot of things in common.

One thing you'll want to look into:
Half the '83 model cars got the "beehive", a water-to-oil cooler placed under the oil filter. Search around and you'll find pics I'm sure. The other half got the air-to-oil cooler that was found on the '79-82 models (and also on the GSL-SEs, but that was slightly bigger/different). If you have the "beehive" I highly recommend upgrading!

Welcome to the forum. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to PM me.

Jon