First pardon the ad pictures, I haven’t taken any proper pictures as of yet. I likely should now that I’ve cleaned and waxed…. So like the heading says I’ve just picked up my 2nd ‘82 and I’m super pumped. My first one was my first car ever and have many fond memories from about 12 years ago when we were still dating and I was a younger (broker) man. This project I’d love to do up right.

il thinking of having it 13b swapped (12a leaking off cooler line), RB performance exhaust (leaking), and restored inside and out (fenders fading, interior cracking). Thinking electric fan, new radiator, holly sniper (offered by shop listed below).

It’s mostly original and I like that…but options are looking limited. Most of the places I’ve seen online for engines are questionable, and there’s a handful of shops in my area who all talk smack about each other. I live in central Virginia and thinking about using Rotor Piston Motorsports in Hagerstown, MD. If anyone has some experience with them I’d love to hear the feedback. Also if anyone has some links for trim pieces send me a DM or post here if allowed!

 

Looks really nice! Welcome to the board, this is a great place.

That first shot, the LED headlights make it look a bit "nervous"

 

I know a few reliable muchacho's who can rebuild your engine here in Cali ( 12 A ).
If not get up to date using RAD potential youtube channel.

Your 12A shouldn't be chucked out because the behave is leaking ..

 

I got a 79 in that same color, it looks good when its not flat (my paint isn't nearly as good as yours even if yours is fading) My oil cooler line leaked to when I got it and a crush washer fixed that for a few bucks also you can buy brand new lines if it persists from atkins (I'm sure you could get it cheaper somewhere else also) Also I'm not saying you shouldn't do a 13b swap but maybe enjoy the car a bit before 13b swapping it, you'd be surprised what a 12a can put down, just make sure not to short shift it, you should be 6.5k or above before shifting in my mild streetport 12a I go pretty much to red line before shifting.

 

Lol, She and I are both nervous. We're going to get to know each other pretty well soon enough. Early exploits have not been promising haha. Went to attempt to tighten down an oil line fitting to stop a drip while running only to have the line fly off the filter housing to check my work while the engine was running. We struck gold like the Beverly Hillbillies and there was a huge mess. Got everything cleaned up, and when I got to actually check I saw that I was not successful. Another problem for another day I suppose.

For reference I'm assuming the previous owner installed a new cooler in the grill and the couplings are tightened all the way up and it still drips, so that sucks.

 

I'd love to get it rebuilt...local shop suggested the swap but it runs and drives well right now. only a single line is leaking. I need to call around some places but I'm not sure who / where to go through. Learning how to do it myself would be a huge plus, but I want to drive it until winter sets. we shall see

 

For sure, and that's not a bad idea. Its still drivable around town without noticeable oil loss on the stick. an exhaust for sure is needed. do you still run the Nikki or have you gone with a different carb setup with your port?

 

All local shops told me my 12A was "garbage and useless" and wanted to charge me 5,500$ just to do the swap and rebuild engine not included .
In reality 12 A's are alot more reliable than 13b's and if well taken care of can last 250k+ miles all day .
The guy who rebuilt my engine told me he hadn't seen such a mint 12A in a while..or had ever seen an automatic SA Rx7 lol.

 

I still run the nikki, It has a small stutter from idle and it needs a lot of choke cold but it starts every time and hasn't given me any trouble I also have an wide band O2 installed so I can see the air fuel ratio and my stock nikki does a darn good job, 14.7 afr at cruise coming down to about 12.7-13.0 afr when I step on it I really couldn't ask for it to do any better. I got 24 mpg highway from ashland, OR to Williams CA. The biggest complication with the nikki is the rats nest which is a common delete (I no longer have mine) though it does make cold starting a little more difficult requiring choke and some throttle until it warms up and can idle. Though this isn't an option is places with emissions testing.

If your exhaust is giving you trouble take it to an exhaust shop, they are one of the few places where its usually cheaper and better done than doing it yourself, also for a rotary to be quiet it needs a resonator and a muffler (at least mine did), I have a RB header clone on mine and when that was installed it made the drone in the cab unbearable (one of the reasons the previous owner sold it) so I had a resonator installed for 150$ now its just fine, if your problem is an exhaust leak I'm sure they could fix that too.

also Remember to premix I have a bad OMP (you should test yours its pretty easy on these old cars) so I put 1 oz of oil in per 1 gallon of fuel , putting the oil in first then filling the tank, if your omp works I've heard 0.5oz per gallon is better.

 

Use the Lucas Semi Synthetic two stroke oil or the Idemitsu premix . I have found all the others to cause the carb to gunk up over time . Idemitsu reeks of chemicles if you don't have a cat or rats nest .

 

And if you paid those bozos $6 k to do the swap, you'd probably spent a couple of months fixing their screw-ups. They'd give you the b s excuse line of "well , it's an old car, so that's the best it can do".

 

nightmare. Well, For me anyway, the engine feels strong even with the exhaust as moldy Swiss cheese as it is. Im waiting for the RB kit to come in (7/15 or later…?) but I’ll probably pull it off early to see if I have any coolant leak going on there…seeing some white smoke but could be oil, fuel, or any combination.