Ive been wanting a first gen for some time now, and finally got everything together and went and bought my 1984 GSL-SE yesterday.
7 hour drive roundtrip to get it, but it was very worth it.
My first rotary, and Im already in love.
Drive home went well(3 1/2 hours, mostly highway).
Steering feels tight though no power steering(Thought SE's had PS standard?), suspension and brakes feel good, revs up nice and smooth.

I feel like I got a good deal overall, im very pleased with the car.

176k miles
Metallic Blue
FI 13B, rebuilt ~5k miles ago and streetported
(Supposedly, no paperwork on it and I havent looked inside to verify. Good compression and feels strong though).
16" Rotas wrapped in Toyo tires
Older kenwood receiver(1999 or so)
Aftermarket exhaust(Might be custom, looks like racing beat with an unknown muffler, not entirely sure. Sounds nice though, somewhat loud).
Second gen seats(I think).
Blue/grey interior(Much better than the common red IMO)


Now for my list of stuff to fix/replace/mess with:

Change/flush all the fluids, plugs/wires/etc.
Doors dont lock unless the windows are down. Kind of counterproductive if you ask me
Dimmer switch doesnt work
No oil pressure gauge(Ordering aftermarket gauges soon)
Needs to be tuned(Running rich)
Buzzer doesn't go off until close to 8k
Transmission/diff need new fluid, possibly a bearing or two
Flywheel feels slightly off balance
New stereo receiver(No aux or USB input on the current one )
Probably forgetting some stuff

Heres all the pics I have for now, ill work on getting some engine bay/interior shots today.

 

Sorry, i realize this should probably be in the non technical section. (Im new forgive me).
One of the mods mind moving it?

 

very cool and congrats. I just picked up a 83 GSL the other day. I had a 13 hour day but we trailed the car some.

 

car looks great! loving the color.

 

Thanks guys. The color is probably my favorite factory color. This has a few scratches and dings,but I'd take it over white or black any day. The blue interior matches well with the car,at last imo

 

PS was optional on GSL-SE and GSL. My GSL has ps, my GSL-SE doesn't.

 

Thanks for clearing that up.

The car is running rich, rich enough to backfire pretty regularly on decel. With the FI setup can I do anything to tune it myself, or does it have to go to a shop? I dont have any special tools or electrical stuff.

 

Well, the EFI is not programmable, if that's what you're asking. The closest thing I can think of is to modify your MAF meter using spring tension or install a rheostat with resistors inline to fine tune the 'air' the ECU is seeing to run a bit leaner - but that takes some technical know-how.

If running rich, I'd check timing, check plugs, and then make sure you don't have an injector sticking open or otherwise spraying a bad pattern (remove, have rebuilt - flow balanced and cleaned - and then replace). Also, if the car still has '6-port' actuators installed, these typically get gummed up quickly and will no longer turn in their bores with the 1.5-3psi of exhaust backpressure. Make sure your exhaust still uses the back-pressure feed pipe from the pre-silencer or the main cat to 'power' the '6-ports' as non-working ports will cause a lean running condition due to not enough air being able to get in under heavy acceleration.

The -SE has a LSD rear-end, so be sure you add the GM LSD lubricant specific to this type, or you'll lunch the LSD when you change fluids. Additionally, the buzzer not going off until the tach reads close to 8k isn't a good thing - and DO NOT rely on the buzzer to tell you when to shift. The flat torque curve of a good running -SE is flat from 3k-6k, and then tapers off quickly - so there's no need to run the car at high RPM for the hell of it.

My -SE engine lasted until 222k miles, and I'm swapping it for a spare right now so you should be fine as long as you take good care of oil changes and routine maintenance - and never let it overheat even once.

Here are some useful links for new -SE owners:
General Info site: Jim Rothe's Mazda RX-7 Page
Great site for tuning -SE EFI: SOLVING GSL-SE IDLE PROBLEMS
And the Main Page for Felix's garage: Felix's How-To/How-It-Works Garage

Good luck, and keep that -SE on the road!

 

Thats helpful, thank you.

It is running rich, but not too bad. I know the EFi isnt tunable, should have worded better, just didnt know what the solutions were since that isnt the case.

I went to order plugs and wires and autozone didnt have the plugs, ill have to find them somewhere else i guess. Ill check the timing tomorrow morning as well, and the backpressure pipe.

Autozone was out of the right trans/diff fluid, im going to check on getting some Redline tomorrow. From what ive read the redline needs no additives?

Buzzer goes off around 7.5k, ive only hit it twice, just to see where it was. I dont rely on it to shift, and i dont plan to have the car near 8k to hear it. I remember seeing a writeup on how to adjust it, ill have to go back and find it.

Thank you again for the info

 

that's a clean looking car!

 

My comment about the power steering — I had mine rebuilt once and shortly thereafter the bearing broke. As I pondered whether to invest the $$ to fix the ps again, my mechanic told me many drivers don't like ps because you cannot feel the road under your feet (through the steering wheel.) He was so right.

I used to over-steer all the time because of the ps. Now that I elected not to have it, I am in control of my front end steering all the time. And it's good exercise for your triceps, too :-) Thanks for reading.

 

Sidenote on the tach over-rev buzzer - when you remove the dash panel to get to the gauges, on the back corner of the printed-circuit-board is a small white rheostat with a screwdriver slot. Turning that one direction or the other will cause the buzzer 'trigger point' to move to match whatever RPM you want. You may need to test this in the car to get it right, unless you have the FSM and a digital voltmeter to tell you where it should adjust to,

 

Wait-- the doors don't lock unless the windows are down? That doesn't make any sense. The doors locks are fairly simple mechanisms, you can easily remove the door panel and take a peek at it. I had to take one of mine apart (had to rip off the faceplate) to fix the lock not working. Turns out pieces of tumbler had broken and were sitting in the lock.

 

Thanks for the advice guys.

Seal in the brake caliper went(drivers side rear) and I haven't been able to drive since last week. Waiting on parts to come in,brake parts are really hard to track down. Hopefully will have it running again this week. I'll work on the other stuff when I get around to it. And I'll work on more pics.

 

Finally got the car running, ended up with a new caliper, pads, hose, and repaired the hard line.

Got the new stereo installed(Kenwood multimedia unit).
Got the unit half off during a sale at best buy.
Was a fun job, previous owner pretty much mcgeivered the other unit in and i had to make this one fit. Not the prettiest but it works.

Changed the oil, still waiting on spark plugs and gear oil to come in. Need to change those and the trans oil and coolant next.

Speaking of issues, the car flooded twice in the last two days, not sure why. Was warmed up when i shut it off, both times was after a 10+ mile drive so it wasnt cold.
Fuel gauge also stopped working again. Working on fixing that in the morning.

Heres some shots of the exhaust, anyone know who made it? Might be custom, im not sure. One larger cat/silencer, dont know what it looks like inside, might be hollowed or, not sure. Sounds like it might be, pretty loud for it to be a silencer.

I dont see a feed tube for the 5/6 ports... Just an O2 sensor. Might explain some of the running issues im having.

 

Nice find now go show it off at the event Rotary Stage is doing he has a Rotary group, central Florida rotaries . I think is this month