I am just wondering what everyone started with first on their cars with performance. I know my car needs a new paint job and a little bit here and their but that isn't that big of an issue. I rather start putting some money to get it beefed up a bit . Now I am wondering where you all started and where you ordered your parts from, ect. I have about 100-200 dollars per week I can spend from each cheap give or take how big my check is. Also I almost forgot to mention my car is a 12a manual.

 

Check out the FAQ for the 1st gen. Upgrades are covered there and lots of people have discussed which they did first and why.

 

My first update was a Bonez Cat and RB muffler!

 

next month will come full racing beat exhaust!!!! Can't wait. It's sort've a mandatory upgrade because my stock exhaust is rusted out and i will be registering the car soon.

Hey, it's probably the best problem on my car!

 

Yeah I want to buy the RB full exhuast but damn $600 is a lot, I think I should save up and get it though .

 

I started with a Rotary Motor and 2.5" header and exhaust.

 

yup my first upgrade was the racing beat exhaust, but this was after a full tuneup of course. Like stated there is a long thread exactly like this. Anyways my following upgrades have been: Removed rats nest, Blaster 2 coils, Holley FPR, Carter fuel pump, (need an aftermarket carb next got one used? PM me thanks), all sorts of goodys. These cars are so much fun! I just can't wait till I can get mine to be a well rounded sports car, thats my overall goal with it.

 

my first upgrade was to get rid of all my emission crap and i chucked the ac... then i replaced the exhaust with a rb header 2 1/2 straight pipe all the way back to a straight through muffler.. then i replaced my points dizzy with an electronic one and went to second gen direct fire ignition..

 

Hmmm, with a wife and three boys money's a little tight. So my list pretty much went from what was cheapest first;

All the tuneup stuff (cap, rotor, plugs, wires, air filter, oil change)
Rat's nest removal
2nd gen ignition
Mechanical secondaries
Clean, clean, clean, clean everything!
Racing beat exhaust
more cleaning...Meguire's paint cleaner, followed by wax does an awesome job
Re-wired my headlights and added relays (much brighter now)
Carb rebuild
Electric fans
Pulled off a bunch of unneeded stuff like cruise, ac, cold start injection thingy, all kinds of stuff came off the carb, pretty much if I didn't need it then it came off...
Bunch of other stuff I can't remember right now...

 

Oh yeah, you mentioned that you needed a paint job. Well, my advice is to get the car perfect mechanically first. Exterior and paint should be last on the list, after your finished leaning on the fenders to work in the engine bay and stuff like that.

A lot of people go for the looks first, but get the car right before you do that. Clean it and wax it, but save the paint for last. Just my two cents....

 

man i know what u mean. all my performance stuff i got used. after converting to rotary, the first thing i put on was a rb holley kit, bought used for $200, 465cfm for stock port. continued to run a stock rx7 exhaust system on it for more than 10 years til it finally lost an apex seal. then it sat the following year til after a tax refund of more than expected allowed the build of the sp 13b that's in it now that already had the 600cfm holley setup and bought a complete rb exhaust system for a streetported engine, header, dual presilencers, and primaflow muffler from a friend that had it on his rx7 after it was totaled for $100. the next thing i want to do is the dlidfis ignition upgrade. just haven't taken the time to do it yet.

 

yeah, i'd start out with saving for a few months and get a nicely ported motor. then go from there. cause you're gonna get all other parts for your stock engine...... not feel enough power.... decide to rebuild and port your motor.... have to get more parts to run the ported motor to the fullest....have to sell the other parts for a big loss from the stock motor...... wish you just got the ported motor in the first place.


good luck on however you do it.

 

First thing I did,9 years ago was start breaking smog laws with a RB exhaust and headers.I finally got tired of the smog test "re-fitting" and went TII to keep clean and powerful.My N/A engines got pretty potent though, before the EFI/TII swap.

1st engine...Stock 12A,RB exhaust,light flywheel,MSD direct fire.Fun,simple but blew an apex after the leak of death reared its head.My only blown engine.
2nd engine...Stock 84 12A,same exhaust,Yaw Nikki,light flywheel/stronger clutch,MSD.Super responsive with that carb,ran better and had more throttle response than any engine since.
3rd engine...76 13B 4 port,Yaw Nikki,light flywheel,RB exhaust,MSD.That was a pretty fun and simple setup,really good torque but milage sucked and smog was still and issue.
4th engine...Stock 87 TII.2.5" exhaust/downpipe,MSD,S5 turbo,14psi.Fast, but stressed.The engine lost a water seal after 6 months,it was already a wounded junkyard engine with 80K.Still ran good though!
5th engine...My current streetported S5 13BT,TO4b,FMIC,light flywheel,MSD,14psi with an ACVR.Much safer and EXTREMELY reliable.

 

RB HEADER to custom 2.5" exhaust. best thing you can do for this car.

 

Just like kettlman said, save some money, port the engine
and go from there. I've made some mods on my SE but I
which I would have ported the engine first.

 

ehh, i would say get all the supporting mods first. (header, full exhaust, etc..) then save for a rebuild and nice port because if you get the port and build first, then it will still be slow because you dont have anything to complement it. so this way, having already the goods you can still enjoy what you have now while you save.

 

How much does it cost to get your engine ported and stuff? Also where do you go to do something like that?