"I think this thread is beginning to show a trend. Those with skill don't regret their mods. Those who may not have as much experience wrenching on things tend to regret things after the fact."

I've got to disagree with that Jeff, I'm a pretty good mechanic even if I don't make a living at it (or maybe I do, maintaining all four of our cars, the 110 mile daily commute and my wife's driving habits - I've done my own work since I was a teenager and I'm pretty old now).

I did a good job rebuilding that Nikki, by the book, lot's of oversight and advice from the Nikki stripping experts on this board. From the start I didn't like those herky yerky wired secondaries, I guess that style of driving is just not for me. The first big improvement was hooking the vacuum secondaries back up, there is no question they were better for performance and gas mileage.

I worked on the stripped Nikki all summer, one little adjustment after another, but I never could get the idle as smooth as it was before and the gas mileage sucked no matter what I did. Tuning a Nikki is a very simple matter and this one just wouldn't tune as well as it did before it was stripped.

As proof of my mechanical abilities, I then rebuilt and reinstalled the entire rat's nest (after testing each vacuum circuit - it takes a professional mechanic just to read that chapter in the FSM). Then I rebuilt another one of my stock Nikki's and popped it in.

And guess what, with the stock system reinstalled, there was another instant improvement, performance was much better (no more power than the stripped Nikki, but no more herky jerky either) and gas mileage was back to 23-24 mpg, just like it was before I started experimenting with the stripped Nikki and mechanical secondaries (only a little better).

I think a different explanation for why people think mods are a big improvement is that they are replacing faulty equipment with something that works better. But does the mod work better than the stock equipment if the stock equipment had been properly installed and maintained in the first place?

Of course I'm not counting here real performance mods, like bigger carbs (for those who like power and have big wallets), free flowing exhaust, suspension upgrades, etc (although I have to say I've never found my all stock, all original suspensions wanting in my 84/85 GSLs - if it ain't broke, don't fix it).

And of course Jeff in some cases you are right, the modifications were incompetently done. I've had a few of these learning experiences myself, but I didn't blame the mod.

Anyway, hopefully this post will provide some useful information, a mistake is usually a better teacher than success.

 

My only regret are that my mods told my right foot to get on it at the wrong time....on narrow and worn rear tires causing a slight tank slapper....cracking a stock 4-spoke (which still got me home! Rotaries FTW) I even hit hard enough to bend my drivers seat toward the right!

Another is the "impossible to see thru" limo tint in the back causing me to take out the front left fender with a drunk girl trying to guide me.

Its been a hellaofa few weeks for my poor 1st gen. Gotta go Pick-A-Parting!

 

I think the more you work with the cars the more you realize the limits. As you start getting too much power, or too high of performance parts you see that they do not work well with other stock parts. I think the biggest issue is that people who are getting started (like myself, I have had my first gen for five years now) think the highest performance is the best, when in fact it may not be. It all depends on what you actually want vs. what everyone tells you what you should get. I LOVE my weber ida on my stock port. Mid powerband with instant response from the carb, but everyone told me I can't do that on a stock port 12a.

 

Ray, your experience is rather unique. I don't know of anyone else who complained about the modded Nikki and then would go through the process of checking then reinstalling the rat's nest and a stock carb, as you did. That deserves kudos.

For me, the modded Nikki was an essential improvement and didn't have any herky-jerky or other problems. Infact it not only ran better than a stock carb, it idled better too. 750 after only 20 minutes of run time on a fresh rebuild. I was so caught up in leak checking and general marveling at my own work that it took that long to cross my mind. lol The driveability has always been fantastic. That's why your experience threw me for a loop.

So herky-jerky - no. Improved idle - yes. Improved accel pump shot - yes. I retained the choke flap and fast idle linkage so cold starts - same. Also removed the dashpot because it wasn't needed - so return to idle - improved.

 

Ray isn't the only one with that experience. I went back to a stock intake setup after having a modded nikki on there for a few days. Wasn't happy at all with how it ran, nor was I happy with the loss of gas mileage. Granted there was a power increase, but it wasn't enough to outweigh the downsides...

Honestly I find the farther I go from stock the more I look back wishing I hadn't gone quite as crazy modding my cars. Now don't get me wrong, I don't want either car totally stock.. A nice aftermarket, stiffer, suspension and racing beat exhaust (with a cat in there) are definatly a must for me. Those mods have no downsides for me, but everything beyond that seems to have some tradeoffs I wasn't expecting...

 

rb springs...it rose the car now gonna get some respeed coilovers.

 

We are comparing apples and oranges Jeff, you are a master carb tuner with a ton of experience and you know just what to look for - I just fix what's broke and try to do something interesting every once in awhile. If I lived any where near Seattle I would have paid you a visit!

But for me, in my back yard in rural Georgia, the stripped Nikki wasn't a very useful mod. I won't say it wasn't an interesting experience, it was fun and I learned a lot, but it did eat up a big part of a summer, I tried everything, believe me. And I might have been doing something else instead of enduring a summer of herky yerky accelerator response, stinky exhaust fumes and **** poor gas mileage. Getting back to stock (not totally, I have a full RB system and some other goodies) was a very good move in my case.

Anyway, the idea of this "mod regrets" post is to compare experiences - apples, oranges, mangoes, strawberries and all - not to decide which tastes best. That of course will be mostly a matter of personal preference.

Incidentally, I gave that modded Nikki to Stu and Sam over in NC (Bad83 and Jezus, respectively). I wonder if they had any better luck with it?

 

Most regreted mod was the magna flow muffler. It preformed great but was way to loud for me.(even have the Rb presilencer) Now using the RB muffler much happier even if it is more restrictive.

 

nothing. i just need more money to do more mods.

 

Well this was the ultimate mod /mistake - selling this car in 1989 because we had kids! Look at those MoMo alloy wheels! What a regret...

 

My biggest mod regret is the stupid *** rear spoiler. it required 5 holes drilled for mounting. Mechanicaly I don't really have any regrets except for the gsl-se rear end. Parts are a lot more expensive, and harder to come across.

 

my biggest regret was allowing my wife to drive my blue rx7

 

^^ haha to go along those lines, my gf was leaving for basic yesterday so sunday i decided to let her drive my car since she always nagged me about me never letting her drive it, first thing going around a curve, there's a stop sign, a car turning and she decides she doesn't need to stop, good thing there were no cops and no one on the other lane .....i'll be damned if i ever let her drive it again.

 

No regrets, except for buying a car from out of state with no real way to thoroughly go through it. It has been a pain in my *** redoing everything, and I mean everything. The only thing done right was the engine.

 

As far as women go, the first time my wife drove mine I got tazered and thrown in jail. bad news....

 

^^ woh woah you can't just tease someone, you've got to elaborate a bit on this...sorry for jacking the thread, but his story seems cool lol

 

Biggest regret was spending $200CDN on a stainless steel CD player bracket. It does the job, but certainly didn't come out looking the way I thought it would. The only reason I'm keeping it was because it cost so much in the first place. I tried a Scosche kit but it was garbage. They designed it to be universal for pretty much every Mazda made from 1980-1995. Absolute garbage.

Second was along the lines of Kentetsu. Buying the RB suspension kit only to find out there's this little land known as RE-Speed, and all their stuff rocks. Ah well, live and learn.

Best mod. The Sterling. Oh yeah!!!

 

Ford 8.8 rear end. Definately too much money and weight. Still don't have properly done rear brakes because of the route I went. Granny's didn't have bolt-in kits then.

Also, I would have gone much milder on my setup. A straight S5TII swap like Steve (84GSTII) would have been plenty, with a 60-1 turbo, and stock ECU.

For the amount of driving I get to do on the car, it would have been fine, and still smoke 90% of the cars out there.

 

Wow never thought I'd hear you say that! Quite a different setup than what you have there.... The S5 T2 setup is really nice, I've put a few miles on mine and it moves really nicely. Amazing how different the car is from stock.
Whats the issue with your brakes in the rear?

 

My biggest mod regret is not getting the RE dual DCD carb setup instead of the RB Dellorto back in the day. I really like my Dell but those dual DCDs are the shizzle on a stock 12a. Back then they cost a few hundred more than the RB Dell, oh well.

Maybe I'll get them for my next car project that I have planned

 

My biggest regret so far has been my Holley FPR. What a piece of crap. It doesn't matter what I do to it, it always reads at 0 psi. Mallory, here I come...

 

This is a 2nd Gen thing, but my test pipe, that thing
makes my ears bleed everytime I open my throttle...

 

Ohh I did think of one. Buying an Eibach Pro kit and not getting coilovers to begin with.

 

Great topic for a thread Ray. I don't regret any mods done to my RX-7. But owning a GSL-SE, I have been pretty much happy with it just the way it is (with a few exceptions.)

 

Thanks Seniorchief, but I can't take credit, I stole it from Jeepforum.com, a place where they have many more regrets than we do.

Here's another one of those clever mods you want to avoid (a gift from the PO). I posted it a few months ago but just to be sure no one repeats it:



Here's what you get: