OutCold

1 year and 9K later...... I just wanna know before i go all off the hook with the FC, is it worth it?

Or am i putting money into a car that will break down or only give me problems no matter what tuning/upgrades/cooling&other engine lifelines i make sure too attend too? Will it loose structural integrity?

OR! Is this a car u can spend a shitload of money on and finally end up with ur dream street racer one day? (Not counting the "normal" internal or engine-seal failures in the shortblock of the wankel wich is face it, not very reliable).


Thomas

87 t-66

iTrader: (133)

you gotta have a love for these cars to put a lot of money into them. you aren't going to get your money back if you try and sell it but the joy of having a crazy fast fc keeps me dumping money into my car.

KhanArtisT

iTrader: (2)

If you have to ask, you are wasting your money. I don't think its a good car to be into if you just want something fast or interesting. Just about the smallest failure can be catastrophic in these cars (at least turbo ones). You can seriously lose money if you aren't careful about everything. Paying attention to detail when working on it is just as important as spending money on reliability parts. Even then, any major external part (injectors, fuel pump, sensors) failing will probably take the engine with it. One of the members recently blew his engine because of a failed coupler, another blew his engine because of a simple timing retard problem with his Haltech. So unless you are amazed and fascinated by the engine, get a 240, 300ZX, Supra, etc.

Evil Aviator

It depends where you put the money. If you put your money into a fancy paint job that you don't need, go-fast turbo parts that you don't need, expensive stereo parts that you don't need, engine porting and/or boost levels that drastically reduce the life of the engine, etc., then yes, this will car will break down and give you problems because you neglected the critical mechanical components. If you spent your $9K USD on an engine rebuild, radiator, new hoses and brake/fuel lines, transmission and differential rebuild, driveshaft replacement, pulsation dampener replacement, wheel bearing replacement, fuel injector cleaning, new suspension bushings and mounts, etc., then you should be pretty much done with your reliability mods for the next 100,000 miles or so.

Keep in mind that these cars only came with a 3-year/36,000mi warranty. Cars from this era were not designed with extended-life fluids, close tolerances, and environmentally-mandated corrosion-resistant features found in cars today.

The way I look at spending money on these cars is to compare the original selling price to how much money is required to get the car back to the original condition again. For example, a 1991 TII had a base price of $26,555 USD, which equates to about $41,472 in 2009 USD. Therefore, if you bought the used car today for $5,000 USD, it would not be worth spending any money on the car if it costs more than $36,472 to completely restore the car. If you spend less than this, you are getting a good deal for your money. Of course, this assumes that you think the original price of the car was reasonable, which most car and consumer magazines at the time thought it was, especially when compared to similar cars like the Porsche 944.

It will if it corrodes.

A Wankel engine powered the first non-European race car to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, after which it was banned because it was considered unfair to the piston-powered competition. My first RX-7 lasted over 9 years and 146K miles before I decided to replace the engine and cooling system with something better, even though it still worked well enough to win an autocross the weekend before the swap. I have owned RX-7s since 1988, and have never blown an engine. My current convertible which made the 9-hour trip to DGRR last month has nearly 200,000 miles on it. If you think the engine is not very reliable, lets face it, you need a new mechanic.

Some hints:
- Follow the service intervals in the manual.
- Use distilled water mixed with coolant.
- Use Castrol GTX oil in the engine.
- Use synthetic oil in the manual transmission and differential.
- Use Top Tier gasoline.
- Replace rubber mounts and bushings whenever you replace or rebuild a suspension or drivetrain component.
- If you don't know what you are doing, pay for a professional mechanic.

stevensimon

iTrader: (11)

yeah its a love hate thing for sure. i killed a motor last month because of a failed vac line. it could have been avoided but such is life. i think that if its a weekend toy and you are diligent with maintainance and key to details then it should give you years of happiness but like mentioned earlier, the stupidest little part can take out your motor.. that being said, i will never take an s chassis over an fc

OutCold

So i should look at it this way? 3000 wich i bought the car from + 9000 spent so far and subtract that from the new price back then, if so, that makes me feel abit better, as for WHAT im sinking my money into, it will probably be everything, got both custom interior and exterior planned

incubuseva

iTrader: (13)

Evil, great post.

OutCold, that's pretty much what he's saying NOT to do. Don't go buy the car then get blingin wheels + sweet paint. Do your maintenance first, then go for the appearance/gofast parts.

I have a 91 NA that just hit 195k. I pulled it out yesterday to swap in a turbo. Why did I do this? There's a broken bolt on the exhaust header that I didn't want to deal with anymore so I bought a turbo engine.

I admit though, I find myself needing to spend money on things that I should have done long ago, like replacing all the broken/cracked rubber mounts + bushings.

RandomHero

iTrader: (2)

These cars are getting old. Even if you have a freshly rebuilt engine, you likely still have 100k+ on the chassis and other things will inevitably go wrong. I can't count how many non-engine related issues I've had with my car that keep me from going the distance on go-fast parts. Driveshaft, steering rack, radiator, bushings etc.

It IS going to be a money sink. If you love the car then you'll take the hit.

Evil Aviator

Convert the original new selling price to 2009 dollars to compensate for inflation.
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

That's great, but custom interior/exterior will not improve the reliability of the car.

Thx.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

in the last couple years i switched to piston engine daily drivers after 10+ years of rotary, because the rx7's are so old now.

so i drove rotaries daily from 1993-2005. and piston from 2005-2009. ive been stuck MORE from 2005-2009, AND having just had a very dramatic failure of an E30 engine, lost an equal number of engines!

i'm back to rotary for DD! its more reliable, ESPECIALLY for the money.

OutCold

well Reliability and interior comes first, exterior is at the bottom of the list, i dont mind having a sleeper.

When it comes too reliability mods i know very little about those since i havent been able too draw a reply out of anyone or found any reading on it, worst part is not
knowing wich parts i need

Rx7TyreBurna

iTrader: (1)

Also, "street racing" will dramatically reduce the life span of the vehicle.

Interior mods won't help reliablity either.

If you want a really reliable car. spend the full 9k on reliability. Rebuild the motor, and do all the reliablity things that Evil mentioned. But, you will more then likely need more then 9k.

need RX7

iTrader: (4)

It's only unreliable if you upgrade one thing without bringing other systems up to par. ie, large turbos without an adequate fuel system. Do a ton of research before you do anything, get opinions from people who have done your planned mods, and stay up with the maintenance on your car. And good tuning is VERY important.

OutCold

i ALREADY spent 9k, and i have a new completely overhauled engine ready too go into the car

Rx7TyreBurna

iTrader: (1)

Oooo, sorry for miscommunication there.

Who rebuilt your motor? What parts were reused? what parts are new?

I don't know about anyone else, but my third gear synco's are going bad, and have been going bad. I think a rebuild on the syncro's or other internal tranny stuff would be a good reliablity uprade. Seals etc.

Replace wheel bearings w/ newer ones. Maybe hardened ones if you can find them.

FelixIsGod29X

iTrader: (50)

Evil Aviator, I dont think anyone could have explained it better. Much kudos.

CompuBob

Thats a lot to spend.. did you do all of the work yourself or pay someone to do it?
because I can't see spending 9k + the cost of the car just to fix up some things.. like, I plan on spending $1000 to rebuild my engine using good parts and under $1000 on additional parts then I've accomplished everything I want to. sounds to me like you just pay too much on parts/service, if thats true then start looking for deals, don't buy new parts when not needed, and learn to pick up a wrench yourself.

OutCold

EVERYTHING except the metal is new on that engine,Atkins Seals, all bearings and rubbers etc, housing and rotors etc are the same ol one`s and have run about 80 000 km before i overhauled it.


9k isnt that much here, keep in mind that we make twice as much as you guys here in Norway but everything is also twice as expensive, maybe u could do with cutting all the costs i meantion too about 40% of your costs too make it more comparable too your currency and tariff incomes.

Can i justify spending all that money if i say its a hobby too me too fabricate and fiddle with this car?