FC in the winter
 

Over this summer I was blessed with a 87 RX which was originally from Texas. I however live in Canada and our winters here are a little more harsh than those of Texas. The car has no block heater and I was wondering what would be the best option to install:

a) water heater
b) block heater

Any help would be appreciated

You really don't need either one.

But a heater on the oil pan works quite well. Princess Auto sells them, as well as most auto parts stores.

The only problem of driving in the winter is SALT. Get the car thoroughly oil-guarded and undercoated, and wash it often to keep the salt from building up.

Well the car was just given a new coat of paint/undercoat from the guy I bought it from so I should be alright then. thanks for the help

Make sure you have good snow tires! I bought my FC back in April when snow was the last thing on my mind, ended up getting caught in a friggin blizzard on the way back through PA/OH, not fun at all! It had "winter contact" Continentals on at the time, but they were pretty terrible, and it was rough going in about a foot of snow. I know this was probably an obvious one, just thought I'd mention it, as many FC's probably have sportier and thus not so all weather tires on them.

i am probly going to be forced to drive my fc in the winter too. i am mostly worried about rust. where do you get those undercoatings at and what else can i do to protect it besides wash it.

Im with Aaron. if your going to do anything get the under body sprayed. salt really sucks. i used the 3m stuff and you can get it at napa for around 10 per aerosol can. I only used 3 or 4 cans.

I drove my GXL all winter in WV with no problem. The T2 will probably be driven this winter, but the winters are a lot less here.

With posi and some extra weight I had no problem in the car. I had snows on the rear by the way.

Even with snow tires the FC's a bad winter car, I had 500lbs I'd lug around with me, and it wasn't uncommon in even a minor snow-fall (2" or so), for the car to just randomly lose control.

well I've already got mud/snow tires on it so I guess I'll just add some weight and hope for the best.

sonic hit it on the head. i suggest buying a 300 dollar front wheel drive winter beater. i pulled mine out from the garage when there was still some snow and let me tell ya, its definately a sports car not made for that white stuff.

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Drive your car back to TEXAS for the winter and stay down here! :cool:

Thats harsh man^^^.....i only got about 1 week left to drive the fc.....look where i live...

HAH! i live in sacramento!!! winters the best time to drive the car cuz it doesnt snow n its just nice icy cold for your turbo ;)

I'm in the same boat as you guys.. here in MN winters are HARSH, but I practically got my FC for free, so i'm using it as a winter car (not in the best shape as/is). I DID drive my FB the first winter I had it, and it was a damn good winter car, so I have some faith.

It's only a good winter car if you're one of those people who likes snow-drifting 99% of the time. Unless you wait days for the roads to clear, it's really not a good idea, snow tires or not, starting in 3rd gear proves difficult for traction!

I love snow drifting. You've gotta go out on one of those days that you're the only one stupid enough to be on the road. This is why I bought a Subaru... I've driven a '68 Nova around on ice (driveway jockeying), and I don't care how much better the 7 would be than that... I'll stick to AWD.

Haha, that's why I bought a WRX... (had a '92 TSi prior for my winter car), did that after driving my 2400lb '87 Sport around for a winter.... It was fun to hit parking lots after a fresh snow-fall and just snow-drift around, but driving it down the roads and having to deal with that is a different story, I don't mind so much endangering myself, but others bothers me, so enough was enough!

I'm surprised someone would be gutsy enough to take an FB out into the snow.

With old tires on one of mine it had a strong tendancy to rotate just turning to a parkinglot on damp roads...

I drove RX-7s exclusively in the winter for about 6 years, and I think they're great winter cars even without snow tires. I hate to say it, but the trick is actually knowing how to drive. It just takes fine pedal and wheel control. You can't just dump the clutch like you can in the summer and expect any traction, as with any manual transmission car, you must feather the clutch and accellerator.

I would be driving my FC in the winter if rust and the poor driving skills of other drivers were not an issue. Winter rust is one of the reasons I bought an aluminium daily driver...

I've driven my '7 in the snow, and while it was fine, I didn't enjoy it at all.

The biggest problem I actually had was the alternator output. The S4 alternator doesn't put out enough juice to run the headlights, wipers, A/C compressor (to dry out the air), blower motor, and rear window defroster all at once. It does a passable job at higher RPM, but in the traffic jams caused by snow, sitting at idle, I was draining the battery at a disturbing rate.

I have an old Subaru wagon for the winter (and hauling people, and hauling rotary engine blocks, and... etc) now. 4WD is *incredible* when it comes to getting through snow.

-=Russ=-

No ammount of pedal feathering would even get any of my RX7's (regardless of tires, snow or not), up the street in front of my house to park them in the garage, and this is less than 3", which I consider a mild fall. Slush they do just fine, or highly traveled roads where they snow is cleared, but anything else is a fair bit difficult. Couple that with ungodly ease of losing rear traction (it's pretty bad when even starting in 3rd feathering it as gently as possible results in spinning the tires).

how long do you have to warm up your car in the winter?

Depends. Ideally you'll warm it up by driving it, not by letting it sit. However, in the very cold (sub-zero), I usually had to let it warm up for a few minutes to heat the transmission fluid enough to let me shift. It was thick enough that even in neutral, letting the clutch out would make the car move.

You also want to flush your brake fluid before winter. Frozen brake lines are dangerous.

-=Russ=-

"Great" winter car, I can't believe, regardless of skill level. Passable winter car maybe. Perhaps I just don't have enough experience with one in the snow, but I still think there is a bit of exaggeration in that statement.

I've got more experience that I care for, and I'll back you up on that one. :)