FC3S vs. s13
 

Ive been looking into turbo II rx7s for awhile and i finally found one. I found an 87 Turbo II with 98k miles on it thats all original. Runs and drives great, the only thing wrong with it is the guy hit a barrel and bent the fender pretty bad. I also found a 92 240sx with an sr swap thats got a few things done to it. The usual stuff, intake, exhaust, headgasket, head studs, bov, and fmic. The only draw backs are it doesnt have matching wheels and is primered with brown interior. I was just looking for some help deciding. Ive had 6 240s and im kind of wanting to try something different, but ive never worked on a rotary. Thanks for the help! :icon_tup:

not worth it stick with the 240sx and give me the guys info of where that T2 is for sale =) lol jk the rx7 i personally enjoy more than any other car are you going to have more headaches than the 240 definetly but totally worth it LOL
TwEaK

alot of people hate the 240sx here for no reason at all besides it being a rival car with pop up headlights. Ive owned both.

S13s are alot easier to work on and operate. Better suspension and larger aftermarket support. Ease of getting replacement parts that dont cost an arm and a leg. Possibly more theft attention due to recent increase in popularity.

FC less theft, more fighter jet feeling compared to s13. Less suspension parts is also a blessing tho since it doesnt require thick pockets for the trickest camber arms tension rods etc. You wont be running with the same beatup s13 teenagers since most of the 240sx generation now a days is drift bandwagon teenagers.

I built my old s13 up and miss it, sr20 suspension diff etc. The rx7 is just more exotic in its right, not too many people build them up compared to 240s.

240sx online community support > rx7 community.

Haha yeah i posted this on nico at the same time and ive got like 10 replys. There are a few 240sx running around where i live but no rx7s. Ive been into cars and been driving alsmost 6 months and Ive seen 1 or 2 fds and no fcs in town. My last 240 i swapped the motor then the head 3 times and i couldnt get it to seal. Before that i had an sr swapped one and had almost 10k in it and it still never ran right, but a big part of that was cuz i lost my job and parted it.

S13 suspension is shit. Stamped steel control arms scream quality.

would it need a rebuild soon with 98k on it?

^ Most likely. If you are serious about buying it do a compression test for sure.

the SR20 240 drives a lot like a stockish T2. They are similar in a lot of ways (powerband etc) beside the normal difference in feel between rotary and piston.

biggest disadvantage of buying somebody's SR20 swap is the mismatched clusterfuck of ghetto wiring and JDM junkyard bullshit. So many people do those swaps on the cheap and do a sloppy job. It's a lot harder to service somebody's swapped engine than a car that came turbo from the factory. People swap between model years and the wiring diagrams become useless. Shit just isn't where it should be and you play all these guessing games. When you work on a car that was designed and built to be turbo from the start you notice so many little differences. I just recently helped someone troubleshoot their Power FC on their SR20. the wiring was done by a shop and it was still a huge mess.

T2's can get about 200k out of them. It all depends on how the previous owners took care of it. Like nate91242 said, if serious about it then do a compression test.

You actually stated the reason right there. S13s are cool though.

ive driven and worked on both. the 240sx almost seems "cheaper". not just in the quality of OE parts, but some of the designs and charicteristcs of the car.

but i'm bias cuz i own a 87 TII lol

and id rather start with somthing stock then a posible ghetto rig, doesnt matter what two cars i was compairing ,just my opinion.

240's also rust out way quicker than FC's.

FC's are just as likely (if not more often) the victims of ghetto. The only saving grace is that most of the 'teenage' F&F crowd usually blows them up/can't deal with the maintenance required and ditches them early.

alot of fcs are ghetto rigged too so it goes both ways. As long as your a car guy, should be able to physically inspect each car and decide from there. If the owner of that rx7 seems knowledgeable about rotaries, it may be good. If he seems clueless about rotaries, it may be more questionable.

Same goes for the 240, remember tho that S13s where built turbo in japan and that sr20 was made for the car, so "car not made for turbo" statement does not stand up, but it comes down to how clean the wiring was done, but theres tons of online documentation and help on wiring coverage. I did a few people's wiring jobs for a few bucks from documents ive found and did on my own sr swap. The S13s can take more abuse.

Are you gonna be daily driving the car? Id stir more towards FC since again s13s might be more of a thief magnet. FC probably a lil better on overall security *240s dont have window frames* . But fc will require more maintenance which is easy if you get a good condition car to start off with.

Wait so you been driving for almost 6 months and already had 6 240's? So umm what happed to the other 5 240's since you parted one out?

I find that amusing since most FC's can be unlocked using another FC's key. Hell, my GTUs key will even start my Sport and GXL. I've tested my personal FC key's against most every FC i've worked on over the years just to laugh at how many of them it would open/start.

half of the 240 swaps are base model cars with no LSD and shit brakes, that qualifies as "not built for turbo" to me you. Of course there are some nice swaps, but they're hard to come by.

Also, you can't judge the wiring without ripping the car apart and looking at all the splice etc, unless it is so sloppy that you can actually see its ghettoness in the engine bay. The absolute worst for wiring are the s14 motor into s13 swaps, because there are more wiring differences than most of the other types of swaps. It took me hours to finally track down accurate diagrams of the s14 sylvia fuel pump wiring circuit. you'd be amazed just how thorough the FC service manual, wiring diagrams, and training manual are compared to a lot of other cars out there.

from my veiw it the fc and it comes down to the 50/50 balance. the two both have huge amounts of parts and lots of engine swaps. and last presonal choice

yeah most of the s13/s14's around here are pretty ghetto, they are also a cop magnet, the police here know to look for the sr....

i have a feeling nobody actually wires the SR up right, they dont pass smog, but the JDM rotaries will...

theft: you might be able to open the fc with a BMW key, but hardly anyone will bother. they will break into the s13/s14 looking for the power window switch....

you also HAVE to buy more stuff to make the s13 handle, fc you just buy springs shocks and a couple of camber things and its done....

His sentence structure is lacking. When you read the entire thing what he meant to say was "better suspension, and larger aftermarket, support" which in itself is redundant.

It's really sad if kids nowadays are classifying cars solely by pop-up headlights. The 240SX isn't even a sports car.

As somebody who compared models when shopping for a new car in 1988, here are the actual rivals:
Mazda RX-7
Nissan 300ZX
Toyota Supra
Porsche 924/944

The Mitsubishi 3000GT / Dodge Stealth also entered the competition at the end of the FC RX-7's production line.

Im bout to turn 22 i meant 6 years. :lol: I was watching dexter and half ass paying attention to what i was typing. But theft is really rare around here. Ive locked my keys in s13s my fair share of times and with a hanger theyre really easy to get into. The 240 i had with an sr in it, I traded a stock 89 and $2000 for it already swapped. The guy i got it from had some friends of his that couldnt speak english swap it and they did it by watching a dvd from ebay. It was horrible. It was an s14 sr20det in a 90 hatch. Also had the wrong MAF on it. He had it running and drove it around for about a year with the wrong MAF and didnt even realize it. All he knew was it wouldnt go over 3500 rpm. :hahano: I had it running right maybe 4-5 hours of driving it around town and the turbo went out. Bought another stock one and drove it around for maybe 30 minutes and it and the oil pump went out. So i rebuilt it and with all the parts it shoulda made anywhere between 300-350 whp but i couldnt get the wiring harness back right again long enough to get it tuned. Then lost my job and parted it out. That then buying another one and getting to drive it 5 days in 6 months time makes me want to try something new.

FC's tend to have that pattern as well, they're generally broke more often than not unless they're non-turbo in which case they're just horridly slow.

If you don't have some fascination with these engines then you shouldn't get the RX-7. The RX-7 will require more attention generally but will give back more. These engines are very delicate in the sense that you can have a catastrophic failure from any small issue. Parts are also more expensive compared to the 240 and aftermarket support is certainly better for the 240s.

Ive been looking at the aftermarked parts and they are more expensive. But i would be happy with around 300whp. I am fascinated with rotaries. I like how they sound and how responsive and how high revving they are. If i end up getting it one of the first things i will get is a spare motor to learn to rebuild and maybe even port.