I'm thinking about buying an second gen RX-7 for my next project car. I'm also looking at fox body mustangs, and thrid gen camaro's but I want to be different. I don't see too many quick rx-7's running around where I live. Have a few questions. I saw a guy selling an 89 turbo, w/exhaust and a few other parts for $1600 because it had what he called a "blown front Apex" it was a very nice looking car. would this be hard or expensive to fix? The only reason I'm scared to buy and RX-7 is b/c I don;t think too many guys in this area know how to build or fix one besides maybe the Mazda dealer(and we all know how much dealers charge for labor)

Also, which models are turbo and non turbo? Can I spot them by the dual exhaust? And if I could only find a non-turbo model, how much am I looking at for an engine swap or turbo conversion? Thanks

 

Blown front apex = new or rebuilt motor needed.

But take heart, sometimes (not often, but sometimes) someone says that he has a blown seal, and it turns out that the motor is just real dirty and needs the ATF treatment. Then the car runs fine for the next 30K + miles.

A Jspec motor can be found for generally under or around $1000. This is a used motor from overseas that is in okay condition. A new or rebuilt motor would be generally over $2000, (depending on who does it) plus your installation.

The Turbo models are called Turbo II or TII. They have an intercooler on top of the motor under the hood vent. All other models are NA (unless someone has converted them).

As far as converting a NA to a T2 the cheapest is around $1500- $2000 including a jspec motor, but you would be taking short cuts that would eventually need to be taken care of. Done right expect to spend $4000-$5000 to convert to a factory spec TurboII if you do most of the work yourself and rebuild or replace the motor with a new one.

Doing all the work myself and replacing/updating many parts I am just at $4000 for my 'vert T2 project, but I still need to do the cat back and new tires (and it looks like the Logicon as the air mix stopped working this weekend).

 

These are fine if you want/need the bigger interior. I personally like the SLP Camaro. The pony cars are in an entirely different class from the RX-7, which is more comparable to the Supra, 300ZX, and 944.

The engine is toast. It is better to have a Mazda specialist fix it, as the dealers don't know how to work on a rotary anymore, and thier pricing is terrible as you mentioned. An engine rebuild is about $2,000, plus about $200 more for street porting.

The turbo models have a hood scoop for the intercooler, and are marked "Turbo II" behind the front wheel. The turbo engine swap is a really bad idea, especially for a newbie. The turbo cars only sell for about $500-1,000 more than the non-turbo models, so there's no point in going through all that work. Besides, the turbo model has a different EMS, power brake booster, hood, transmission, driveshaft, rear end, etc. The insurance rates are usually the same for the 79-92 turbo and non-turbo RX-7's, but the 3Gens are much more expensive.

 

thanks guy. I'm going to look around and wait some more to see if a turbo comes up for sale. What should I expect to pay for the average turbo example?

 

I just picked up an '88 Turbo II with 84,000 miles and a few mods for 4500 dollars.

 

wow i think you got a good deal.

my friends usually pick up n/a series 5 rx-7's with 100,000 miles on them for like 3 to 4 grand.

the series 4's usually go for a lot less though.

 

www.kbb.com

... and here's what to look for (the turbo and non-turbo basically have the same problem areas):
http://www.aaroncake.net/RX-7/