Turbo II

iTrader: (1)

From the FAQs - Do a full 60K tune up, replacing all the fluids (including brake, clutch, tranny, engine oil, coolant, and rear end lube), spark plugs and cables, all filters (including fuel, oil and air), belts, any hoses that are leaking or bulging, and the O2 sensor. In addition if the car is more than 10 years old or has more than 120K miles on it, the Pulsation Dampener (or pimary fuel rail and integrated Pulsation Dampener on 89-91 FCs) should be also replaced.

DirkyDirka

hehe i am a nut sometimes!! but i bought the rx7 to have fun driving eh :P and umm ya the rebuild is just going on 62k, its a 87 t2. the body has 210k on it, i think this is the stock clutch on it righ tnow that just went out so i guess its not to bad O.o

Wankel7

Here is how I look at it.....

My 91 TII takes 93 octane and premix. I redline it every time it leaves the garage. Yes, it is getting expensive to keep feeding it.

HOWEVER, it is making it that much more special. Since, I am driving it less because of the cost to operate it.

So, flooring .... I appreciate it even more...especially when it doesn't blow up :P

James

Tournapart

iTrader: (4)

you could get a complete MSD setup for the cost of new trailing coils, lol ******* mazda

MAXFC3S

Drive like a sunday driver grandpa. especially from 1st gear moving from a Red light or a complete stop. Take it really easy, you'll know it coz they'll be all over your *** and will pass you, look at you and give you the finger..
Shift early ...and you see that little arrow mark right below 60mph? Yeh, Id stay around there. Get an SAFC. Use regular 87 Octane Fuel. Close your windows. don't use your AC.. **** like that...

Mombodogs

Why do we own these masterpieces if we want to worry about fuel economy? I get 22-24 mpg on highway doing 75-90-100 in 5th, top down, windows down, stereo up, 2 gallons of water/coolant in trunk, along with a gallon of oil, a full tool box, car cover, jack, spare tire, pool cue's, extra work boots, rain gear, assorted other crap. Now, if I can have this "excess weight", drive like the car should be driven, and still get this mpg, with 160 thousand miles on the motor, next question. Tune it up, drive the bitch, and pay like the rest of us. Sorry for the attitude, but I'll pay the price to own this SOB , period!

PEACE THE MUTT

bobafc3s

i say get the damn beast out of the city and onto somewhere u can hit 80+ I tend to get the best mileage around 80+. But on these things HIGHER THE SPEED THE MORE FUN IT GETS!!! ahah just drive it and stop complaining, if u keep complaining go buy urself a civic or better yet a hybrid. i get around 18 in the city, 21+ on freeway in my mild streetport na.

DaveTurnerMotorsports

Looks like 4050rpm at 75mph in 5th gear in the GTUs (4.30 rear end stock and "different 5th gear").

9-13mpg all the time, never more than 210 miles per tank with the 18gal+ tank.

And I'm driving up to Atwater this weekend from San Diego for the SCCA Solo2 National Tour.

Poop.

furiousbob

s4 = 11.6 gal tank, right?

DragonRx7

S4=16.6 gal

rxspeed87

from my understanding it is actually better to give it more gas when accelerating then to give it very little.

something to do with efficiency of the motor going up when the throttle is opened more. the htrottle when closed creates a nice pumping loss when opened more it allows the engine to breath much easier making the engine not WASTE as much energy getting the air into the motor. that mixed with the fact that you get up to cruising speed that much quicker. which we know generally you use less fuel when going faster up to the point where drag starts to really take place

Omixeo

iTrader: (1)

Dunno if its different from S4 to S5, but I have an S5.

Syonyk

Agreed. I haven't driven the '7 in three weeks, because it's been [not raining] for the past 3 weeks, other than the minor thunderstorm/tornados, but I already had the motorcycle out and about, so I just got wet.

If it's that big of an issue, I suggest something light with two wheels. A bicycle gets around 1000mpg (after figuring in food transportation fuel, production/parts, etc), a scooter will get you 70-90mpg, and most motorcycles get 40+mpg.

As for improving fuel economy on an RX-7, I wrote this up a while ago.

===============

As for fuel economy related things, I'm actually working on making my NA as efficient as possible. I don't expect 30mpg (well, maybe once or twice with a tailwind), but I'd like to be 25+mpg highway pretty constantly. Right now I get 19-21, depending on how I drive it (like the winding road run tonight will lead to worse economy... I don't think I was under 4k RPM for more than 20% of the run).

On my list of things I've done/am planning to do:

* Replace the spark plugs regularly (every 5k or so). In addition to reducing power, worn plugs reduce fuel economy. The engine still runs fine, but you can feel the difference.
* CD Ignition box. Crane HI-6 or a MSD 6A, either one works fine. This gives you a more powerful spark up high, and multiple sparks down low. More complete combustion, more power up high (you can be misfiring and not feel it), smoother idle, better fuel economy... there's really no downside.
* Cleaned fuel injectors. Haven't done this yet, but it's a pretty good bet that 15+ year old fuel injectors aren't going to be putting out a perfect spray pattern. I'm not talking about running a tank of fuel injector cleaner through, I'm talking about sending them in to Cruzin Performance or RC Engineering or your local diesel shop for reverse flow ultrasonic cleaning, pintle cap replacement, flow testing, etc.
* SAFC-II. Standalone is better, many of us don't have modded enough cars to get any huge benefits out of a standalone, but a SAFC-II is quite nice. Especially for the NA guys, you can subtract a good deal of fuel without affecting performance. If you leave the O2 sensor in, you'll still help highway mileage due to the amount of time spent in open loop mode on the highway (hills, passing, etc), or you can remove the O2 input from the ECU and more or less tune it for a slightly lean A/F ratio. You'll also help mileage when running hard - it's amazing how much fuel you have to pull out up high to get the mixture somewhere close to stoich.
* Change the tranny/differential fluid to something synthetic and slippery. I hear Redline is good. Reduced drivetrain losses translate directly into better fuel economy & more power to the wheels.
* Repack your wheel bearings. It's a good idea anyway if you haven't done it, and the new grease might help a tiny bit. Mostly it's just a good idea.
* Check that your brakes aren't dragging. A slider that's not well lubricated, a sticking piston, missing retractor springs, hanging ebrake cable... in addition to heating the brakes and running through brake pads at an annoying rate, you lose fuel economy & power.
* Exhaust/intake: The easier the engine can breathe, the more power you get out of it, and the better fuel economy. The one "gotcha" here is that everyone wants to make a cold air intake. The colder the intake charge, the worse the fuel economy. If you really want great fuel economy, build a *hot* air intake. Or, fabricate something goofy with vacuum actuated flappers & some other jazz...
* Engine temperature. Not suggested, but I still have a point. The hotter the engine (within reason), the better your fuel economy. A 160F thermostat will get you better power, but a 195F thermostat will get you better fuel economy. I don't suggest this, given a rotary's issues with overheating, but if you rigged the thermostat to be always open and your engine is running fairly cold, your fuel economy will suffer.

Now, some easier things that don't require any sort of major mechanical or electrical work.
* Keep the darn tires inflated. Underinflated tires take more power to turn, wear out sooner, handle worse, etc.
* Close the windows & sunroof on the highway. I've noticed a 2-3mpg loss when running with the windows & sunroof open. The A/C compressor takes less power on the highway than the additional drag of the windows, especially since once the car is cooled down the A/C compressor will cycle on and off - it's not constantly on.
* Keep it below 3500 RPM on the highway. As has been noted, many people have observed that fuel economy is actually better at higher speeds, but going into open loop mode above 3500 RPM will negate any benefits due to the rather absurdly rich A/F ratios.
* Add more premix. The number I've seen around here is 85:1 or so for noticeable gains in fuel economy. The downside of this is that you'll contaminate the engine oil significantly more, and have to change it more often. I'm not sure the fuel savings outweigh the additional cost of more oil changes, but it does work.
* Stay out of the go-fast pedal. It's great fun to lay into it at highway speeds, especially when occurring after a downshift, but any time your foot is digging in, the ECU is in open loop mode and dumping a lot of fuel. Also, drive without the cruise control. The cruise control has to wait until the car slows down to add gas for hills, and it *will* drop you out of closed loop mode. If you're very light on the gas (and lead the hills slightly so you can slow down a bit on the way up), you can stay in closed loop mode and gain some mileage.

Ehm... anything I'm missing?

-=Russ=-

MaczPayne

iTrader: (5)

lol, 92k miles? nice.