Dartht33bagger

Hi all. I'm new here. I've been considering purchasing a S5 FC to add to my garage and have been lurking the forums for the past few weeks. I've owned a 1991 Z28 Camaro since 2009 and am very familiar with the OEM/Aftermarket support for those cars. Being a Chevy, very few items are no longer obtainable which makes keeping a 30+ year old car on the road quite a bit easier. Reading through the forums here it seems a fair number of crucial parts are no longer made including Window glass, engine IATs, door handles, rotor housing/irons (I think only the 13B-REW parts are sold - correct), etc.

Ideally I'd like to find a manual Turbo II car that's as stock as possible to cruise on the weekend. I have no big plans for mods, racing, drifting, whatever. I just want a fun, high revving car that looks good. With that said, I also don't want to be spending all of my free time scouring junkyards or Ebay for NOS or used discontinued parts. The few threads I've found addressing this issue were from the late 2000s or early 2010s. So how are things looking going into 2023?

Dak

Door handle are getting harder to find and most of the colors are NLA from Mazda. Looking on Mazdatrix all the Housings, irons, and rotors are still available for the TII. Not all the N/A ones are. Interior parts are getting hard to find. Rear calipers are nearly impossible to find. Have to watch Rockauto for them to pop up. Not a lot of aftermarket support anymore.

Venturer

What about "OEM" Hitachi Turbo for 89-91 S5 TII?

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

its NLA, but it was also $4500. for that kind of money, HKS would sell you the whole turbo kit

Venturer

It was just out of curiosity that's all.

I'm the owner of a showroom Vert FC S5 TII with engine and turbo in perfect shape!

This is mine: i made this video with a videomaker friend!

DR_Knight

iTrader: (23)

These cars are overpriced now, I wouldn’t get in the game of rx7’s now unless you got one near complete. Used parts prices are ridiculous, used engines are almost non-existent.

I’ve had 8 fc’s since 2007, most were part cars people gave me just to make room. my first and current fc was a clean s4 na with 110k and I paid $1400. Bought a clean s5 n/a with fresh rebuilt t2 engine, big turbo, haltech e6x for $3800. $800 for a vert to put the engine in a different car.


I started seeing used turbo engines get scarce, shoot even a west coast jdm supplier’s stock dried up, then he went to the dark side scamming people here. Then I started hoarding t2 parts and I bet many others did the same.

Had a spare t2 engine sitting on an engine stand in my garage. My buddy kept begging me to sell it since he couldn’t find one, so I gave in.

They’re fun cars, I just wouldn’t pay today’s price. I thought about picking up another fc shell to move all my current fc stuff to, but I’m not paying $5-7k for a fc, and that’s a bare bones basic fc price. I see people selling fb’s with a 10k price tag… how much are fd’s going for? I literally stopped looking at rx7’s for sale. Once my shell’s done, I’m just going to pull everything from it and probably put in a rx2/3.

Any iconic enthusiast car is overpriced now. I’m still debating on selling all my fc stuff and my sti to come close to paying for the majority of a new Nissan z.

neit_jnf

iTrader: (17)

some parts are easier to find if you have access to japan market parts, euro, new zealand or australia with their specific part numbers. some interior and others for rhd won't work obviously.

Dartht33bagger

This is what I feared. The rotary is such a niche engine that went through a fair number of revisions through the years that don't easily interchange. It would be one thing if aftermarket or OEM crate engines were still available. But if we are at the point now where you need to make existing engines work or you're S.O.L, I can only imagine how terrible it will be to keep these cars running in 10 years. Ultimately every rotary may end up with a piston engine swap given enough time unless someone starts to produce new crate motors for these cars.

Thanks everyone who replied to this thread. Definitely gives me something to think about...

rlynchster

Might want to add the brake booster to the list of hard to find items.

You can still find fresh rebuilt engines.. . . And if you want to do it yourself, there are lots of videos you can watch.

https://rotaryresurrection.com/rx7-engines/

Honestly, if you live an an area that is not in smogg lockdown like CA, you can wire a newer ECU like Haltech or megasquirt. There are a lot of threads on how to do that. . . .This allows you to eliminate some components on the engine like the bypass air control valve for idle control during load.

The biggest issue I see with these cars, and it's for all cars this old, is the wiring harness. Even if you get a car that was not butchered through it's life, it will have a harness that is old and cracking in certain parts.

Some of the hardest pieces to find are plastic. . . . .

There is a guy who rebuilds the dash switches if you send the original.

But yea, Ebay is the way for used parts that you can't get new. . . . Except for a working EGR valve or a double throttle diaphragm valve. .. . .Can't even get those used which is why so many people get a new ECU and make it work without all the emissions and less important engine features assuming you don't have to smog it.

IMO, these cars are not daily drivers anymore. . . .They are hobbyist cars. . ..You can find everything you need to get it to run, but that's different than being able to easily replace every OEM part and being road legit.

Venturer

I payed mine 10.500Euros (11.000$ just now) from France in 2015........S5 TII Convertibile (T2 Vert version never sold sold in the USA). Near mint conditions.......64.000kilometers (40.000miles). Spent other 2.500/3.000 euros for reaching showroom status (as video above i posted).

Now here in Italy "near mint conditions" RX7 FC Convertibile S5 TII are sold from 15.000Euros to 25.000euros for a "PERFECT" unit. Averange price is 17.000!euros (18.000$( I don't think it is overpriced, it's a unique and rare car at present.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

Mazda still makes engine parts, same as they always have. there are billet aftermarket housings and such but its 10x the cost. it was always a fallacy to assume there would be an endless supply of used parts.

Dartht33bagger

According to the list at the bottom of this news story, only FD engine parts are still manufactured by Mazda. Or am I incorrect and FC housings/irons/rotors are still manufactured as well? From what I've gathered in other threads the FD engine isn't a 1:1 drop in replacement and takes some fabrication/modification to get it to work in a FC.

I've done all my own work on my Camaro including an engine swap. I'm not afraid to work on the car at all so I'd be completely up for doing a full rebuild. Unfortunately in Oregon we do still have smog checks (hydrocarbons at least) so the aftermarket ECU may be an issue. Anytime we start wading deep into aftermarket land I get nervous though because it just adds more unique variables to deal with on the car. However, if that's the ONLY option to keep them on the road, then its what you have to do.

I'm definitely not expecting to daily drive an FC either. It would be another weekend car to trade off with my Camaro.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

that article says they make 10 different engines, the FD is one of those, that means there 9 others. Rx8 is probably 6 part numbers. and then they still make parts for some of the other engines on top of that.
Mazda USA has 129 rotor housings for an 84-85 GSL-SE right now, they have enough T2 rotor housings to built 66 engines.

one of the quirks in the USA is that they offered a reman engine, and they stopped doing remans. the quirk is that they have no sales history on new engines, so they don't really bother.

Dak

I can't speak to what is manufactured but Mazdatrix currently has all the housings and rotors for the Turbo II. I think they show the N/A front housing as NLA. Currently parts are available.
1989 | Mazdatrix
1989 | Mazdatrix
The FC E-shaft shows as NLA but I think the E-shaft is typically reusable when doing a rebuild. Maybe j9fd3s can chime in on if a FD shaft can be used in an FC. From a recent thread I understand there is some differences between the clearances between them.
I would imagine as long as the smog check is at the tailpipe and not a strict visual like CA. One could do a tune on an aftermarket ECU that would pass smog using functional cats. Maybe someone else can confirm. I'm pretty sure j9fd3s is passing smog in CA in his REW swapped FC with a power FC. I hear the newer standalones are quite a bit more advanced than it.

Vansera11

iTrader: (2)

I love theses cars and currently am about to remove my for sale ads on used parts given that all the holidays and big expenses are out of the way. Only reason I was willing to part ways with my parts was to cover the cost of a newly addition rx7 manual vert that I wanted. That was for sale on here a few months back. It’s about as perfect as it gets. With a fresh motor working ac/heat newly top and rust free. The vert was bought so that I could enjoy a fc more often and leave my s5 turbo II for special occasions. That turbo 2 is completely redone pushing around 352 conservative tune. If it was not for my friends and his shop being only half hour away I would probably leave the fc’s and go back to a s2000.
Back about seven years ago it was probably just shy of 10k for engine wiring ecu fmic all the supporting modifications to achieve a capable 400 hp engine. I also already went through the trouble of getting a s5 turbo 2 shell incase I need parts or when I need parts. I often find my self looking on eBay and Japan auctions just watching the prices of parts. Seems to be going up and up and less frequent. I would not redo a stock t2 now a days. I’d imagine it would almost be double and not to mention I was waiting 6 months for my t2 to be finished. Then I had to replace the trans. But I lucked out and was able to get for free. That won’t happen again I’m sure. And swapped them my self. Guess it all depends on how deep your pockets are and how far you’re willing to go to keep it going.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

the FD shaft is better, they gave it a little more clearance on the outer bearing journals. it is pretty rare that the e shaft isn't good though/

i haven't actually passed on the PFC yet, its been hard to find a shop that will actually do a smog on a pre OBD2 car, even for money. i'm pretty sure other people have passed with the PFC though. basically a wideband lets you control the AFR better than the stock ecu, so there is potential improvement there, and a faster ECU can help as well, although it still needs to be tuned correctly.

basically a US spec FD will do around 50-80 ppm of HC with 0% co and ~500noxes
the JDM 99 spec FD was doing 10ppm hc's and noxes were lower, 400? same hardware (engine, turbos, cat), faster ecu
and the Rx8 is better, and will keep the emissions low in transitions

Sideways7

iTrader: (7)

Its funny you mentioned that. I had a master cylinder leak and it corroded the booster to the point I didn't trust it. I had more time than money so I ended up swapping in a MC/booster from a late 90's subaru legacy (I think it was clokker who did the writeup). Took some work, but I had less than $100 in parts, plus I like the feel better.

As for the rest, yes its a PITA finding a lot of parts, particularly anything plastic. I was getting out of my car last week and bumped my elbow getting out (my jacket was caught on something). My wife heard me scream and peeked in to see if I was OK, but It was actually that I broke my pristine black a-pillar trim.

Surprisingly, the engine parts are generally the easiest to find, they can just get expensive.