matsrx7

I just bought my first RX-7 and i was wondering what kind of things i should do to it first, like oil, plugs, wires etc. and maybe some minor mods for now, Its an 87 rotary non-turbo, and has 88,000 miles, if i were to get a mod what would be a good one to start with. I am new with roatary engines so, any pointers would be great, thanks.

shadyteke

Best thing for you to do is a search and to check the 2nd gen archive. This site has everything you need to know about this. I also recall seeing a post the other day about how to beef up an n/a. If you click through the pages for the last few days it should be there.

Mallard Duck

*godfather voice* Welcome to the family!

vaughnc

matsrx7,

Hey welcome to the forum. Is this your first sports car? If so your in for a great treat

The 7s have a tremendous following, lots of great upgrade options including bodykits, performance, accessories, etc..

What makes the rotary engine great is it's smaller weight & size compared to output, it's designed for high revving all day long (no pistons to break), and it gave mazda the ability to design a chassis with more room for stiffening (fun in the twisties), less drag (better 0-60), and some advanced suspension work (rear steer and TONS of grip), and light weight. It all adds up to a car with great acceleration, stiff chassis, tight handling, lots of grip, seat of your pants ride, and fun to drive.


If you don't know when the last tuneup was done, then you might to get the 60K mile service & fuel injection cleaning services done by a qualified rx7 mechanic (not always the dealer either).

Then after that I'd have it dynoed and see if it's near OEM HP levels. That might tell you if you should replace the spark plug wires, check and see if the catalytic converter needs replacing, etc.. All basic things to restore lost HP.

BTW - ALWAYS change the oil every 3000 miles with these cars.

After your confident the car is in good working and running order then you might consider stage I upgrades including:

performance air intake, performance exhaust, performance catalytic converter, cold air box, fresh air headlight scoop (see mariahmotorsports.com for those 2 items), upgraded igition system (after you've upgraded the spark plug wires), a chip upgrade (safe in the NA models), better shocks/struts/coilovers, performance springs, etc...

Tell us a little about her and which model you picked up (SE, GXL, sport, GTU, etc..)

matsrx7

yeah this is my first sports car, I have always driven trucks except my first car which was an 84 Mazda GLC, but this is an awesome car so far, its very fast, I think it is just the bottom of the barrel package, no power anything, but mirrors and moonroof, and there is no CC or rear wing, but it does have A/C.

I really need new shocks and i figure i'll lower while I'm there so that might be my first mod, but it also needs new brake pads, I was figuring on changing the plugs and wires anyways, and change the trans. fluid and diff. after I do that stuff I'm going to work on some little things like getting the moonroof to open and the door locks to work.

I bought the car at an auction for $1300 it only had 88000 miles on it so i bought it not knowing anything about the potential of the car, seems like it will be a good investment, What kind of gas mileage should this get mine gets about 18 or so, but that was my first tank and I may have been driving a little hard on that first tank. What kind of oil should I use and filters (air, oil, fuel)? Any help would be great thanks.

mguire

I use castrol GTX motor oil. 10-30 or 20-50, depending on the season. Stay away from 10-40, it leaves more carbon deposits which tend to reduce the life of your rotary. Change it every 2500-3000 miles and keep the car tuned and you might have it a long time. By the way, get your engine decarboned (see ATF treatment or Water Decarboning) and make sure your 6 ports are working.

The first good power upgrades are intake and exhaust. Get a high flow air filter (cone or K&N drop in replacement filter). If you replace or modify the air box, build a baffle around it so you don't suck hot radiator air into the engine. For the exhaust, a popular choice is headers, and high flow cat (or you can replace the cat with a presilencer => not emissions legal), and some free-flow mufflers. This should give you another 35 or so HP.

You can also safely advance the timing 5 degrees for a little more power.

Eibach makes a good spring (pro-kit) that lowers the car about an inch. Bigger swaybars will help alot too. I have KYB shocks and they work great.

For the gear box and rear diffi, a light weight synthetic gear oil will help you shift the power to the road.

Other than that, read, read, read. A good place to start is the FAQ at www.teamfc3s.org.

Good luck!

Evil Aviator

It sounds nice! Does it have 4 or 5 lug nuts per wheel?

Synthetic trans & diff fluid work best. I like Red Line, but the other brands are fine, too.
http://www.redlineoil.com/whyredline.htm

If it has a stock sunroof, then it may just need lubrication. Do you know how to open the sunroof with the manual crank? What is wrong with the locks?

That gas mileage sounds about right. Your normal oil consumption should be about 1 qt per 3,000mi, which is when you should change the oil, anyway. IMO the K&N brand filters are the best (either drop-in or cone, your choice), and they last for 10 years. Your car is designed to run on 87 octane gas. Mazda brand oil filters and fuel filters are fine. Most people on this forum use Castrol GTX 20w50 in the engine on warm days, and lighter weight oil in winter climates. Mazda recommends against using synthetic oil in the engine, but many people use it anyway, although I don't see any reason to do this unless you are on the race track. Here are the oil weights recommended by Mazda for the corresponding outside air temperature:
+15F & Over: 20w40 - 20w50
-10F & Over: 10w40 - 10w50 (Most people avoid these two highly-thickened weights)
-10F to 85F: 10w30
32F & Below: 5w30

IMO, the first thing that you should get is a workshop manual. This way you don't have to ask strange people of dubious knowledge (like myself) questions like how much oil the tranny holds. The Haynes manual is good, and covers all the FC models. The large factory workshop manuals (about $100 for the pair) are great, but expensive. This 88 factory manual should work for 99% of your car, and it's free.
http://www.iluvmyrx7.com/Technical_I...ice_manual.htm

TuRbOfAsT87II

Im new too, welcome to the community. Its very welcoming and resourceful. Relax, take your coat off.
PS...i never heard about this 'decarbonating' procedure or what have you. Should I? who knows. I do know of some kind of build up that results from continuous low RPM usage or something along those lines (its been a year since i read that)
Jeff

vaughnc

basically the ATF (automatic transmission fluid) trick is used for removing any carbon building within the engine.

It can be done every 30K and if you find a rx7 with a carbon locked engine.

Someone on the forum bough a GTU for $150 and it only had a cabron seized engine - lucky bastard.

matsrx7

The car has 4 lug bolt pattern with 14 inch stock wheels, I didnt even know there was a way to open the moonroof manualy, how do you do it? So what is the reason not to use synthetic oil in the engine, is there no point or does it hurt the engine? So is the rotary engine a reliable engine as long as you keep up with the maintence? thanks for all the great info it is a huge help.

vaughnc

I run synth in the trans & rear diff, but not the engine. There's been a LOT!!! of debate on synth in the engine, but it comes down to does synth hurt the oil metering pump and/or Aplex seals.

Remember rotary engines (except in the rx8) do consume a bit of oil in lubricating the interal components as well, so the question is does synth clog your exhaust port, catalytic converter, etc...

There's also a 1 time teflon based treatment for rotary engines that helps restore lost HP. The stuff fills in all the microscopic poors in the metal which decreases friction, increases flow, and lessens the resistence to accelerate (moment of inertia).

Evil Aviator

OK, so it's either a Coupe, LX, or SE. Hmm, I'll have to look up which one had electric mirrors the next time I go through the microfiche.

If you look on the interior of the roof, you will see a round cap. If you remove the cap, you can manually crank the sun roof with a hex key. Hopefully the hex key is still in your glove box, because I forgot what size it is.

The reason not to use synthetic oil in the engine is that Mazda says not to. Ignoring that fact, then there are two other debates:
1) Does synthetic oil hurt the engine or help the engine?
2) Is it worth paying $8/qt for oil that you have to change every 3,000 miles?
I think that #1 depends a lot on which brand you use, and #2 depends on your budget. The top race teams use synthetic in both the engine and in the premix (these are the same thing in your stock RX-7), but they have a better budget than most of us, rebuild their engines more often, and need the extra performance. I have gotten fantastic results in rotaries with Castrol GTX at $1/qt for 13 years now, so I'm sticking with it.

I put Microlon in my 88 SE shortly after I bought it. I chose Microlon because it is FAA approved. The 146,000 mile engine was opened up a few months ago, and it looked great. However, it didn't look any better than any other engine run with Castrol GTX changed at regular intervals. So, without a microscope and several other engines to test scientifically, I can't say if the Microlon helped any. What I can tell you is that the distilled water that I used in the cooling system made a huge difference. My racing partner used to tease me about being **** retentive, but after seeing my engine, he is a new convert to the Church of Distilled Water. BTW, I also put Microlon in the cooling system, so it could be that this helped, too, but I can't say for sure.

Yes, the rotary engine is very reliable. The rotary runs very hot, so you need to make sure that the oil and coolant are doing their job. Other than that, I think that the rotary actually has less maintenance than a piston engine. When I bought my F-150, there was a pit in my stomach because I realized that I would once again enter the maintenance realm of setting spark plug gaps, replacing timing belts and cam shafts, lapping valves, etc.