okay i just got a 87 Turbo II, nicely taken care of...drives fine (cept the idle) and pulls hard in all gears...but it has 144,000 miles on it... should i do a rebuild on the turbo and motor before i start modding? i was gonna do a FCD, RB exhaust, wastegate port, fuel pump rewire, and that thing with the washers on the eccentric shaft bolt. any advice please..
keep in mind that im poor, i make $7.18 an hour and go to high school

 

you could mod it but don't go in to far with it i would say a fresh rebuild would be the best and start modding it then

 

I would definitely hold off on the mods until you've got a little financial wiggle-room. It's simply common sense.

I bought my TII with around 140k miles as well and although it was OK performance-wise, a compression test yielded numbers of 95psi front and 85psi rear. Pretty much meaning that the motor was on it's last legs... That being said, I got around 10k miles out of it before the motor finally died out. The only 'performance' mod that I put on it during this 10k mile period was a drop-in K&N air filter. My point is, with a higher-milage TII, it's impending death is looming.

Step 1 is to get a compression test done. Either by yourself and a friend using a *slightly* modified 'regular' compression tester (approx. $20 for a cheap one). Or just pay the local Mazda dealership $100 or so to find out FOR SURE what your compression numbers are. Most dealerships have a rotary-specific compression tester in-house.

If you're putting out (unusually) good numbers of around 100psi (with a regular tester) than I would consider that a license to do some basic mods, I.E. intake/exhaust and the necessary fuel/safety mods.

Just beware that the law is: The more you mod the more that WILL go wrong.

 

remember my creto timmy dont be a fool stay in school. when you do a rebuild dont forget the when you are doing a rebuild for the first time do the most important mod porting... do a mild street port with a safc, safc2, microtech. if you go with higher imp. injectors and one of the ecu programmers you will be pushin your ecu pretty hard. and if you go with a massive streetport you will have to go into a full standalone. and if you need help on a rebuild gimme a call i think you got my number but i know a guy that does awsome work on rotaries up in ft waynkel (ft. wayne)

 

yeah i think im gonna go with a rebuild just so i can start off with a zero mile motor (well...1,000 mile motor after the break-in). I wanna do the work myself, but i really have no experience in rotary engines. i was just gonna tear it apart, replace all the seals and such, clean everything up, and if necessary, replace rotors and housings. I was also thinking about taking it to a machine shop and having them do a mild streetport and maybe do that rotor bevel i've been hearing so much about lately. If you guys have any pointers or advice or anything on the rebuild, or know a good site with a writeup on it, please let me know.

 

you need to talk to chuck his user name is ss124a he does the best port jobs i have ever seen. he'll do the work for cheap and he will encourage you to work with him so you get the experience you need for when next rebuild comes around.

 

That seems a bit insane, why ruin a perfectly good block when a cheap rebuild would have saved you a ton of money? Plus it would have been an excuse to port the engine.