Well guys, here is the story, and if you have some advice for me, please post it so I can make a good decision here.

For the past 6 months or so I've been driving a 1991 Miata, purchased after I sold my 1990 240SX. I finally found a '89 RX-7 TII for sale at a good price, so I picked it up for $2600. It was in kind of rough shape, but it was running fine and boosted okay when I drove it, so I figured it was a good deal for that low price. 110K miles on it.

The seats were ripped (nasty leather anyway), and one rear taillight was messed up, so I went to the junkyards and got a replacement light and 2 blue seats to match the interior for the low low price of $120, which was no problem. I also had a local rotary mechanic check the car out after I bought it for $100, which didn't tell me all that much but I do know that the compression is good, and the usual other stuff. The body isn't in all that great of condition, but it's not totally destroyed, and under the trim in the hatch area I found (after I bought it) that the drain hoses were messed up causing water to rust some of the interior metal near the rear wall. Nothing devastating, but not nice nonetheless. The stereo doesn't work, the oil pressure gauge is broken, and the tacho dies every once in a while (but doesn't affect the car, maybe a bad electrical connection).

Well, I've been smelling fuel and it floods every once in a while so I figured the FPD was fucked and the injectors were probably in bad shape so I finally took it up to the mechanic again to have him pull off the upper intake mani and see what he could see about replacing some stuff and cleaning the injectors.

Well, it turns out there are a bunch of mislocated oil and vacuum hoses, just about everything under the sun fuelwise needs to be replaced to the tune of ~$2000 parts and labor (all Mazda OEM hoses and stuff, with all new oil lines and silicone vacuum hoses, injectors cleaned by RC eng., etc) I still haven't looked at the breakdown in person, just talked to him over the phone. I don't think he's ripping me off, because he has a pretty good rep.

My question is, what do you guys think I should do? I don't want to sell the car, but I don't exactly have $2K in my back pocket to foot the bill. I could get another credit card to pay for it from who knows where, but I'd rather not.

The Miata still isn't sold, but I don't really want it that much anymore since the 7 is pretty much the car I've been waiting for for a long time. (RWD turbo hatchback sportscar with good looks) If I do sell the Miata for what I'm asking, it should pay for most of the repairs though. (but none left at all to mod the car like I was planning to in the beginning)

Some of it depends on whether the TII will be driveable if put back together with the parts as-is. If it can be done, I'd probably try to sell it for around $2600-3000 to cover my losses for the small repairs I've already done, but I don't know what people are willing to pay.

bottom line, I really want to fix it and keep it but I need to justify the price... If I do end up fixing it, and the motor pops then I'll have to dump another $3k into it after that.. of course then it should all be in fine shape mechanically, but the body and interior would still be just so-so.

heeeeelp!

TIA.
-Geoff

 

If you need a mechanic to replace all the hoses a T2 might not be the choice for you.

You would be better off sticking with the Miata, unless you are rich, or plan on learning how to work on your car.

 

honestly, I would really love to be able to do the work myself. and maybe I could, but I am in school and working P/T right now, and I have little time to work on the car I don't really need the car for transpo though (can walk most places I need to go), so maybe I should try to do the work on it myself with a FSM...

but then again I don't have a garage at my apartment, so that creates all sorts of other problems. I do have the tools to do minor work but I always end up stripping some screws and fux0ring everything up.

 

i'm with him if you don't know much about 7's and it needs work get rid of it or its going to cost you more than its worth.But on the other hand if your a 7 lover like myself keep it and spend the money.Luckley i have the know how and a shop. Hope it works out for you.

 

Buy a good set of metric wrenches and sockets and alot of silicone for vacum hoses and normal fuel line is sold by the foot. You can send the injectors off for cleaning yourself.

Also go buy a good mazda shop manual for your car.

-Morbius

 

I have all the sockets and wrenches I need for the work. I really am a 7 lover, so I think it might be worth it to do the work myself.

do silicone vacuum hoses come premade or do you cut the lengths of it yourself from a big roll? I've never had to do any vacuum hose replacement before.

thanks again guys, keep the advice coming. You all rock.

 

Don't deal with the "stealer"
There is probably no one at the Factory Stealer that even knows what a rotary is.
Find a independent mechanic or learn how to do it yourself.
To specifically answer your question: If your choice is to pay $2000 more or replace the car.
Sell the car and buy a better one.
Less money and less aggravation.

 

no, my car isn't at the stealership... I'd never let them near it.

 

god damn, you can fix almost everything on that car for like 100 bucks, and if the motor go's then a thousand will get you a new motor (jspec) and then you just swap all of your old **** over, its not that hard to fix the vacume lines, no7yet, has a complete s5 writeup on this, and should not take you longer then an hour or so to replace those hoses, the fuel hoses are a snap, you can figure that out, replacement opposite of removal.

fuel filter 30 bucks
fuel hose 10 bucks
injectors clean-more than my 100 dollar estimation, but 100 by themselves.
vac hose 25-30 bucks
upper intake gasket, if torn on removal 8 bucks
screw type hose clamps 20bucks

learning how to do it yourself, PRICELESS

-Chris

 

FPD alone is more than $200 in parts, no?

 

i agree with chris-reedtn i bought my rx7 like a month ago...didnt know anything..the car wouldnt start at this time.....a month later it runs ..not perfectly but it runs..i love doing the work my self (saves money and i learn/love the car more and more). ofcourse i ask for her here all the time..and they are good at that. the manual works good aswell.

 

Hey whats up its kliff. Heres what I would do only in your situation since your covered with tranzportation and all but just in case you can...

Sell the miata to me pluss trade in for 91 Geo Metro I use as my daily driver...

This is just in case theirs downtime on you T11. Trust me Demon I do all my own work on my N/A and I have had LOTS of downtime. BUT 90 percent of the time was able to finish whatever I was doing over the weekend wich is when I would start with the project no matter what it was like porting all the manifolds or putting in silicone or whatever. Im no mechanic but over the last 2 years I have grown to know almost everything ( coughf )
about N/A RX-7s and because of this N/A 7s have become the most reliable car for me to own even though their bad rap. This is because I know where these problems come from , how to fix them , recourses on parts and preventive maintanance. The only things I will pay for now are flywheel removal , Oil leaks on oil pan ( bitch ) and rebuilds ( for know )

So if thiers any way you can just keep your 7 in friends garage to work on it in an organized enviornment then DO IT because once you know what your doing you wont get as frusterated and have a negative attitude torwards 7s...Trust me it looks hard when you first look at it but after getting down their once or mabey twice it all becomes easy even easier then a piston car wich non 7 owners dont know about.

My advice is to work on it put all new silicone vacume hoses on everything , New gaskets , use gasket sealer or something to prevent leaks. New hosing and do reliability mods such as radiator, plugs and wires , belts exc. Have the engine hot soaked and simplify everything like relocate the battery with new cables exc. Remove power stuff you never use to ensure it never causes shorts. I got rid of P/S and everything else but since its your daily driver you should keep that stuff.. Get aftermarket gauges and dont worry about your broken ones or whatever. Get fuel cut def and put bigger wire on your fuel pump. Redew the grounds exc. Before you know it you will have a really reliable car. Run small amount of premix if your woried about that stuff. Do the ATF thing but make sure you do it right. You might need to replace your plastic oil lines if thier hard. Before you know it you will have a super reliable car that you can fix small problems yourself. Some advice to you is to spend some more money on injectors because those are very important. I bought so many and still get flooding because people sell me their dirty ****. New ones would be the best way like from RC...Remember you can buy everything that breaks wile working on it from www.mazdatrix.com and they ship COD 1 day air because thier in california. Had to do that a million times. Not. This may take awile and nothing works out they way you want it to wile working on your vehicle. INVEST IN A DREMEL PLEASE. This thing saved me a million times. The wire brush atachment gets old gasket off and the disks will be essential for putting slots in striped screws. Take one minute...Also stripped nuts can be taken off with the disks as well just wach out for the stud. Ive done this quite easily as well. Another way to get striped bolts off is to keep rounding it with the socket. Then get the next size down and hammer it on the bolt and turn. Had to do that to. Since I havent worked on turbos before I cant be much of a help but when I look at it I think ( how easy ) Im bored of working on my N/A already. Its been through hell. Fried clutch , tranz , small engine bay fire ( had to splice in new wires over burnt wires) completly changed both side wireing harneses and ported everything to engine block wich requires just about everything else. Im not going to go through everything but just to encourage you I have saved thousands already like probly over 10g not kidding. Its not worth it keeping a 7 if you dont know how to do anything or not rich enoughf to have someone take care of it. My other advice to you is to buy an N/A for now and get used to that first. Like learning in steps I guess. Theirs way simpler. My advice thier is to buy a busted one with great interior , exterior for cheap and then spend 2300 for rebuild at Auto Teck Motorsports in Miramar rd who does everything rotory. he gives free streetports as well. And has a dyno. Jeff at 558-1100...I have had N/A for 2 years and am just starting to yearn for a turbo but nothing will make me sell my N/A I dont think.

 

The pulsation damper? replace it with a banjo bolt. no need to worry about nasty engine fires that way.

 

NO first off the pulsation dampner for S5 cars is way least likely to fail like the S4 cars. But yes please do replace it because turbos do get hotter than N/As wich wears things down I guess. The part is only 123 at least it was for mine and its a single piece desing. I think mazda made better ones than the one thats on their now so dont do the bajo bolt I think tahts for S4 anyways but not sure. Just buy a new one its cheap and you wond have to wory about it. The leak might be from your injectors seats...Thats where mine was..

 

first of all if ur willing to spend 200 bux to swap some hoses thats nuts...u can get a Jspec with a turbo and have it installed by corksport for that much.....for 33 bux u can get all that stuff new, do it urself, and if u cant figure out how to do the hoses on a seven then yeah ur screwed, this car is a DIY car no doubt, i have learned sooooo much from this car its nuts, but yeah dont let something this simple drive u nuts

 

Banjo bolt ~8$? Learn to do this **** yourself. 60$ will get you a ton of silicon vac line, fuel line is pretty cheap. Everything you listed is like 120$ in parts (if that). There are 4 or 5 bolts holding the upper intake on, 3 holding the tb on. Its simple to take off yourself. Pull one vac line off at a time (cover the intake ports w/ a rag or something) and replace it w/ silicon. Maybe wrap your wiring harness (the part that sits under the alt and goes to fuel injectors) with silicon tape. Have the injectors cleaned at a local diesel shop (would cost like 20$). Nothing mazda uses will cost even 1000$ in parts for what you said. Thats using new injectors too. Hell, maybe a new wiring harness. fc3s.org has a free FSM on the site.

 

to replace all silacone and neoprene lines under the it should cost less than $500. That's if it's done expensively. The pulsation damper should not cost that much. In reality the S5 FPD is bullet proof. Hit the junkyards up for one...you could prolly sneak one out if you wanted to try.

If I lived near you I would do all the work you're willing to pay a mechanic for a fraction of what he wants. In reality, I wouldn't let a mechanic anywhere touch my rexes, having bought this car you unwittingly signed an agreement that stated you will learn how to work on it. It's a given. And this particular task will not be difficult, if you have a good diagram, once you look under the hood it will all make sense.

 

s4/5/6 fpd's were all junk.

 

kliff, thanks for the advice but sadly, the turbo is no longer in my posession anymore so let this thread die!

 

What is a better manual than the standard one at pep boys? And where can I get one?

- James

 

The factory service manual is available online for free at www.fc3s.org ...

It is better than your typical Haynes/Chilton manuals by about 500%.