Ok i am now 17, 18 in July and just finishing up high school this year.
My Uncle just recently bought a used 87 RX-7 Non-Turbo for $2300 Canadian. He took it to the Mazda dealer and they got most of the stuff fixed up on it that needed it the most.
He is willing to sell it to me for around 3 grand Canadian.
It has around 100 000 K/Ms on it and is in very good condition.

Now the dealership said its gonna need a new clutch VERY soon, but other than that i think its in good shape.
How much to put on a new clutch with labour average?
Now i hear lot's of you guy's saying that the engine needs rebuilding around the 150 mark or something like that? If so how much would it cost to get an overhual on one done? Labour and everything?
I am taking a full Mechanics 30 class 2nd semister except i don't know if my teacher will have any exsperience with Rotary engines. You think we could rebuild one at my shop in school?

I just don't know if this is the right car for me. If you guy's could help me out and kinda point me in the right direction that would be awesome!
Thanks

 

Watch it, that clutch job is a royal pain.&nbsp Most dealerships I know of charge 6 hours min labor...add a $200US clutch kit, and you end up with an easy $500US bill.


-Ted

 

my n/a has 150k on it and it runs perfect. they can last over 200k. i would buy it if i were you its a great car. try doing most of the work yourself though, the dealships rip you off and you learn a lot about your car by doing so.

 

depending on how they are taken care of they can last well over 150k... (and thats miles)... so probably a bit more in kilometers... not sure of the conversion

you probably could rebuild it at school... but better yet, while you are at school why not replace your clutch... would save a lot of money on labor that way

clutch itself will run you around 150 - 400 for the parts... not sure about labor

basicaly its the right car for you if you are willing to work on it yourself/learn about it/and take care of it... it should last you quite a while

 

When you guy's say 150K you mean miles right?
Cause if this car only has 100KM's then i could still get like another 100k-150k more outta it right?

Also 2 of my friends have some pretty nice cars..
One being an Audi A4 1.8 Turbo and another 2003 Jetta GLI.. Do you think this old RX-7 could keep up with them?

 

OK ya sorry about the previous post there, you just posted before me haha..

I guess i will look more into it and probably take it then.
Are there really any other BIG problems that i might run into down the road?

 

Drive it...you'll know whether or not its the right car for you. And since you're taking automotive courses it seems like ur gonna be more than willing to do the work yourself. I say go for it, 3 grand is a good price for an non-turbo with that kind of mileage. And don't worry about that rebuild issue...when people say 150k around here its usually in miles. Thats well over 200,000 kms...u have plenty of time before a rebuild (assuming nothings wrong with it right now).

 

Not in stock form. Your biggest advantage is that your car is lighter. But put a few thousand into your car and u'll kill em...for a fraction of the price too.

 

Got any ideas on what i could start doing?
How much would it cost to throw on that twin turbo or whatever?
Also what does "N/A" and "SE" mean? I see it in lot's of post's but have no clue what it means.
Thanks for all the help guy's i guess i will give him a call and tell him i'll take her

 

Well n/a means naturally aspirated...i dunno wat the hell SE is. Check the stickied faq. As for that turbo thing u were asking about..its pretty damn hard apparently. Converting an n/a to turbo isn't a light task. If you want IMMEDIATE results and money is no object then think about some kind of port job..or throw in a turbo II motor. Do a search on porting or turbo conversions. Those topics have been discussed to death around here.
Enjoy

 

OK, Thanks again man!!
How big of a preformance increase do you usually see in a Turbo Vs Non- Turbo charged engine? Also i hear Turbo Charged engines usually end up giving you lot's of troubles and run hot is this true?

 

SE = special edition

 

read the faq pls

 

Ya read the faq, its all in there plus more.

 

Ya i just finished reading most of it.
Helped ALOT!!
Thanks guys!!
Sorry about the newbie questions

 

the TII in stock form runs low 15's in the quarter mile. A stock N/A such as yours will probably run low 16's in the quarter mile. Basically the TII is a second faster and much much easier to mod. You can get a TII going fast with fairly simple stuff. I think you're better off porting the N/A motor than doing an engine swap. Just stick with the N/A, and if/when you grow to love the car pick up a TII if you really need speed.

 

And the TII's do run hotter, however, as long as you take very good care of the car and don't run too much boost you'll be fine.

 

Only thing special about an SE is it's price tag.

 

SE= Sport Edition
SE= Strippy Edition
SE= too cheap Sucker Edition

 

I just brought my 86 GTU about 3 hours ago. <----very happy. Like they rest of the guys say just test drive it and you will see if you like it or not. I also had a 87 supra na but i hated it, i brough it because ididn't take long enough of a test drive. Any ways i recommed you atless take the car on the freeway for 5 min. Because you wont know how fast you are going till you look at your speedometer. As far as the clutch goes i think it would be cool to do it in class as long as you don't mind other people touching your car. And maybe get a little strong than stock clutch.

 

no GTU in 86