rowtareh?

iTrader: (1)

Probably not the correct sub forum, but whatever. Is it me, or are S5 models (NA or TII) becoming harder to find? I have an 89 TII that I have barely touched in 3 years. My dilemma is I would love to LS swap my car, I love the feel of a booster rotary, nothing like it really, but I also like the feeling of torque. My TII does not run, I sold the turbo and ECU off it a while back, as I was strapped for cash (31 year old college student lol).

I dont keep up much with the value and costs of Turbo II engines, my current motor has probably around 6k-7k miles on a fresh rebuilt and large streetported motor done by rx7doctor in Neosho Missouri (bought it like this). Is the motor more valuable complete, without knowing the compression numbers? Or is it quicker, easier, and more money to disassemble motor and sell piece by piece.

I know that all I would need to get back up and running is the turbo kit, ECU, and corresponding injectors. I'm just at a crossroad with this car. I drove the **** out of it when I had it on the road and it was so much fun, but had its random problems here and there.

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

WobblyBobbly

S5s are definitely out there, but finding good clean ones is getting harder. There's one up for auction on bringatrailer right now for instance.

Without compression numbers, figure the motor would sell for half of what it would be with them.

There's nothing wrong with LS swapping what you have, driving it, and then swapping it back later! It's all yours, so it's how you want to enjoy it in the end.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

A LSx swap gets you more power, torque and reliability.
It's cheaper and results in better fuel economy.
In your shoes, I wouldn't hesitate.

To answer your original question...yes, S5s are getting harder to find.
Between Cash for Clunkers and drift kiddies many are just gone, many more sit idle/hidden as owners ignore them.
The second gen does not have the cachet of the FD and is not particularly sought after.
People on this forum are obvious fans but the general public could care less and sinking lots of cash into a FC makes no financial sense.

Romthirty

I own an S4, I had an S5 before, but I think your topic basically covers all FC's in general.

I agree with clokker, they are out there but in all the wrong places. Kids get them to drift, total them, junk yard. Enthusiasts baby them and garage them, for me, it's my casual weekend car when I'm not driving my wife and son around. It was a hard sell to get my wife to be fine with my purchase when I bought this car because we had 0 need for a car, it was basically buying a hobby for myself, so my wife (and most other non-car people) clearly sees it as a "waste of money". I look at my car as long term-ish. I'm trying to take care of it, but I also drive it spiritedly but they sure are very rare on the street. I live in Arizona and have gone to a few car meets and I've only seen 1 other one. My buddy goes to more car meets than I do and he's seen 1. Both of which were in very good shape as well. I think we are starting to enter the era where we will start to see less drifter kids getting into these cars because of the cost and more hard core rotary enthusiasts bringing these classic cars into a new spotlight. Every FC we will see on the road will be in beautiful, clean running order

Relisys190

iTrader: (4)

I picked up my FC last November after 10 years of not owning a Rotary. My goal was to find a car that was ALL there. I didn't care if it was Turbo or NA, I just wanted a complete well taken care of car (minor issues was fine) I am happy I found this S5 GTU. It brought back alot of nostalgia and some fun from my younger days. I have been slowly replacing little bits and parts that have issues and amazingly alot of the cosmetic stuff still exists new available for purchase. I drive my car 3-4 times per month to work (50 mile round trip) on some very curvy back roads. I am not easy on the engine, taking it up to redline very often and very very religious on fluid changes and maintenance, premix ect... The previous owner who is also a rotary enthusiast, saved this car from a swap and purchased it without an engine he has several other rotary cars and kept very good care of the car putting a lower mileage engine into this and only unmounted the factory OMP which still works but him and I both agree on premixing for longevity.

These are cars that you NEVER see on the road any more. Most of them are as stated, junked, drifted clunkers owned by teens or full blown race cars. You wont see to many fine stock (ish) examples on the road anymore. My engine has about 70K on the clock and when... when the engine blows there are some plans in the works (it will remain rotary..)

-M

DaBrkddy

Everything rotary is becoming rare. I don't even see RX-8's very often. FD's around here are ultra rare, I haven't seen an SA/FB in a few years. I have drift buddies and collector buddies and both are noticing scarcity. I'm down to one FC and I've been collecting parts to restore it.

To the OP: your car is worth more as a rotary than as an LS swapped car, period. The market on these cars has nowhere to go but up, and the market of original Japanese classics is steadily on the rise.
That being said, if you're just building it to drive and don't care about originality or authenticity, do what ever swap makes you happy. I personally think the LS is the "easy way out" as far as swaps are concerned. If it were my car I'd build the rotary, but I've been labeled as a "rotary purist."

CryoSignal

iTrader: (1)

I definitely didn't come across many when I was looking for my FC, especially S5 turbos. Weren't there almost twice as many S4 as there were S5?

If you've already got a good motor in the car I don't see why not to keep it.

rowtareh?

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for all the input. I am about 75% certain that I will stick with the engine in the car. I do not need a whole bunch to "finish" it. The plus is it has a mint condition black interior, all I am missing is driver side A pillar. Now comes the time to wait around for a good deal on a turbo kit from a reputable seller. I could always go with a BNR Stage 4, but it seems like that turbo is nearly 100% maxed out at 400hp. Apparently the motor in it is good for 600, but I don't believe that at all.

And in my original post, I was speaking mainly of this forum and Ebay not having very many S5's up for sale. Majority is S4. Either way, I plan to keep the car and give it to my son when he turns 18, which is a long way away. lol

Pete_89T2

iTrader: (4)

S5's are rare for 2 reasons - the 1st was stated already; many FCs (S4 & S5s) have gone to the junkyards due to the drift idiots. But the other factor is there was a smaller supply population of S5's to begin with - Mazda produced & sold far fewer S5s than they did S4's. Somewhere on this site I seem to recall there's a production # statistic that proves this out. By the late 80's the demographics & the car market in general was already shifting towards SUVs, and fewer sports cars were being sold, plus the Japanese economy was booming and the yen was strong, making Japanese cars much more expensive that they were just a few years before.

Dak

I have another thought about Rx-7s and junkyards as well. Back in the mid 2000's I used to see Rx-7's in a local junkyard with little to no body damage. I think sometimes the engine died and due to nobody knowing rotaries around here they just junked them. All but one of them were S4 though. Unfortunately they've all been crushed and some of them were pretty much complete cars minus the door handles and instrument surrounds I got. I never see any RX-7's of any kind around my area anymore and mine was the only S5 I knew of after a friend of mine sold his 'vert in the mid 2000's.