lasheric

Hey everyone, new to the boards. I want to buy an RX-7 for drifting. A friend of a friend of a friend is selling one, I test drove it today, here are the problems.

Its a 1988 RX-7, it has the turbo motor but its non turbo.

213k Miles, I think on the carfax there is a 5000 mile difference also, so there was a small rollback. I trust the guy selling it, but he is the third owner.

Something is wrong with the ignition, it starts up but it has a problem, I dont understand what is wrong though, like it wont start up at first.

The brakes kind of squeek on one side. When you press down on the brakes they feel ok though, maybe a little bit to much play, but ok enough.

There is a stage 2 clutch installed with a new transmission I think he said. Shifting feels ok, but when I go over a bump I can feel the bump in the stick shift, never have felt that before. I wouldnt say the stick shift is loose, just not super tight either.

The body is in good condition, only one small ding on the passanger rear panel and a broken passanger mirror. The interior is in good condition.

He wants $1200 for it. What do you guys think, is the milage a huge problem?

Also how much does a replacement motor for these cars cost in southern california?

Thanks for your help, I'm relying on all of you to help me make my descion, I dont know enough about these cars yet to know if its a good deal or not.

PureSephiroth

it has the turbo motor but it is non-turbo? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. If its a 4 port NA 13b then you probably won't want it. That engine would probably make about 127 (I think, i got this by 182-5.5*10) horsepower at the flywheel.

harley71105

I'm thinking for 1200 it seems to have a lot of problems...you could find one in better shape for 1200 to 2000 that would be in much better shape...it might be a few miles from ya though....IF it were me I would offer him $500 ( but if he's a friend he might be insulted) and would say its pretty rough for 1200. I would buy it for 500 as a parts car the find me another one up to$2000 in better shape...you gonna spend the difference anyway since its in the shape it is so either way you gonna have $2500 or more out and that is without an engine....I paid 2900 for a rebuilt and Mazda installed it,,,but I'm a hardcore Rx7 keeper.
The tranny bump sounds to me like a loose or bad transmission mount, about $60. I 'm thinking if the shifter was loose you would feel it when shifting too....good luck, hope this is of some help....have two 1988's.

lasheric

I dont know the engine codes very well, but they told me its the model that came with the turbo motor, just didnt have the turbo attached. Did it have turbo once and it was taken off? Not sure...I dont think so, they just said its ready for turbo.

Harley, you are saying the engine alone costs 2500? I didnt quite understand that part of the post.

I used to buy CRX's alot, so I'm used to sizing up a car, and my first impression of the car wasnt to bad, I just wanted to be sure I got all the errors listed down.

I'm not getting this car to be pretty, I want to abuse it and drift in it. But if you think its rough for 1200, I'll offer less. Anyone else have an opinion before I tell them?

How much would a new engine, new altenator cost?

lasheric

Lol I like this board so far but the problem is it seems to have so many dang members that half of you skip over my message to read someone elses. Someone help me out, on the cost fix of some of this stuff, I'm sitting at home chilling, and Plan to call this guy up today, so all info you can arm me with before I call would help.

Snack

To be honest with you, i don't think its a good deal at all. Because its a turbo motor with no turbo it has to be slower then **** with like no power at all. The transmission thing bouncing sounds really weird ive never heard of that/felt that. Ignition not working is ok cuz its easy to fix. I just bought my project rx-7 convertable for 250$ because it wuz in shitty shape and not running for unknown reasons. All i need was a new fuel pump, gas tank, starter and ingectors and its running sweet and smooth. 90 for pump 25 for tank(Salvaged and hard to find) 180 for starter 25 for ingectors(really really good deal, brand new costly) 570 for the car and have it running.

PureSephiroth

the turbo motor with no turbo sounds incredibly fishy to me. My guess would be that its not a turbo motor at all but a 6 port 13b that came like that from the factory. A turbo motor with a broken turbo makes sense, but a turbo motor with no turbo sounds really really fishy to me.

Obviously your friend isn't trying to screw you over, but does he know what he's talking about?

87turbo2

what model is it? does it say GXL or anything on the side? 4 lug or 5 lug rims? It may very well be someone swapped a TII into a NA. If you're not sure, just open the hood...IS THERE A TURBO?

like this
http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/266393

Shane at rotary works and Kevin at rotary resurrection can do better than 2500 for motors for it. Just be sure you're not being shafted.

Also have the compression checked on both housings.

1200 for an SE is entirely diff than 1200 for a TII

lasheric

Well I talked to my friend, he said that he thinks its a NA engine, and taht he was prepping it for a turbo. Does that make sense? I cant get in contact with the owner yet so I cant give you the actual engine info. I think if I can get it for around 700-900 I'll buy it, because I can pratice drifting on this thing till it dies out, and like I said in the first post it still seems to be running good after 213k miles. If I get ahold of him I'll post the info on the engine. Thanks.

Eternal_Gamer

iTrader: (10)

If the car is a NA motor, then good luck in finding $4500 to convert your rx-7 to a turbo. I jus did this, but I got hooked up.

PureSephiroth

i don't see how a running engine can be prepped for getting a turbo... but then again I haven't turbo'ed a 6 port NA so maybe I'm wrong...

Ry Takahashi

I'ld jump on it. It's a pretty sweet deal. The squeeling is probably coming from worn down brake pads and if there's too much play to the peddle you may be low on fluid. As for the engine, you could do one of two things. You could bolt on a turbo, I'm partial to CT26's and TO4's. But remember, you can also have some sick fun by leaving the turbo off and bumping up the compression. I've seen those motors for sell, putting out 235 hp and screaming up to 11k rpm. Ball's in your court bub, I say go for it.

lasheric

Takahashi,

I was thinking the same thing, about the engine/brakes. I mean that and the ignition isnt to bad, and the engine, well I can use it till it breaks and than Just get a new one for cheap hopefully.

I am concerned with the clutch though, should it be loose like that or tight?

lasheric

Ok new info.

The car has a 13B engine, SE trim. They said its ready for turbo as in it has injectors and something else? I dont really understand what they mean by this, but none the less its a 13B engine.

THe brakes sqeek because when they installed it they only used some type of greese they use on one side, not both.

They said there is no ignition problem its just that when you start up the car you have to push in/release the clutch a bit and than crank it up, its a safety feature.

The injectors need cleaning? They said that they ran out of gas a couple weeks ago and where low today, and it was picking up some junk instead of good gas because it was low. Hope someone understands taht.

Also the transmission is refurbished and was just done recently.

The clutch is a stage 2 clutch. He said he doesnt think the stick shift is loose, it just feels like that on older cars....he might be right my 89 CRX kind of feels the same way.

So based on all that info and my previous posts, what do you guys think, worth 1200? Keep in mind once again that these are friends of friends, and I dont have any feeling of them trying to lie to me, I'm just worried about the future of this car, and when I will have to repair it next.

lasheric

bump, read last post

PureSephiroth

NO NO NO

this is completely incorrect. You cannot simply bolt on a turbo to a naturally aspirated RX-7. Search this forum for turboing and NA and you will see how incredibly difficult it is.

You can not simply bump up the compression either! In order to increase the compression you would need to get different rotors. You need to completely dissasemble the engine.

The only NA's I see making 235hp at 11,000 rpm are bridge ported rebalanced and custom shafted race only motors.

Your post was filled with missinformation and you don't know what you're talking about. Its best not to give advice like that....

now for the original poster, the engine is not "ready for a turbo" if it just has injectors. The NA engine needs massive amounts of work done for a turbo to be installed. Injectors are the first of a thousand steps and thousands of dollars that need to be taken care of to complete the task. If your friend is telling you that this engine is "ready for a turbo" then he is either lying or doesn't know himself how difficult and expensive it is. Pass this car up, you will find better deals.

rx7 punk

ok first off what is se trim? secondly 213,000 is alot for a NA i know many rotary mechanics who will tell you that NA engines need to be replaced at 120,000. and it doesn't matter how it runs at all mine was running great untill the day before christmas i parked it at my girlfriends and went out to start it and the engine was seized, theres no warning with these cars. if i were you id stick to the crx, there has been many times when i wished i would have lol but my heart will always be with my wankel

jhammons01

I would pass on this car as well. It does sound fishy. There are a lot of good RX7s available in your (our) area with less miles and less money and less problems. Run a search on Autotrader.com There are two 86s with way less miles for a $1000. One is in West Covina. There is an 85 for $999.99 (what a number) with only 112k miles. I would rather see you get a sleeper car for your hard earned money.

Remember, when somebody has been monkeying around with a car, you have no idea what they have done.....especially getting one "ready for turbo"

A rebuilt is about $1100. I have heard brags of rebuilding one for only $400 in parts.

Just my two cents.

If you get a nice one come down to the Fuddruckers on El Toro in Lake Forest on Tuesday afternoons. There are a lot of V8 Classics but I would like to see a few clean Wankels show up. I am the only one that shows and I get snubbed.

Fritz_X

iTrader: (1)

UGGHHHH that makes me sick to read not to mention the fact I just responded to your other post, which proves you are completely full of ****!

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=341621

Please do us all a favor and go back to your TokyoPop DVD's, pray to your Takumi god, and stop posting this misinformed rubbish. You are the reason that it is so hard to find actual useful information on this forum so often. Because you, and other people like you, watch TV and read comic books, and watch TF&TF and try to come onto an automotive site and post completely farcical knowledge that has absolutely no merit when pertaining to the real world. In 2 years you will be 18 maybe if you save enough by then you can afford your own T2 that you won't have to put payments down on. Until then you should go to this site..."www.howstuffworks.com" and get yourself acquainted with something close to fact. Maybe in the future after learning a little bit you can post something that will actually be beneficial to another member, however I doubt it.

Also please don't post something claiming to have real world experience with it and then have another thread refuting any possibilty of that real world experience, it makes you look like an *** in front of everyone else and might lower people's opinion of you.

The next time you feel you have something valuable to add, because you heard it in a movie/anime/NOPI special on SPEED network, do us all a favor and at the end of your post instead of clicking submit, hit the back button and save us all a headache.


--Fritz

cwsttu

ok buddy i would have to say run from that car... the previous owner knows nothing about this car... if it were me with my knowledge about rotaries i would assume this .... the owner of this car as going to turbo the car, but found out its not just bolt on due to n/a being 6 port and turbos being 4 port, upon finding this out he then tries to sell the car to an unsuspecting buyer (you) saying its prepped for turbo..... thats what i would think and its people like that that make buying used cars a joke because they misinform and after you buy it your stuck with it.... and secondly the car is an SE that means BASE model... lowest of the low model... however one of my favs due to the less weight and im not a big guy for power locks or windows... unless its in my vert.... i would pass up on this deal your rushing into it and trust me thats a way to get screwed.. i waited a year after selling my rx7 that i regretfully bought out of anxiety to get another one and guess what.. it was well worth the wait.... im sorry if you have been waiting longer than me but trust me you will find one that is better than this... this deal seems really shady and a friend of a friend doesnt mean automatic trust.... its a sick world out there, never take anybodys word for granted on anything... just my advice to you

EfiniGirl

Hm, if I got offered that deal, I don't think I would buy it. It's already got enough mileage on it for a rebuild. It seems to have been messed around with and the owner hasn't given you enough details. (Seems like he doesn't know what's quite going on either or he's just trying to pull a fast one on you.) It seems too expensive for just an n/a. And I'm sure that you'll find plenty of other good deals around your area if you just sit it out.

cwsttu

lol i agree with you man... taking the turbo off the car WILL NOT GIVE YOU HIGHER COMPRESSION... DUMBASS lol... remember due to the low compression rotors i can only imagine the car would suffocate without the forced induction and being only 4 ports...... not even stock turbos run 235 hp AND NO WAY WITHOUT THAT TURBO CAN THEY RUN THAT otherwise the best mod would be to remove the turbo lol

marlaman

That is the funniest thing i've read all day, did you know quite a lot of cars actually require you to push the clutch in when starting them? (i hope that's what you meant or i'm a dumbass.) Yep it's a saftey feature, it was disconnected on my 1st rx-7 and i almost ran my dad over once because of it .


Get this dude down to 700 bucks and you got a good deal. i would probably even bite at 800, but only if he gave an aftermarket stereo with it.


Choose well Young Jedi,
Matt

marlaman

Damn if i take that advice i'll probably never post again!


Kidding
Matt

lasheric

When I said about the ignition, safety feature thing, I just meant there was no problem with it. All cars I know you have to push the clutch in, but I guess on this car you have to push it in and than let it out while you are turning the car.

Anyways guys thanks for all your advice, I'm not going to get the car unless I can get it for 700-800. Otherwise I'll hold out for a better one in my area ( so cal ) or get an AE86 or 240sx.

Thanks again guys, my gut was saying something is wrong here but its nice to be able to confirm it. If you know any good rx7's for sale, send them my way!