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To swap, or to sell?

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Old Sep 4, 2006 | 10:13 PM
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To swap, or to sell?

Well, currently I have a 87 GXL, and I'm debating on swapping to a turbo drivetrain or selling the car. I want a TII, but can't find a decent one. My car now has no rust or underbody rust, and I've been told to keep it and just swap instead of trying to find a TII in the same condition since my chassis is so clean. If I remember right, my GXL should have the TII LSD already in it, so that's one piece I wouldn't need. If I remember right, the other pieces I'd need are axles, trans, engine, and wiring harness. So, am I gonna be wisers to just sell my GXL and buy a TII, or just keep my clean chassis and swap? Here's the pictures of my car...

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v6...Wolf_RX7/RX-7/
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Old Sep 4, 2006 | 10:22 PM
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that's a pretty clean car man. i'd have a hard time parting with it if i were you.

have you thought about just putting a turbo kit on it?

otherwise, my vote would be to keep it and swap it.
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Old Sep 4, 2006 | 10:23 PM
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affen
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woah, nice 7.... go for the swap!

I am doing a turbo swap soon on my 86 base. I am keeping the n/a drivetrain for now though with just a stronger clutch.
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Old Sep 4, 2006 | 10:36 PM
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Clean car bro. I would say just do the swap. You can get a 13bt setup (engine, tranny, ECU and harness) for about $1k. Then, add about another $300 for the NA=>T2 Mazdaspeed driveshaft. So, for less than $1500 (if you do your own work) you can have a clean boosted RX7.
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Old Sep 4, 2006 | 11:08 PM
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ya you might find a engine and tranny with ecu and harness (maybe harness) for about 1k but expect it to be blown. your gonna have to put another 2k into rebuilding the damn thing. just something to think about. cause i recently bought a jdm turbo II engine with tranny and ecu for 1.3k and its freakin blown, 99% of them are. so just think about that.
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Old Sep 4, 2006 | 11:22 PM
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my j-spec was blown too, rebuilt it and ported for about 1000, not too bad. i still think i came out on top versus buying an S5 t2 which is essentially what i have now.
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Old Sep 4, 2006 | 11:31 PM
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don't let go of that chasis, I have had a lot of problems with rot and **** on my chasis and I will have to completely gut the car soon and paint everything over with por 15 except the engine bay. do the turbo swap or just keep it a na and get itbs or do something cool and keep it na.
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Old Sep 5, 2006 | 03:29 AM
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looks like someone is ready for a TII swap............an S4 TII motor would be best for you if you want simplicity (plug and play)
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Old Sep 5, 2006 | 04:11 PM
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Yea, everyone keeps telling me to stick with my chassis because of how clean it is. I must admit, it is nice having a rust free car. I think I'm gonna put it again on the lift at school and check it out one more time. From what I saw last time, the brake lines don't even have rust on them, and the exhaust is barely rusted and it's the stock exhaust. I couldn't find any rust on the body either. The engine bay is very clean too for never being degreased. There's no leaks anywhere on the car at all either. I guess it would be a better idea to just stick with my chassis anyways. If I bought a TII, I'd want to convert to 5 lug anyways, which my GXL already has, meaning that's money I can save. Also, the nice thing will be that right now I can remove my PS and AC and all that crap and make it 10x easier to pull my NA engine. Basically, from what I can tell, there's not a ton of parts I'm really going to need besides axles, driveshaft, transmission, ecu, harness, and engine, which isn't a big deal if I've got someone to help me that knows where **** goes. So my question now is, does my car actually have the TII LSD already in it? If I remember right, the 86-88 GXL did. From the sounds of it, you guys are paying a lot for JDM engines. I found JDM engine and tranny for 600 bucks that includes wiring harness and ECU too. Also, they're guarenteed not to be blown or anything either. From what I've been told, to find a TII in the shape my car is would be about 3.5k. I payed 2.5k for my car, so 1000 bucks could easily go a long way towards a turbo swap. Not to mention most turbo cars that you buy need to be rebuilt at the time anyways.
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Old Sep 5, 2006 | 04:46 PM
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id like to know where i can get a TII that clean for 3500 lol
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Old Sep 5, 2006 | 05:01 PM
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im not possitive but i think the gxl lsd and the T2 lsd are differnt...if i were you i would keep that car and do the swap...i like the paint job too i dont think thats factory ive never seen that color...and they even painted the moldings tail lamps and engine bay wich tells me someone took alot of time to do a nice paint job on that car and i would keep it just for that..your best bet is go buy a blown T2 doner car and get it rebuilt or go with the jdm engine and trans but i wouldnt trust the engine not to be blown on one of those..
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Old Sep 5, 2006 | 05:09 PM
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Originally Posted by Ice_Wolf
If I bought a TII, I'd want to convert to 5 lug anyways, which my GXL already has, meaning that's money I can save.
If you purchased a (legit) TII, you wouldn't need to do a 5 lug conversion. Only the lowest models of series 4 rx-7s had 4 lugs. TIIs are on the other end of the spectrum.
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Old Sep 5, 2006 | 06:37 PM
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The GXL doesn't have the same rear as a TII. The series 4 did have LSD I believe but the ring gear in the TII is bigger so the whole pumpkin is different. Mazdatrix now sells a driveshaft to connect a TII tranny to a n/a rear end if you want to use yours.
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Old Sep 5, 2006 | 07:47 PM
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So is there any advantage at all with sticking with my rear end? If I remember right, the NA rear end couldn't handle as much power as the TII rear end could. No point in getting that driveshaft from Mazdatrix if I'm not sticking with my rear-end. Also, I remember reading something about using FD housings when rebuilding?
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Old Sep 5, 2006 | 08:06 PM
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from what i heard the rear in the T2 is a little bit stronger then the NA rear and i see no advantages in keeping the rear you have other then saving some money because if you change over to the T2 rear then you need the T2 driveshaft and axles also and that will cost alot more then the driveshaft from mazdatrix unless you do buy a donor car
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Old Sep 5, 2006 | 08:11 PM
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yup.........if you have a MIDLY modded TII you'll be fine with the NA rear......but once you go past 260+hp it might go kerbloooooie!!!!
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Old Sep 5, 2006 | 09:08 PM
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Well, I might as well get a TII rear-end now along with driveshaft and axles, because there's no point in spending 350 bucks just to have to throw it away once I actually start modding the car. I might be able to get most of the TII parts from a friend, so I'll see what I can do.
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Old Sep 5, 2006 | 09:14 PM
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Originally Posted by kilous
ya you might find a engine and tranny with ecu and harness (maybe harness) for about 1k but expect it to be blown. your gonna have to put another 2k into rebuilding the damn thing. just something to think about. cause i recently bought a jdm turbo II engine with tranny and ecu for 1.3k and its freakin blown, 99% of them are. so just think about that.
Well, that is terrible... I guess I am lucky that I live in South Florida. Before I buy an engine, I go and check it out. Also, dont buy an engine w/o a startup warrenty. Put it in and compression test it. Thats what I did. There are alot of importers in Miami that sell engines. So, when I bought 1st jdm motor, when I didnt like it I drove the motor back to them and told them that it didnt start up. They swapped it out... The only problem is that alot of importers usually dont offer any type of warrenty for rotaries... Read the fine print and dont get screwed over....

Also, if he were to sell his car and buy a T2 with 50K-150K mile, then in my opinion you still have about the same possibility of getting a lemon... Either way you are gonna spend a grip...
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Old Sep 5, 2006 | 10:17 PM
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Originally Posted by Apathy
Well, that is terrible... I guess I am lucky that I live in South Florida. Before I buy an engine, I go and check it out. Also, dont buy an engine w/o a startup warrenty. Put it in and compression test it. Thats what I did. There are alot of importers in Miami that sell engines. So, when I bought 1st jdm motor, when I didnt like it I drove the motor back to them and told them that it didnt start up. They swapped it out... The only problem is that alot of importers usually dont offer any type of warrenty for rotaries... Read the fine print and dont get screwed over....

Also, if he were to sell his car and buy a T2 with 50K-150K mile, then in my opinion you still have about the same possibility of getting a lemon... Either way you are gonna spend a grip...
Yea, there are a few companies who will warranty their engines with some sort of start up warranty and if it doesn't work, they'll replace it. That's true about buying a TII also. Unless someone has reputable compression numbers on the engine, or the owner allows you to do a compression test on the car before you buy it, you still run the same risk of the engine being bad. Either way, I'm looking at rebuilding an engine, whether I buy a JDM engine, or if I buy a TII.
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Old Sep 5, 2006 | 10:18 PM
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do da swap
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Old Sep 5, 2006 | 10:45 PM
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that car is too clean,do the swap
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Old Sep 5, 2006 | 11:06 PM
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From: MASSHOLE
I have had so many problems with my na gxl and rust. I have spent over $8000 on my car and mods about now and I still have rust and I need to por 15 everything now and I still don't have a paintjob. I stayed na because I wanted to have a more reliable engine.
here are some mods
Engine:
rebuilt 13b(2 new rotor housings and a new front plate), s5 intake swap, relocated alternator, relocated battery(rear storage bin), Deleted ps/ac, exedy clutch kit, mazdatrix lightweight aluminum flywheel, ford taurus electric fan, full racingbeat exhaust with highflow cat, 5th + 6th port inserts, Rmagic ground wire kit, koyo aluminum rad, K&n air filter
Suspension:
full racing beat suspension kit, 4 kyb agxs, 1998 mustang gt rims with cheap tires.
racing beat strut tower bar


so make sure everything else works first before you start going turbo because things can break in such a old car.

and goodluck with that nice chasis, plz don't sell it.
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Old Sep 6, 2006 | 03:20 PM
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Alright, I guess I'll just stick with my chassis then and do the swap. Right now it's sounding like a good idea because it saves me the trouble of having to sell mine and purchase a new car. It looks like to swap to a TII I'll need an entire drivetrain. I guess I really have no other questions to ask and that I just need to start gathering parts together for the swap. Thanks for your help guys.
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Old Sep 6, 2006 | 03:25 PM
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Looks like I might have just what you need. See my thread in the for sale section, I have a complete turbo II engine/drivetrain/sensor swap.
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Old Sep 7, 2006 | 01:44 PM
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Alright Kevin, I'll make sure to check it out.
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