whats the best advice you could give to someone looking to aquire a TII (never owned a rotary), what too look for in the car, engine, price etc.. i'm yet to find one in my area so i'm just gonna keep saving my pennies till i find one. i plan on the TII being a daily driver and give my current car to my mother cause she's stuck on foot. still looking...

- rony

 

Here's a guide from Aaron Cake, although for a non turbo.

http://www.aaroncake.net/RX-7/buy1.htm

Best advice - don't be in a hurry. If the seller can't answer fundamental questions, then move on. Red is pretty easy to find on a TII, but other colors like black, white, dark grey, and dark blue are a bit rarer.

Also Turbo IIs from 89-91 are a bit less common than 86-88. The best places to look for TIIs are this site, other rx-7 websites, autotrader, ebay, and www.thepartstrader.com . If looking on autotrader, be sure to ask every seller who doesn't list the model if it's a Turbo II car.

Also, make sure you verify the number of miles on the engine, ESPECIALLY if buying from a dealership. Either buy one with a recent rebuild or buy it DIRT cheap and do the rebuild yourself. Any one you're really considereing buying, I'd recommend having the local mazda dealership pull the compression numbers. Just make sure they use a real rotary engine compression tester. You should ask beforehand if you'll be getting "6 numbers or 2 numbers" back. 6 numbers means it's a real compression tester.

Expect the usual "do it yourself repair stuff" such as hesitation @ 3800rpms, wipers don't work in high/low, autoseatbelt weirdness (89-91 years), etc..

Finally, don't be afraid of buying out of state. Almost every state has a rx7club, and I'm sure one of those members would be happy to look the car over for you.

 

and if the seller says "doesnt burn oil" he's either lying or has a problem with his oil metering pump, which is very bad. ask how often he changes the oil and what brand/weights they use. synthetic is an unwise choice for oil injected rotary engines.

 

This is a very timely topic for meas well as I am looking to go to the darkside from the N/A ...Does anyone else have any other websites or advice that are turbo specific?

 

There is another way of looking at that statement. If some 2nd rate hack car dealer says that, he/she could mean that it's not smoking from the exhaust, and be completely unaware of the OMP.

 

get one with a blown motor and get a J-Spec.. worked fine for me. S5 TurboII with a S5 J-spec engine, 14.1 @ 100mph on only 5.5lbs of boost (stock is around 8 lbs).

 

my wallet isn't that deep. i'm going for what i can with what i have. no luck as of yet, and my accord transmission just died. uncle is checking it out... has a friend that might fix/rebuild for $1k so i might have to wait a little longer cause of this setback.

why are s5 turboII's so rare? i can't find one in miami except for some pretty expensive ($4,500) ones. i'm thinking of going with an S4 and swapping tail-light and front bumper.. anybody pull this off? pain? how hard would it be to find light and front bumper? bleh.

 

There rare because there a bit more sought after. The S4s are just as capable HP wise. If you searched on autotrader, thepartstrader, etc.. you'll find one.

When I was looking, I spotted ~2 week for sale in my region, but I held out for the color & year I wanted.

 

all the ones in my region are like 80+ miles away... and since i'm in florida their isn't really any other direction to go..

 

80 miles is pretty close actually. I'd extend your search to a 300 mile radius if you want a better selection.

 

jumping off topic for 2 sec.

vaughnc: are their a lot of sr powered 240s up there? cause i remember a while back i was considering taking up the project, and remember heavy throttle or some shop... up in GA that had been working with a rb20det into a 240..

back on subject.

i guess i will have to extend to 300 miles i see myself having to drive up to tampa, orlando, or even GA if all fails next spring i'm going up to NY to see my sister... i'm sure i could find something in the area and drive down... though that would be hell... possibly not the best idea

- rony

 

if you dont want to do the install yourself, find a place that could install a new engine. its much smarter to buy a TURBO II with a blown engine (about $800 for car), then either get the engine rebuild or go a for a j-spec (about $2,000). Say the installation cost about $500, then youre looking at a TII with a fresh engine and you'll only have $3,000-3,500 in the car. you will probably have money left over for mods

 

Not sure on the 240s, although 85% of the owners don't do anything special with their cars.

You might hit up one of the Atlanta Nissan sites.

 

well i found one for $4,500 and thats pretty steep. but its an 87 TII with 101,000k on chasi, but a rebuild engine w/ 2,000 on it.. looks great, but i think i could knock off a good grand if i talk to him/her. w/e, i'm just happy i may be able to get a TII really don't want to go N/A but if worse comes to worse.... i'll still have an FC! :P