TK7

iTrader: (6)

Ive read here for years about blowing engines right and left. most recent one i just read here

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/serious-problem-after-race-916896/

I started thinking,..... does anyone have any stories of engines that, according to everything you read on this forum should have been toast years ago? running base maps, spikes, creep, over rev, full exhaust, etc etc.

Now i know this is a BAD idea, cause as SOON as i post this..... ill blow my motor, lol. But im really curious to see if anyone else has some experiences of the rotary takin a lickin and still tickin.

I cant even count how many times ive had a spike for any number of reasons, most of which related to my EBC blowing off a hose. The most recent one, i was racing my buddies evo, and blew a hose off at full throttle. Blitz EBC recorded a peak spike of 22.7 PSI..... yeah.... thats ridiculous. i shot flames and sounded like a machine gun.

not too long ago, a buddy wanted to drive the car, and he said he could drive manual. He lied... haha. he missed a gear but still floored it. He took it DEEP into the red under no load. i couldve killed him.

even i missed 4th once, and threw it 2nd at the top of third.... broke the tires loose.,,



im sure ive got way more stories to tell. now here i am, running around on the pfc base map for close to 3 years, full exhaust... no cats...at all.... no boost creep. grant it, i dont daily drive this car, but EVERYTIME i do ,it sees full boost, why else own it? and ive had countless miss haps while learning how to work on it and conrtol its boost and other systems.

Im NOT saying this is how you should do it.... cause chances are, ive just been really lucky/blessed to have not destroyed it yet, and eventually it may blow. But does anyone else have stories of a very forgiving FD? they get such a HORRIBLe wrap, .... mines been awesome to me! anyone else?

ptrhahn

iTrader: (9)

I do, but I'm afraid to put it in writing for fear of jinxing it.

dgeesaman

iTrader: (7)

Ditto. I've had 6 years of trouble-free operation. Most of my issues occur elsewhere or are a result of me pre-emptively "fixing" things.

David

arghx

iTrader: (3)

I have three engines that I consider complete tanks.

1st is the original engine on my buddy's '94. I never knew him when he was on original engine (he has owned it since '97), but from what I've heard I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. His AST blew and he had numerous over overheats and it survived. He had a pulsation dampener fire but caught it in time and everything survived. Hell he had a cracked factory wheel (not easily visible) and never had an accident on it. Motor finally gave up the ghost at 110k. It didn't really have many mods.

His 2nd engine is also a tank. It was built by Bruce Turrentine, streetported with 3mm RA classic seals and I think RA coolant o rings. This motor has exceeded 260F water temps at LEAST a dozen times. A PFC went in with the motor and it ran for years at over 12psi (when it didn't have some boost leak) and it never blew up. I finally took a look at the tune a couple years ago (he had a "base" tuner from two different vendors which I will not name) once he got a wideband installed and working. That thing must have been leaning out every time he got on it. Knock count was 70-80 until I pulled timing and added fuel. Knock is now in the 30's. The motor is still alive although coolant seems to be disappearing slowly... those overheats may be finally catching up to it.

3rd engine is the previous motor in my FC Turbo II. It was also built by Bruce Turrentine with an RA kit and RA Super seals. I overheated it after my fan failed, ran it on half a quart of oil because of a big oil leak I caused, detonated the crap out of it from brake boosting on a cold winter night. Finally I tore it down after a big detonation event and rebuilt everything, although I am actually reusing the apex seals because they all spec'd out perfectly.


how about the guy who was running a junkyard motor at 21psi on stock twins for a while? Oh and if you want to read horror stories, go on to nasioc.com and read about all the STi and WRX owners who blow their motors.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

paul ko's fd was running 21psi on the first turbo for 2 years before we even put a boost gauge on it, its been another year and we haven't done anything about it yet. stock ecu/injectors. when you boost it throws a CEL for code 13....

oh yeah and the motor is a 70k core that got an oring set thrown at it, so its not even really rebuilt.

its not his daily, but maybe 2-3 days a week?

MR_Rick

iTrader: (7)

My second FD had 140K miles on the original everything. The guy I sold it to rebuilt it when he did a compression check 70-80 psi on ALL faces. When I had it it ran great. It had PFS SMIC/intake, DP and Exhaust.

f2racer

iTrader: (1)

Back in 2003, I had one of the coolant hoses to the turbo rupture bad. I thought the car's coolant seals were going bad prior as I was loosing a little coolant for a couple of months prior to this catastrophic event:

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/help-major-coolant-leak-214546/

In 2004 I tackled a "longevity project" on the car which included replacing the radiator, all the coolant/heater hoses, the vacuum hose job, testing all the solenoids (all worked fine), installing a ball-spring manual boost controller (http://www.boostvalve.com), and sending the fuel injectors out to be serviced.

Car now has 109+k miles on it's original never-rebuilt engine! Still pulls 15" vacuum at idle and boosts a perfect 10-8-10. Body doesn't look great, as I kept it under a big oak tree over the winter that shed a million acorns the last couple of years (in spite of the 2 layers of car covers I have tons of little dings on the hood) and the VR paint is very faded (peeling on the rear bumper), but the car runs awesome. Been driving it every other week to/from work this summer after 4 years of minimal use, due to the arrival of my 3rd child, work, and life in general.

It's been great to get reacquainted, forgot how much fun it is to drive!

alexdimen

iTrader: (13)

I don't think there's anything magical or random about the failures of these engines. There are reasons some people blow engine after engine and others have reliable cars. It comes down to either treating the car like a toy to beat on or treating it like a finely tuned system that must stay within certain parameters. That and attention to details. You can't change the operating conditions of an engine and expect some mystic force to take care of all that extra stress... though I think many owners do just that.

Original owner of my FD daily drove it to 130k miles. It remained completely stock throughout that time.

I had an incident where my compressor wheel completely disintegrated/shredded down the intake from the nut spinning off (my fault and for want of 1 drop of loctite). The car ran for another 1000 miles until the apex seals were tiny slivers of their former selves. I was pretty impressed by that.

sinned2545

iTrader: (7)

I DD mine.. Single turbo making around 370 whp... had it for about 2yrs now. And By DD I actually mean me and my girl go to the super market in it to pick up grocery's.

This year alone I drove from New york to North Carolina (13hrs), then this month I drove from New york to Maine (7hrs) then a additional 2hrs north to Acadia state park. I love it, sure things might break here and there but as long as you fix them the right way you shouldnt have problems down the road.

Also I drive it thinking that oneday it will break... lol... so when it does I have no regrets

TRWeiss1

iTrader: (20)

As alex stated, there's no magic to why these motors stay together or break. There's always a rhyme and reason to what happens. When I first bought my FD back in 07, it had some bad coolang seals, so out came the motor. We found out that the previous owner had overheated the housings, so a rebuild was in order. Everything was within tolerance, so we reused the reusable seals (including atkins apex seals).

Well, fast forward to spring of 09. The car made 370 on stock twins, non-sequential. It was about a week before going single turbo, and the motor split 2 apex seals out of the rear housing, thus taking out my secondary turbo. However, I knew that atkins seals were brittle, and the car was making a significant amount of power.

After that, I bought brand new rotor housings, RA 3mm black super seals, an RX-8 e-shaft, studded the motor, etc, etc. Now I run premix and am always meticulous about checking my oil/changing it every 1500 miles. I've also got a coolingmist water/meth injection kit. As long as you keep an eye on everything, make sure you change your fuel filter, keep a sharp eye on AFRs, change/check your oil regularly, and have it tuned properly, it should last you a good while. It's critical to have all the correct supporting mods, and don't cut corners!

tt7hvn

iTrader: (5)

in our efforts to become proactive, we end up being reactive anyways

edwin-82/rx7

iTrader: (1)

While learning how to use the FCedit software, recalc'd base then only wrote the inj map... didn't write the base map.

lots of popping, 14.5 to 15 afr's but thankfully didn't hit boost entering the interstate. won't do that again.

moconnor

iTrader: (14)

Also while learning the FCEdit software, I would hit 15 psi at 3k rpm without tuning for it - got pretty interesting AFR and knock numbers there. Connected a manual boost controller backwards once (i.e., it would never open the wastegate) and hit 16psi+ before realizing my error. And, in a particularly boneheaded move, started the engine once with the oil pressure sensor in the knock sensor location and spewed oil everywhere for a few seconds before turning it off. Have also left my engine several times for 4+ months without turning it over during extended projects - and afterwards it started each time like a charm.

Original engine with 55k miles, ~18" of vacuum and rock solid idle at 720rpm.

My luck may run out at some point....

Copeland

iTrader: (42)

When I first got my Power FC I ran it thinking it was a stock map. I checked the AFR's under boost and that was it. I later got a commander to hook up to the PFC and saw 80-90 knock and thought that was regular/normal but as long as it stayed under 100. I drove it like that for about a year and a half before the front bearing finally let loose and the rotor contacted the housing for a piston rod knock type sound. I think most problems are just caused by bad maintenance/owners. I have full faith in the durability of these motors.

I know a guy who mixed the trailing/leading wires and striped (lines) the plugs and still didn't hurt the engine. Still going today after 5 years or so. 15-19psi on a 35R streetported motor.

All I can say is live and learn.

rdahm

iTrader: (6)

my current engine is a reman from mazda lol. i have 40k miles on it. They have been bad rough miles. I am one of those guys that bought a PowerFC from SRmotorsports and had them load an approximate map for me. ran it that way untuned for 30+k miles.

bought a wideband and found that i was going 15-16 afr on boost. on my stock twins nonetheless. lol

now, i have my gt35r and water injection installed and i take that beast up to 15psi as often as i can. i dont have my 3bar sensor installed, so im capped there. I have a hesitation to tune out, it leans out at about 0psi and 3500rpm lol. again 15-16afr.

This engine is gonna go to engine heaven when it eventually dies.

Natey

iTrader: (19)

My FD had 140k+ on it when I bought it. Original engine, turbos, tranny (5th gear is still smooth)...everything. It passed smog easily and boosted great. There WAS some white smoke upon start-up, but it disappeared quickly and the car ran fine. The worst thing about it was the ripped up seats and keyed paint...mechanically, it ran like top.

Karack even used most of my old parts when he rebuilt the engine, and the stock turbos still spun freely when I removed them for a set of Pettit twins.