karken29

Bought my 3rd gen from a nice guy in Atlanta, Georgia this past June. Departed Atlanta 5 PM and drove strait through for the next 905 miles back to NJ. While the car drove flawlessly I can't say that yours truely did as well. In fact, the poor possum I nailed at 120 MPH somewhere in N Carolina, and that took out one of my Cat shields, definitely got the worst of that night. BTW, a fat possum will fit under an R-1 without damaging the front spoiler! The heat shield didn't make out so good Now, to date, and starting with the most recent work, I've replaced the engine with a fresh Mazda motor courtesy of Ray Crowe At Malloy Mazdahttp://www.malloyautomall.com/f_index.html?noc=1 . Recieved outstanding tech advice from Dave @ KD Rotary, Nazerath PA KD Rotary URL and generally solved allot of typical problems associated with questionalble past mechanical expertise. But More on that in my next posting. Some of the more interesting things I'll discuss are:[list=1][*]How many Mazda freaks does it take to install a complete motor with trans attached?[*]Is it even possible to install the motor and trans assembly in one shot?[*]what's the best way to deal with the dreaded Vacuum tray?[*]What about the down pipe??[*]What's the best way to deal with the wire harness??[*]When shifting your appliances, i.e. turbos, hoses, air pump etc what's good to replace??[*]How about the flywheel? [*]Clutch and pressure plate? use the old one or upgrade and to what??[*]How about removal/disengagement of the throw-out bearing? Is is really that hard?[*]What gasket set(s) should you consider getting?[*]What OEM versus After Market parts should you use?... where do you draw the line?[*]How do you diagnose those pesky "check Engine Light" codes?[*]and more...[/list=1] BTW... If you know someone with a "Snap-On" Tap & Die set... see if you can borrow it.... It saved my butt many times over on this project and you'll likely to make good use of it. My bias for Snap-On is due to the fact that the set I used almost 99% of the time contained the the tap or die needed. Torque wrench... same comment.... get one! you'll be glad you did! Perhaps one of the best after-market internet vendors out there is Gotham Racing... Steve kan at Gotham Racing is a great guy... very coustomer oriented! Another great resource on the net is Pineapple racing Ask for Bob (I think) . They have good tech info on their site and sell a reasonalbly priced engine stand adapter for approx. $69.00 for the 13B. It'll allow to adapt most any traditional engine stand for use with the 13B motor. More to come!

ArchangelX

Wow...

I imagine I'll have to know these answers sooner or later.

Umm..someone want to answer them.heheheh.

LAracer

Wow. Looks like you got some serious searching to do (also check the newbie links in this forum).

Welcome and good luck.

ArchangelX

LOL..

I knew someone was gonna say that...heh...

2-Rotor

Welcome to the forum Morristown huh? Thats not too far from me.

Mr. Stock

Are there any other father and son who both own third gen RX7's and are on the forum?

Mr. Stock

Karken is no newbie

Mr. Stock

Wow! Are you considering yourself a Mazda freak now?
A real convert to the Rotary worship?

Since it looks like you have gone through the downpipe installation rite of passage, and have posted your first thread here, I pronounce thee an official Rotorhead.

But don't get any ideas about installing a V8 in your RX7.

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

Oh yes he is .

He thinks he knows more than me, but he's got a lot of catching up to do .

Btw guys, Karken is my dad. He did a pretty kickass job of getting his motor up and running.

What's funny is that back in December of 1998 I had to convince him to drive 3-4 hours to go look at my R1. "I'm not driving that far to look at an 18 thousand dollar used Mazda!"

Well, now that she's up and running....let the mods begin

Snook

iTrader: (12)

GoodfellaFD3S: why don't you help your dad out?
does he not trust what you say or something? I bet he prob wants to hear it from other people and not be taught by his son haha. I think you can trust your son though and you're just a telephone call away from knowing all the answers.

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

Oh, I help my dad out as much as possible, especially with his modification path. But when dealing with specifics on pulling the motor, stripping it, and then putting everything back together and in the car, Kan is the guy to talk to. He can do the **** in his sleep . As a matter of fact, he is Mr. Miagi to my Karate Kid when it comes to this subject......but I'm still at the "wax on, wax off" stage right now .

Rich

Snook

iTrader: (12)

cool cool


and in the other thread about your time I meant I thought your car should have done better in the 1/4 mile. Can't the 60 foot get better than that? I know it was a **** track and street tires but please give me some inspiration. I went with stock boost and main cat and pulled at 13.5 with 2.2 60 time and my launch was fairly pathetic I thought. I was slipping the clutch and I realized that I could do this effectively and give it a good amount of throttle while not breaking the tires loose but I forgot that it takes so long for you to do it. I think dropping it a little slower and flooring it and having the tires hook up = faster 60 time.
Now I have a midpipe as you know haha and I want to run in the 12s just with stock boost or very close so that's why I was hoping that your car would run lower so maybe mine will make it into the 12s.

karken29

Well, Since I last posted on my "New/Used" FD purchase allot has happened. Not wanting to miss any of the experiences associated with FD ownership I decided to cram as much excitement into the first 6 months of ownership as possible. First thing was correcting all the little problems and obvious "fixems" I found. To insure I didn't miss anything, I took my baby to KD Rotary. Dave looked her over and said "...nice car Homer! Good luck with it" and then he went on, "...sounds like you have an exhaust leak near the turbos." At this point the car had stock exhaust except for a down pipe the previous owner installed and,,for the most part, was bone stock. I went home, talked to Alex (he has an exceptional 94 touring w/99 nose and tail), who offered me his used, but nice Drager muffler. I accepted. So, now I had unwittingly talken my first steps in the Mods game and little did I realize that the RX-7 sickness was just beginning! But, for now, my thoughts didn't go much beyond, I too would have a Maxwell-House-Coffee-Can-Exhaust... How fitting. I chalked it up to mid-life crisis. Anyway, when I removed the stock OEM exhaust I discovered that the gasket between the mid-cat and the tail pipe was some gypsy-undersized part that didn't belong. In fact, it was so undersized that it was severely damaged and partially burnt from being in the direct path of the main exhaust gas stream. So, off to the local Mazda parts department I went to buy the correct one. Had I been thinking, I would have purchased several The downpipe side gasket was also gypsy, undersized and leaking. Their small size acted like restricter plates causing excessive back pressure, which accounted, in part, for the cars slow performance. Results? The car seemed faster! ...Cool ! So, with a lot of coaxing from GoodfellaFD3s I continued to get the following:
Blitz Turbo Time
Greddy Water Temp Gauge (silver faced/red lighting)
New Engine from Malloy
Greddy Boost Controller
PFS ECU (Purple Box...) BTW I need the hand-held Commander if anybody has one !
Apexi Air Filters
New Vacuum Hoses
New Coolant hoses
New Engine and Turbo gaskets (all)
and the list kinda keeps going...
Sadly, on Jan 1, 2003 I crashed the car. So, it's now in the body shop... Good news Insurance is going to fix it.

However, I do not recommend this method as a reasonable path to a new paint job! :-) Will post more later

karken29

BTW... The reason for the new engine... I tuned the old one to death... I gave up at 70,000 miles

Foz'sRX-7

Sounds like you're having fun!

I have a 93 Vintage Red Base Model, which I purchased at 49k miles (Lease Return). Drove it for 40k miles before any mods were done.

Added a Racing Beat Type 1 spoiler and repainted with clear coat.

When my clutch went out, I let it sit for four months while I researched what I wanted to do.

I ordered performance parts from Pettit Racing (Intake, Downpipe, Clutch, Pulleys, Alum AST, Boost gauge, etc.) then took it all to Maztech in Tampa.

I thought that if he had to replace the clutch, then lets rebuild the engine.

Now I have 125K on it (114K when the engine was rebuilt) and it runs SWEEEET!

I drive a 91 Miata daily and my REX on weekends or about one week per month.

I am now planning on an RX-8 this summer to replace the Miata as my daily driver.

Click here to see a pic!

Good Luck on yours.....let us see pix.

karken29

Other mods include Racing Beat Aluminum Flywheel and ACT Clutch and Pressure Plate courtesy of Gothamracing.com. Here's a link on present condition of my REX... http://members.bellatlantic.net/~karken/dadsrx7.htm

The body shop ordered an entire front clip and parts not used in the restoration will soon be available on E-Bay.

karken29

PM me if you have rear suspension parts f/s

Mr. Stock

Ouch!
I read about your mishap in the rain as posted on the list by Goodfellar.
That looks worse than I had imagined.
Good luck on getting it back on the road.

Ed

karken29

Thanks for the well wishes Ed.... Nothing like starting off the New Year with a bang! I now detest Air Bags.... can you say Concussion!

karken29

BTW... you happen to have another undertray laying about... or rear bumper.... ??

Mr. Stock

Sorry. I don't have any spares.

karken29

Thanks for checking Ed... I just picked up a rear bumper today... has some scratches around the license plate area, but the body shop can worry about that... Otherwise it's in nice shape... better than my old one.

BATMAN

man i am jelous now.. damn i wish my pops had a rx-7... would make talkin to him so much easyer. he doesnt like the whole fact i am into the " car thing " i just recently dump'd 6k into my car. and wow.. he was mad.. but. oh well.. hes still a dick in my book and probly wont change. you all that have folks that share a slight interest in what you do be lucky and take advantage of that. i am not so fourtunate... and would love to have someone like that who i can consider family and work on my rx-7 with :\ oh well i can keep dreaming right.. ?


oh well.. one day i will get my girl into cars.. if not i will dump her and find one that is.

vosko

iTrader: (4)

can't wait to see the car when its fixed gonna be done by the end of the month ? hooters meet on the 23rd

karken29

Thanks for info Vos.... I'm hoping that once my car gets up on the frame straitening jig.... next Monday or Tuesday is the projection now, the work should go pretty fast. Which Hooters are you meeting at??? PM me and let me know...