hey Ive read a lot of info on how fragile the engines are and all the reliability mods that need to be done. I was wondering to all you out there with cars that have been running well for a while or forever, what is your style? Do you baby you car, do you get on Hard it once a week, once a day, or quite a lot?
Im trying to get an understanding for what kind of stresses the engine can handle once its tuned correctly and running how it is supposed to.
I will have a boost , fuel pressure, and water temp gauge installed and reliability mods, and will always watch to make sure they are in their respective ranges.
I am anticipating autocrossing around 4 or 5 times a year and then some spirited driving around town prolly once a week or maybe more
Id just like some input on your experiences with daily driving and how much you all redline your cars and things like that.

Thanks

 

I don't think it has to do with the driving style all that much, but more of the maintanance. How often people are checking under their hoods for lose or damaged hoses, odd noises, etc...

I'll bet it's more of being able to diagnose small problems early and keeping a good maintenance schedule than the driving styles.

There are people here who AutoX or drag their cars all the time and don't have any problems. But they are usually the ones that are making sure their cars are operating at their best.

I know that I'm going to start a routine of just basic checks once a week (like a Saturday morning thing). I doubt it will take more than a few minutes just to do the basic check points.

 

the rotary is far from fragile..if properly mantained, and tuned they can take more of a beating than any piston would..they just dont like dtonation@ ALL

personally i drive mine like i stole it, the car hates goin slow and its so much more fun ..i try to redline it every chance i get..i mean i dont redline it in 1st just to get to 45 in a 45mph zone..but any chance for a quick sprint the pedals in the floor

ive honestly only had 2 mech related falures the entinre 5 years ive had the car,
1 was a wierd problem with the starter tooth ring seperating from the flywheel, and the other was the dreaded vac line

other then that the car was flawless i just like to mod it 2 much

 

Mind giving me the checklist of the maintenence each week? that would help out alot.

My main thing is I want peace of mind that I can go out and drive her like I stole it whenever I want and not worry that it will blow up while running it near redline or at redline (I know not to run it at redline ALL the time but cmon it is a sportscar)

 

Well I am assuming the previous owners of mine did baby the car when they weren't getting on it. Considering it does have 76k miles on the original engine and it has mods. The first owner did some mods (I,P,E) so I know he was into the car somewhat. The 2nd owner did baby the car a lot. When I saw it the first time it was in the garage with a car cover over it. He never let anyone around it he said. But then again he did drive it 140 mph in 4th gear on the test drive. Probably just to show it off.

In terms of me, I am pretty particular with my stuff, so I believe that I treat it pretty well. I don't drive it hard that much except for recently and that is b/c I am trying to get my damn BC tuned properly. I take care when starting and warming the car and cooling the car down. But a normal Sunday drive with me is just cruising with the ocassional launch. Unless someone tries to show me up then, I obviously have to run it hard for this person. But overall I would say that I treat it pretty mild (baby it sometimes , drive it like any other car, and redline it out to clean the engine). It is not good for an engine to never be wound up though. I try and keep that in mind. Other than the I,P,E the rest of the mods I put on.

 

daily checks-
oil and coolant( i hate reading how idiots are like i havent check my oil since i got it changed 2k ago and the oil light came on...why?)

weekly- tire press, oil, coolant, ps, brake fluid--- look over entire
engine. check for any thing outa norm...Wash the car!-( I wash every 2-3days if its dirty or not)

(im under the car @least once a week if not atleast every other..)

but once a month jack up car inspect undercarrage and looks for anything not normal- also i pull wheels and check brakes and brake wear
wax once a month

seasonal_ie once a year- diff and trans fluid- bleed brakes and clutch, flush completly if fluid looks dirty @ all..i run evans npg+now so i dont swap coolant but if i still did i would change it every 2 years..although i changed my mix from 80-20 to 90-10 in the summer


change oil and filter every 1k
run ultra 94 never let it go below 1/4 tank

and have fun


keeping **** matinece like i do will allow you to spot somehting going wrong

 

Ok so as long as I am **** about maintenence I can drive it like a sports car and love every minute of it ?
I was plannin on doing the oil every 2K is that ok?
And what is Ultra 94?

also do you add any 2 stroke to your gas?

 

That's when you want to boost it, right? If you're not boosting, then you should be fine with less than 1/4 tank.

 

the more you drive it the better it gets.

just drive it slowly before shutting the engine off to let it cool down the turbos.

 

or a turbo timer works too right ?
if you set it to be like 2 or 3 minutes?

 

ultra94 is 94 octane sonoco(sp)
basicaly just buy good gas in some areas the highest octane you can get is 91

but here in jersey you can get 94@ the pumps
when i know im gonna be running it hard i will add a few oz of synthetic 2 stroke to the tank

as far as the 1/4 tank yea i guess you could say its just for when your boosting, but you never know when a race is gonna pop up and 20$ in gas is alot cheaper than 3k for a new motor

i drive slow on my way to my house then turbo time for 1:30-2 min with the hood up and fans on


but i AM excesive with it

you should be fine with 2k like i said i drive mine like i stole it so 10$ for oil is cheap piece of mind to me

are you gonna run dyno juice or snthetic oil? or semi syn?

 

yeah they work, but it is better if some air is flowing through, not just seating there idling for a few mintues.

 

Unfortunately all I can buy is 91 octane, so Ill just have to deal with it I suppose.

are you gonna run dyno juice or snthetic oil? or semi syn?
Which do you recommend?
Im not sure what the dyno juice is.

So do I not want to go past 1/4 tank of gas just in case of gas slosh and it might lean out and pop?

 

Well, see I used to drag race my about about once or twice a month, and never had any problems only once dumbass me lets his bro take it for a run and bro ***** up 5th gear syncro, cost 1k

And last year when I took it out, after having a car stereo and new paint job done, the car died on me and this summer I really didn't have time to work on the car and didn't have money to have someone work on it for me so it's stil sitting there... painfull for me to say that

Good news is now I have time, so I'll do the hose job (cause I know after visual verification that at least one important hose is completele MISSING the boost sensor hose..

Anyway, I'm also dropping in the IC, DP, PFC, boost gauge, I changed the O2 sensor, and I'll need new tires goddam how in the hell will I find all that money?

 

yea i had it happen to one of my boys and hear horror stories of running with less then 1/4 tank..i figure why chance it

well personally in a synthetic guy..the flashpoints of syn are not rediclous high, but no one has done a study to see of there is any residue left over...even though i dont think there was one with conventional oil aka dino juice--(dinosaur )

20w-50 castrol seems to be the most popular conventional oil
im a big fan of mobil one

its all what you wana spend and the prefrence of what u wana run

syn was deemed bad for roaaries b/c of early syn's not meeting mazdas standards but alot has changed since then hell even knightsports makes a syntheitc oil "spefically" made for rotaries

5$ a quart or 2$....

you might wana do a search theres been alot of good threads on the oil debate

 

On a typical piston engine, you seat the rings with dyno oil (regular cheap oil) and then switch over to a synthetic. Doing the switch ensures as little friction/wear as possible.

How do the rotaries take to synth and dyno?

Specifically, do you need to seat the seals before making the switch? Or if you don't switch early enough do you risk blowby (is it called blowby on a rotary?) like the piston counterparts?

-Jon
www.nothingserious.net

 

I drive mine with the tach rarely going below 3k and usually ranging from 4 to 8k for an hour at a time atleast three times a week. I have never owned any other car that can handle that kind of driving on a regular basis with no problems. Rx7's were made to drive hard so drive the wheels off it which when driving hard is what you will literally do (my tires last about 6 months or 10k). I am not a fanatic about maintenance. I change the oil every 2 to 3k watch for leaks and boost problems, don't fix it unless its broken, and thats about it. Change plugs and fuel filter every 20k change diff trans and brake fluid every 30k. IMO these cars get a bad rap cause most dealer techs don't know how to fix them and usually cause more problems when attempting to. I am just guessing but I would say the fd is a very economic sports car in relation to its performance.

 

I appreciate all the info guys, your making me feel like it was all just in my head

 

This is by far THE most truthful thing. I'm sometimes too lazy to do a certain job or simply dont have the space or tools to do it, and so on a number of occasions have taken the FD to a dealer. I'd say 4 out of 5 times I had to go back because they did it wrong. Usually I went back with MY shop manual so that they can see I know exactly what I am talking about. For example, when I had my rear main seal replaced, these fools forgot to put back this little cover that goes on the top of the transmission. It prevents durt and such from entering the flywheel and is used to visually diagnose the clutch. Well these fools forgot to put it on, and I could hear ALL the air rushing out of that little hole. It was ANNOYING Anyways, I had to take it back. This is just one example and many of us have tons.

9 times out of 10, the problem with an FD lies with a poor repair job from the dealer

 

Well I drive my car hard everytime Im in it unless my girlfriends with me.Even then I do alot of hard driving. I also check under the hood every time I pull into my drive way. You never know when somethings going to pop off or come loose.Im also chaging my oil on a regular basis none of that Ill do it later crap. I dont think of a rotory as fragile just finiky. IF you dont treat it right it WILL bite you in the ***.

 

So from what I understand when you start the car you cant turn it off until its at operating temp right?
Do you also have to have it at operating temp before you can drive it? Or can you just take it easy (below 3500RPM) till it warms up?

 

From my experience, I've never driven my baby on a cold engine. She gives me temper tantrums and well... my advice to you is to avoid it as much as possible. It only take about 5-10 miins for it to warm up really... i mean... i just listen to a song or two on my --also finiky-- cd player and then she's all ready to go.

 

the waiting isnt a problem at all, but if I dont have to do it I get 5-10 minutes more sleep time

Just need to know waht to budget for.

 

You don't need to let it sit to warm up... Most people agree that's bad.

What I do is start the car, wait at least 30 seconds (most mechanics say it takes about 30 to 45 seconds to cycle oil through most motors) or until the idle settles a little bit.. Then drive without boosting until the car is at operating temperature.

 

are there any websites that tell you specificly what and where to look for stuff? (engine wise)