Hello,

I'm in the process of importing a 3rd gen RX7 from Japan. Unlike most people on this forum, I'm not interested in upgrading the performance of my car - but I am serious about keeping it running for a long time to come. I've outlined a few planned procedures for the efini, but does anyone have some OTHER useful tips that I can implement to increase engine life?

-replace pre-cat with straight pipe.
-replace rubber hoses with metal pipes (intake / intercooler etc.)
-buy water and oil temperature gauges
-buy or build a vented hood
-monitor knock, monitor air-fuel ratios
-drive like a gentleman until my brother's EVO 4 is in town

Thanks....

 

In addition to the stuff you mentioned above, keep the main catalytic converter on the car, get a boost gauge, perform routine maintenance.

Also, an oil temp gauge isnt a necessity, nor is a vented hood.

 

replace your air seperation tank and your vaccuum lines.

http://www.rx7.org/Robinette/

look at the reliability mods. This is a great site.

 

whats the point of owning a sports car if you are going to drive like a gentleman???? drive the **** outta it and enjou every second

 

You can enjoy it a lot longer when it's running...

 

aftermarket radiator too

 

What's to enjoy? You can make a bottle of whiskey last for years if you only have a glass every three months, buy why would you?

If you are already obsessing over a blown engine before even getting the car, I would find something else. No matter how much money you spend on reliability modifications, there is always a chance that the engine will let go anyways. A coolant seal, bad gas, or a broken hose can kill it no matter how careful you are. Don't assume that you can make this engine as reliable as a piston engine.

 

Because an RX-7 can last a lot longer than a bottle of whiskey. Whiskey will not last longer if you take care of it. An FD has a much greater possibility of lasting a great amount of time if you don't treat it like ****.

 

Use non synth oil
Use high octane fuel at the pumps
Let it cool down before you switch off /drive slowly
Make sure its well onto normal temp before you rag it (if one where inclined)
keep an eye on that water temp
steal an rx7 keep it in your garage for cheap spares top tip

 

Non-synthetic being a requirement is a highly debated topic. From all of the info I've pulled in from this forum, synthetic oils work very well with rotary engines. Yes I know the manuals say not to use it, but run a search on synthetic oil and see what you find

 

We were not talking about treating it like **** - we were talking about driving the **** out of it, which is very different. I drive the snot out of my RX-7 pretty much every time I drive it (and have done for every non-boring car that I have owned). I am not sure there is much point in owning a performance car (apart from status symbol reasons) if you are going to shift at 3500rpm. High displacement, high torque cars are much more suitable for the 'gentleman' style of driving.

 

Three points:

(1) I recently tore down a customer engine that had failed due to carbon buildup. This was from the car being driven easily over a long period of time. Rotaries *like* to be redlined----if the car is in a good state of maintenance and tune it's the best thing you can do for it.

(2) Synthetic oil is good for your turbos and your engine.

(3) If you take a peak into the archives like every good new member should do, you'll see that I was discussing this very topic way back in 2001

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-gen-archives-73/mod-list-keep-your-fd-running-happy-28002/

 

First off - thanks for the helpful info. people. I think it will also be a good idea if I indeed checked the archived posts as well.

I'll now cut to the chase. I chose to buy the RX over various EVOs, skylines, pulsar GTIr(s), and a toyota MR-S for these reasons:

-I want a spotscar.
-I want challenge.
-I have an IT background but I like to get my hands greasy. Ask my american integra RS how she ended up with a Japanese integra LS motor two generations later?
-Getting parts for the RX is just as expensive and difficult as the rest since in all cases they'd have to be imported from the US or Japan.
-Rotaries are extremely rare here... there are all kinds of horror stories about blown engines and baffled mechanics. I'd like to believe these guys are being too careless too soon.
-I live 1 mile from an abandoned airstrip - so the RX can clear her lungs on weekends (in occasional friendly runs against levins, skylines, evos and what not)as far as I'm concerned.... but during the week she will take me to work and serve as a 255hp lure for females, theives, cops, and haters.

I know I'm being quite reserved with the RX by my standards and by everyone else's but at some point you realize that speed (not the drug!!) should be taken in moderate doses...Nuff said.

 

Ah,that is all fine and everything,but i'm not so sure you want to lure in cops and theives!

 

A woman...

Cops, theives and haters are bad, but women are the worst:
-they will take a key to your paint in no time
-they slash your tires, throw bricks at your windsheild, clog your pipe with potatoes (or pineapples in my case)
-when they reach over they knock you out of gear unexpectedly "Grrreaackk!"
-they spill drinks, food, and other roach desserts on your floor.

jk

 

Some new owners like to believe this - but they soon learn. Yes, some percentage of blown engines are due to carelessness, but most are not. If you are going to be drag racing every weekend, importing a new engine every year (or more often) is not out of the question. These are not Hondas, where only extreme carelessness will lead to a blown engine.

 

If you're drag racing for fun, it shouldn't be too hard on the car. If you try to drag race to win, you will eat engines. Fact of life.

 

I've got one term for you: TCW3. Know it, love it, use it.

 

I keep reading this sort of thing and resist believing it. The basic engine should be much more reliable, due to minimal moving parts.

We have 90K on our original '94 FD. There was under-warranty work on the bad-news EGR system, and I have replaced the pre-cat with a DP, the vacuum lines with Viton, the FPD, fuel injector O-rings, and the knock sensor. That is over a 13+ year period. The only other items were a new OEM cat required in 2000, which is not an "engine" problem, and new pillow bushings.

There is no oil smoke, no "funny" noises, plenty of power (IMHO), and we plan on keeping this car until either it dies or we die. I'll keep you posted.

 

If it were not for apex seals that do not resist the high chance of detonation that turbos can generate and coolant seals that are not happy with the high heat generated by the turbos, you would be right. NA rotaries actually last pretty much as long as a piston engine.

Some percentage (< 5%?) of engines last to 100k miles and more. Nearly all NA piston engines do - even in highly abused, neglected cars.

 

Ok, I'll bite. What the hell are you talking about ?

 

So from this thread so far i can gather....

1) you can rev the **** out of your rx-7 all the time because its good for it.
2) It will only blow up if it detonates and tries to send the rotor the other way

So what im thinking is if it detonates it will be much worse at higher revs??? am i correct??

1) And synth is good??? The only reason i thought it was bad for the car is the synth material will not burn clean in the housings. but obviously synth is very good for the turbos

might do a 50/50 mix

 

4) SERVICE THE RX-7 EVERY 3000 MILES, i just change the oil and filter normally

Hey how do we stop our cars detonating on the subject of longevity

 

powerfc !!!

 

Detonation cracks apex seals which lead to low compression, it doesn't have anything to do with 'sending the rotor the other way.'

Don't run 50/50 mix, run 100% synthetic. I've torn down many motors over the years, and typically the ones running synthetic showed less wear on the housings.

Here, this synth oil is formulated specifically for the rotary engine:

http://www.rx7.com/store/rx7/fdengine_maintenance.html

And how do we stop these motors from detonating? Run a consistent conservative boost level, have the car tuned properly, use quality high octane gasoline, and if you want to really be proactive, run a water injection system. For more info on that, search under my username and 'aquamist'.