I'm working on getting my first FD, and wanted some suggestions about what I should look to do as my first mods. I will have around $1000, maybe more, off the top to drop into mods, and don't know what helps these cars the most. My last cars have been a race prep 240Z and a Z32, so I'm new to the world of RX-7s, although I have always loved the little 13bs.

Any suggestions?

 

Boring, but you'll need at least a water temp gauge and boost gauge, otherwise you won't know if your other mods are helping or hurting.

 

Since you don't even have the car yet, my advice is to save your money on maintenance items....my guess is that even if you find a car in "very good" condition, you could easily burn through that $1k just doing "maintenance".

Or you could be like all too many owners, especially the younger ones, and ignore maintenance altogether, and just start modding away. Your question has been covered exhaustively on this forum and elsewhere, please read the newbie sticky/FAQ and use the search function.

 

I was reading it, but I was more curious about brands and order of upgrades. As soon as I have to car in my possesion, which should be soon as the guy gets me the papers, I will be dropping it off for its physical and having basic mods on order such as intake, exhaust, boost controller, BOV system, etc..... I was just curious if you guys to could point out what I should wait on or tell me what are and are not good brands to buy......

 

Save your money and don't buy the BOV until you upgrade the turbo. The stock BOV is fine. Use the money for a boost gauge.

 

i agree with rynberg, maitenence is number one first thing that should be taken care of. my car was in great shape when i bought it...boosted perfect, ran strong, no hard starts, etc. except for what i thought was a bum clutch throw out bearing, took it in for a check up and ended up doing about 7-8K in repairs. THUMBS UP for warranty.

if i had to do it all over pretaining aftermarket stuff thought i would have upgraded my radiator first, FDs run real hot. just a word of caution.

hope this helps
Germ

 

^ I think the stock radiator is fine unless there's something wrong with it. I can keep water temps to 85-88C (and I live in hawaii). More important is coolant hose integrity, stock ast, and dp - temperature/boost guage is useful as well. Making sure all fluids/plugs/filters/etc is important as well. make sure the car is boosting ok, etc.

I'd wait at least a few months before starting to do power mods. Its important to get used to your car and its quirks before you start modding the **** out of it. Basically if youget the car and immediately start modding it, you won't really know if the car's power is the way its supposed to be or if the mods are actually helping your car.

Look at these people without any type of boost guage. They buy the 7 and run around for years without even knowing that their car isn't boosting right. They find out later that they were only boosting 5-8 psi and not even making stock spec horsepower even though they were modding their car to make it more "powerful". So basically, all their mods weren't really doing crap because they had problems with their solenoids, ic piping, or whatever.

 

ok.... this is my .02, since heat is our worst enemy.... if not an R1. GET AN ALUMINUM RADIATOR, AST, AND OIL COOLER.... or trust me.... you're not going to be needing intake exhaust or goodies for a while.....

 

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...threadid=27094

From the FAQs in this section. Post #6 covers everything pretty well.

 

My first mod would be a downpipe SS or mild steel, gets the heat away from the bay, do all the reliabilty mods that you can, keeping the heat out. Heat out makes a rotary happy

 

Well, I was thinking about replacing the vacume lines, and coolent lines, also while I was in there, going through the seals. Maybe also adding some heat wrap for the turbos and such..... what do you guys think? I am hoping ot replace everything that can crack and die, and try to help the new pieces stay alive by wrapping my hot parts and upgrading the cooling systems....... one thing I have gathered from reading these forums is that cooling is important

 

^All good ideas IMO. And sort of refreshing to here. Seems like new owners initial focus is on the performance mods with reliability mods just being an after-thought.

 

Well, since the car is going to cost me around $12,000+ I figure I might be want to keep it running, and if I get it running right before I mod, its easier to problem solve.... learned that the hard way with my Z

 

Your question is covered in the FAQ:



Reliability mods / $1000 to spend
https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/i-have-%241-000-spend-339981/


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