Just considering buying an FD. I don't know Rotary motors, but I have rebuilt a 4cyl piston engine..and I have no problem learning.

I am sorry if this has been asked many times, but I wasn't sure how I could search the forums for it.

How much of an investment would need to be made in order to make an RX7 last another 20k miles? Assuming one is purchased with 60-70k miles?

Rebuilt engine (parts cost?), rebuilt or upgraded turbos (possibly)...what else is needed or recommended? And what is the approximate cost of parts, assuming you can do it yourself.

Any links to helpful websites would be great too!

 

fd's normally make it past 120k if you take care of them like how your suppose to.

 

Get a compression check done on the motor first. You'd want to upgrade the cooling system and have all the bushings checked out. Fix any oil leaks the car prolly has. Also, Mazda parts are expensive, and working on your FD for the first time is an, um, experience you won't soon forget

 

Rebuild kits for the engine usually run around $1100 for the parts. You can get a remanufactured engine from Mazda for just under $2000, so in most cases, that's a better deal.

There are turbo rebuild kits around. I don't know if the kits suck or if people just haven't done the rebuilds right, but most of the time the turbos rarely last 30k miles after someone does their own rebuild. A turbo rebuild from a reputable shop will run you $700-2000 depending on what type of rebuild you get.

As far as what else is recommended, it all depends on the condition of the rest of the components on the car. Things to check and possibly replace when replacing/rebuilding the engine:

Wiring harness
Fuel Pulsation Damper
All coolant lines
Oil return lines for the turbos
Injectors cleaned and flow balanced
etc...

Basically, you check everything. Anything that looks suspect, you replace. Simply slapping in a new motor without finding out why the old one went south could just set you up for another failure.