Gir

Im considering selling my subie because the pison design has a flaw in it that make me too nervous to turbo it without dumping tons of cash into new pistons ect... I am seriously considering a 3rd Gen RX7. (not because of fast and the furious Ill have you know ) I had a couple newbie questions since Im not too familiar (except the concept) with the rotaries.
First of all how often, properly maintained, would I expect to rebuild the engine?
Secondly Is it easy enough/cost efffective to rebuild them yourselves? (assuming one could rebuild a piston engine)
How much more maintianence would it take to keep it running well for street/race conditions with bolt ons or possibly farther down the road bigger turbos/turbo?

Basically I will want an rx7 with some bolt ons (after I get a bigger radiator of course !) so I can get myself into a groove on how to maintain a turbo car to prepare myself for making it even faster, and will accept any comments or tips you can offer

Thanks.

zyounker

Well, If the car is properly maintained it will be reliable.. Now, most of these cars have been abused..

If you get one do all the reliability mods first..
Downpipe
Temp gauge
AST eliminations or steel AST
Fluidyne radiator


Second rule only 2 power mods before ECU upgrade. So you can get either a catback or intake after the above mods. Then you need to do a ECU upgrade.. I would day the power FC is the easyest to go with.


Now if you get a power FC do not tune it yourself until you learn how.. also don't let any piston tuners near it.. Rotarys have to be tuned correctly if you don't want to buy a new engine.


-Zach

Gir

First off how much for all those "safety" mods and how much for the ecu?

I am wondering how hard it will be to find an rx7 tuner in the utah area

zyounker

Downpipe ~$300
Temp gauge ~$50
AST eliminations or steel AST ~$50
Fluidyne radiator ~$400
Power FC ~$1200 or get a M2 ECU ~$500



I don't know of any tuners around Utah, anyone??????



-Zach

Gir

Sorry for being ignorant but my temp guage you mean egt's I would assume? And the downpipe would be higher flow to relieve backpressure? Also what is the "AST eliminations or steel AST"

and after properly tuned what is the path for more power. Im talking safe power that can be street driven(driven mildy to hard quite often) and really good for the track, I am definately looking for good handling and power I might be asking for too much

Merciless

AST is the air seperate Tanks that is bolted on the stock IC, between teh IC and battery...stock is plastic, and it'll pop if too much pressure..

EGT is exhaust gas temp. gauge, and temp gauge is water temp gauge...the stock temp gauge tends to be in correct(accoring to others).....

if u want more power ... single turbo, a smaller one will do, a lot of people goes for the T04s.....

COLBALT

ther is a very good place in slc
i have a 3rd gen and i live in utah
st.george
but i take my car to slc performance r&d
all thay work on is 3rd gen rx's

Gir

On the temp sensor, would it be an external guage or are you talking a new sensor to attach to the dash guage?

Also if I end up with a fairly high miles engine when it is time to rebuild and is it something I would want to do myself or have someone do it for me (I would feel confident rebuildint a piston engine). And are the parts hard to come by as far as rebuilding motors go?

Basically Im looking fairly long term in the fact of building a fast racer and keeping it for many years.

zyounker

The ast is a air seperation tank.. You can buy a elimination kit from m2 or i believe petit sells a steel one.. These commonly blowup and cause the motor to overheat..


The downpipe is to remove the pre-cat that commonly die and cause excesive heat and ruin the motor. plus it adds some power and quicker turbo spoolup

As for the temp gauge, EGT is also a good thing but i am talking coolant temp.. the stock gauge is weighted in the middle and you car will be overheating before the gauge even shows it.. overheating a rotary == new engine

As for handling the stock RX-7 is amazing.. but there are alot of upgrades for it too..


Ok power upgrade path

Downpipe
Catback
ECU
intake
Intercooler
ECU

With these it will put you at around 315RWHP

M2 sells packages & have nice products. Also the RX-7 store is a great place to buy stuff & save money

http://www.rx7store.net
http://www.m2performance.com/


-Zach

Gir

That gets up to 315 rwhp really fast (Im assuming thats at the crank and not the wheels) !
Is this a fairly reliable build job? Any clue on the quarter mile times pulled in by about this much horse?

zyounker

No this is at the wheels.. It will cost you about 3K+ too....

I would say it will get you into the mid 12s


-Zach

COLBALT

what part of utah do you live in????

Gir

I live in American fork. About 10 minutes from orem and 30 from SLC. Im tring to hunt down an rx7 to test drive/ride in

COLBALT

he will not
in utah it will take mor than that
i have full apexi exhaust
3mm apex seals
street port
fromt mount ic
upgrade ecu
10 mm wires
and intake

it's hard to hit 12 in utah

COLBALT

good luck finding one to bye
and test drive
how old are you
i know where that is i had a cuz live there

Gir

When someone quotes me a 1/4 time I usually add a second to compensate for altitude.

Are brakes something I need to consider, or a clutch or lsd with this build. I definately want it to be as safe as stock.

Gir

I am 21. You live in AF? Thats awesome, maybe we'll have to hook up.

I saw in the autotrader a 93 with 43K on the engine and turbos for 15K which I thought sounded really good, but I was going to ask about that as well

COLBALT

that is where i live

zyounker

Well, if you are mechaniclly inclined i would buy a blown one for cheep & put a new engine in it.. That way you know what condition it is in.. If you spend 15K and the engine is toast it is gonna cost you another ~3K to put a new engine in it..


Also I like the idea of going single turbo on a FD.. All that turbo crap is just extra heat.. and it malfunctions all the time.

Plus with a single turbo you can usually hit around 400RWHP pretty easy. but it does cost a bit...


BTW the mods i listed are about all you can do on a stock car. After that you will have problems.



-Zach

Gir

What kind of problems after those mods, and how do you overcome them?
I wouldnt be doing much after them for a while till I learned it quite a bit more but Im interested in knowing the upgrade paths.

Also Its not possible at this point to get a blown rx7TT the only 2 are 15K and 20K and the 15K one has 43,000 miles on it, which I thought was alright, am I missing somehting?

zyounker

I am just saying that if you buy one i would set a little money aside. You never know what the previous owner did to the car. Most people i see selling a RX-7, is because there is something wrong.. Like they overheated it..

I bought mine & asked if the car had been overheated or if it ever lost coolant.. the guy said that it hadn't.. 2 days later the coolant light came one..


As for upgrade paths after the upgrades i listed above, you will need to port the engine, probably the wasgates (or get a single turbo) and run a mid pipe.


The highest power i have ever seen on the twin turbos is around 370RWHP.. You will not be getting any higher than with them.


BTW don't just buy the first car you see. look around the country. shipping one only cost around $600.


-Zach

airborne

I don't know if something is funky just in Utah but here in pennsylvania i have been in a 93 rx7 that ran the 1/4 in 12.8 at 112 with IC, intake, downpipe, catback, PFS ecu running 13lbs.
i ran a 13.2 at 106 with ecu, dp, hi flo cat, catback and slipping clutch and that was in 100degree heat.
oh, when you get to the point in mods when you're running 12s you should really really address the fuel system. bigger secondary injectors and fuel pump. run lean and that will kill ya...good luck!

Gir

only problem with shipping is I cant tell what condition it is whatsoever, but I suppose I could buy a plane ticket and drive it back. Either way its a better idea to get a new engine you think?
Would I buy one new or rebuilt (I have heard horror stories about companies selling rebuilt rotaries and them fallign apart ect...)

zyounker

I think if you get a car with low miles that was taken care of you will be ok.. But, Me personally i would buy one with a blown engine & do it my self.. I would also do a single turbo from the start.

If you need an engine go to kdrotary
http://www.kdrotary.com

You can get a mazda reman for around $2300

If the engine is working of course run it till it dies.. but make sure you are ready when it does..

Most 93 Rx-7s seem to die around 60-70K So the one for 15K is close.. Mostly they die because people don't take care of them.


-Zach

Gir

So if I get an engine form that company (mazda reman) does it come with turbos? And how long should it last? How many do they come with, or are the considered unused engines?