Look what I found hidden away for 15 years…
 

So today I’m probably one of the luckiest RX-7 guys on the planet…

In Croatia the rx-7 is one of the rarest cars you can see (or can’t see cuz there is so few). There are only a handful of SA’s and FC’s.

Until I imported my FD this previous summer…there were only three known FD’s in the entire country, and two of those don’t have papers. One is a track car only with no papers; the second one has been sitting under car parts and boxes in a garage for over 10 years, also no papers. Only one FD that you could possibly see on the street until I imported mine…I can safely say that now you can possibly ever see only two FDs in the entire country.

You will almost never see parts for any model rx for sale. ..etc

Last night I go to my local online classified site and do my monthly/weekly search routine… where I usually just look at what’s offered in the car section. So I do a search for “rx7” and I see to my surprise a new ad for a 13b engine block. I call the guy up and now comes the interesting story…

The guy was a truck driver back in the 90s…his truck route would often go through Germany. He owned an FC back then. On his trips through Germany he would stop at Mazda service shops and get parts etc…one day he stumbled upon a 13b engine that they just had laying around. What happened is that sometime in ‘96 a guy with a 12k km (7.5k miles) ‘95 FD comes to the shop and complains about engine vibrations. Because the car was under warranty they immediately replace his engine only to find out it was the transmission …so they get him a new transmission too and they are left with a 12k km healthy 13b.

Well the guy bought it for 1700 German Marks…and he also bought some spare gaskets and stuff…I believe he thought at the time he could use it for the FC…anyway…in the meanwhile he sold his FC and the 13b-rew just sat in his garage for years…about 14/15 years to be exact…he tried selling it before but who would buy a FD engine in a country that has only one or two FDs?...he wasn’t very lucky...until I saw his ad…luckily he lives 20 miles away from me in a small village/town

I come to his garage and see the poor 13B-rew block that was just sitting there for a long time. The guy would put some mineral engine oil through the ports every once in a while a turn the flywheel a bit…

I did the finger compression test and it sounded flawless…the engine turned nicely, so I figured it’s not all rusty inside and carbon locked…I was able to see a bit through the exhaust ports…and the rotor surfaces showed no sign of damage…I felt each apex seal through the exh port and each one I could press in a bit. The surfaces inside where nice and greasy…

Im not an expert but to me everything looked nice.

The guy said I was the first one to come by and see the engine…ever!

He told me he has some extra parts for both the FD and FC and if I buy the engine he would give me all this stuff for free…

So we made a deal for 3000hrk ($ 540 US dollars) and we started putting parts in my small Smart car…

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And to my amazing surprise when I got home and started going through the parts box…all FD parts original from Mazda….


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Parts list:
13b-rew “short block”
FC LIM and UIM and TB
FC primary and secondary fuel rail
FC solenoid rack
FD oil pan? its sill in the Smart car…might be FC pan, not sure, can anyone tell from the photo?
Seems like an FD clutch pressure plate, clutch fork and 2x bearings
FD main pulley and trigger wheel
FC power steering
New FD primary fuel diffuser
and: 0305-17-327 SHIM, ADJUST-COUNTER SHAFT GEAR. T=0.1MM;
0305-17-328 SHIM, ADJUST-COUNTER SHAFT GEAR. T=0.3MM;
R502-17-283 BEARING, NEEDLE.
3x 0884-17-274 BEARING, NEEDLE.
N3A1-13-655 GASKET, THROTTLE BODY.
R501-17-613RING, RETAINING.
5x NF01-13-ZG3 RING, 'O'-INJECTOR.
1881-11-404 SEAL, OIL.
2x N3A2-14-293 GASKET, OIL PIPE.
2x N3A1-14-293 GASKET, OIL PIPE. ILLUST. NO.1;
5x NF01-13-ZG4 RING, 'O'-INJECTOR.

After we got everything loaded into the Smart car…his family gave me some organic homemade smoked bacon and sausages to eat. His mother, a wonderful old lady, told me she has 17 chickens and went back to get me a carton of fresh organic eggs to take home!

What a wonderful day!

These are the parts I could not identify, they look new. So if someone knows what they are please chime in...

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The rings to the left? anyone?
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Nice find. The first one go's in the e shaft and the gear box shaft go's into it i believe

How was the bacon?

1st is pilot bearing

like mentioned, first is pilot bearing.

Next might be the imput shaft bearing for trans

2 bigger needle bearings are for the transmission as well

Spacer/bushing looks to be from trans as well

and the snap rings I belive are also from the trans

Great! thanks for the help guys! And yes the bacon was delicious :D

I looked at the exhaust gaskets and they look like they are in great condition...so the 12k km story could be true...I still cant believe I got all this stuff for such a good price.

2nd & 3rd pic's are all trans pocket bearings with 5th 1 of the injector defusers.

^^This is an awesome story. Where in Croatia are you? I was just there last year visiting my gf's family

Oh cool, I'm living in the capital (Zagreb) at the moment but I'm from the city of Split, thats also where the FD is :) where is your GFs family from? Maybe I know them...haha considering how small the country is :D

awesome story man! can only imagine the feeling--in a country with only two FDs and no parts, coming across an engine for CHEAP must be great.. :icon_tup:

yeah what are the chances :D and the thing is that his ad was about to expire and he told me he would not put the engine up for sale for another 10 years lol...so I was really lucky

hah , thats awesome . I'm really happy to see some people love this car enough to go through all that !! , and your devotion was rewarded! LOL

great story!

Her Grandpa lives in Zaprešić just outside of Zagreb. It was really cool getting to visit that part of the world. There weren't many exotic cars there. Lots of stuff we don't have in the US for sure but definitely no Rx7's. She has family in Novi Sad and Vukovar. She lived in Dubrovnik for a few years too. It's a beautiful country for sure. Lots of awesome roads to go drive the FD around. :icon_tup:

haha this is awesome certainly sounds like an amazing day! organic bacon and sausages to boot too

the first bearing is pilot bearing for the gearbox/clutch (if it is very small?)
the second bearing looks like the input bearing for the gearbox - which I know someone who tried to rebuild a gearbox and he was searching for a replacement bearing for 3 years!! mazda stopped making then ages ago!!

haha thanks...you wouldn't believe what I went through to get this car imported here... :D but it was worth it

oh wow thats cool, yeah I go to Zapresic every once in a while. Yeah not too many exotics here...just a bunch of Italian, French and German compacts :Dwhich makes the Rx-7 even more special.

The road that go along the coast are excellent for some fun driving and beautiful views, love to take the FD for runs there :)


Well thats cool, I'll use all this stuff eventually...I know my gearbox would appreciate it. Thanks for the info :icon_tup: