Hi everyone,

I recently purchased a 1994 Mazda RX-7 FD3S and I’m trying to locate the previous owner.
From what I know, the car was previously located around Baldwin Park, Covina, or El Monte (CA).

If anyone recognizes the car or knows the former owner, I’d really appreciate any help connecting with them. I’d like to learn more about the car’s history and some of the work that was done in the past.

Thanks in advance for any info or leads! 🙏

 

What's going on with the front end? The fenders don't look crumpled, so how is it that the hood is folded up but still too long? The wheel spacing front to back looks really wrong on the passenger side... optical illusion?

 

Look at the first picture. It shows the fender has been pushed backwards past the door. It caught my attention too, the hood looked too long.

 

If thats a genuine MS hood... it hurts to look at

 

@Montego

wonder if he knows anything...

 

I missed the fact that was possibly a MS Hood. RIP. If you want to sell it, let me know

 

Might be a Mazdaspeed wing (or replica).

Have you tried a Google reverse image search?

 

Thanks everyone for the feedback and support.
This is my first time owning a Mazda RX-7 FD (13B-REW), so I’m still going through the setup and trying to understand the engine configuration correctly.

Based on inspection, the car appears to have:

• Full Apexi exhaust system
  
• Greddy turbochargers
  
• Greddy V-mount intercooler system
  

The engine is clearly not stock, and I want to make sure I’m using the correct engine oil and fuel strategy for a modified 13B-REW.

Oil selection

I’m currently considering:
Red Line 10W-40 Full Synthetic (Group V, high ZDDP content)

From my understanding, the higher zinc/phosphorus content and thermal stability should be beneficial for a rotary under higher load, but I’d appreciate confirmation from experienced FD owners:

• Is 10W-40 the correct viscosity for a street-driven, modified 13B-REW?
  
• Any long-term concerns with full synthetic oil on a rotary with the factory OMP still in place?
  

Fuel / E85 questions

I’m also looking into E85, but I want to be cautious.

• Is E85 commonly and safely used on a turbo FD when properly tuned?
  
• Assuming the ECU and fuel system are configured for E85, is premix recommended or mandatory?
  
• Specifically, should Idemitsu Rotary Racing Premix be used when running E85, even if the OMP is functional?
  

Usage context

The car is primarily street-driven, with occasional spirited driving. Reliability and longevity are higher priorities than maximum power at this stage.

Any insight regarding:

• oil choice
  
• premix usage ratios
  
• E85 vs pump gas considerations
  

would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for the help — looking forward to learning more about the platform.

 

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...n-kit-1069445/
I’m almost certain this is my car — it just didn’t have the widebody 12 years ago

 

The VIN of that car is JM1FD3331R0300472 so should be easy enough to verify whether it's yours or not.

 

“The VIN of my car is: JM1FD3331R0300472.”

 

Was tempted to also ask for it lol, but by the time all the carbon work to fix it properly is done, you'll be around the cost of a good one anyway.

 

Your car is not on aftermarket turbos. They are the factory twin turbos. Greddy did not make aftermarket twin turbos for this car. You need to find out what ecu is on the car. Hopefully it is a Apexi Power FC or better. If it is a stock ECU, you are likely very close to being maxed out for modificaions having an aftermarket exhaust and intercooler. If it is an aftermarket ECU you need to find out what tune is flashed. As far as E85 you likely are not currently set up to run it. Looks like stock fuel lines/stock fuel system, which cannot handle ethanol. There are also many other factors to run E85, likely all of which are not in place on this car. For oil many recommend 20-50 in a conventional, non synthetic, like Castrol GTX. The oil in rotaries is heavily effected by fuel dilution. You will want to change the oil frequently to avoid running oil which has degraded from dilution, so synthetic is less important as you will not get a lot of miles before it has been compromised. If the Oil Metering Pump is still in place and active, there is no need to premix. Myself and many others have eliminated the stock OMP and now premix. This keeps the motor from burning crankcase oil and causing a myriad of issues from carbon build up.

I suggest you find out what the ECU is, what the tune is, what the current boost pattern is, what the fuel injectors are, fuel pump, etc. Once you have a grasp of the current status of the car you can evaluate where to go. Be careful with these cars, they do not like to have boost increased on stock ecu's or untuned ecu's with out some planning.

 

Looks like, in the 12 years since it was sold here, that it had that generic intercooler applied (on second-look, that might be a CX Racing setup), ABS removed, a couple gauges thrown in, and someone mercilessly attacked the engine bay with Rustoleum black paint.

It is possible someone did a PFC install, but without additional mods to warrant it, no visible Commander, and everything pointing to only cheap mods being added (except perhaps that bodykit), my bet would be it is still on Stock ECU. And with everything else being stock including (seemingly, without checking solenoids or block-offs) full emissions, my assumption would be the engine is stock too - ie most likely no porting and stock turbos too. So, "what you see, is what you get". But, I wouldnt be surprised if the turbos were made non-sequential.

She looks like she's been rode pretty hard. Not necessarily a bad thing with these if they are at least maintained well. But the condition of that engine bay doesn't give me real high hopes. But all that poorly-applied paint may be making things look worse than they are.

 

It is difficult to know * when your 30 year old OMP has failed. So partial premix might be a precaution for this.

( * one indication would be that your oil levels drop very slowly)

 

Hey guys, just a little update! Today I opened things up and saw that my ECU is an Adaptronic 440 Universal!

 

I could make my car stall after 5 seconds by adjusting a few tables in the ECU to the wrong values. Not enough air or not enough fuel could do it pretty easily, and idle and cold start can be some of the most time-consuming things to dial in since you only get one or two truly cold starts per day. That doesn't rule out electrical problems, but you could get lucky and solve some things by replacing the ECU and getting a good calibration dialed in. There might be tuners who can help adjust the Adaptronic, but that system has a reputation for hardware reliability problems so I might not spend much time or money trying to work with it. It's a shame because Andy from Adaptronic was pretty active on rx7club and seemed to be a nice enough guy.

E85 has benefits for turbo cars, but also drawbacks. The benefits are pretty well-known, it burns cooler and it tends to make more power even at the same boost. The drawbacks are that you need more of it so the fuel pump and injectors need to flow about 30% more than you would usually need for the power level. Other drawback is the E85 can damage the fuel system if the car sits for weeks at a time, and apparently there are some deposits left behind that don't get cleaned by the detergents in E85 so even if the car runs often it's wise to run a tank of gasoline occasionally to help clean out the fuel system.

Not all premixes will work with ethanol, the best I've heard is Renewable Lubricants. Find Kyle Mohan (KMR Racing) online, he has posted a lot of info about rotary engines and Renewable Lubricants on his youtube and Instagram channels. I've used Renewable Lubricants premix on my car (on gas and on E85) and have been happy with it.

Personally I prefer 20w50 oil over 10w40, I think it helps compensate for fuel dilution. On my RX7, the oil has always smelled like fuel when changing it, although my car's engine is getting old so it probably has more blowby than a fresh engine. https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...alogs-1170689/

 

I got nothing

Though this car reminds me of mdpalmer's ride because of the wheels, I don't think it's his. Ignoring all the mods that don't match up he didn't have a burgundy interior.