Hey Everyone,

Well I just got back from picking up my RX7. At first, I was a little hesitant about the 550 mile drive from Ohio to N. Carolina, but it ended up being pretty fun (except for the end). To recap my ride, I have a few observations/questions that were lingering in my head throughout the journey. Any comments/answers are much appreciated!

1. LOUD! Around the 5th hour, I thought I was going deaf. The car has a Pettit 3" downpipe, Pettit 3" resonated midpipe, and a PR01 3" catback. All through W. VA I was crusing at around 90 (which translates to 33300-3400 rpms), and the drone was getting annoying. I'm set on getting a quieter exhaust (RB dual tip?) and a hi-flow cat. I'm hoping this will muffle the sound, not a little - but alot.

2. Cold start idle = sucks. The car came with the Wolf 3D EMS, and on cold-start it's got a bouncy idle around 650-700. After warmup, however, it's a bearable idle around 900 albeit with a little loop to it (i'm assuming due to the street port).

3. Hood/front bumper/headlight fitment not great. The car was repainted IBM and the hood/front bumper fitment isn't great. There's also about a 1.5 cm space between where the headlight closes and the bumper sits. It's almost like there should be weather stripping there and there isn't. Is this the case, or should I go get the bumper refit?

4. No power steering. Weird, but fun. Parking is a bitch, but driving through West Virginia was quite enjoyable. The road had tons of hills and curves that made the long drive a little more bearable. I could feel everything on the road (including every damn bump).

5. MOMO Nascar seat. Wraps you up, but not recommended for prolonged driving. My *** took a beating from this seat.

6. Monsoon-like rains. After reading horror stories about the FD in inclement weather conditions, it just so happens I was caught in a freaking downpour coming home yesterday. Great, I thought. Well, the FD didn't do anything unpredictable in the rain at all. All along the highway, some people had their emergency flashers on, some people were pulled over, and others were braving it crawling along at 45 mph (me). Besides the occasional steering wheel pull when I hit a big puddle of water, the steering felt perfectly normal. Impressive.

7. FD headlights suck. Especially with a lowered car. I was constantly being blinded by oncoming traffic, and I couldn't see very far ahead of me. Night driving is not fun in the FD.

Well, that's about all I can think of. The car pulls very hard, probably harder than my supra did in 1st gear. Of course, it's got alot of work to be done. I've got to put in an aftermarket radiator, but I don't know how it will fit with the CWR intercooler in place. From my cursory glance into the engine bay, it looks like the intercooler is mounted like this --> / (if viewed from the passenger side). Then it looks like the rad is underneath that and also mounted on an angle with the fans on top of it. Will an aftermarket radiator work with this setup?

I also found a coolant leak (I counted: about 1 drip every 5 seconds that stopped after about 30 drips) below the front passenger side. I took off the underpan and traced it all the way back to a hose that runs up near the firewall? The motor's got 2K on it with a streetport, but I want to rule out the o-ring disaster. Throughout my cruise home, the highest temps I saw were 86C at 90 mph cruising, and around 95C when I was in stand still traffic for an hour because of an accident. Any suggestions?

Aside from that, there's cosmetic wear, but that's to be expected with 83k chassis miles. The door handle covers (? triangular pieces of metal) are pretty beat up. Is there anyway to remove these and repaint them. Also, i'm in the market for the passenger side door weather stripping (Runs along the top edge of the roof door outline). The EGT gauge was finicky - everytime I hit a damn bump, it would shoot all the way to like 1300 and hold there. But where's the fun in having a perfectly working car?

Thanks everyone. I hope to learn a bunch from this site!

Chris

 

Well I'm glad you at least enjoyed your ride home, or seemed to make the best of it.

The coolant leak could be one of the turbo coolant lines, as they are prone to failure.

FD headlights do suck. I plan on getting HID's from rotaryextreme.com when I replace them. You may be able to retrofit those to match the misaligned bumper a little better too.

A high flow and the RB dual tip will quiet the car up A LOT. MP's drone like theres no tomorrow, and high-flows don't do that at all. They're exactly what you want in an exhaust, loud when you get on it, but quiet for cruising. And th RB dual tip is the quietest exhaust you can buy for these cars, so good choice there. (It's on my wishlist too )

That being said, I hope you enjoy the car, and there is definitely tons to be learned here, just read and enjoy!

 

Congrats on the new car. From your description of the leak, it sounds like the heater core line that runs into the firewll.

 

yep, that leak sounds just like the heater hose line leak i had about a week ago. replace it asap or it will just get bigger and bigger on you.

 

Thanks everyone. Where can I order the replacement heater core lines and coolant lines. I might as well do this maintenance. Also, will the smog air pump work without the rat's nest in place? Thanks again.

Chris

 

Yes the Airpump will work without the rats nest in place. Removing the rats nest is a process called going non-sequential. This is also refered to as turbo simplification by some people. I would keep your air pump since you plan on getting rit of your midpipe and going to a high flow cat. Welcome to the club.

 

You can have the airpump without rats nest. Great info on making the car non-seq can be found here. http://www.scuderiaciriani.com/rx7/non-sequential.html

You should be able to order the heater core lines directly from mazda. The best prices on everything will be from Ray Crowe at Malloy Mazda. If you search here you should be able to come up with his #.