When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I am planning to buy a FD. I found a car which was for sale in my area. I went and inspected the car and clicked few pics of it as well. I know about FDs for a certain limit. My knowledge is limited to the stock car/engine though. The car I saw had a single turbo setup with nitrous kit installed. I have certain doubts after checking the car. Please help me clear out them. I am attaching a pic of the engine bay here.
Refer the marked numbers
1) I couldn't see a blow off valve in the piping. I just saw these vacuum lines going to a boost controller marked by No 2. Is that setup healthy ? Not having a blow off wouldn't have affected the engine?
2) I think this is the boost controller / solenoid. Can they do the job of a blow off valve?
3) This looks like a oil catch can which was disconnected. If I need to reconnect it what must be a correct routing?
4) When I see the heads of the coilovers they are not symmetrical as you see in the pic.The one on the right is straight up and the one on the left is not straight. Does this mean that there can be a suspension damage / misalignment ? If yes how can this be fixed?
With the exception of possible frame/suspension damage from that wonky shock mount, all of these things are secondary to a proper engine compression test.
Hard to say on a blow off valve, it could be mounted somewhere creatively. But, the boost controller can't function as a BOV, you either have one or you don't. That isn't a huge deal, some turbos don't really need one.
The coil over mount on that side is most likely shot. If it's a stock rubber mount you could buy another one, but most coil overs use their own metal mount. If that's messed up you may not be able to track down a replacement, may have to just get new coil overs all the way around.
That turbo has just an air filter cage with no filter, it's probably been running with no filter for quite some time. This can really chew up the blades in the turbo and also cause premature wear in the engine.
Basically there's a lot of things under the hood that are old-school and sketchy by today's standards - plastic AST, stock radiator, running nitrous (which rotaries don't like that much!). It may have been set up as a drag car, using the nitrous to get out of the hole and then the big turbo for top end power.
If the rest of the car is in good shape (body, paint, interior) that's the big thing. This car will need substantial work under the hood, that motor may be iffy, the turbo may be compromised, etc. Mechanical work is typically easier and cheaper than paint, body, and interior though. It would have to be factored into the price of the car.
Other “sketchy” stuff:
*Engine torque brace is almost always a bandaid for bad engine mounts.
*Under-driven water pump pulley apparent without any idler means the belt either slips or has been over-tightened.
*Seems to be some disconnected electrical connectors just left dangling.
*Not sure what the heat-wrap looking stuff is all about covering the throttle cable.
Guys thanks a lot for your valuable inputs. I love in sri lanka. With our import restrictions we can't bring in rx7s. So we have only 6 cars in the whole country. If I want a rx7 I don't have many options to go with. This particular car has done 23,000 km. Aak the modifications and upgrades were done in Japan.
The most important thing is there are no mechanic shops here which do rotary rebuild or rotary tuning. But things beyond rebuild can be done (eg: custom piping and rest of the upgrades)
To answer your question yes the car starts and runs fine. Should I go ahead with this car?
Okay, so your options sound pretty limited. Do you have a big budget for rebuilding this car? I think a lot of the "buy, don't buy" decision is going to come down to "how much money do you intend to spend on rebuilding this car?" If you don't know that the engine is in good condition then (no compression numbers), you should factor the cost of a new engine into your worst-case scenario. I think this car could need a lot of rehabilitation, but it's hard to say. Any modded RX-7 is suspect.
At what price? Every time I see a new picture of this car it looks more sketchy. Tiny mismatched wheels, nitrous, unknown tune, no air filter, no engine compression numbers. There are a lot of red flags with this car. Don't make a buying decision based on the rarity of something vs it's condition. You should be looking at other sports cars if there really is no rotary support in your area. Assume this thing has likely been flogged within an inch of it's life and will need service anywhere from moderate to major.
FD = financial disaster and in this case it looks like will be just that.
The most important thing is there are no mechanic shops here which do rotary rebuild or rotary tuning.
Even *if* the car mechanical's are in immaculate condition and assuming that it ran perfectly when it left Japan; you still need to tune to your altitude and fuel grade. If you truly have no rotary tuners anywhere, you will be unable to do this and your car will become a ticking time bomb.
So really I only see three options:
1) Walk away, buy a different sports car (my recommendation)
2) Get the car DIRT cheap and piston swap it (I cannot believe I just suggested that )
3) Travel abroad, learn how to tune under a rotary master then buy it and maintain it yourself.......
With no knowledge or a reputable shop to support you, a stock FD will wreck your bank account and will likely become a paper weight. A car as heavily modified and sketchy as this is inviting a world of pain.
Sorry for all the doom and gloom but this scenario sounds like a really bad idea to me....
Last edited by FEED AFFLUX v5; 09-13-18 at 04:52 PM.
Reason: spelling
Even *if* the car mechanical's are in immaculate condition and assuming that it ran perfectly when it left Japan; you still need to tune to your altitude and fuel grade. If you truly have no rotary tuners anywhere, you will be unable to do this and your car will become a ticking time bomb.
So really I only see three options:
1) Walk away, buy a different sports car (my recommendation)
2) Get the car DIRT cheap and piston swap it (I cannot believe I just suggested that )
3) Travel abroad, learn how to tune under a rotary master then buy it and maintain it yourself.......
With no knowledge or a reputable shop to support you, a stock FD will wreck your bank account and will likely become a paper weight. A car as heavily modified and sketchy as this is inviting a world of pain.
Sorry for all the doom and gloom but this scenario sounds like a really bad idea to me....
Hey I went through your build thread some days back. Loved it
I am not completely new to the FD scene. I have a '92 JDM FD with a '99 JDM stock engine. When I bought it it had boosting issues and lot of body/interior damages. I worked on the car to fix the boosting issues. I was studying this forum and other videos for almost an year and after that only i bought the car. This car had 15+ owners and 70,000 km on the clock. I have restored the car to a good shape but still there are many rusted areas and a frame damage due to an old accident (which i found out only when i was adding the coilovers. after installing the coils couldnt balance the height). It has gone through like 4 different colour changes with not so good paint jobs.
Recently the above shown white single turbo car came up for sale. In the mean time I have a buyer who is interested in buying my car. From a price viewpoint my buyer is willing to pay me the amount which would cost me the white single turbo car. So if I go for the white car it wont cost any extra money from my hand. Given below are my options. Please help me to choose.
1) Have the current car and build on it. [Need to completely strip down the car. Fix structural damages. Find missing/broken parts. 70k km+ car. 25 years old registration. Stock sequential twins with stock ecu]
2) Get the white car and do the needed changes [Need to do some safety modes Koyo radiator (have). Stainless steel AST (have). Eliminate nitrous. Do whatever changes you guys suggest. 20k km car. Brand new registration. Single turbo with power FC)
About the tuning of rotaries. Over here we have awesome tuners for piston engines but not for rotaries. As I said there are only 6 cars in the whole country. I am a mechanical engineer by education and I do understand the concept of tuning. In the worst case it would be me who will be doing any changes to the tune with any help available on the internet.
And NO I dont want any other engine in my FD. I love the whole concept of sandwiched Doritos
09-12-18, 11:50 PM
Need Help With Buying A FD
)
