New Car
 

Hey, after reading this forum for a couple months, I finally got myself a 1993 RX7 with a few mods. It has 54,500 miles on it, with 500 miles on a rebuilt motor (atkins rebuild kit). The rebuild was done very nicely. The body has some chips on the hood and very slight hail damage. It has the fifth gear synchro problem, but I rarely use fifth anyway. The positives are it has a fmic, pettit ecu, and complete turbo-back exhaust. I paid 12,500 and I was wondering if this was a good deal. It's too late to back out, but what do you guys think?

congratulations its an okay deal nothing spectacular post some pics and take care of the car man i dont wanna see another in the scrapyard...thanks and congrats

Sounds like a decent start to a nice car, but I'd worry why the engine was blown, and if it was because of the current mods the car has on it now. FMIC and a fully open exhaust is a lot for a non-tuneable ECU, at least as far as I'm concerned, but I tend to play the conservative side.

As long as the boost stays in check it should be ok though. Pics?

Previous owner says the o-ring failed due to using Redline "Water Wetter" or something to that extent in his coolant. My facts might be a little messed up since it's been about a week, but I think that's what he said. He put in new apex seals (2 piece, 2mm) for what it's worth. He's got most of the reliability mods: Pettit overflow tank, Fluidyne radiator and a downpipe. It's also got a boost gauge and a Profec-B in it, so I can keep tabs on the boost.
I'm pretty pumped about this car though. Feels really nice. The engine is smoother than butter on silk.
I'll get some pics up when I take delivery on Thursday. I can't friggin wait!

O-ring failure due to water wetter? this is new to me anyone else heard of such a thing?

I'm just relaying what he said about the water wetter. He seemed unsure about that himself. He was upfront with pretty much everything and seemed fairly honest. I had a local rotary shop take a look at it and they deemed it a solid rebuild.

I have been using water wetter for about 7 years no problems

Chris

Re: New Car
 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SPD923
[B]It has the fifth gear synchro problem, but I rarely use fifth anyway

:confused: i dont know about you guys but i use 5th alot.

Yeah, it's just my driving routes seldom go over 45mph... gotta love suburbia.

Well, if it wasn't water wetter, then I'll see if I can find some way to keep temps down under the hood by other means. I'll ask the guy if he had the aftermarket radiator on before the o-ring went. Thanks for the input on this, it's a tremendous help.

the orings just go. they don't seem to age well at all no matter what you do. there might be a few cases of 100k mile engines but oring falure is easily as popular as apex seals going. get a temp guage and enjoy the new toy, seems like a really great deal to me.

I agree with particleeffect, I believe you got a very good deal. Of course that's based on what's been stated. Is this car from the St. Louis area?

Im little consered about how well the break-in of the motor is going. You havent pushed it have you?

And I will have to agree with 911GT2, once you put in a upgraded intercooler you should put in a stand alone.(pfc,haltech,etc) I would just make sure that you dont run anything higher than 12-14psi. Of course don't use this kind of psi till you have atleast 1200miles on the motor, and the oil has been changed. Have fun!:)

Yeah, right. I have never heard of water wetter doing that. The previous owner was probably running mainly water, overheated and boiled it and blew the o-rings, requiring the rebuild. That's just my guess.

I would give Atkins a call and ask about why the rebuild was done.

Regarding regulating boost - remember the reason we do this - we do this to keep up from going lean due to too much air and too little fuel. The FMIC means we will have a cooler charge and denser air for a given boost level. This makes the danger of running lean greater and so I would recommend keeping the boost turned down well under 10. Play it conservative here.

A trip to a decent tuner to get some dyno time with a wideband O2 sensor is not a bad idea at this point. It will let you know how high you can safely turn up the boost with your mods.

Good luck with it.

-b

Wow, all this new information for me to learn.
Yeah, the car was from the St. Louis area.
I haven't driven it much more than 1 hr. personally, but those who have driven it know it's in its break-in stage and if they mess with it, they'll have to deal with me getting a little torqued at them.

Ok, just to clarify: even though it's got a pettit ecu tuned for 14 psi, you don't think the boost should exceed stock levels?

I'll follow your advice, wrankin, and get it through break-in and checked out before upping the boost.
Thanks,
Sam

I believe wrankin's point is.... to keep the boost low until you hook it up to a wideband on a dyno..then you can incrementally increase the boost, while assuring safe air/fuel ratios...a word of caution...you may be able to run safe AFRs but at very high injector duty cycles...I run a wideband and PFC on my car and my duty cycles hit about 85-90% on 12-13 psi...in other words even though the Pettit ecu allows you to run 14psi your fuel system (injectors and pump) may not be able to keep up

I think it sounds like you got a great deal, fmic and full exhaust for only 12.5k. thats not bad at all. I would definately get a power fc in there though. Also pick up some 1300 cc injectors and a fuel pump.

The first thing you should do is call/email Pettit.
Find out what that ECU was setup for. A Pettit ECU, setup for you mods, will be fine if you don't do anything else.

You will probably need a number off the ECU, but might be able to get by with the VIN, or the previous owners name.

For all we know, that ECU was set for everything but the IC, and then the other owner modded it, put in the Profec, didn't have it setup right, overboosted and blew the engine.

My 5th syncro is gone too, just double clutch it, The gear will engage like a glove :)

Since you are on a stock/modified ecu I would definatly suggest the fan mod so you can switch on the fan manually during those hot summer months. It definately helped me out prior to the PFC and its really easy to do.

Chris

I will probably check my AFR before setting the boost over the 7psi it's currently running. Is there any way to check my duty cycles on the dyno? I'm relatively new to the game, so pardon my imcompetence. I'll get a PFC and some injectors when I feel capable enough to handle more boost. Right now 7 psi is plenty quick.
When I get it tomorrow, I'll post pics.

OMG 7 psi is plenty quick. Cmon man, with a car with those mods on it you only have to do a little more to get a lot out of it. Most of the reliability mods are done and he's got some of the good power adders on there too. Just make sure you've got the fuel to go with it and once you are done with the break in you should be able to really haul. Make sure it's tuned right and get a boost and water temp gage so you dont get this new one blown too easy. Have fun with your new toy, and In my opinion, you got a better deal than me. I paid the same for mine and mine has a lot less performance mods on it, but it did have the suspension almost completely where I wanted it though.

you won't be able to check your duty cycles on the dyno..you'll need a different ecu...the reason I had mentioned duty cycles is with the unlimited Pettit ecu there is a possibility of running more boost than what a stock 85% duty cycle provides...

NukeGenius, I'll probably get bitten by the power bug real quick. I'm telling myself to be patient with 7 psi. I'm making sure I have enough in reserve in case anything goes wrong with the car (enough at least to get myself a rebuilt engine) before I buy the PFC.
Thanks for all the info.