I wouldn't say I'm very knowledgeable on car maintenance or repairs but I've been able to do most car repairs or electronics repair after watching a couple of Youtube videos for what I've owned. I've loved the RX-7 ever since I played NFS Underground 1 and finally had an opportunity to buy one this past week. I bought a 1995 RX-7 FD3S that's had mostly aesthetic upgrades from the past owners and I was wondering what kind of information some of the seasoned rotary owners could pass down to me? Best way to run it as far as shift RPMs, oil mixtures when fueling for daily driving and racing, best engine longevity upgrades to implement, what kind of maintenance can be expected at certain mileage intervals etc. Any info or knowledge is appreciated. Currently it has about 95,000km on the odo. Since I've bought it I've been letting it idle for about 10 min before driving and revving to 4k rpm before turning off per some rotary friends guidance I've received, it's also cold as **** in Japan right now.
Also aside from the maintenance aspect of upgrades hit me with any aesthetic upgrades you'd advocate for. This car being mostly stock I'm looking for all kinds of upgrades to make it unique.

 

This sticky is good to look through the relevant things you're looking out for, secondly this forum is filled with super knowledgeable folk.

I think a lot will steer you towards keeping the car OEM or OEM+, and just driving the car first and enjoying it. Imo, your focus first should be proper maintenance and care for the FD if your car is already running well. Enjoy it and do things slowly, that's the advice I got, and I agree with it.


https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...l-links-68640/

 

Get a copy of the Factory Service Manual (FSM). If you can’t find a RHD specific at least a NADM version. Downloadable free from here: Mazda RX-7 Reference Materials


* Replace ALL fluids. brake fluid, transmission and differential gear oil.
* Fuel filter (OEM)
* Use some good fuel system cleaner. I like BG44k or the Techron stuff.
* Check brake pads for life.
* If it’s not heavily modified and at stock boost stay with stock NGK plug heat ranges and stock plug wires.
* Don’t rely on the stock coolant temp gauge. It’s not linear. Install a decent aftermarket gauge. There’s info in the 3rd Gen. section for convenient sensor placement in the throttle-body coolant line.
* As time allows you could run some additional grounds in the engine bay. Make a circle….Battery to engine, engine to chassis, chassis to battery.

No performance modifications for the first year and just enjoy the car as is. Twenty years ago I was told to do that and it was good advice. Doing the above, reading thru the FAQ stickys in the 3rd Gen section and the FSM and sorting out any other issues that come up will usually save you a lot of grief, time and money. And you’ll learn a lot about the car.

 

At the end of the day, the FD is a mass produced Japanese car. This isn't a weird exotic 70's Italian-made car.

- You do not need to let it warm up when you first start it. That accomplishes nothing. If anything it can foul plugs out. Start the car and go.
- You don't need to rev it up before shut down. Just turn it off like any other car. That's a hack to work around driving a car with a VERY low compression or blown engine.
- If you are doing a serious track day, running some premix could be worth doing, but in general it's overkill. I don't run premix on my street driven car, never felt a need for it, and of all the engines I've built I've never opened one up and thought, "Boy, if they would have premixed this wouldn't have happened!".

The #1 most important and best thing you can do for an FD is GOOD TIRES. The FD doesn't have any form of traction control. If you have good quality summer tires it makes ALL the difference, the car will put all the power to the ground and will hook right through a corner. Crappy tires will leave you in a ditch. There's a LOT of FD's that were totalled out all due to crap tires.

Beyond that, let the car tell you what it needs. Run premium gas and change oil and filter every 3000 miles. Catch up on maintenance if you don't know when it's been done - oil, coolant, gear oil (this is frequently missed) fuel filter (this is also frequently missed), spark plugs/wires.

Get some pictures up of the car, we can give you some guidance.

Dale

 

This boils down to personal taste…hopefully you have some. IMO avoid silly, ill-fitting and tasteless body kits. Aftermarket wheels are something to personalize the car, but use care choosing sizes, widths and off-sets. You also shouldn’t have to sell plasma and a kidney to afford a reasonably priced set of good looking, light but strong wheels. Personally I think anything taller than 18” looks goofy and not a big fan of rolling and/or pulling fenders…but I’m an old fart and you asked.
I like a light to medium door and hatch glass tint.
Cat-backs are another way to personalize as long as you limit it to a cat-back (i.e. no midpipes). Search here for pictures, choices and info. Stay with custom versions specific for the FD.

And if you ever post up a picture of your car with under-body lighting I will find you, beat you with a stick and ask that you be banned for life.

 

At this point, if you want uniqueness, leave the body stock. Most FDs have been hacked up.

 

Especially in Japan...

 

Would you guys consider OEM 99 spec front bumper and wing to be hacked up on a USDM 93

 

I prefer the early model bumper and aero, that seems to be an unpopular opinion though. I think it flows better with the rest of the body, even if it doesn't flow as much air to the coolers.

To me, the original pure design of a car that the designers intended almost always looks better than the focus grouped facelift. Facelifts are made to appease consumers and make the car look "new", not necessarily better.

 

Yes.

And there is a real problem with buying up OEM body parts for upspeccing older models in that it leaves fewer parts for actual 99 spec cars requiring repairs. Very much feel the same about OEM+ in general, for example Spirit R handbrakes, steering wheels etc are NLA now so I can't get them for my actual Spirit R. I understand why people do it and don't blame them, but it has negative consequences.

 

Thanks for the link I'll definitely read through that. I agree with the focus on proper maintenance before doing a bunch of installs, probably in 7-9 months when I feel I've got a good idea on everything involved I'll look towards installing new parts. I don't want to do anything crazy like what I've seen on the market in Japan

 

Read up on what to do if the car floods when starting. You can quickly flood it even worse, then there may be no option but to pull the plugs and air the combustion chamber out.

Your car will quickly let you know if it likes to be warmed up.

My car makes a growly whine when first starts up which goes away once warm. Also it will chug if I try to drive off right away cold.

If you are in Japan, find a shop with a code reader and have the codes read.

This will help you know if there is anything that needs attention sooner than later.

I am wondering how it works now in Japan for inspection of older cars.

I was under the impression that it is very difficult to keep cars up to inspection standards.

Yet there seems to be a number of old FD running around.

Is there some sort of collector car exemption to the inspection rules, now?

There is considerable peril in running around the engine bay trying to fix mystery problems.

Best to do considerable reading on here before trying DIY repairs.

 

No. It's an OEM part that helps significantly with cooling. Installed correctly it's a great upgrade.


​​​​​​That said, everyone is doing it now. In thailand I swear once a week someone pulls an RE-Amemiya car apart and goes 99+

 

I wouldn’t call it a hack either, just a cosmetic choice, and an expensive one if done properly. At least for those of us in North America. But not convinced on that cooling improvement thing. I understand that’s the accepted conclusion, but I’ve never seen a back-to-back comparison after the change. I look at it as a pressure differential between the front and rear of the radiator and coolers…standing still and at a given speed. Intuitively that might make sense but no one’s ever shown it. At least that I’ve seen. And I’ve never had any cooling issue with my S6, certainly not one traceable to the bumper inlet.

 

It's a definite cooling improvement. The bumper openings are significantly larger. Look up the "shark mouth" mod for the early bumper, you basically force it to open up further. And the oil cooler ducts are tiny in comparison. It 100% provides more airflow.

 

Does it? Only so much air will be moved thru the fins of the radiator and cooler(s) with the car at rest and at any given speed as long as there’s sufficient volume.
Do you have any comparison data?
I don’t know, it might make a lot of sense for v mounts and tracked cars.…or maybe it really is an improvement for a street car. Or maybe it was just a cosmetic design change by MAZDA and everyone promulgates the cooling improvement assumption. I don’t know, but I’ve never seen a comparison. And I’ve never seen a streeted S6 with a cooling issue traceable to the bumper opening.

 

Yes it does cool better. Plenty of people swapping to a 99+ bumper and having better temps. Not really worth going all scientific, plenty of experience out there. But think about this, if it didn't need more cooling area, then why did Mazda make bigger openings that create more drag when they revised the design?

Sure, there's only so much volume you can flow through a radiator, I think it's around 1:3. V mount gives you a crapload more exposed area. I highly doubt the 93 bumper flows enough to satisfy that. And even if it's adequate, then why do people do the shark mouth mod, and see improvements on an otherwise stock car?

 

If you want to sell it, show it. I think there IS a need to “go scientific”. I doubt many would go to the trouble and expense of swapping front bumper assemblies and NOT subjectively claim an improvement. Same for making you car look silly with the shark mouth thing.
And I haven’t seen anyone doing a shark mouths mod on a street car do for along time…like since they were still raising the back of the hoods claiming cooling benefits from that too.
Mazda might have had a reason beyond cosmetic changes for corporate design conformity. I’m keeping an open mind but not convinced.

 

It seems like you're making a "world is flat" argument. The info is out there but I don't have the energy to conduct a new experiment in front of you. Find me a single aftermarket bumper with smaller or equal sized oil cooler openings as the 93. They are all larger. Even the Aus SP cars had larger openings, and those cars were developed on a crazy small budget that didn't allow for anything extra

Stay skeptical by all means, but don't close your eyes.

There is nothing wrong with an early bumper for a street car, but nobody ever runs them on a race car for a reason.

 

For OP. Basically any OEM part properly installed is OK and isn't considered butchering the car, as long as you're not pulling off updated stuff and replacing it with earlier inferior parts, like early vs late ABS. Anything aftermarket is subjective. And a low milage car should be kept 100% stock because they are rare and, more realistically, it's an expensive place to start if you want a modded FD

 

Exactly.

 

lol but a 99+ still cools better

 

LOL, sure it does…and how much did you spend on your’s?

 

It cost me less than 1% of the purchase price of the car. It's replacing an RE-A GT N1-05 front and splitter, I'm just hoping temps don't rise.

Next thing you'll be telling me vented hoods don't help 😂

 

Interesting that you didn’t want to put a price on it. So it was that much?

As for the vented hood comment, do you have any other Straw Man arguments?