adam c

iTrader: (2)

I believe that I have about 300 reliable rwhp @13 psi. 61K on the original motor. Mods in sig.

Silverstone

Let me tell you about reliability. My car only had 42K miles on it when I got it for 16.5K. I looked around awhile to find one with such low mileage. It was bone stock and practically showroom condition inside and out (I thought). I never went for big HP but only reliability mods (you know the usual). But guess what? I've only put about 6000 miles on the thing and I've sunk approx $8000 into it during that time. Many of the problems I fixed came with the car but didn't show themselves right away. And now I just found out a while back I have a slowly deteriorating o ring problem.

My point is that even a car that is bone stock can have reliability problems. As far as I can tell the threshhold for reliability is about 255 HP (oh ooops, that's what they came with from the factory).

I have learned many things about how to take care of these cars and if my car hadn't come with so many problems I believe I could have prevented many of them. But alas as the car has 48,000 miles on it, I am only responsible for the last 6000 so I am still dealing with the problems of the 2 previous owners. But hey it's nearly perfect now, except for that little o-ring problem.

rynberg

You can make good power on these cars and still have a "reliable" engine with "long life" (80k+ miles).

Run 10 psi with all the bolt-ons and PFC. Conservative tune will net you somewhere in the 300 rwhp area (I made 308 with a fresh streetported motor). The engine is no more stressed than a stock motor.

Of course this assumes proper cooling and consistent (not whacko) maintenance.



*

adam c

iTrader: (2)

How have you spent $8000 fixing problems, without replacing the engine? That seems awfully high for such a low mileage car.

Monkman33

iTrader: (28)

I bet it could add up fast:
turbos go out (400 with gaskets and such)
clutch bad - 600
flywheel cannot be resurfaced, replace with upgrade - 400
5th gear synchro out - rebuild entire transmission to make everything like new - 980 (i know this one)
bushings - 360
ecu fried cause it was a flood car - 700
tuning 300
new enine harness - 700
viton hose kit - 300


nevermind, i can't figure it out either.

dgeesaman

iTrader: (7)

Well reliable is one thing, but practical is another. Cargo space, visibility (other cars will not see you), fuel costs, passenger comfort, insurance cost, etc, etc. Some people daily drive them but there is a reason (many, really) why most of us don't.

I think once you go above 300rwhp you're going to see reduced engine life over stock. Above that, you'll see, on average, more breakdowns as the HP goes up. If I were you and you are absolutely convinced this is an acceptable daily driver for you, don't buy a car with more than 300 going to the ground. Then drive it for a year doing just maintenance and sorting out the problems left by the previous owner and get a feel for its reliability. If you want to mod it later, and you have any money left, that would be the time to start.

Dave

rotoober

iTrader: (3)

I drive my car to work 3+ times/week, but it's all freeway and only 30 miles roundtrip. I purchased the car with about 42K miles on it, and it had been partially stripped (salvage title). It now has about 80K miles on it, every bolt on part and pfc running about 12psi. This is my first rotary car, but I'm pretty mechanicly inclined and do all my own wrenching. Most all of my aftermarket parts have been used and were purchased off of this forum - electronics are the only thing I won't buy used. I beat on the car pretty hard: it sees full boost almost everytime is's driven. Only problems I've had were self-induced from a poorly installed vacume hose, or something dumb I did myself.
I have also tracked the car 3X's at ThunderHill and will be at Laguna Seca next month with it! Silverstone - any tips for Laguna? Haven't you driven it a few times?

Matt

rx73rotorj

From what you guys are telling im gonna do reliability mods first starting with the stupid ast tank. Thanks a lot to everyone.

ptrhahn

iTrader: (9)

Preparation, smart planning, and maintenance make reliability, not necessarily a power level.

These cars aren't THAT unrealiable. The problem is that way too many people buy old/neglected/not well maintained cars (see the for sale section for all the people pissing about how "overpriced" well-sorted cars for $20k are, but they'll pay $12k for a piece of **** and spend $10k undoing everything that's wrong with it), and expect to throw some on some bolt-ons and crank up the boost, or want to spend the resources they have on "glory" parts like front-mounts and big exhausts without spending on the infrastructure stuff like oil coolers, or fuel, etc.

Speed of light

iTrader: (8)

Whoever says these can't be reliable (esp. in performance trim) doesn't know what their talking about. I agree that these cars have their share of nusiance problems, but I put over 100K miles on mine as a daily driver and it has never stranded me. And most of those miles were with a well tuned PFS/PMS piggyback and 13PSI, which is plenty for daily/spirited/street driving.

If these guys who are constantly blowing up their rotaries build/tune/operated their respective pistons engines in the same manner, those motors would fail too. (You cannot ping piston motors without consequeces either.)

The rotary is not inheritly unreliable and you don't have to walk on eggshells around it. What you do have to do is know what you're doing, use common sense, avoid detonation and not be stupid about it.

Silverstone

Here's my list of repairs:
1. Two wks after purchase it sprung a serious leak in the cooling system. Hole in metal pipe located under Turbos. Turbos had to be pulled to fix the $12 pipe. $1000 spent. Cause: Electolysis turning coolant acidic and letting car sit too long like that without coolant change.

2. Spent $2000 on various reliability mods.

3. $3000 for complete replacement of air conditioning system. Cause: some bonehead put the wrong incompatible oil in and caused a super sludge that hardened into a concrete like material. Included in this was new belts, fluids, plugs etc.

4. $2000. Let friend drive and he blew out my 5th gear synchro. Had complete tranny rebuild and replaced clutch at same time which was low.


5. $800 for new stereo system w/ the CD changer. The OEM one was shot. Kept the orig Bose spkr system.

Silverstone

Just FYI, your prices are a little low for my area. I have only 1 rotary shop within about a 200 Mile radius. My shop knows this and doesn't cut much of a break on prices. I'm a CEO and can afford it so I pay. My shop knows this also. But even with a shop that is more reasonable it would probably only knock off a couple thousand or so from my investment so far.

MADDSLOW

iTrader: (11)

This is great news to me, I'm going to be running bolt-ons/PFC with reliability mods, and was hoping to break the 300rhhp@10psi mark. So glad I didn't have to make a thread where people could bash on me haha

Monkman33

iTrader: (28)

My prices are from my experience and doing the work myself. have receipts.

YayoFD

Want to know the real kicker?

After my "low-mileage" (60k) engine suddenly failed at a low cruising speed, I'm scared to death to drive my masterfully engineered 3mm/EMS tuned motor for fear of a failure. Even with conservative boost (12psi) and the stock air box, every time I depress the gas pedal a voice in the back of my mind says, "Careful, she's gonna blow. Again."

Am I in any way detoured from my affinity for the rotary? No ******* way.

n rider89

hey quick question because i dont really want to waste everyones time with a new thread but how much will an fd with the basic bolt ons, streetport and PFC make around?

dontlift

It's in the FAQ: https://www.rx7club.com/showpost.php...33&postcount=3 , bottom of post

skir2222

I have a single with all supporting mods... reliable to me....

Silverstone

Cool. I envy your skills. I imagine you know your stuff pretty well to be able to do that. Unfortunately I don't share your skill and was always adverse to experimenting on my own precious vehicle. But right on man. More power to you. Ooops! I think I just dated myself.

P.S. If you ever decide to open your own shop, it would be great to have more than one around here in Sacramento. Man! my shop's prices are steep!

FLA94FD

I have daily driven my FD for 12 years. Until I started modding my car the 1st 7 years I only performed regular maintenance aside from 2 oil sending units and the 5th gear syncro which I lived with. In that time the car was thrashed every day replacing the tires every 12-15k was the norm. I never let the car cool down after spirited driving or anything. Once I started modding the car I did have more problems most were age related. At 88k a rebuild was in order, blow coolant seal. The engine was rebuilt and more less reliable at 14 psi.

Now any motor that can't last more than 88k is suspect in my book. There are cars much faster than the FD good for more than 120k but that's not an apples to apples comparison. To be honest my love affair with this car was over long time ago. I keep it because its paid for and somewhat unique. I would say that for the 1st 65k the car was extremely reliable after that reliability dropped off fast. In terms of cars of similar performance short term it's better than averages over the long term its dead last. The problem is most of you never experienced the FD for the 1st 60k.

As long as your expectation are on target and regular maintenance is performed this car is that bad of a DD considering its age.

n rider89

thanks man i didnt see that web site at the bottom

Fritz Flynn

iTrader: (263)

Been daily driving these cars for 8 years and rarely have trouble. The only time I don't drive one it's either snowing or I'm doing some sort of work that envolves using my truck.

The best formula for reliability is to get one with very low miles that's been well maintained and keep it stock. The only parts it needs is a downpipe and boost gauge.

However if you want some more power just keep the boost at 10psi and add all the bolt ons you want just make sure they are professionally done and you'll continue to enjoy it for years.

elfking

I have been daily driving my FD now for a year or so. (well a couple days I used to take the FC out as I didn't want it sitting too long.) Before I had the FD I daily drove my Turbo II for 3 years without any issues at all either.

The only important mods I did which I did on the FD as well was a nice Koyo Radiator (Any nice aftermarket one works in place of course.) on the FD I have a Apexi PFC and a conservative tune as people were saying.. Street port, downpipe and basic cat-back. Also having the low level of the fans kick on at a slightly earlier temp helps...Nothing fancy power wise. The car runs absolutely perfectly, idle and all. I love it I wouldn't change a thing.

Turbo II, same thing, Koyo, Fuel Cut defender... everything else was stock (besides springs and shocks but you get the point.)

Both were (sold the fc.) fantastically solid, FD has never left me stranded, fc didn't either.. By no means am I making alot of power (above stock) on either but its plenty enough for me.
Paint, now thats a different story. I know my stories don't have as many years behind it, but general oil changes/cooling system flushes and stock levels I am in agreement these cars are just as solid as any other 12+ year old car.

Fd2Blk

Unfortunately for me, I fit this description. I've treated my engine well the whole time I've had it (I mostly drove it like a granny, too), and it is all stock. I was told the engine was new (rebuilt, whatever), and last week it just blew for no reason at all. (Confirmation to come in the form of a compression check on Monday). I wasn't hitting it hard, no mods, stock boost.

If I had known it was going to go anyway, I would have beat the thing to hell. Oh well, that's what I get for being responsible, right? It's just life. Sadly I don't have the means to just cough up $5k at the moment, so my car will be waiting patiently (thinking long and hard about what it did).

rx73rotorj

What it pretty much comes down to are these things:

1. How you drive.
2. How well you do maintence.
3. How many aftermarket mods you do.

I personally think from reading the safest rwhp is from stock 210 rwhp to 350 rwhp.