reliability modifications
 

hi. i just recently bought my 93 rx-7. it is in excellent condition and as of now there is nothing wrong with it. However, to prevent anything going wrong with this car, I plan to do some reliability modifications that i have been reading about at rx7turboturbo.com. I plan to replace the pre-cat with a downpipe, insall a boost guage, replace the ast tank, replace vacuum hoses, modify the stock air box, upgrade the front anti-roll bar mount, replace the rubber intake hose couplers and disable the exhaust gas recirculation valve. Does anybody else have any suggestions along the lines of reliability mods? now i don't have much money to spend so which would you suggest as being the most important reliability modifications? which is the best to do in which order and which are rather costly? i am not much of a mechanic so most of the stuff will be professionally installed. the performance modifications, at least for now, will be minimble. catback, dp, air box, boost guage is all i am looking at right now plus the reliability mods. Also, i have heard the replacing the pre-cat w/ dp is illegeal and here in ohio we do have e-check. as i said before, i would not do the installation, so who could i find that would be willing to install this? thank you very much for your tme and please help me with any suggestions. THANKS

Don't forget to get an all aluminum radiator. This is important as the factory one has plastic end tanks that crack and spill cooling fluid.

remember the 3 mod rule... A dp, catback, and airbox is cutting it close. You will need a ECU if you get those mods. If money is the case then i suggest you get some reliability mods such as radiator, dp, etc... and choose between catback or airbox.

just my .02

1FAST7

reliablility mods
 

I've had my 94 for about 8 months now. Bought it for 12k. Got a really good deal. I started by replacing the pre cat with a dp. Here in FL we don't have e checks, but it is still illegal. Some ppl say you can pass emissions with a dp. I'm not sure. From there I went and bought a turbo timer. Thats another good one to preserve the life of your turbos. And finally I got a boost guage. Autometer works just fine and its about 55 dollars. Some ppl say they are not so reliable, but mine seems to work just fine. If anything they may read a little bit higher than another guage, but thats better than under I guess. My car right now is up at KDR in pennsylvainia getting the motor rebuilt and street ported. My water seals went and thats just what i had to do. Mazda originally didn't put a very high quality seal in the original 3rd gen motors. I'm going with a silicon water seal that is supposed to withstand a lot more heat. and also going with the hurley 2mm apex seals. I want my motor strong and basically don't want to have to rebuild this motor for a long time. But all in all I would start with a dp to keep the engine cooler. BTW its not very hard to install. If you have some sort of access to a lift its not bad at all. Frustrating at times if you don't give the car about 2 hours to cool down, but you get through it. Its only 4 bolts up top on the manifold and two that connect to the mid pipe of cat converter.

aluminum radiator is on the list but not one of my first. this car has a new engine with only 6k miles on it and a new radiator w/ 6k miles on it. as for the 3 mod rule... i already have a racing beat cat back exhaust and will most likely get a dp. i really don't know about the third mod b/c i don't want to have to get into ecu quite yet. but i still have the stock cat on... i'll have to see how things go. i will prob go w/ the autometer boost guage and maybe EGT guage. as for the car passing echeck w/ a dp... it definatley should as long as the car is warmed up, which it will be. it prob just wouldn't pass on a cold start. anybody that has echeck in their state pass/fail with a downpipe? let me know. thanks a lot and keep the suggestions coming. THANKS

So are you saying that you shouln't replace the cat with a dp either? I mean if you replacing the pre's you might as well replace the primary eh? Then again...:rolleyes: illegal comes to mind again. BEst bet is just to soak up as much knowledge as you can for that helps a great deal.

with dp and stock cat you will be fine. running a dp and hi flow I am still fine sooo there ya go. ECU is very important and should never be overlooked!

If you want your car to be reliable you should not spend a penny on mods except a boost gauge, temp gauge (or stock temp gauge mod), and downpipe, and spend a lot of time and money on routine maintenance.

These cars are old, any car that is 10 years old will have problems, those little problems on an FD can easily mean overheating or blowning an engine. Or on a good day, just being stranded because a clutch hose busted, water hose is leaking, etc.

I have a huge list of things I consider mandatory maintenance for an FD for anyone who wants it to run reliably for a long time. Most people just roll their eyes when they read it, they think it is excessive, I think it is necessary for these cars.

Wade

Unless you plan to autox or road race, don't worry about replacing the front sway bar mounts. I highly recommend replacing ALL the coolant and heater hoses. Like someone else said, these cars are 10 years old.

PS- We have emissions checks here in Texas and everyone passes just fine with a downpipe and the main cat.

what about a mp and dp together? is that too much to ask for an emissions pass?

1FAST7

ok. i really don't want to get into ecu chip yet with this car. tell me this... if i have cat-back, downpipe, and just a simple k&n filter will i need an ecu chip? is there any alternatives to this because i have heard that downpipes are a must on fd's and i already have a cat-back that i bought the car with. plus, k&n filter is a great thing to have. Thanks alot

u might be ok...but dont add anything else, what are u boosting?

stock boost. b/c all i have is cat-back on it right now. i want to put the dp and k&n filter on as my only mods (aside from reliability mods). also, boost guage and egt guage. will i need a boost controller or can i just keep the boost stock b/c i don't want to get into changing the boost quite yet. so am i okay with that? thanks

You should be fine with that. Just watch out if you pull all of your cats and you have a free-flowing air intake system. The orafice on the stock wastegate is not large enough to dump all that air into the atmosphere, and you will overboost and blow your engine. You will not need a boost controller unless you want to increase or decrease your boost levels. If you really want reliability, go single turbo, but it's pricy. I don't know if anybody has mentioned this yet, but replace your stock air seperator tank with a metal one. One of those split on my first FD and it made a really big mess! The radiator ideas are great, and a upgraded intercooler is a really good idea too, as it helps keep the whole engine cooler. Anything you can do to help pull heat away from the engine is a really good thins because the 13B tends to run hot. Hope this helps!
-Quinn
93 RX-7 Touring
Greddy T-78 BB Tubo
Power FC ECU W/Remote Commander Unit
Blitz Front-Mount Intercooler
Koyo Radiator
Four 850cc Fuel Injectors
Greddy Profec-B Boost Controller
Jacobs Rotary Pro-Pack Ignitions system w/upgraded ignition coils
Etc...
410hp to the wheels

do you think a/f guage would be better or egt guage? i decided that i will probably get dp, air box along with my catback and then just get a pre-tuned ecu chip to be safe. anything else i should consider? thanks