ok, well this puts rx-7 back into my buying stance =). hehe, i am going to try & get a stock one as much as possible. and I will drive it hard at times, just not 24/7.
Mahjik that is like all the mods I had in mind, i didn't even know about aluminum radiator & ast though, thanks for telling me that. But so the RX-7 really is no different than any other damn car. You try & power engine way mroe than it is meant to take, it breaks. You drive it like ***, it breaks. You dont maintain it, it breaks. You do the opposite, it does the opposite. Everyone thanks for the comments, and help.

p.s. fastcarfreak you like how i did that eh? hehe, i meant to just ask one or two questions, and the ball just kind of fell in my lap so i ran (i dunno why i used that analogy, really bad one, but i didn't have alot of qeustions, once more things were being brought to attention)

 

also, u should check out some of the newbie sticky threads at the top of the forum. They have so much usefull info. Yes if you do all them things the car is gonna break, the thing with the rotary motor is that it cant take as much abuse as other motors can. you can have one small error that causes the motor to blow. It gets expensive. If you plan on getting the car and keeping it for years, make sure you have money for a rebuild, because it will need one eventually.

 

i have looked at some of the newbie threads, and read some of the things on the site. Just i am not the type of person that can just read a whole book of info. But if I have certain topics to look into reading, then I can read them no problem. (I just have to know what to go after) So whenever soemone mentioned something I didn't know about I would read that in those help sites. Once question i haven't asked. The rebuild, is that like $3-5k?

and if I was to keep it mostly stock, and hoping it is in pretty good condition when I buy it. What would you speculate the milage before a rebuild? 80-90k?

 

60 to 70K

 

how much would it be to rebuild a stock engine?

 

You of course should look around here (nice way of saying search ), but the price you mentioned is about right for a rebuild and replacement of many of the things that will be bad on your old engine. All told, I think mine was in the $5500 range or so. I did the pull and re-install myself though, so it might add more. I'm including LOTS of new stuff in the price here, like I mentioned in my earlier post. Note, there are a couple way to go on "rebuild". One is to rebuild your old engine, replacing those components that need it. That can be as low as $1550 for the basic engine work, but can go as high as $5000 or more if you get performance mods. Another route is getting a remanufactured engine from Mazda. This will have some new parts, some old parts, all from different cores that were exchanged for remans sent out. The going price runs about $2000 give or take a little, but you still need some gaskets, and need to fix/replace anything that isn't the basic engine. It still gets into the $5K range. A fully "new" engine doesn't really exist per se, i.e. from Mazda. I think I priced it at ~7K to buy all the components separately and put it together, but that may be too much.

And yes, there ARE engines that have lasted over 100K. And some that didn't last much more that 5K.

 

lol spurvo, cool, i'll look into it more, and i'll take your advice within the ( ). THanks for the info, and yeah i've read on the posts and just gone to many diff threads and saw some people have engines with like 110k or 120k and it's still the stock one, while some people have rebuilt three times and the car is only up to 60k total.

 

hate to ask more dumb questions, but is a mid pipe or a high flow cat better for a more reliable car? Out of sheer observancy I'm thinking the midpipe allows more flow which equals more performance, but I may be wrong. But if i'm right will a mid pipe's added performance hurt the car much or does it really not matter between the two?

 

midpipe will be worse for the car in the long run

 

The following mods will save you a lot of dollars:

1. Aftermarket radiator.
2. Aftermarket oil coolers.
3. Water temp gauge.
4. Oil temp gauge.
5. Downpipe.

 

Absolutely untrue.

 

midpipe won't exactly hurt the car. with a dp, mp, exhaust and possible intake, most here buy a power fc w/commander. It's not absolutely necessary if you have a boost controller and keep it at or below 10 psi, but it's definitely worth looking at. with those mods you may be running 1-3 psi above stock, and it may run lean at high rpm's, causing detonation (bad).

 

chazzy, do yourself a favor and stay away from an RX-7 for awhile. Most people around here can see it's not the car for you at this time, and hopefully you will soon enough. Of course the RX-7 is the same as any other car, where more power results in more problems, but that can be applied to just about anything.

 

diablone, i know right now it's not the car for me, but I do want one, and i'm trying to pick up, i'm searching occasionnally, just normally i dont have alot of time on the computer right now, i have time to post a couple things, then leave and check back later. that's why im asking so many questions, and i woudl've did thread searches for stuff on midpipe/downpipe & crap, but that brings up a ton of results.

 

And you expect to be able to maintain an RX-7?

 

lol, not right now, i was gonna post, i promise not to post for awhile, i'm gonna do some reading =). but when i said i was thinking about a car, i didn't mean within the month. but like I said when i first got my honda, i ended up getting the base model lude, not knowing what i was getting, becasue i just thoguht it looked good and my friend said they were good. this i want to at least know alot about it, and how to at least do some stuff, but i'm reading up on all the pros/cons of certain mods and which mods are good for reliability and everything.

 

I own the car for over a year now and had following problems:

1) Disconnected MAP sensor (scared the **** out of me - thought the engine was toasted)
2) Disconnected hose from the vacuum chamber infront of the UIM (scared the **** out of me - thought the 2nd turbo was toasted as it didnt come online )
3) ADD COOLANT buzzer coming on, but that was caused by the replacement of IC where I unplugged a line on an AST and lost some coolant - I just burped the system few times and added coolant and now everything is fine
4) Coupler blew off the hot IC side (twice at the track, running 12psi)
5) Again disconnected vacuum line from the vacuum chamber

I have done almost all reliability mods + some extra for additional power and some regular maintenance (pillowball bushings, tuneup, ...).

Its a great car. Dont be afraid to own it.

Many ppl post here asking for help and explaining problems mostly due to the fact, there arent many mechanics that can work on the car and they want to do it themselves and asking for assistance.

 

Or in a very short, boost-spiking, first run. In other words, running a midpipe safely involves other changes. If you take a stock FD and bolt in the mp you run a great risk of your boost spiking and damaging your engine.

Chazzy, I suggest leaving the stock cat on, putting in a downpipe, and the cat-back is optional.

 

cruiser, thanks for the info. dgeesaman yeah i came to the same conclusion. I've read that maybe put a high flow cat, but dont put a midpipe. but once again, i guess i'll just post thanking, and i'll start reading up.

 

You can use midpipe. Just put some restrictor plate inthere and you're fine. Get boot controller, boost gauge, dp, radiator, alu AST. And have fun.

 

yeah, i think all i'd do, is i started taking notes and marking what i'd get. For actual mods, is dp, rb dual tip cat back, alu radiator, alu ast, brake pads, maybe a high flow cat. I'd get a boost controller and gauge. I don't want my **** going over 10 psi I guess, since from what I've heard that is when you start overdoing your engine. But i'd also do most of the reliabilty mods that is on the Rob Robinette's site.It seems to be going right along with what everyone else is saying.

 

i drove mine for 7 straight months with no problems, the i blew my motor