I am new this forum and fairly new to rx7's in general. I am interested in getting a 93-94 rx7, but they are high and fairly hard to find in a shape that i can afford at once. Would a rolling chassis be a great start and then a twin turbo rotary purchased from jdm a practical route? How easily is the conversion from a non turbo chassis to a turbo engine done. Any advice or different routes would be greatly appreciated! thanks Matthew

 

Buying an RX-7 / Buyers Guide / Used Car Shopping:
http://rx7.voodoobox.net/infofaq/bguide3g/bguide3g.html
http://www.marx7.org/infocenter/faqs/3rd_faq_main.html
http://www.fd3s.net/buying.html
http://www.rx7.org/Robinette/buyaused.htm
http://www.epinions.com/content_92709097092

*New to the site? Looking to buy an RX-7? Read these, you'll find the info you're looking for more quickly than waiting for people to reply to a new question:

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/looking-buy-rx7-3rd-gen-few-questions-339680/
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...threadid=27094

All the above info can be found here

 

Thanks for the help, some of the basic info is hard to find. Not even close to having the knowledge that you guys know, But that is why im here!

 

Those links posted above should answer ALL you basic questions. Including that there are no non-turbo 93-95's. A JDM or right hand drive is very difficult, next to impossible those some will argue, to legally drive on US roads. And if you know very little about the rotary, a chassis up build is not for you. Save more money and buy a good running car. If you cannot afford the car, there is NO WAY you will be able to afford supporting one. They are not an inexpensive car to maintain, and it will not do well with being mistreated.

That being said, the car is more fun to drive than most high power V8's and will perform very impressively if taken care of.

Good luck in your search for knowledge and your upcoming decision if this is a car for you. But you are forewarned, it is not for the faint of heart...

 

Do you have 10k-15k with another few thousand set aside? I don't wish to dissuade anyone from their dream but the above is realistic as to what you will need.

I got a very good deal on my car...$7500 with a full exhaust, 200 miles on a new engine, and a few other odds and ends. I've already put about 3k in reliability and other items over the last 3 months and anticipate another $1000 per month in expenses minimum for the next 3-5 months to get it to "basics done point" in my mind. Then the fun stuff starts.

 

+1 on making sure you have extra money on the side after buying any car that has a rotary engine in it. And get ready for a lot of love/hate relationship with the car. I love my FD (right now) even though i already had to drop a new engine in it after 80k miles but i was the cause of the engine going bad because of over heating, which i am trying to rebuild right now...

 

I paid 3k for my jdm 93 with bad apex seals then 1300 for a jdm motor and trans from Ebay and was up and running. My car came with Tein coil-overs, Apexi intake, SS cat back and some other stuff i cant remember right now.The only problem is I then spent 1k on a power FC $100 for a used SS mid pipe, $275 for a used HKS Twin Power, $500 for a wide-band with gauge and a boost gauge. Then i had to make my own fiberglass center speaker pod to hold the 2 gauges ( I hate fiberglass) and now I'm about to drop $600 on an Aqua-mist meth injection setup. I'm sure there is a shitload of other stuff I had to buy that I've forgot. I still need to get a Vmount setup and the rims I want are another 3k

 

Its one thing to have an FD as a project car but if you want high up time you gotta pay to play or be an excellent mechanic and have some money. If not, don't bother. If you want to really enjoy an FD it takes alot of investment in time and money in the beginning. If you are looking for a good and absolutely cheap way to build an FD, you're wasting your time.

 

what is your budget?

 

Hi Mathew,

Nice to see another car ehtusiast. Your ideas are simmilar to what I did 3 years ago.
First of all I would not recommend on going rolling shell + JDM engine way.

When doing this type of swap you can't just buy bare engine with gearbox, as you would find out that a lot of auxilaries are missing and it would be PITA to get all parts one by one.

Considering, you could get another RHD breaker car with good engine, or a front cut for this type of swap. This is the way I took. The price came out similar as of getting bare engine+gearbox swap, but doing so I got all radiators, air fileters, exhaust system, ecu, wiring which saved me a lot of time and money.

In the end:
- It did take some time to make a swap.
- I learned a lot about this car.
- It came out a little cheaper as of getting decent shape
FD3S. (~12k USD for 94 touring with Type-R engine to be precise)
- FD3S is a black hole in a wallet
- I would not go this way second time, and would buy decent FD3S instead

 

Thanks, I am not looking to go cheap with the build in the end. Im wanting to do the car in stages, taking the time out to learn each section and fix what is wrong. All the work will be done myself..mechanic/painter, New to rotary world all together! Love the troubleshooting and the headaches a project can throw at you, thats what im missing. Thanks for all the advice and anymore would be helpful in starting this project! Maybe some sites and places a little more in depth in the motor world on do's,dont's and why's.. (websites,rotary books etc.)

 

There is nothing more expensive than a cheap FD. Buy something that is in stockish condition and it will actually be cheaper in the end. It's WAY easy to get in over your head... you'll have the "troubleshooting and the headaches" no matter what FD you get, but the better shape/less modified the car is the more manageable the troubleshooting will be.