This is not one of those impressive, custom, track cars. I live in Telluride, CO. Where a dump, of a house, built in the early 1900's will cost you an easy 1.5 Million Bucks......you either rent or own......and the people with garages never use them and are never home. I was not lucky enough to score a place with a garage and I must work on the car in a neighboring town, 45min away. So no crazy builds for me.... Not to mention, shipping rates and delivery times...... It is terrible.....but the views are astounding and so is the snowboarding! (You should check out my Instagram....I see some wild, crazy, and rare cars, almost every day)

Anyways, I will be mildly modding my car and I'd like to share it. This is a work in progress, and will be focused on the street/reliability. I've done some research and work to the car.

Enjoy? Up to you.

Starting from the beginning! Saw a craigslist add and made the jump on a well maintenanced, bone stock, 1994 RX7. 106,000 miles, new motor/clutch 20,000 miles ago, at a Reputable Mazda Dealer. Zero smoke, zero leakes. New CSF racing radiator and new aluminum AST 9,000 miles ago.

Craigslist photos:















These next pictures, are after I got the car home. Drove great, checked everything out, temps were fine on my infrared thermometer. The coolant temp gauge and oil pressure gauge were either on or off. So I'm going to install a set of gauges in the DIN and try to fix the stock ones, as well.

 

I ordered the Bönez 3inch downpipe/catalytic mid pipe and a racing beat 3inch exhaust.







The copper nuts they provided were pressed/made wrong(they had a odd thread on each one and every single one cracked.....it was odd...so I used the stock nuts and new studs)




Ripped the old exhaust out.....it was time for an update....

 

Exhaust on and ready to go. Sounds good and not to loud.













Here it is being revved, after it has warmed up.

 

Went through and decided to give it a tune up.

New Denso O2, NGK spark plugs, and NGK wires. Here are the old copper plugs.



Why are the plugs(more like, where the plug wires connect to the coils) such a PITA? This was poorly laid out, IMO.






Also, replaced this cracked hose connecting turbo to BOV.




After connecting everything back together, it ran 10x better than when I bought it. But when warmed up, the idle would hunt around ~200rpm above or below 800 rpm . I decided to check the TPS position. When I removed everything, the clip/wiring was in terrible shape. So I ordered a new clip and I'm going to extend the wires at least 2 inches.

 

looking good.
what are your plans for the car?

 

Mainly to make it streetable and reliable, first. The roads up here are great for driving, until you get into town....there are no underground Drainage pipes, so there are a lot of large gutters and anything significantly lower than stock will bottom out. I saw Ralph Lauren come into town with his Porsche Carrera GT....turned a corner, in front of me, and bottomed out so hard.....I saw the recoil in the car...........I almost cried....he parked soon after and didn't have a care in the world.....if I only had that money....


Anyways, I may redo the suspension with some quality parts. All the bushing seem fine and are not cracked. Maybe a good set of aftermarket wheels/tires. We will see.

The stock oil cooler has seen a better day and I am in search of a nice stock one to replace it with. I could bend the fins back into place for now.......I could have it sent to a shop to be fixed, but that means even more down time before the snow comes....

 

Awesome stuff. Looks like you're taking the same path I want to with my 94. Subbed.

 

Did you do a carfax or other vehicle check on it... the Rear bumper looks like its a different shade of red or maybe my eyesight is going. lol

Car looks great!!!

 

Its typical for the red RX7's bumpers to fad with time to a different color then the sheet metal. Mine has all original paint (except for the hood and front cover) and is doing the same thing.

 

very cool, I'm actually doing something extremely similar, got a 94 blue mica with 20k miles and working on reliability mods and making it a fun car to drive around in.

 

I did a carfax before purchasing the car. The only incident was a minor, very low speed bump with another car in stop and go traffic in 2001. It bent the driver side fender and bumped the front bumper. Both were replaced and repainted....they said it was cosmetic and no other damage was indicated. Also, The rear bumper is a little faded.

 

I love a stock FD. Are front plates required in CO? I just put mine on the dash and knock on wood, no problems yet with johnny law in VA, but i may be gambling

 

Yes, unless you have a crazy winch bumper.....those people seem to get away with it by putting it on the dash.

 

I just came back from Telluride. One of the most beautiful places I've ever been. But make no mistake guys, owning an rx7 or any automobile in that town is VERY tough. The town extremely small with roads you're guaranteed to bottom out on, real estate with garages is almost impossible to come by, parking is almost non-existent and very expensive, I don't recall seeing a gas station for miles (and if there is one, its probably very expensive), and no one other than OP is going to know a thing about rx7's. I give major props to the OP for building an FD up there! The roads leading into town have got to be a blast in that car and worth going through the trouble for.

 

It is a great town, if you are going to visit. The drive to/from is awesome and I know all the ins and outs of everything. Living there, is another story. I drive a Range Rover classic around town......because I give zero f*cks about it......and I winch people out of the snow with it. It just keeps going........and smiles at me........with over 240,000 miles on it......
As for driving in that town, coil overs and stiff/aggressive clutches are not welcome off of mainstreet, unless you know what you are doing and have some serious cojones .....lol


As for working on the car, I was working on It, at a storage unit, outside of town......but there are some rare vehicles that pass through/that are hidden in those small garages around town. . Multi millions brings out some rarities.

As of recent, I just moved to Boulder, co. I decided to go to back to school and try somewhere different to live in colorado. I herniated my L5-S1 spinal disc, so I'm recovering from that....I can now walk 50-100 yards, then sit down.....when it first happened, I had to crawl 8 feet and drive an hour.....just to get home.....it sucks.....but I slapped the car back together and made it here. If there is anyone in the Boulder/denver area, hit me up! I love autos in general! And I love shooting the ****...... I am a certified pro at both.

Ps: there are 2 gas stations right out of town. A shell and Conoco. Prices are normally 20 cents higher, 40 cents higher if there is a festival going on.....which are some of the coolest! Average house price on Main Street is 1.5-3 million for a dump-average house, with no garage.

 

So, an update. I have deleted the AST(it had been upgraded to a metal "generic" overflow and was leaking underneath. It was kinda a rats nest, so I just updated to the FC overflow cap.) I also had installed some "cheap" gauges, just to have another way to keep an eye on things. Well, they were just that.....cheap....and faulty....so I just recently installed some autometer phantom/phantom II gauges. 1 voltmeter, a phantom ii temp gauge(sender unit is on the front of the thermostat housing), and a phantom mechanical boost gauge(vacuum at idle is around 15-16 hg). Idle has been bouncing and base idle has been reset along with the tps being adjusted, but still I still see some bouncing around(with running lights/ headlights off). I have also noticed that if I turn on my running lights, it idles PERFECT and the fans kick on at 224, according to my new gauge, and kick off at 210(this was at 70-75f outside temp and I live roughly at 5400 feet). But if I don't have my lights on at all, it can get up to 235(not to mention the idle jumps around)before i turn on my running lights to cool it down, just to be on the safe side. I have a feeling something is wrong with a relay or sensor? I was also thinking of upgrading the fan switch to the FC switch, which seems to be conmon.

 

Not to mention, my boost is acting funny. Say, in 3rd gear going from 35 to 65, it boosts 10-8-5(sometimes when the secondary turbo kicks in, the boost slowly bleeds to 0 and looses power aroun 6k) instead of the 10-8-10. I have a feeling there is a boost leak or vacuum leak....I've pretty much updated all the clamps to screw type clamps.

 

Check the rubber connector from the Y-pipe to the crossover tube. They all eventually split.

 

That one had been replaced with an orange silicon unit by previous owner, but I will double check it! Thanks!

 

Well, I checked Everything and reset everything, just to make sure. The TPS was the main culprit, it was way off. I reset it a couple weeks ago but I noticed the bottom screw was not tight.....so it possibly slipped....... I reset it/tightened the screws, hoping the TPS is not broken. Runs very well, now. But as for the temps, I am wondering at the fan switch/relays. It still does not come on at 224f unless the lights are on or earlier with the a/c is on. I will check the repair manual to see about the relays. I think the fc fan switch is in order.

 

So, my fans were not kicking on at the low temp 105c or 108c for the ecu temp switch/fan thermoswitch. Checked the relays and they were fine. So, I ordered the Ecu temp sensor/fan thermoswitch and decided to get a head start on taking it apart. And I think I found both of my issues.
1 the Ecu temp sensor was cracked/separated.
2 the wire going into the clip for the fan thermistor was corroded and had broke off. I Found a replacement connector with pigtail, used, from a member on the forum. It is en route.

Ecu temp


Thermistor clip


Thermistor



Also, I noticed one of my check valves took a ***** and split in half. The filter was dirty on the inside. I removed the filter and plan to glue/heat it back together, as the diaphragm on the inside still works very well, as a temp fix, of corse. I hear daleclark sales some aftermarket replacements. I'll look into it more soon.



Also, I did not have to remove the alternator, as I am crafty with removing things in tight places. [/QUOTE]

 

Got all the new parts in today! Ray Crowe sent the parts promptly and cheaper than the local mazda joint.

FC Thermistor/Thermoswitch


FD ECU Temp Sensor



New mazda Thermostat(should I remove the jiggy?)




Also, got a connector with pigtail from a rx7club member! He even sent me some butt connectors and heat shrink.



Also, I repaired my vacuum check valve. Works great with no leaks. I put a small piece of foam inside from a boost gauge filter that broke on me. Works great. The black cap looked to have been glued to the green part in the first place. So I used some Blue locktyte(which didn't melt the plastic) in the groove and pressed it back together. Then I used my extra,cheap, sauldering gun and heated up the seam between the two plastics. Voilá. Not pretty, but works.

 

for those check valves....you might just want to replace it. It may work now but I can't imagine that it'll last forever.

PM Dale Clark and for $20 he'll give you a set that will replace all of them. Plus, they're made out of Viton so they'll withstand the engine bay temps.

 

That is my plan. just a temporary thing till I get em ordered.

 

Good start for your build. Very clean FD. Im running Dales check valves as well...definitely worth it.