My FD Story


About 10 years ago I found a decent condition Red R-1 for sale that was a theft recovery. It had 81K miles, the body was straight and had been previously repainted. It was missing the following: wheels, seats, radio, everything that goes in the trunk including carpet, floor mats, shift ****, battery, air intake, intercooler, turbos, radiator, strut tower brace, exhaust front to back spoilers, and more. I thought it would be a piece of cake so I bought it...

I spent a few months finding all the parts and putting it back together only to discover the engine was blown. A little disappointed, I found an "freshly rebuilt" engine out of a car that was totalled shortly after engine install. After the engine was sent to me, I tore the engine down to the block to put all my accessories and manifolds on it and install silicone lines and new gaskets from mazda. I also installed a light weight flywheel that I ordered. Installed the engine and it ran beautifully and even the a/c blew cold! Took it for a spin for about a mile or around my house and it began to develop a nasty rattle that I discovered I could change the sound of by pressing in the clutch. Now I am getting a little frusterated.

 

A few months later, I dropped the transmission to discover that the flywheel was not tightened to the counterweight. It came assembled and I didn't check the bolts. Put the transmission back in and took it for a spin. After driving for a few miles I noticed the oil pressure was low. As the oil temperature rises, the pressure drops. I replaced the oil pressure sending unit, no change in the pressure, installed a mechanical gauge and verified the pressure is low. Now frusterated and out of time to work on this project, the car sits in my garage.

 

10 years pass...Now we drive a toyota minivan and a truck and yearn for something fun to drive so my wife gives me the green light to work on the car again.

 

I dug the car out of the garage (one of my new years resolutions was to clean out the garage as well), pushed it out and washed 10 years of dirt off of it. Attempted to charge the battery with no luck so I jumped it off of the minivan and to my amazement it started. Drained the tank and put in fresh gas.

 

Joined the forum and started a thread about my oil pressure issues and researched that the oil pressure needs to maintain more than 50psi at 3k rpm. My oil pressure is fine until the car has been running in the driveway for about 10 minutes.


https://www.rx7club.com/new-member-rx-7-technical-256/93-rx7-low-oil-pressure-problem-982520/

 

Installed a 2nd mechanical oil psi gauge and it confirmed what the first gauge and both sending units already told me.

 

Changed the oil with fresh 20w50 oil. You should change your oil at least once per decade right? No change in psi behavior. My odometer quit displaying the mileage today.

 

I made the decision to pull the engine again and replace the oil pump and pressure regulator, as well as the pickup tube and make sure all seals are installed correctly but in the meantime take the car for a drive to see how well it runs and address any other issues i don't know about when the engine is out. While on the drive my tachometer and speedometer quit working which makes it hard to verify my oil pressure at 3k rpm. It is cold and raining out, the oil pressure seems to be over 50psi everytime i check. It is difficult to verify the turbo operation due to the r-compound bfg tires and the wiper blades both of which are over 10 years old. I drive it for about an hour before the oil pressure gets too low and the car seems to run worse the longer i drive it. I now have a check engine light on.

 

I drive the car the following day and I can't get it to hardly move, every time i try to accelerate especially from a stop it bucks and stalls. Not loving the aluminum flywheel.

 

Yesterday I drive the car and it is driving well??? I researched how to check the engine trouble codes and learn it has a code 6 for speed sensor.

 

Today I researched the speed sensor and learned that the ecu gets its speed signal from the cluster so I will need to look at my connections tonight I suppose.

 

This would have been much easier in 1 post rather than a new post for each sentence.

 

What the hell is going on here? This isn't Twitter, buddy.

Trying to build your post count or something?

 

He is a friend of mine and Drkilljoy's who has never used internet forums before. He'll get the hang of it.

 

Welcome back Chad... LTNS!!!

 

Been stuck on the on the speedo / tach / odometer issue that I believe is causing engine codes. Working on the board but not having much luck.

 

Chad, anyone who gets Killjoy to pop out of his hidey hole is alright in my book

You'll probably have to replace the entire cluster assembly.

Re: the low oil pressure, is this an original mazda factory engine?

 

I hate to say this but I can't remember what the seller said was done to the engine. It was recently rebuilt. (recently as of 10 years and 0 miles ago) I am trying to get the check engine lights fixed so I can get it out of limp mode and drive it to see how the oil pressure behaves.

 

Well if it was a home-built job then any number of things could be wrong. If the pressure is low and behaving like you say, I highly recommend that you stop running the car asap and make plans to pull the engine and bring it to someone reputable. If the pressure is too low you'll do major damage to the internals and ruin lots of parts.... this is worst case scenario but with these cars that's often the case

 

Game back on...

Got the speedo working and the car out of limp mode. Still having oil pressure problem after about 5 minutes of run time. I think it is time to pull the engine again to look into it. She will just have to sit for now.

 

I rode in it last weekend and watched the oil pressure. When he gets on it, it will stop top 100 psi. At 3K though as it warms up it settles in lower and lower and hangs near 40 psi. Could it be a small leak in the front cover o-ring or could this be a result of someone installing eccentric shaft jets that were too large?

 

So did this get resolved?