I am starting a build thread for my 1984 Mazda RX7 GSL project. 12a motor, all-around disc brakes, and a five-speed manual.

My uncle was cleaning up his father’s old property and came across his old car. It has in front of his garage with an old car cover over it. He sent this picture to me and asked me if I knew anything about this car.




At first, I knew absolutely nothing about it, but a couple of hours on the internet taught me the basics about it. Learning that it had a rotary engine was new to me! My uncle asked if I wanted anything to do with it, so I went up to see the car for myself. I took off the cover to reveal this beauty.







(I'm going to split this up into some reasonable posts so it's not 50 pages long)

-Noah

 

The car had sat for quite a bit but upon inspection, it still had oil in it, it turned over, and had spark. So, I loaded it up and trailered it home for its first wash in over 10 years.






It cleaned up so well! My friend enjoys taking pictures of cars and he wanted to get some cool pictures of it before we washed it. (His Instagram is @tyscarsandcameras <-check him out, he is pretty good)

 

This is my favorite one so far:

 

Now began the work aspect of the car (or fun part, depending on how you look at it!). I did a simple compression test with a regular tester (I know it's not ideal) and it was much lower than every place I read it was supposed to be. This was not good news, but there were at least 6 even puffs from all sides of the rotor. The engine removal began. Keep in mind that this is all happening in the barn shed up in the Wisconsin winter…






Then was the teardown and inspection. I talked to a friend in my area that has experience with a lot of rotaries, and he helped quite a bit. This brought light to what was some severe chrome chipping in the housings. Irons and rotors appeared to be okay (not perfect, but usable).


God, this nut is huge and was on there good.

 

Now began the wonderful search for usable 12a housings… I even bought one with a junk water jacket by accident…




I eventually found two nice housings that I can use for my engine assembly. These were cleaned and painted, along with the irons to pretty things up.





Got a couple more nice pictures too:



I got a couple of other miscellaneous things painted nicely and a rebuild kit. I have got quite a few things to do yet before it's ready for the key turn, but it is going alright so far. I will see about keeping this thing updated and posting questions to all of you here. Thanks.



Noah

 

This is great!

Especially this: first post quote "Learning that it had a rotary engine was new to me!" going to some glamour shots and detail pix, then BAM! engine's out getting rebuilt. You don't waste time.

 

A clone of my car, I wish mine was in this condition though. It was really rough inside, your upholstery still looks hydrated and fresh haha