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Go back and get the engine,free is good. Engine not too big to store away in your garage.12A engines in front of auto trans their whole life get less wear as they don't see revs as much as in front of manual trans.
It may be in better shape than what's in your car. Being you have to deal with smog laws,best to keep a 12A in car with all emissions intact. 12A parts are getting scarce,even if the engine isn't 100% healthy,surely will have some good components that if needed could be used to make one good engine out of the two.
Really,go back and get the engine,your wife will understand lol.
Well 6 months later I reconnected with my friend and got the 12A as a garage spare for my car (which is running great right now). The engine has 146k miles was matched up to an AT, still has the counterbalance so I'm thinking about an eventual rebuild on it with mild street porting with a lightweight flywheel. Thanks for the advice last October GSLSEforme!
Last edited by Lews83GS; May 6, 2019 at 08:32 AM.
Reason: Addition
No I didn't, the original pinstripes were not either and they were in great condition before the paint job.......I don't think it was a factory option, but I'm not sure. BTW - I just looked at your build thread, that is some next-level work you are doing! I wish I was that brave I'd really like to take my car down to its bones but I'm not sure I've got the skill set required. Well Done!
Last edited by Lews83GS; May 19, 2019 at 07:56 AM.
Reason: Addition
Wow, the car sure looks night and day different than when you dragged it out from under those trees. And you ended up with that other engine as a spare! Great job bringing her back. Are those stripes around the wheel arches or protective rubber bumpers?
Yes the fenderwell trim is 1/4" rubber which the car had at one time. There was a lot of damage on the edge of the wheelwell's so instead of trying to find 4 fenders and upping the cost I elected to have the rubber protectors re-installed like the car was when I bought it. The paint/body work is really nice but definitely not show quality.
Update: After driving yesterday the car is blowing steam/water out of the exhaust and has coolant in the oil filler neck and on the dipstick! I don't want to put the second engine yet in because it has to many oil leaks which might be from the oil injector pump but I'm not sure. The second engine is an 1984 automatic, I'm wondering about additional vacuum hook ups or additional solenoids that the 83 manual doesn't have any thoughts? I know there is 1 additional vacuum valve hanging on the side of the carb that I don't recognize. It has an orange dot on it and looks like it should be in the rats nest.
No I didn't, the original pinstripes were not either and they were in great condition before the paint job.......I don't think it was a factory option, but I'm not sure. BTW - I just looked at your build thread, that is some next-level work you are doing! I wish I was that brave I'd really like to take my car down to its bones but I'm not sure I've got the skill set required. Well Done!
thank you for the kind words. I am rebuilding my first engine this week. So we will see how this goes. funny thing is it may be 2020 before it runs. My paint guy really suggested I get the engine in before the car gets sprayed. My overall thought is I am treating my RX7 no different than a guy restoring a muscle car . If we want to be taken seriously as classic Japanese imports, we need to put our collective best rotor forward, Lews83GS you are definitely hitting that mark.
Well I took the car to a local dealer with a 40+ year Mazda tech and he said the car was fine that it was just humidity from the recent rains and the fact that the car had sit for 2 months at the paint shop. So I'm just gonna keep driving until I can't and not worry about it.
Christened the car "The Phoenix" on my eldest sons suggestion. Long story but it rose out of the mud and my 1st duty assignment after buying it in 1985 was Williams AFB, Phoenix AZ
You've done right by this car and you've done an amazing job restoring it to where it should be! I'm glad it's back in your hands! You deserve to have the car! Cant wait to see more pictures of the car!
I have done a bit of research on the pinstripes. They were definitely not applied at the factory in Japan and as best I can tell they were applied by dealers at the showroom. This is the same in Australia as well. However, the jury is out on whether or not the pinstripes were a factory item supplied by Mazda. They are not shown in the North American parts fiche. Similarly, they were not shown in any of the Australian brochures or road tests on release. Nevertheless, they are shown in the JDM parts catalogue, in different colour combinations depending on the paint code for the car. It is also curious that the pinstripes on US models look pretty much the same as the pinstripes I've seen on unmodified RX-7s in Australia (which are a lot rarer than in the US).
Boy, I wish it had of been exempt! At the bottom of the page below my car was going through a "Change of Ownership" SMOG test and did not qualify, I definitely passed the cost threshold, I spent close to $1550 total. So they get you going and coming out here, which means you just gotta pay up! On the up side the state will buy it from you for $1000 if it fails SMOG, and crush it! Definitely not happening to my car.
The universal Cats were $650 installed at a shop, Magnaflow makes a bolt on set for a few hundred more, which is probably a better option from an aesthetics standpoint and I kind of wish I'd done it.
Well I pulled the carpet a few weeks ago and found mold under it and all in the jute padding from the 20+ years in the forest, so I decided to replace the carpets, padding and clean the floor pans. It was so extensive that I had to actually seal it too, a trick I learned from rehabbing homes with water damage. I used spray on undercoating as it it rubberized...I think maybe plasticoat or even truck bed liner would work. A good cleaning with spray on white vinegar helped a lot but in a few areas it was just too extensive to get 100% remediation, so on went the undercoating! These things needed some wire wheel and spray paint Much better! Finished product, and yes those are S3 (1984) seats, mine were trashed when I got the car back
Thanks Toruki, I was looking at your 82 Resto and really impressed with the underbody suspension work. I wanna do that to my car next, how hard was it to get the bushings out? And are you going rubber or poly? So far I've got a few parts ordered but have not started.
You might have me confused with another forum member? I've got an 83 GSL, Havana Brown.
I did do some pretty vanilla suspension work, nothing compared to some of the really talented people on here, just some parts swapping. I put Tokico Blues and RB springs all around. The Blues are NLA as far as I know but the RB springs are still available. I put in Energy Suspension red poly for the sway bars front and rear, control arms on the front, and also the Watts link.
FWIW the bushings were exceedingly easy to remove ( I assume you mean the the Watts link with the pressed and bonded bushings). I used the torch method to melt the bonding of the rubber to the steel and then cleaned them up inside with a small wire wheel. Your goal in that job is not to overheat the steel and introduce weakness, you want a slow-ish heat until you just see the bubbling between the rubber and the steel. You can then push out the bushing pretty easily. And if disassembling the Watts, mark the hell out of how it fits together. It's like a mind bending puzzle putting it back together. I took photos and still did it wrong on the first go.
Some folks use a 1/8th drill bit, go through the rubber at the bond and then whip around like a router, letting the drill set the pace of movement. Never tried that though I would have if I'd known at the time.
In retrospect, I think I should have left the Watts alone at first...changed a lot of things all at once, I think the bushings were probably in pretty good shape and I'm not sure if I am getting binding now...the rear seems a bit squirrely. Maybe I'm spoiled by more modern independent suspensions in other cars. I also have Federal SS 595 205-60 13" and they're really sticky with a flexy sidewall so that might be the squirrel in the mix.
