He_162

Early in January I had a friend who was (at the time) planning to leave the Army. As some of you know, the movement of personnel was put on pause during the covid quarantine. He left his 1988 RX-7 GTU with me for the low price of free! He ended up not leaving just yet, but I had the car now and he said I could do whatever I wanted with it.

January 2020
We managed to get it started with a new fuel pump and battery, it ran like ****. I got it on base and parked it. I went over several vacuum leaks where the owner before him had done a very smoothbrain removal of the rats nest and emissions along with the exhaust from the header back... yikes.

February 2020
I got the thing to run, adjusted TPS, and flushed coolant several times. It keeps turning murkyish brown. I had not realized there was a block drain at the time. More on the coolant system later.

March 2020
A month went by without anything being done to the car, I was busy working on my MR2.

April 2020
I took the car out and did a 200 mile one way trip. Car had no issues and ran smoothly. I knew the trans was shifting kinda rough and checked to find out it had been low on trans fluid and PO seemed to have put GL5 fluid in it during his whole ownership of about a year prior to me acquiring the car. Both previous owners assumed it was running rough because the motor was on it's way out and before I did the trip I did a compression test which resulted in 90 psi (~89, ~89, ~90 front rotor, ~90, ~90, ~90 back).

May 2020
The car started having issues after I had been running it hard for a solid month straight. Start it in the morning, run it for 30 minutes, go to work, lunch break, and as soon as I got off work I'd go drifting around in "Mexico" near El Paso. I run the car hard often, and I do that with most of my cars. I don't drive like a Donkey, never around pedestrians or near other people on the road. Usually only in closed off parking lots and empty backroads miles away from town.
-replaced coil and igniters.
-Rewired a bunch of the ignition components to avoid shorts and fix some corrosion.
-Sanded down and re-grounded all the grounds I could find.
-Replaced power steering pump.
-Replaced fuel pump and fixed ground on there.
-ordered a adjustable fuel pressure regulator
-ordered an all aluminum radiator & thermostat gasket so I could pull the cooling system apart and flush everything out.

June 2020
plans so far are to order a new clutch kit, something more aggressive. I burnt my current clutch to the point of slippage in first at half throttle due to my shenanigans. Will get a new set of tires on it, do some suspension adjustments, and then focus on getting the dash lights and gauges to work like they're supposed to! Hopefully, unless more problems surface. Together we will document what comes of this!

Total cost of ownership so far:
~$365 title and registration
~$100 in throw out bearing, pilot bearing, slave and master cylinders as well as brake fluid.
~$115 in a fuel pump
~$20 in a puller tool for the pilot bearing
--------------------------------------------------
Total spent on "FREE FC" : $600!

Problem threads and my solutions:
https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generati...start-1144778/
https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generati...sfire-1144905/

He_162

It will feel like a completely different car in the next few weeks.
-New TPS ordered
-Radiator came in
-Getting a 4 puck clutch disk and strong pressure plate for some full sends (cost of shipping only, got them from a friend!)
^ Comes with a brand new clutch disk and one with 15 minutes of use (on a track though).

Total extra spent, $40. Bringing price up to $640 on the "FREE FC".

Anonymous Waffle

I like how it sits! I flock to beaters, I just think they're the coolest haha. Keep up the work, keep it on the road and drive the hell out of it!

He_162

With the new radiator, TPS, and unsprung sintered metal 4 puck I've been sending the hell out of this car. It's been fantastic. Half way through June and I'm thoroughly enjoying the car now. Starts up, when thermowax is warm it idles great. Around 750-800, and when driving it's smooth and no longer has any issues running. Doesn't overheat even in 105 degree El Paso heat when I'm doing donuts and drifting for hours at a time.

Nothing further for the build while I focus on my MR2 for a bit, but I will get new tires and go to the Dyno to see what kind of power it makes after I get the new exhaust put on. Nothing huge coming up soon but I might record some videos and take more pics for y'all.

He_162

July and August so far have not seen many new parts besides replacements for sensors and whatnot. I got my temp gauge and oil pressure gauge working with a new sensor and some rewiring. Unfortunately, the car overheated in the El Paso heat (lower radiator hose sprung a leak when I was on the highway and I decided to drive the extra 2 miles to get off and park). It won't start again, so motor is dead. Will pull apart in the next few months and see what is going on with it.

I don't think I'll rebuild this 6-port, instead I want to focus on purchasing a turbo motor unless there is a cheaper route to 200hp. I have to get an aftermarket ECU and harness for whatever motor I go with. Tired of dealing with stock electrical. So factoring in an aftermarket ECU and rebuild for whichever motor I buy, what would be the cheapest route to ~250hp? I would like something in that ballpark.

R3tr0grade

For the low price of free, you can't go wrong. Cheers for keeping another rotary on the road