Is it realy worth waiting for an 89+ TII instead of getting an 87-88?

I heard the 89+ have 200lbs more and their 1/4 mile time is almost the same.

I am looking to get a TII son so I just wanted to know if the 89+ which is rarely found, and is sold for LOTS more, is worth it.


Thx

 

Other things to consider, the 89 is only .5 seconds faster in the 0-60, and has the slower LSD. It has those lame mouse belts.

So IMO they are not enough differences between the two to justify much extra in cost.

Get what's available.

 

basically performance wise they are quite similiar...but the 89+'s have a little better designed turbo and wastegate. plus, on the 89-91's at least you can ground the initial set connector and have the ECU tell you whats wrong...which is sometimes a valuable tool when stuff will go wrong.

IMO i'd wait...(which is what i did) and get the 89-91...although they are VERY VERY hard to come by. but its all up to you...if you find an 88 T2 in great shape with low miles go for it! just whatever one you get...make SURE everything is in working condition. although its the same body with a turbo...the car is very different' from an n/a

 

Get what you want. I got mine so I'm happy ('89T2).

jerk_racer@hotmail.com

 

well, im going from an 89 NA to an 87 TII and thats fine w/ me
i like the interior a little better in the series5, but thats alright. i also like the front bumper better on the s5
i think all the TIIs are good and have about the same potential
even though the 89s are a little better i dont know if the extra cost is really worth it, and like you said- they are harder to find

 

you can't lose, just fine one that was taken care of and you are good to go !

 

I would just get what you can find in good shape. The main thing that makes them look different is the round brake lights and the front bumper, which can be swapped. Thats what I did on my 87, I had the 89 brake lights and the 89 nose with the factory front lip spoiler, looked great. SO like what most of the others have said, find how much money you can spend and get the best t2 for the money regaurdess of year

 

If you are pressed for time and/or money get a 87-88. But if you have some good cash right now and have time to be patient till a nice series 5 comes around than do that. Does matter much though.

 

yea just depends. me i would get the 87 or 88 and just put the 89 front end on it and maybe a few other 89 engine mods from a junkyard

 

Well, here's my opinion.

I searched for 2.5 years for an RX-7. I thought I was going to get an N/A, but ended up getting a TII Sometimes life works out

Anyway, at almost the same time I bought my 89, a buddy of mine (Turbo-Eff-Cee) bought his 87. I actually passed his car up for mine.

Some points to ponder
- The 89+ looks better. Sorry folks, it's the truth. NUMEROUS people, when seeing our cars side-by-side have said (and usu. enthusiastically) "Wow, that one looks so much better!". It's got the spoiler, it's got the front lip, it's got the better nose. Hell, it's just Pimper(tm).
- The 89+ has a better turbo setup. Now, this only matters if you're going to mod the car with the stock turbo. If you're going straight to a T04E, it doesn't make a difference.
- The 89+ has the lighter rotors. Now, all TIIs have a 7k RPM redline, but I feel safer taking my car to 8k than his. The 89+s also have a higher compression ratio. Narrower tuning margin vs. better gas mileage. A battle for the ages.
- His 87 is lighter. Much lighter. Noticably so. My 89 has ABS, A/C, P/S, P/W, PDL, and alarm. His has only the A/C and P/W. Now, I personally prefer power steering, and like power locks, but you may not. It's something to keep in mind. My car also has leather, which is much heavier than cloth, which he has. If this is going to be an autox car, lighter is always better. Keep in mind that almost all the weight that I have over him can, in due course, be removed.
- The 89+ tranny has a reverse gear synchro. Ha-ha! It's not good for nothin', but it's there
- The 89+ has the mouse belts. With all the bitching about them on this forum, they're not that bad. Sorry to yell, but I personally like them. In the S4s, you've got to reach waaay behind the seat to grab the belt. I'm lazy, so reaching is Not My Cup o'Tea.
- The 87 has a clutch-pack rear end, while the 89 has a viscous. What's that mean to you? Unless you race the car (and I don't mean "The Slow and The Frivolous" race, either) it makes NO difference, other than the fact that the clutch pack rear ends tend to wear out REAL FAST, while the viscous diffs do not. If you do race the car, it means that the viscous rearends take about 1.5-2 rotations of the unloaded wheel to lock up, while the clutch packs lock up after about .25-.5 rotations. Yeah, you can feel it. Take the above for what it's worth.
- His 87 has an annoying "Shift Up" light. Ha-ha!
- The exhaust note is slightly different. Mine is deeper, while his is more "rotary". FWIW.

Uh, that's all I feel like typing right now.

All this adds up to this: I wouldn't trade mine for his, and neither would he his for mine. His feels more like a go-cart on steriods, and mine more like a true GT machine.

All this means exactly SQUAT once things start getting modified. Keep that in mind at all times, thank you.

Brandon

 

Hmm, so how much do all those Options actualy weigh to make it a noticable difference?

I understand the extra weight from the ABS, but form Power locks or windows?? That HAS to be a MAX of 10 lbs, the motors dont weigh so much.

So where would the extra 200 or so lbs come from in the 89+ cars?

Also, how much is that T04 turbo anyways?


One last thing, well actually 2 things.

1) the coment you made about "The 87 has a clutch-pack rear end, while the 89 has a viscous". Only the GTUs with the 4.30 had that LSD, although it can be bolted right up to the Turbo version, the Turbo didnt come with the Viscous LSD, it still had the same 4.10 Torsen LSD.


2) Whos is faster you or your friend in the 1/4 mile, and which "feels" faster on highways?

 

Hey Andy
good seeing you post here lol

So you thinking about getting a TII eh

You should
BogusFile in Apopka has a black 87-88 for sale
you should go check it out.

here is a little back ground info
"
At times the stock boost gauge would register no boost at all, when my mechanical boost gauge would. The boost sensor controls the factory boost gauge, so I singled it out as the problem. I replaced the boost sensor and all was well. It read boost correctly, and the car pulled hard as ever. Well the boost sensor continued to go bad. I have checked for ECU codes and there are none, untill I unplug the boost sensor. I have checked to see if it is receiving proper voltage and it is not. Which indicates that there is a flaw in the wiring harness, or a bad ground somewhere around the boost sensor. It is right by the turbo which produces tremendous heat, so it would make sense that the problem is near there. And if there was a wiring problem by the turbo, it would directly effect the boost sensor. Now sometimes When the boost sensor wasnt working, it would just take me unplugging it and pluging it back in to work. Sometimes it would stop working when I hit a bump in the road. Im positive that the loss of power is due to the boost sensor, or something related. Now I am willing to negotiate price."

he's asking 2.5K
but Like he said money Talks
Make him a offer Andy.

 

hmmm I dont think I would want to get my self in that mess. I have never owned a Turbo, and wouldn not know where to look into that problem he has. BTW if its a boost sensor, what else would it do besides read the amount of boost the turbo is giving am I rioght or wrong?

I would think that if he is Actualy LOOSING power like he states, then his turbo is bad in my opinion, and needs a new one.

Thats just what I would think.


If I buy a TII I want one in working conditions with no probs at all.

Ah well I'm just gone see what comes arround during the time, my GTU is giving me no probs at all, so I have no hurry to get a TII right away.

So I'm gona take a look, and save some money for some months.

 

Well, I've also got power steering, so that's another 50 lbs. I've got a 6-speaker stereo, so another 15. The 89+s have more sound-deadening material and thicker carpet, which weighs more and contributes to the GT car feeling...

Not sure. It's too expensive for me, anyway. The thing about going T04 is that you'll also go Haltech, big injectors, custom exhaust, etc, etc, etc. There's plenty of info available for those who seek it. I don't wanna torture myself, so I've not read up on it

Close, but no cigar All 86-88 LSDs are clutch pack, and all 89-91s are Viscous. Mazda didn't introduce a torsen in the RX-7 until the 3rd gens. There's nothing special about the LSD in the GTUs except the 4.3 ring gear. It's still an 89+-type viscous unit.

Well, stock for stock, a fully loaded GT-R and GT-X should be exactly the same. The guy that owned my buddy's car apparently decided to gut the cats, though, so he's running a solid 7 lbs of boost (that's 1.5 lbs above stock). So he pulls on me pretty good. My cats are in perfect working order, unfortunately, so I'm (in a very real sense) dead stock.

Brandon

 

Well, I have to blame that bit of ignorance on this Damn Mazdatrix catalog for not being specific enough, and only mentioning the word Viscous int he same line as 4.30 Thos BASTARDS


hmm so the PS actualy weighs that much? what the hall are these things made of solid Iron??

 

actually.............a GT-R and GT-X can be from the same year. like for instance in 1990 in japan there was a GT-R model as well as a GT-X model. the R was the stipped one (prob no lip, spoiler, cloth, etc)...the GT-X had more options.

i always thought as well that the GT-R was 86-88...but, the GT-R was present in the 89-91 era as well

 

well ive talked to a rotary specalist mechanic and he says tht the sereis V is definatevly better than the iv... apart from the turbo and the engine changes there r some other minor ones but can't remember wht exately but mazda just ironed out some problems they had wif the series 4

 

With all due respect, it's this sort of attitude that scares people away from TIIs. The reason he's losing power is because the ECU, when it fails to see a signal from the boost sensor, goes into "limp home mode". It fixes the timing and fuel levels at a certain level so you won't grenade your engine.

In truth, the RX-7 TII's turbo control system is pretty durned simple. All the overengineered stuff is on N/As too (BAC, ABSV, TPS, etc, etc). Once you get the basics of a turbo system down, troubleshooting gets pretty easy.

If you're worried about "not knowing where to look", try debugging a 3rd-gen. OMFG, Mazda screwed those cars up

Good plan, but don't be afraid to jump on a super deal. Problem-free TIIs are getting harder to come by, and the above TII sounds like it could be a very nice deal. My guess is that there's a resistor that's burned out somewhere, and the sensor is seeing too much voltage on one of its leads. Some simple debugging could scare that one out into the open

Brandon

 

So how hard will it be to find the problem in that car you think?

you think a diagnostic terst will find it or no?

Not that I'm scared to get into fixing one, its just that I dont have the money, so I would have to take a loan with a possible chance of having to spend more to fix it, meaning I would not have the $ to fix it and I would be looking at at turbo II in my yard thats slower than my GTU not up to it right now

If I had the money though, I would take up the offer no probs.

My Orignial plan was to find one with a blown engine but good turbofor under $1000, and buy a reman engine form Mazda for $1800 with a warranty, and I would have a good TurboII with a good engine that I know nobody has abused for about $3000 to $3500 which is in the same price range as a working TurboII, one of which may have been abused for all I know.

BUT, its hard to find them even with blown engines.

I though my day was made when I saw one at a towing place and the guy said $600, so I went right away, and it had been totaled, the driver's side had been bent in about a foot, and they had only poped the door out, the bottom frame was still dented in, and the fenders and nose were messed up as well. It wasnt woth it to me, even though the car ran. So my hopes were shot down by the effect of a DUI/out runing the police in Illinois (thats how it got crahsed). I told my firend about it cuz he and his friend that was another RX-7 had jsut sold a first gen for parts spo I though he might give it a chance. he ended up buying it for $400 and sold it for $1600 as it was. which is what he would have gotten for individial parts.

Any ways, my point is, damn I forgot what my point was its 4 AM

Well I'm jsut gona see what happens.


So you honestly thing that one for $2500 migh as well be $2200 or so, is worth it??