Lifetime of a Wankle 13B?
 

:( I am considering buying a 94-95 RX-7 and noticed the post that said you will only get around 60K out of the 13b? Well what about if you import an RZ engine or a Bathurst Type R engine from the japanese models..??? And why do so many of my friends that own this car seem to be getting at least 100k or more out of theres without a rebuild..... also place is offering fairly low mileage RX-7 at 49k to 55k with a 3 year/36000 mi warrenty on all his rx-7's and he mostly only deals with that car..... wouldnt he be loosing a mass amount of money doing this if the car didnt last past 60K? With minor mods and proper cooling and airflow....? Please help... all i know is that all other cars on the planet dont like RX-7 cuz its not popping pistions..... and most of my mechanic friends shun the car but..... well u cant deny the endurance records in japan with wankles or the drifting and conering capibilitys of the car..... so i figure why not go pop some money out for a sexy beast like
rx-7 and treat it right and when time comes go to my best friends uncles shop and have him drop in 99 or 01 spec engine from japan... with viturally no mileage.... :confused: :cool:
HELP PLEASE

im not sure about 3rd gen engines but my t2 had 160k+ when the engine died, and i dont think it was well cared for by the last owner.

my fd has 93k on the original motor, usually the fd's go about 80-100k on the motor, ive seen them go more and ive seen them go less.

mike

My 84 GS has 157,000+ miles. Its all in taking care of the engine. Regular oil changes are very important, as well as knowing the proper grade of fuel to run. As with all engines, cooling is a must. Once you under stand how the engine works, you can do mods like the dummy plug in the e-shaft. When oil temp builds up, a thermal plug opens up and lets oil pass through the hollow center of the plug and lubricate the oil. Why wait for the oil to heat up to lube the rotors? The dummy plug replaces the thermal plug, allowing oil to lube the rotors the entire time the engine is running. Stuff like that will make the engine last longer. If you ask this same question in the forum for the specific year of RX-7 you are interested in, you will be able to get more specific mods and improvements for that car. I have a 84 car, a 87 engine and a 87 turbo engine, so I can't tell you very many specifics about the 93-95 years.

GSL-SEs can go upper 200k miles. I have seen a few over 270,000 miles on the original engines.

FDs... usually 75-100k miles like mike says, with exception of MightySlash's engine

i just turned 107k on my 88 gs and im still runnin strong, hiting 7k every day to clean the unburned oil on the housings

well I got 208 thousand kilometres on mine and it still runs like new...but the way I drive I don't know how long it will last...but I'm getting my integra type-r in a few months so I'll try to keep my fc for my winter car

Generally speaking... as RX-7s get newer, their engines won't acheive as high of mileage (weird hey?)

Since you are asking only about the FD engines, the expected mileage for one with regular style porting (streetport or stock port) should be anywhere from 60-120k miles depending on performance mods and boost levels.

MAINTENANCE!
This is what is necessary for a rotary to live long.
If you see a fairly stock rotary which went kaboom with say 60k miles, then you know somewhere down the line an owner didn't treat/maintain the engine quite as picky as it is needed to be.

Like everyone is saying MAINTENANCE is the key word... I have yet to own a 3rd gen but I heard on of the major contributing factors to short engine life is the vacuum lines... they crack causing the engine to run real fat... this interns clogs up the cats... try to find a high miles engine or one with a blown up engine and rebuild it... do a mild port... some good 2mm apex seals... throw a good free flowing exhaust system on it and the motor should last the life of the car.... as long as you break it in properly change the oil on a regular basis and don’t overheat it... you should beable to buy a high miles car 100k+ and do all those mods to it for less then you could pick up a low miles car for... and not have to worry about it anymore...

my FD hit 107k on its original motor but there's been a truck load of crap i've had to go through since the previous owner didnt take good care of it. Right now the engine is flooded so it doesn't start (which is the most common cause of FDs not starting) but its not exactly a major problem. if you ever live near the md/va/dc area NEVER take the car to Koons Mazda they will kill the car so you can bring it back for a rebuild.

Never take your car to any Mazda dealer!!!

Are you talking about LA Motorcars in Richardson Texas? I just bought my FD from Lance there with a 3 yr/36 warranty. I told him I wanted a clean well maintained model and he found me exactly that. It has 64K on it, but has every service documented and runs like a champ. I'd highly recommend buying an FD from them. They are the largest reseller of the FD in the country after all. If this isn't who you are talking about I'd recommend checking them out at

www.lamotorcars.com