Whether you autox it, race it, drag race it, etc... What are the MOST miles you've got out of a rotary before replacing or swapping it out?

Considering heavily when I get this rx7 to do a lot of mods but it will mainly be raced in autox and just also a weekend car for me and my gf when we get married, she got as addicted to cars as I am, got her hooked on rotaries and now I can't convince her otherwise hahaha, guess that isn't a bad thing.

But I'm curious, I've heard stories of 100k to 120k, and someone told me 200k which I doubt because I heard that the seals may fail and compression goes to crap. I can't confirm nor deny this so I was wondering what you people that OWN them get out of them

A little more detail, I AM buying a 1st gen for autocross DESIGNATED as well as a possible drifter, will be stripped and drove like I stole it while at autox, SHE wants to get a 3rd gen for the weekend and for a bit of autox. So if that helps, you have an idea of what kind of miles the engine will see.

 

You might hear this alot

but did you even try searching? Their was a post a week ago about this


My father's engine lasted 156k before it died, yes its a 3rd gen all stock with no "relabilaty mods"

my engine lasted 67k


The average "well taken of" 3rd gen will last you 60k+ unless you **** it up

 

I have an FB that died with 274,963 miles on the original engine. I have all the receipts for the car from new in 1981. It was GIVEN to me when it had 257,000 miles on it!

 

My old FC had 189,000 on it when I sold it for 400 bucks. Passed smog without a problem.

 

What I got and what you or anyone else will get depend on whether the car was maintained. I got 367,000+ miles out of the original engine.

 

If the compression is over 90 psi per rotor and both are within 5% you should be fine regardless of mileage. Also make sure it has been maintained.

BTW my SE has the original engine with 182,000 miles.

 

No offense, that sounds very hard to believe that you got that many miles out of the stock 3 piece apex seals. I can't imagine the top piece of that seal being tall enough so it doesn't flip out of the rotor groove with that many miles.

 

My brother got 382,000 miles out of his daily driven GSL-SE Love thows 13B's with 3mm Apex seal

 

From what I can tell they last longer than I expected... impressive. Wasn't trying to **** you off MrRx, this forum is HUGE, I'm very busy, and to be quite honest didn't really feel like searching through hundreds of threads... I figured if there were any helping souls out there they'd be nice enough to post and help me a bit, and these people were kind enough to do so. However, I know what you mean, and I'm sure it annoys some people, I'll try not to make it a habit.

 

I can imagine the 3mm 2 piece design lasting that long but not the 3 piece design. I would love to see pics of those housings after that many miles.

 

Ask around. I've been around on various forums forever and plenty of people are familiar with my car. The original motor lasted 367,000+ miles before dying from a coolant seal failure due to dex-cool. If the apex seals were worn at that point, they didn't show any signs. The car never had hotstart issues, never flooded, and had good power. Like they say YMMV

 

My 94 FD has 117000 km's on the orig engine.
Still runs perfectly, never spent a cent apart from following the Mazda servicing schedule.

 

Eight years ago I sold a mint red 1981 gsl rx7 that had 160000 and it is still seen around town . Oh yeah I was the third owner. I lived down the street from the second owner so I felt like i actually bought it from the original owner.
I was told by the person that bought this car from me that there family had owned a 1st gen that went over 300000 miles. The key was to drive them hard. It seemed to be a bullet proof car.
I now have a second gen non aspirated that has 130000. It drives like new. My mechanic told me to expect 150000 an the average.

 

marcus f has a nice rx-7

 

hehe no prob

Belive me I understand ive gotten yelled at a bunch of ppl for not searching


I was going to post you up some links but yeah, I cant search for ****

 

I'm impressed!!! I didn't think that the 7s lasted that long!!!
So that means the myth of dying under 150000 miles is gone now!!!!!