Twofer

Happy 7/7 everyone. (Sorry if a tad late.)

TurboHappy FD 😁⛽😲

For 12 years, 9 months, 27 days, I was without an RX-7, but I was never without that rotor shaped defect in my brain. I've had Mazdas the whole time, but no wankels until last year when I helped my buddy buy an RX-8. We got it fairly cheap relative to pandemic pricing, but it took quite a bit of coaxing to get it to cold start. When the starting got even worse, we checked the compression... Rotor 1 was 45-45-60. Rotor 2 was 75-80-75. So it was finally time to rebuild a rotary engine. Even worse, a renesis. I spent probably 40 hours watching videos and reading threads on rx8club. Set up my drill press and spent probably 12 hours cutting side seals. But when we got his engine back together, it fired up within two seconds, and runs like a champ now. (Follow-up compression test pending.)

RX8 Renesis Engine Assembly Timelapse

My first car as a 1987 RX-7 non-turbo. It was a piece of **** when I got it. The car was 18 years old and I paid $1700 for it. I was broke AF, but learned how to work on cars trying to make the FC better. Loved that car. It was basically dead when I traded it in on the cash-for-clunkers deal. Got $5100 credit toward a Mazda 3.

Socal 7s San Diego RX7 Cruise June 2006

Recorded on a camera that used "tapes" to record an analog signal. Ancient technology. Sorry about the music, it was the cool thing when editing videos back in 2006.

1987 RX-7
1990 NA Miata 1.6L (sold)
2010 Mazda 3 Happy Car (sold)
2012 Mazdaspeed 3 Turbo Happy Car (sold, couple of track days)
2006 NC Miata (current track car with 2.5L engine swap)
2019 Kia Stinger GT RWD (daily, twin turbo V6)
2007 RX-8 (buddy's car, we do all the work)

I've had the 2006 NC Miata since 2013. I've got 16 track days on the car and the 2.5L engine swap has been awesome. That Ford Fusion engine is unstoppable. At one autocross I noticed a bunch of coolant on the road between the track and the parking area. "What dummy dropped coolant there?" I wondered. Two laps later, the coolant smell was really getting strong. Turns out I was that dummy. After renting a u-haul truck and trailer, I rescued the car. It fired right back up. A coolant hard line coming out of the back of the head had worked loose. Just jammed it back on and refilled the coolant. Good to go.

Mazda MX-5 NC 2.5 at Laguna Seca - 5/22/22 - 1:54 - Windshield / Driver / Helmet Cam

A couple of months ago, I found a guy on craigslist selling a 1988 Turbo 2 with 160k miles for $15k. My buddy was egging me on, so I went to the bank and pulled out cash, and we went to check out the car. The first sign that something was up was the puddle of oil on the ground where the car was parked. Then we popped the hood and the first thing I noticed was the lack of a power steering pump. Then noticed the engine was just covered in oily grime. On the intake side, on the spark plug side, on the front, on the bottom. So we did the test drive, and the immediate and absolute deal breaker was the lack of power steering. Anyone that says "fine", or "not that hard once you're moving", or anything to that effect is wrong. You have to psych yourself up to make a u-turn.

Oh and it was slow. That Turbo 2 would have lost to the RX-8 (even before its rebuild) or my NC Miata with the 2.5 swap and cams. I thanked the seller for his time and we headed home. It would have been a good candidate for a restoration, and the seller had the parts for it, but that was a MAYBE if it were a third of the asking price.

And now the FD. My other buddy sent me the link on facebook marketplace. I hit up the seller and we agreed to meet the next day. I checked out the car and couldn't believe was a beauty the FD is. We took a test drive and the first thing I noticed was the GRacing short shifter.

Mazda RX-7 FD with GRacing Short Shifter

The throws are super short and takes a decent amount of force. The seller said I was the only person that's driven the car that didn't have a problem with the shifter. (So I guess I passed the test?) The car seemed to boost pretty good, it does the 10-8-10 psi thing. The 5th owner, 20k miles ago, got the engine and pneumatic system rebuilt. Then the 6th owner was stance boy that ground the underside of the car flat and discarded the fender liners and undertray. I found rubbing on the wiring harness on the top of the driver's side wheel well. The 18x9.5" wheels the seller had on there would rub the fenders every time you turned the wheel. The engine has the classic "Hot air intakes" sucking air straight in from the radiator, and the ducting is gone from the intercooler scoop where the airbox would have been so nothing is flowing through the IC. (I had IAT's of 72 degrees C tonight.)

As I'm looking over the car and I kept thinking, "If I look too close, I'm gonna get scared off. Lets just **** it up. I can deal with it."

So I married the stripper.

I'm still trying to work out in my brain how I spent as much on a 29 year old car as I did the Kia Stinger that was brand new with 365 hp.

I did not understand how much attention the FD would get. Every 12-30 year old dude I've been within 100ft of has complimented the car. I was giving two 19 year olds life advice on how they can one day get their dream cars by going to trade school and getting a solid career. I had a fellow with a RX-8 come from across a parking lot yelling "OOOHHHHH OHHHHHHHHHHH" from out his window roll up on me at the gas station. (Then we chatted for like an hour.) Is this what happens to attractive people? I'm so average looking that if I stand still I'm practically invisible. (Maybe I missed my calling as a spy.) Within 8 hours of owning the car, someone had left a hot-wheels RX7 on my doorstep.

The plan is to have a tastefully modified but still mostly stock engine (with sequential twins) FD as a street machine. I'll probably take it to the track just for an exhibition run, and to get the Mazda Motorsports discount, but it will not be a track car. I'm keeping the NC for that. I swapped out the short shifter for a stock one (thanks tomsn16), got an airbox (thanks silverTRD), and duct (thanks tqm397). I just put the new wheels and tires on. No more rubs or scrub radius issues.

Titan 7 TD-6 Wheels 17x9.5 +51
Falken Azenis RT615k+ Tires 255/40R17

One of the PO's put on Apexi N1 dampers with 12kg/mm springs. I'll get the ride height worked out then get it aligned. The car has a Apexi Power FC + commander which I need to get smart on. I found a DB9 connector hanging out from behind the glove box, so maybe it's a datalogit? TBD. The turbos are bleeding oil, so the PO provided a used set of "Pettit Racing turbos", possibly the ported BPHF which he said were setup for non-sequential, but maybe I can transfer over the actuators from the OEM turbos.

I got a new muffler (thanks silverTRD) and will be replacing the cats so it doesn't smell so damn bad and wake up the neighborhood. I'll figure out something for the intake and intercooler.

And why it smells like fuel coming from the back left of the car when the key is in the run position. (Not the engine bay, so not the FPD.)

And other maintenance items.

And then finding out what else is wrong with the car.

Fun fun.

<3 you guys. All these years.

WJM ROTARIES

Welcome back to forum

garry cage

Welcome to the forum

MazdaDog

Welcome! Thanks for sharing and congrats on being reunited with the FD.

Natey

iTrader: (19)

Welcome home and congrats on the new car, Twofer!