New member in Portland Oregon area here. Have an '85 RX7 with a freshly transplanted 12A.

Originally bought an '83 to run the "Oregon 500/500", a rally/tour of 500km for cars with less than $500 invested in them. Found an abandoned project car that had been pretty well torn up and stripped out for drag racing. Paid $100 and got a rig that was sound mechanically but sad aesthetically and almost no interior.

After a bunch of work we had a really fun little driver and after the event were sorry to possibly part with it......so we kept it.

That car became the basis for next year's 1st gen rally entry, but more later. If we need a couple of posts before business then I need to pace myself.

Nice to be among other enthusiasts who do more than just write checks to build a car.

 

After running our 83 FB in the '08 Oregon 500/500 we were sold on RX-7's as a great source of reasonably priced fun. Our car was ugly with a CAPITAL U but it was fast and all mechanical systems were seemingly in great shape.

The 500/500 was patterned after similar events around the country where you run a 500km rally/tour in a car you've invested $500 or less into, exclusive of licensing, and whatever you have laying around gets used without any declared value. The object is to finish, period.

This loophole of "whatever you have laying around doesn't count against your cost" was going to come in handy later. We just happened to have a complete, running car "laying around".

You are not allowed to run the same car on consecutive years. Darn! Our car would have been perfect but not kosher unfortunately.

A local fella had an '85 roller. Body was pretty good, a solid "35 footer" with paint that was show quality at that distance. A little peely around the edges but at least the original color was only 1 to 1.5 shades of red different so again, a solid 35-footer. Had no engine and a bad rear axle that was minus brakes. Engine compartment was stacked full of parts and there was a big box of spares including a carb, distributor, air pump, and other various and sundry stuff.

This fella was kind of in a jam as it was moving day and it was either get rid of the car or move it. He offered me a deal I couldn't refuse and I trailered it home.

This new car had all kinds of fancy stuff the old one didn't, like windows, a dashboard, interior upholstery, and all the wiring in place. Amazing improvement.

The "heart" of our 83 would live on being transplanted into this '85. More later.

 

After many hours of transplant surgery, our '85 had the 12A engine and limited slip rear axle with disk brakes of our old '83. Of course it did not go without a fight. After the axle went in and the brake line was connected I bled the system. All pumped up just fine and I pushed the car into the driveway confident it would stop before hitting my vintage Volvo. Life was good.

Came out the next morning and the master cylinder had puked its contents onto the driveway and so the old '83 made one more organ donation. Then, as I was lowering the engine into the compartment I thought it would be great to attach the clutch slave cylinder to the bell housing while there was still enough room to actually get the bolts in without using smoke and mirrors. Great idea except the tapped holes in the bell housing had been stripped out and now it was time to drill them oversize, tap for 10mm coarse and use bigger bolts. At least I found the problem while there was enough room to access the holes.


Everything else went fairly smoothly. The '85 engine wiring harness feeds from the right side instead of the left as on the '83, so I was really grateful one had come with the car. Had a couple of relatively important looking wires left over that didn't seem to have siblings on the '83 so I neatly bundled them and crossed my fingers.

Didn't start. No fuel.

Found no current going to the pump. Even with the diagrams and online manuals from this site it still evaded me where to look for the problem so I just installed my own fuel pump circuit and put a cut-off switch on the dash. Took less than ten seconds of cranking before the 12A roared back to life.

I have a few wrinkles to iron out but now that this, my third post, will allow me to pick some of your brains, I am sure I can overcome all remaining obstacles.

And I have spent a total of $401.00 including $115 on used stereo equipment and $70 on some alloy wheels with decent tires. Glad I had that parts car "laying around".

Cheers!