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Picked up my dream car! Rx7 FD First time Rotary owner
Whats up everybody,
I just picked up my dream car. A 1993 fd LHD base model... Completely stock engine ,With power Fc was a one owner car ,supposedly the owner was a Mazda tech.. Has high miles but engine feels great. Hopefully he rebuilt it at some point. still undecided on my build direction, but definitely I Want to start with making sure the engine is up to date its complete stock.
any advice would be appreciated. THANK YOU!
still undecided on my build direction, but definitely I Want to start with making sure the engine is up to date its complete stock.
any advice would be appreciated. THANK YOU!
Read the FAQs and Stickies and ask questions before you do anything.
If you want to enjoy driving it, my recommendation is keep it stock with some minor exceptions
If you don't have one, get an aftermarket water temp and boost gauge. Heat is the enemy of these cars.
After that, check the compression to get a baseline on the health of your engine.
If you have contact info of the PO, find out what's been done to the car. That's important. Otherwise, you may be doing things that don't need to be done.
Read the FAQs and Stickies and ask questions before you do anything.
If you want to enjoy driving it, my recommendation is keep it stock with some minor exceptions
If you don't have one, get an aftermarket water temp and boost gauge. Heat is the enemy of these cars.
After that, check the compression to get a baseline on the health of your engine.
If you have contact info of the PO, find out what's been done to the car. That's important. Otherwise, you may be doing things that don't need to be done.
yes thats the plan keep it as simple as i can and enjoy it for now.. ive been doing alot of research .. first thing im doing is replacing radiator and coolant lines .. i also need to replace my fuel lines they are rusty, i just dont know if i need to replace injectors as well?? Cant seem to find a good thread on fuel line replacement with stock rails and injectors
Upgrading cooling is a worthwhile mod and any original rubber is probably in need of replacement. Problem is when you start disrupting things, you are more apt to brake brittle components. That's why it's good to find out if the PO upgraded anything. If he's a Mazda tech, he may have.
As for your fuel system, i wouldn't worry too much about surface rust. You can spray it with a rust inhibitor or converter. If you smell fuel, that's a different matter. The injectors can leak both in the engine (flooding) and exterior. If they are leaking out, you be able to smell the fuel. If they are leaking in, check the plugs for excess fuel. Also, the Fuel Pulsation Damper (FPD) is prone to leak which is a fire hazard. It should be replaced if original (again, check with the PO). There's no threads on the stock system, because it's all in the Factory Service Manual (FSM) which can be found on line
If you have questions, post them in the Technical Section. After a certain amount of posts, you can post in the 3rd Gen section.
For radiator, I recommend the Koyo dual pass radiator and either delete the AST or get an aluminum one. I've done both over the years and my preference is to delete it.
I've never changed the lines but it should be pretty strait forward.
Depending on mileage and the last time the injectors and fuel pulsation damper was replaced. I would address those. The FPD is known for going bad and causing fires. If you are changing it, might as well send the injectors off for cleaning. And while you are there if, the vac hoses havent been changed, I would look and address those.
Ray Crowe is your man for OEM parts. Let me know if you can't find his contact info and I will send it to you .
Upgrading cooling is a worthwhile mod and any original rubber is probably in need of replacement. Problem is when you start disrupting things, you are more apt to brake brittle components. That's why it's good to find out if the PO upgraded anything. If he's a Mazda tech, he may have.
As for your fuel system, i wouldn't worry too much about surface rust. You can spray it with a rust inhibitor or converter. If you smell fuel, that's a different matter. The injectors can leak both in the engine (flooding) and exterior. If they are leaking out, you be able to smell the fuel. If they are leaking in, check the plugs for excess fuel. Also, the Fuel Pulsation Damper (FPD) is prone to leak which is a fire hazard. It should be replaced if original (again, check with the PO). There's no threads on the stock system, because it's all in the Factory Service Manual (FSM) which can be found on line
If you have questions, post them in the Technical Section. After a certain amount of posts, you can post in the 3rd Gen section.
right the lines arent leaking but its more then just surface rust so i want to be safe then sorry. And the PO passed away so i really have no way of knowing exactly what he has up graded. I just want to be on safe side and for piece of mind
Originally Posted by Johnny Kommavongsa
For radiator, I recommend the Koyo dual pass radiator and either delete the AST or get an aluminum one. I've done both over the years and my preference is to delete it.
I've never changed the lines but it should be pretty strait forward.
Depending on mileage and the last time the injectors and fuel pulsation damper was replaced. I would address those. The FPD is known for going bad and causing fires. If you are changing it, might as well send the injectors off for cleaning. And while you are there if, the vac hoses havent been changed, I would look and address those.
Ray Crowe is your man for OEM parts. Let me know if you can't find his contact info and I will send it to you .
Thanks i went with the mishimoto radiator it was on sale and im going to look into the fpd.. im looking to find a shop so they can look over the car and tell me what i need to adress asap
Well, that sucks (for him and you). You then need to assume nothing was done by the PO
Yup basically how im going to go about it im going to assume nothing was done
I recommend IR Performance in Jersey. There may be others in your area, but that's who i'd recommend (If that endorsement is worth anything LOL)
haha funny you said that i was just on the phone with them this morning, was reffeded by a friend of theirs.. they are not taking any new cars until this quarantine blows over
The exterior looks kind of rough, which always makes me suspicious of deferred maintenance. You can get used side mirrors on ebay or yahoo auctions pretty cheaply, maybe $100 / set and they're easy to swap out yourself. Check the headlight cover condition by removing the black plastic surrounding the headlights. They covers are held on by 4 screws, but the tabs that the screws go into are plastic, get brittle with age, and are usually broken / will break soon if they're original. This can cause them to fly off on the highway if they catch too much wind. You could probably repair them with epoxy or something if they're cracked or broken.
As far as what to do first, I would get a compression test done just in case. It sounds like it's running fine, but it would be a nasty surprise to have to do an engine rebuild out of the blue. I generally assume used cars are behind on maintenance, so I like to replace all fluids, fuel filter, spark plugs & wires, brakes, tires (usually), and a lot of the rubber & plastic bits in the engine bay. The AST might still be the original so that may need replacement. There's also a pre-cat in U.S. model cars that seems to cause a lot of issues because it adds more heat to an already hot engine bay, so you could see about removing that if it's still in there. If the ignition coils are original they might need replacement. If it has the original catalytic converter that probably needs replacement. You could also replace the vacuum lines as well for peace of mind. Usually since you'll want to do several things in the engine bay, doing them all at once will save you money since you'll only have to tear everything out once. Suspension bushings are an expensive thing to replace, but if they haven't ever been changed it might be needed, and could explain the harshness you're feeling. What suspension is on the car? Also, once you get it on a lift, try wiggling the wheels as well to see if the wheel bearings need to be replaced.
Like any car, once they pass about the 15-20 year mark everything beyond the chassis starts needing replacement.
The exterior looks kind of rough, which always makes me suspicious of deferred maintenance. You can get used side mirrors on ebay or yahoo auctions pretty cheaply, maybe $100 / set and they're easy to swap out yourself. Check the headlight cover condition by removing the black plastic surrounding the headlights. They covers are held on by 4 screws, but the tabs that the screws go into are plastic, get brittle with age, and are usually broken / will break soon if they're original. This can cause them to fly off on the highway if they catch too much wind. You could probably repair them with epoxy or something if they're cracked or broken.
As far as what to do first, I would get a compression test done just in case. It sounds like it's running fine, but it would be a nasty surprise to have to do an engine rebuild out of the blue. I generally assume used cars are behind on maintenance, so I like to replace all fluids, fuel filter, spark plugs & wires, brakes, tires (usually), and a lot of the rubber & plastic bits in the engine bay. The AST might still be the original so that may need replacement. There's also a pre-cat in U.S. model cars that seems to cause a lot of issues because it adds more heat to an already hot engine bay, so you could see about removing that if it's still in there. If the ignition coils are original they might need replacement. If it has the original catalytic converter that probably needs replacement. You could also replace the vacuum lines as well for peace of mind. Usually since you'll want to do several things in the engine bay, doing them all at once will save you money since you'll only have to tear everything out once. Suspension bushings are an expensive thing to replace, but if they haven't ever been changed it might be needed, and could explain the harshness you're feeling. What suspension is on the car? Also, once you get it on a lift, try wiggling the wheels as well to see if the wheel bearings need to be replaced.
Like any car, once they pass about the 15-20 year mark everything beyond the chassis starts needing replacement.
so i did the compression test and its low , so now im deciding weather to buy a new motor throw it in go single turbo and rebuild and port my orginal motor in the future , or rebuild/port my motor now ..
so i did the compression test and its low , so now im deciding weather to buy a new motor throw it in go single turbo and rebuild and port my orginal motor in the future , or rebuild/port my motor now ..
so i did the compression test and its low , so now im deciding weather to buy a new motor throw it in go single turbo and rebuild and port my orginal motor in the future , or rebuild/port my motor now ..
Yeah, I mean that's totally up to you. I'm of the opinion that around 300whp is plenty enough to have fun in these cars and I'm partial to having a responsive engine, so for me the stock twins and some light mods are fine. You can get a brand-new OEM engine for about $5k, install it, and probably have more money to spend on having fun (tires, brakes, fixing random stuff that breaks, etc.) versus rebuilding and modifying.
Just take a look at where you are financially, what your future vision of the car is, and what you need to do to get there.
Welcome to where us rotards hang out. I recommend that you do some research before you decide to modify your car. Going single turbo is more than just removing the two turbos and putting one on the car. I would take the time to look over some build threads before pulling the trigger. There are many build threads on this forum including mine. I went single turbo and many more have gone that route. The twins are cool too and sometimes I miss them when driving around town. There are pros and cons to both single and twin. I prefer the single but I do like the twins also. Budget, budget and budget. If your budget is endless than disregard this but if you have a budget for your build then take that in consideration. Do not cheap out on parts. Getting the good stuff cost more but you will spend less down the road. What are the plans for the car? If it's going to be a daily driver I recommend only reliability mods. If it is going to be a weekend warrior with some track time I would do cooling mods and single turbo. This is a great community and you will learn alot if you listen. If you dont then it may be a long painful FD journey. Welcome to the community and brap on
