Hey guys, just joined but have been reading this sight for a few months and my father finally decided to hand me his project since I kept bugging him about it I have around two grand saved up in case any problems happen

about the car : It's an 89 vert with a 13b with a street port done by himself

cons about the car It's been sitting in our backyard for a year now the body is perfect but the only problem I see is the dash is suncracked too hell
but I plan to sand it down and bondo it back up
I just bought a new exedy clutch and had my fly wheel resurfaced from a local shop
and plan to drop the engine in this weekend and get it running.

turned the rotors cause of the rust

should I be expecting any problems or look for any signs because it was sitting for so long?

any feedback would be appreciated

 

i would start with the basic stuff, i see this called stage 0 on some forums. basically you want to start with a major service, fluids as needed, filters, spark plugs. now is a good time to fix any other things, look over the suspension, belts and hoses etc. all the shop manuals are here Foxed.ca - Mazda RX-7 Manuals

then the bonus stuff, there is a small in tank fuel filter, it should get changed. you should check or replace the spark plug wires. you can check them with an ohm meter, they should be under 16k ohms resistance, and new is more like 6-7k.

adjust the tps, and idle speed. i like to check the timing, on an NA i usually set it to where its supposed to be +1 degree.

i make sure the 6 port and VDI valves rotate easily.

once the car is running nicely its easy to add some power while keeping it somewhat quiet and street friendly.

first step is the exhaust, Mazda used 48mm ID piping, which is ok, but then they welded everything on the inside, so the effective ID is more like 43mm, you can weld the outside, and grind the inside smooth, or just buy the RB connecting pipe Down Pipe for 88-92 RX-7 Convertible - Racing Beat

you can hook that to a cat, or RB sells a presilencer, which ever you prefer. hook that to the cat back of your choice. if you want to make your own, keep the 2.5" pipe, or 2x 2" pipes.

if you removed the cat, then the next step is an SAFC or Rtek or something to lean it out. the S5 runs rich to keep the cat alive, EGT stays low this way. i like to lean it out until the butt dyno says i'm making peak power, and then richen it up a tad. if you have a wideband, stock is around 12.5 at 4000rpm, and i just keep it at 12.5 all the way up.

also once you get some air flowing, i think the S5 is lean in the 2500-4000range, so you should play with that too

then you should try advancing the timing a couple of degrees, on S4's this helps a lot, on S5's i usually run into pinging, its been my experience S5's don't want any more timing than stock, but try it.

 

the next thing after this is the hose between the airflow meter and the engine, its 5" on the outside, but somehow teeny on the inside.

couple other things to try:

port matching the intakes, apparently the S4 intake is pretty bad, i measured my S5 set and it was ok, YMMV!

pineapple/atkins 6 port sleeves.

i would like to try higher fuel pressure, and or better/newer injectors; this pretty much requires a standalone ecu... although when you do this you can upgrade the ignition too

headers; i've left these last as the RB headers need to be port matched to the engine, and noise gets to be a problem. the other option is the defined autoworks set, which is great, but expensive.

 

thanks man you rock ! Did you read my mind? you answered every question I was thinking to ask you gonna follow your advice and will keep everyone informed on how it goes tomorrow. im cleaning the engine bay as we speak and once im done gonna give the tranny a nice cleaning after i cover everything up will have some pics near the after noon .

 

also is there any special break in oil i should use or should i just stick with regular syn?

 

it depends really on if the rebuild included bearings.

if it does have new bearings, then just use regular mineral-based oil. i like to use straight 30-weight, but as long as you don't go super thin, you can use what you wish. also, if you can find non-detergent, but if not, no biggie on that, too - i can't remember ever using it, myself. follow a sensible break-in procedure. you can go synthetic after the break-in if that's what you want.

 

Thanks again just ordered 5 quarts of the good stuff!

 

for a track car, i like a straight weight oil, the castrol HD40 is good, and available.

in a street car, it doesn't F-ing make any difference at all, the GM rotary SAE paper was a study of different oils in a Mazda 10A engine, and they ran everything through it, ATF even works just fine.

actually if the Rx8 is any guide, you can run as light as 5w-20, but it needs to be changed frequently.

 

I wasn't going to comment as I may get flamed for this but I used Super Tech 20w50 oil for my first 500 miles on this rebuild. Then switched to my normal Havoline 10w40. Used bearings are in mine.

 

I lived Castrol 20w50 for YEARS!!. I have an Altima v6 with 210k on the clock and ran 20/50 up til about 175k. only switched because you could hear the timing chain a little bit on startup as she got older. 10/40 now.

oh, and it says 5w30 LOL....but who reads the manual?

 

So did I but when oil prices went up I got cheap and stopped paying the over $1 more per quart for Castrol. I think I am going to switch to Shell Rotella T 15w40 next oil change. I sounds like a good compromise between 20w50 and 10w40 with less viscosity improvers than 10w40.

 

This is why I always look forward to your posts. You almost always are full of useful information. I have learned so much from you, Peejay, Rotary Ressurection and Rotary Evoloution and a few others from just lurking and reading you guy's posts. This SAFC information will be helpful when I finally get one.

 

update engines in ! but learned that it is an 88 S4 after all , after running vins and certain characteristics of the engine derp so any tips/tricks to the s4 engine that i can learn?