Ben Jammin

I just recently bought my first car and I have lots of questions about it.
First of all I would like to know a good website to get parts from. I noticed my headers, air intake, struts, and springs are all from Racing Beat. The guy I bought the car off of had told me there was over $6000 invested into the car and from pricing it out on RB, it doesn't look like he put more then $1500 into it.

I only paid $2000 for the car and there is not much rust for an 83' so I'm not very mad that he lied, I'm just worried about some sort of a engine problem that he did not tell me about. Is there anyway to know when the engine needs to be rebuilt without actually taking it apart? How often do 12a engines need to be rebuilt? I also noticed one MSD ignition coil was installed on the primary spark circuit but the other one looks stock, which means it could go at anytime, should I look into replacing it soon or should I let it go before I bother?

The suspension is Tokico Struts, and Racing Beat springs. This is a very stiff suspension set-up from what I know and it feels nice going in to corners. But I am not very experienced and the only other car I drove was a Toyota Matrix so I don't feel right about comparing the two. Should I just stick with this suspension setup or look into replacing in the near future?

Redline-RX3

iTrader: (5)

Welcome to the site , another Canadian FB owner! Anyways lots of questions to answer , you may want to contact a Rotary shop in your region like RX7 Specialties in Calgary. As far as the condition of the engine , there are tell tale signs it may be on its way out. Blue(oil ) smoke on start up fairly heavy and shows up under hard throttle , hard starting , white smoke on cold starts (coolant) that is persistant and doesn't seem to clear up and of course bad oil leaks mainly in the area of the Mazda logos on the rotor housings. That usually means those seals have hardened and can only be fixed by opening the engine. Obviously a competent rotary guy should check things out in person including compression etc. thus I would suggest searching for a good shop. But hey if it starts and runs well and does none of the above, just drive it and enjoy it. Regarding springs , I run Racing Beat springs on the rear only as I find they are too stiff up front especially with other mods on a street car. Works for me...

Kentetsu

Spend lots of time in the 1st gen tech section, reading every thread there is. That will serve you better in the long run than finding even a great mechanic (if they exist, lol).

Here's a couple good sources for you:

Carb information: www.sterlingmetalworks.com
Aftermarket: www.re-speed.com

I wouldn't worry about the trailing coil, they can live forever. As far as the suspension goes, you should be fine for a daily driver. If, later on, you want to start racing autocrosses or something (which I highly recommend), then you might want to upgrade to some Respeed equipment.

Good luck with your new toy.



.

snivley whiplash

iTrader: (4)

I run a 85 gs with a 13b gsl-se six port engine, racing beat intake and exhaust as well as a side draft dellarto carb. suspension is also gsl-se with racing beat red springs and tokiko blue shocks, gsl-se sway bars front and rear. Yes as a street driver it is very stiff, but what gas to drive. good luck.