I finally get to take my FD home on thursday but I'm a little nervous about the 500 mile trip. The car is completely stock. I got it started after sitting for 5 years, and have only went on a few short rides (20-50 miles) and the car seemed to perform well as far as I know.

I plan on changing the oil and flushing the coolant before I leave. I was just wondering if there is anything else I should think about looking at, any suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

spark plugs

 

If the car starts and runs fine, the plugs should be fine for the trip. Clean/change your air filter, check tires. Maybe through in some good fuel system/injector cleaner in with the fresh gas. Make a point to get under it and check for any leaks or potential issues.
Probably nothing that would leave you on the side of the road, but consider changing brake fluid asap.

 

Ah yeah, good call Sgt, for some reason changing the air filter totally escaped my mind. When I do get it home I plan on doing plugs and fuel filter as I only have a basic tool kit with me and no jacks right now. Might as well add brake fluid to the list too since you mentioned it. That should be it for the basics unless I'm forgetting something else...thanks for the friendly reminders

 

Inspect the Belt(s) on the engine...and a tire check would be in order too since it has been sitting.

 

This reminds me...the power steering belt is off and the power steering unit with the reservoir looks to be in bad shape/leaky. I have no idea what the previous owners intentions were, or why its like that. Driving the car during my few short trips without the power steering didn't really bother me. Is there any way this could harm the car? Thank you for another great point.

 

Well,my concern about that would be with the extent of your trip.
If you run that Pump for a long period of time it could cease and then your belt would snap..and all hell breaks loose.I've seen snapped belts take out other components and it is just a plain "cluster Fark".
Even though it may be a "just a small leak" I would get that checked out.It's better you do it now than down the line when parts are beyond repair.
Besides 500 miles without power steering and having to worry about it ALL THE WAY THERE???..very uncomfortable!

 

So it sounds like I'm better off just leaving the belt off and living with the discomfort. I'd hate to put a belt on and have it snap because I have no clue about the condition of the pump. I guess I could put a belt on just to check the pump. I honestly haven't looked too hard at it, it could just be messy, but I'm just assuming its leaky/whiny since the previous owner went through the effort of removing the belt.

I really don't have a problem driving w/out the p/s as long as it won't hurt the car.

 

FWIW, there's a short section of 'L' shaped rubber hose running from the PS reservoir to the pump housing. Frequently the leaking/sweating issues are from a bad hose or bad clamp...or both. The fact that the belt is gone doesn't bode well, but you could still check the level in your reservoir. If it's full and the pump isn't whining or making noise when you re-install the belt, you're probably OK. If not, leaving the belt off might be the better alternative.

 

Is there a consensus on what replacement size hose works? I think that's where my leak is coming from.

 

Sorry, mine has never leaked, so fortunately I've never had to mess with it. Thinking about it I'd probably call Ray @ Malloy Mazda or a dealer to see if I could still get a new one.

 

I've made this 500 mile trip numerous times over the last few years, and none of them were as exciting as last night. I've never had so much fun driving a car for 8 hours straight, and the FD handled it beautifully.

There was one little issue. When I get on the gas, say over 5k rpm in 2nd gear, i can feel the boost coming on strong. Then I shift to 3rd and I feel no boost, shift to 4th and its back on. Almost like the boost cuts out if I'm going too hard (over 5k rpm) then comes back when I let off the gas pedal for a sec. Strange, but other than that the car ran great and I'm excited to get to know my FD better.

I'm going to look into the p/s pump this weekend. It does look like fluid is seeping from the hose that Sgtblue mentioned, so more updates later

 

Well seems like my comment may be irrevelant, but if it's been sitting for 5 years then I hope it has been stored properly.
I picked up a car that allegedly sat for 10 years... never changing the coolant as far as I know. The engine is currently scattered in my garage, courtesy of a corroded coolant seal on the exhaust side. No smoke out the tailpipe, no check light. But it did have a loss of power and coolant boil-over on high revs. I failed to check that when buying, but I digressed. Good Luck!

 

I'm glad to hear your car made it to it's destination.

 

Corrosion in the coolant seal grooves wasn't caused by storage. It was caused by a failed coolant seal before storage. Once the seal failed, that corrosion would still have occurred even if the previous owner drove it daily.

 

.................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ............are we there yet??............................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ...........................................I gotta............................................. ..................................ugh............. ................never mind.............................................. ..........................eww..................... .........

 

Any of you wise men have any ideas about the weird boost issue? I just installed a boost gauge and am about to go for a ride...results will be in soon

 

Ok, so when I'm about 1/2 to 3/4 throttle my boost gauge says I'm at about 8-9 psi. When I get to 4k rpm the boost starts to steadily drop when I stay on the gas. I let off the gas to shift and I get a high pitched "woo" sound (think ric flair), I shift to the next gear and get zero boost for that whole gear. Upshift again and the boost is back to 6-9 psi ( hard to say, the needle shakes like hell). I only get 10 psi if I go WOT, then it stays pegged at 10 with no shakes.

Another thing I don't know if its normal or not but it seems I can't get more than 2-4 psi through first gear. Any thoughts or comments will be much appreciated.

 

I'd check all couplings on the intake system.
the secondary turbo intake pipe( I have read) is usually a beotch and can dislodge/loosen up.

I'm an FC guy but I think the info is worth checking.
Sarge Blue maybe can shed some info on this..if he can get "leave"..haha!

 

It's hard to get more than a few psi in 1st gear since boost level is load dependent, and the time spent in that gear is so short.
The other issues seem similar to what was described by someone else a couple threads down. Regardless, those links might help---> https://www.rx7club.com/new-member-r...rrect-1049344/

 

Thanks for the suggestions and links guys...time to investigate tomorrow

 

I would just try regular maintenance items belts. oil, brake fluid etc should be fine

 

Update: I spent all day yesterday changing the plugs and fuel filter, also tried to track down the cause of the boost issue.

I'm not sure if I have the names right on these parts but ill try to explain what I did. I replaced a torn up line that was connected to the wastegate actuator, it was a line with a little metal piece in it that I'm assuming is a restrictor. The coupler on top of the y-pipe was loose as hell and had a stripped hose clamp, replaced that. And also found that one of the nipples on the pressure chamber was busted off. The line that connects to that nipple had a check valve on it which was blown apart. I put a temporary nipple on the pressure chamber and got a vacuum check valve from the auto parts store and patched it up. Went out for a test drive...still can't hold boost over 4500.

There were also some little pipes under the intake plenum that didn't have any vacuum hose connected to them. I understand from the vacuum diagram that there is supposed to be an empty pipe towards the front of the engine that points straight up. Both ends of that pipe have nothing attached (don't know if just the vertical section is supposed to be empty?). And there are 2 more pipes that are deeper in, towards the back of the engine, that have nothing connected to them at all. I don't know if I should connect those two together, in the diagram it doesn't look like they should be but I could be understanding it wrong