I JUST bought my first RX7, a '79 SA22C for $600 ($200 down, payments of $100 for the next four weeks...living off the salary of a courtesy clerk, lol) The clutch is weak, the idler arm bushings are destroyed (that's how I talked his price down, he thought the whole front end was destroyed, lol) The rear brakes are shot, the headlights don't retract by themselves, someone managed to install the stereo wires into the heater, and the housings are leaking on the engine, which leads me to my question. Obviously the car needs attention, and plenty of it, but my question is, should I rebuild the 12A that's in it, port the rotors, install a bigger carb, and headers? or should I install a JDM 13B-T S5? Any thoughts are appreciated, just want to know what the smarter route to take would be. This is the first car I've bought with my own money...It's a terd, but I love the thing, I've been around these cars all my life, and it's been a dream of mine to own one, so I couldn't be happier.

Thanks,
SpeedBox

 

Since you don't seem to have any money, before you start modifying the car, it sounds like you should fix the existing problems. Leave the engine alone and fix what's wrong with the car.

Also, you don't port rotors. You port housings and irons.

 

That's what I meant, my bad, I was tired when I wrote this, but yeah, obviously the existing problems are priority 1, I was just looking for advice on which engine upgrade would make more sense in the future, thanks

 

What are your power goals?

 

Roughly around 205 or so...That's about all the power I need...I would like to know which would be more affordable, I know these RX7 parts aren't exactly abundant these days, nor are they cheap..ha..but to get the 13B-T that would require ECU's and all the other goodies that go along with it

 

Before one doubles the stock hp, all of the other mechanicals need to be brought up to or better than new specs. Concentrate on getting the brakes, steering and suspension ready for future hp upgrades, otherwise the life of the car, and perhaps your's will be short lived. The SA's, (79-80), have the old style wedge brakes and the struts are near impossible to find. These can be upgraded to the FB ones by simply swapping out the entire strut assembly and adding a brake line adapter.

In my sig line are links to the online FSMs and other rotary related reading. Download and begin your rotary education. Last link in the sig is what one can do if one one wants to put the time, money and effort into a build.

Welcome to the Club.
.
.
.
.
..