Never worked on one before. Understand the concept but never took a stab at it. I now own one so if i need ANY help, this is where i will be coming to. Im looking forward to it

 

Welcome. Recommendations...resist adding a lot of performance modifications to the car until you are more familiar, arm yourself with a copy of the Factory Service Manual on whatever year/generation of RX7 you have, read the FAQ sticky(s) in that generation's section and familiarize yourself with the search function. Have fun.

 

Start with a big *** cup of coffee and a few hours each night.
Seriously,that is what I did!..each night just reading and then reading some more.
Hell!, My Car was built with Info from this Forum,as I knew SFA about them before.
Now I can't remember what a Freakin Piston engine is and I gotta work on a couple of them!

Damn you Wankel!

 

the outside of the engine is just like any other car and should be treated the same as any other car.

the inside of the engine requires attention to particular details which are mostly gone over on this site.

 

Watch your oil, watch your coolant.

 

I'm in the same boat as you. Just recently purchased and FD but I've been lurking on this site for awhile just trying to absorb as much information as I could. learned a hell of a lot in the 5 or 6 months I've been browsing.

 

First and foremost, it's just an engine. It's not a magic unknown device. In fact the actual engine is going to be the most reliable part of the car. It's just that all the stuff bolted to the engine is getting old and starting to fail.

 

Performance internally such as bridging, im staying away from it because i don't know how to rebuild it...... yet lol
I am however strapping a turbo to mine; probably start it up and drive it naturally aspirated for a little bit just to make sure everything is in order, but yeah, its going to be turbo'd.
As for the factory service manual; i do not own an rx7, however i own a 13b and im putting it in a miata at the moment; so unless it goes over the engine and internal components, etc.... then it will be quite useless i'd think.
I am however having tons of fun so far :]

Coffee is gross; sorry. lol
i've watched TONS of youtube videos about them and performance etc...... it's just getting the courage to accomplish it myself haha

Don't plan on going into the inside of it anytime soon unless the thing needs a rebuild when i fire it up lol

Well yeah, that's with any engine though..... i heard overheating 1 time will kill these things...... HOWEVER, i do have a question related to this...... I had to modify my oil pan for it to clear the miata's subframe and i need to know the MINIMUM capacity for these engines because i cut out quite a bit. I still think im in the clear, but i want to know for a fact and if i will have to add an external resivoir or not.

I haven't even lurked lol. I have only seen maybe 2 in person and never worked on it..... an s4 non turbo 13b fell into my lap for $100 and now im like, "welp, im gon' learn today!" lol and that's pretty much how i got here.

TRUTH! All just mechanical pieces, im fairly mechanically inclined with piston engines.... pretty sure figuring these things out can't be too hard.
I just watched one of your videos on youtube about your cosmo literally yesterday. lol
As for the stuff bolted to the engine, i am getting rid of ALL of it. EVERY SINGLE PIECE besides what is needed to run. I already have both sides of the intake stripped down, oil metering pump accessories are removed [it was shot anyway.... the lines were SUPER brittle], EGR is off...... you name it. The ONLY things that will be on there are the sensors that are NEEDED for the engine to run [im going to need a list of this so i know what to get] and im going to put a MAP sensor to control my turbo [GT3782V - has actuated vanes to control boost pressure accordingly]
I will be running a megasquirt computer to control all of it.
So just spark plugs, intake, injectors, exhaust, and alternator.
As for the cooling system, im want to run an external pump without a thermostat just so i can save room for the turbo.
Something a little like this:

 

i dont know why everyone is going to electric pumps, just another point of larger catastrophic failure. when a mechanical pump fails it is generally progressive, when an electric pump fails the signs usually are a little more subtle and then BOOM!

if you gotta ditch the water pump to fit the turbo then the manifold is poorly placed.

 

I know this about mechanical and electrical.... Unless there is a smaller waterpump out there where the inlet and outlets are in different locations.

Or its because the miatas engine bay is too small for a pretty decent sized turbo lol

 

we have built cars with S475 turbos, that are much larger that retained the stock water pump.

 

Pesonally I would only use a electric water pump on a drag car.The electric water pump is to unreliable for street use. Not to mention inefficient. And like RE said when they go out they just go out zero warning. Plus Toyota starlet has a smaller engine bay then the Miata and I've seen dozens of let's call them large frame BW turbos under the hood with the stock water pump.

 

New member who posts that section asking for "ANY help" and then responds to pretty much anything anyone offers claiming he knew that already or knows better.

 

oops, i missed the part about it going into a miata

 

Can you post up a couple of pics please? I have seen numerous water pump styles, but with the style that i have [guessing it's stock] has a huge neck that drops down and interfere's with the turbo.

I am asking for help..... WITH ROTARIES. Im not trying to be a dick. Mechanical wp vs electric wp is the same on a rotary as it is with a piston engine. Overheating is the almost same with a rotary as it is with a piston...... everything starts to warp when stuff gets hot. I'm assuming the housings warp? vs Piston engines in which the head[s] warp.

Im mainly asking for help on the internal workings of the rotary engine, the stuff i can eliminate on the outside of the engine, stuff that rotaries have vs piston engines [oil metering pump - have never heard of that in my life], what kinda of oil pressure these things have...... etc. Stuff like that.

Apologies if it came off the wrong way.

 

Cheer's mate, I'm pretty much in the same boat, minus that I've yet to get my hands on my FD dream car just yet.

Looking around, there appears to be a plethora of data here. I wish you luck with your new car!

 

Piston engines are much more forgiving to an overheat than the rotary. The 13b generates a lot of heat and quickly it doesn't take much time to go from all good to all bad.

No one is saying electric water pumps don't work just that if it fails there's a good chance your engine goes with it.

 

Reading around, may I ask if you're going for a naturally aspirated engine, besides the obvious modifications such as larger radiator and such, what else would you advise be replaced to help keep the engine as cool as humanly possible? I don't plan on going the route of forced induction any time soon.

 

Stock systems in good shape should be fine with an na engine but the the koyo radiator is pretty solid for the price. Keeps my s5 turbo temps perfect even in 120 degree Arizona summers.

I can't stress enough how good a working stock mechanical fan is. If you absolutely have to go electric make sure to use a shrouded fan from and oem application. Even high end after market fans have pretty poor airflow compared to modern one fans. Also upgrade the alternator if going to an e fan.

 

Also use oem Mazda radiator hoses from Atkins or mazdatrix the few extra dollars is worth it as the after market ones are junk in comparison.

 

Interesting, because I'm from AZ myself (despite what my profile says) and the AZ heat was what concerned me the most. Good to hear that the stock fans seem to work just fine in the hell fire summer heat we usually get.

 

Be sure the fan clutch is in good shape and getting a quality aftermarket temp gauge is a good idea as the stock gauges movement isn't real linear and it's more like "cold" "normal" "to late"

 

That's what I've read here so far, and is on the top of my list. Really my biggest concerns is reliability and ensuring the engine is sound before I do anything performance based. I was reading that running the engines hard from time to time is actually a good thing, do you have any comments on that?

Something about clearing out the valves among other things since the cars apparently don't do too hot if just used for a daily driver around town :P

 

Its a good idea to make sure the oil metering system is functioning properly more than anything (or that you premix properly if it's not or disabled)

As for revving it out it's not something you need to do constantly but same as piston engines it'll help keep carbon from building up.

I've put about 44k miles on my turbo 2 in the last 3 years and the engines been the most reliable part. Everything attached to it is about as reliable as any other 80s japanese car. Daily driving is perfectly possible if that's what you want but the gas mileage even in a well sorted vehicle will suck so it's not cheap.

 

So I've heard, daily driver may not be much of an option, since I'll only be able to afford one car. If I do manage to get a good example, it will have to be my daily driver until I can get another to use as a commuter (either that, or get a motorcycle or something. Kind of hard to drive a motorcycle here though, what with the Typhoons and all)

I plan on pre-mixing whenever I get the car, with an exception for when I have to go and bring the car in for inspections.

Do you know how long I'd have to run the gas clean to ensure that it doesn't fail emissions after running pre-mixed fuel?