All,

I wanted to PM Fritz with this question, but seems that's not possible. So I'll post it here and let anybody who wants to respond. Not sure the logic of the 3 post bit, but ................. whatever.

I'm interested in doing a V-8 conversion of a 93 - 95 RX-7 for the fun of it. I'm willing to spend up to $10K on the entire job. Is this reasonable ?? To do this I need to find a descent roller in the $2 - 3K range (which is way lower than anything I've seen on this site). I don't need a perfect car -- which is what seems to be on this site. Just a nice one.

My other thought is to convert a 300ZX. MUCH harder job. It involves fabricating my own brackets (which I've done before) and cutting the firewall (which will be new to me). I've built my own airplane working strictly from plans and fabricating each individual piece from sheet, bar stock, etc. So I'm not new to this sort of work. The RX-7 is a bolt in, though, whereas the 300ZX is a "project".

This will become my work car, and I'll use it to travel, so it needs trunk space. That leaves out a lot of other candidates like the Miata (which would have been my first choice otherwise), etc.

If you don't mind ........ I could really use the input. Tell me what's reasonable before I waste a lot of time / $$$ on this idea. Thanks.

 

Have you seen the trunk of an FD? It's like 8" deep.

I don't think it's realistic to meet the $10k budget mark unless you do a whole lot of your own fab work, use a very basic ECU, and don't put much money into the motor itself. Keep in mind that a roller usually is stripped down good, and there are a load of parts to take a roller to a fully operational car.

Also consider your standards for interior parts. FD interior parts are somewhat fragile, very expensive, and hard to find. (At least the pieces in black are). If this is important to you I recommend you find a roller with that already in place.

Dave

 

I could use the helping hand as well seing as how I'm in the same boat. looking to eventually purchase a non-roller/roller fd3 soon myself for around 0-4k
where should I look if I don't find a good source on this site for what I'm looking to do? I know about ebay but most of the cars there are either half done projects or built cars already I need pretty much a shell to start my project as there will be a lot of fab work involed

 

I saw your thread also and I don't know much if anything about the details of that engine swap. However I know vette engines are supposedly one of the more reasonable V8 conversions.

Check out v8rx7forum.com for other good content.

 

Seen the trunk ?? No. I confess I have not. I'm simply going by what Edmunds.com says, which is that it has 17 cubic feet capacity, That's much larger than my current work car's 12.7 cubic feet. If I'm mistaken here, please tell and I'll move on to another idea. Don't want to waste time. Too little as it is.

 

Here's a shot of the trunk. The car has a donut spare (not a full size) and you can see even that pretty much takes up the entire trunk space. Not a lot of room.

 

Good thing I have some welding and fab work to do because even for what I plan to do the trunk is pretty small.

 

I highly recommend you get your hands on an FD just to see if you fit well in the seat (it's a non-adjustable steering column), have good line of sight, find the seats to be sufficiently supportive (mine aren't but for a weekend car it's bearable), etc.

Dave

 

Wow. Wonder why Edmunds said that. Have to go back and look. Maybe I punched in the wrong year.

Anyway -- definite deal killer. Appreciate everybody's help. Saved me a bunch of time and $$$.

 

These are generally wonderful cars. However I don't believe they are wonderful daily drivers for most people.

I pontificate about the realities of the 3rd Gen a lot here:
http://www.epinions.com/review/auto_...nt_92709097092

 

EXCELLENT post !!

Thank you very much for your input.