vdubbin

Hey guys,

I might become the new kid in the "club" with a purchase I may make within the next day or two.

I come from the world of pistons, and have owned/worked on/fixed OBD2 Hondas (2), OBD2 VW's (2), OBD1 VW's (1), and diesels (OBD1 MBenz, OBD2 VW).

To make a long story short, I have an order placed for my 4th VW (Golf R) and was happily driving my VR6 GTI when I got rear-ended and insurance totaled it.

I need to buy a car that I can daily drive for 4 months, maybe less, and then turn into "the project car/track rat." A car that really caught my eye is a 1979 RX7. I checked the car out today, it is effin' clean, I can tell the Previous owner has taking very good care of it. Everything works, no rust, no leaks. Ok maybe not everything... the hatch's shocks are blown and needs a stick to prop it up, and the drivers seat has some tears on the cloth. But every gauge works, the clock works, no cracks on the dash etc.. this car looks like it's 3 or 4 years old. I really like the 3rd Gen RX-7 since the first time I saw my dads friends toy. Since then I've grown to really respect rotaries, and love the noise they make.

I've done some research and know this car would be coming with a 12a 1.1L engine, but not much beyond that. Looking around in the engine bay.. holy crap there are a lot of vacuum lines/hoses and valves and solenoids. Enough to blow my mind, so I stopped looking at different angles.

This would be my first ever car with a carb. instead of EFI.

I would like to know what I'm getting myself into. I understand only the basic concepts of rotaries, and would much rather prefer something fuel injected. Should I buy this car, I would like to eventually throw in a mildly "built" 13B (street or maybe race port, would still want to keep it street legal to drive to local events) but have no idea what that would entail.

Are these cars a true pain in the ***, read 14 books to learn how to fix a rough idle, need to find somebody to do the work type cars? Or would it be pretty straight forward?

More info on the car, it's a 1979 RX7 as stated, 76k miles on the clock and presently a daily driver (short commute to work). It's white with the burgandy interior, sitting on black BBS spoked 2 pc rims with polished barrels, (also comes with factory rims, no tires), cat-back exhaust, otherwise completely stock, for $3500.

Any input GREATLY appreciated.

Would have loved to post this in the 1st gen forum, but need 20 posts first.

Thanks!
Ron.

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

Good condition, low mile 79 RX-7s are getting exceedingly rare. It would be a shame to cut one up and make it into a track car.

You can get a GSL-SE 1st gen, much more common and already EFI with a 13B, and gut that for track use when you get bored of daily driving it.

To be brutally honest, a mildly built NA 13B isn't going to break 200HP. It's almost not worth the trouble to tear apart a perfectly good NA 13B to port it and leave the thing NA when you can do the same work to a 13B-T and start at 250HP.

"Race ports" typically mean big bride ports and above, which is like driving a piston engine with a very aggressive cam. In NA form, bridgeports make all their power above 7000 RPM.

vdubbin

I would not be gutting the car. It will not be for wheel to wheel racing. It would be mainly HPDE events, and maybe some autocross.

I do not have any power goals in mind, would just like to get above the 100 crank hp it has. Ha ha. I think with it's weight, even at 170 or so HP it would be a quick little street car that would be great fun for me to learn how to drive at an HPDE type event.

I completely agree that a low mile, great condition car such as this is not the car to gut and bust.

I'm just curious about the learning curve when it comes to working on these, with only heavy equipment diesel, and EFI piston engine experience, and the difficulty of of an EFI 13B swap. (Getting off the carb is basically what it would be for, with the little power bump a plus)

Thanks for any further input!

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

i agree with Aaron, leave the SA for the collectors and find another 1st gen light chassis LSD GSL-SE to build off of. if you're buying it to build it for track use you certainly will eventually destroy it whether you think so now or not.

you can still do a fair amount with an n/a engine in such a light car but it won't be a combination street car anymore with the bridged/PP engine you will eventually likely need as you progress.

turbo will certainly get you further faster but you can still do without, problem is the classes that are bound to rotary engines now. porting is clamped down on and in many cases you are limited to stock ports in most classes unless you go to an unlimited class just to drive for fun.

treceBturbo

why do bridgeport motors make all their power at 7000 ? so when accelerating? keep the pedal to the floor? lol cuz im only running 135hp to the wheels

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

Bridgeported engines have massive amounts of intake/exhaust overlap. In the sense that the intake and exhaust ports are always exposed to one another. This causes major charge dilution at low RPMs, kills port velocity and radically lowers intake vacuum. Just like a piston engine with an aggressive cam. It's not until high RPMs that bridgeports come into their stride as the overlap begins to work in you favor, drawing in the intake charge.

NA bridgeports feel fairly gutless below about 5000 RPM. Turbo bridgeports are a different beast altogether as the rythmic low RPM misfire of the engine and high exhaust energy caused by such a thing spools the turbo quite well at low RPMs.

Honestly, it's your car and you can do whatever you want with it. But quality SA 78s/79s are at this point VERY rare and are starting to command a premium. If you want an EFI 13B, it's easiest to start with the car that it came in: the GSL-SE from '84 - '85. They don't have quite the same classic Japanese styling, but already come with things like rear discs, LSD, etc. And a fuel injected 13B.

PWRDByAdobo

iTrader: (2)

You know, I scratched my head for a few weeks before finally deciding also. I figured that I had another car anyway so it wouldn't be THAT bad of an idea to get an RX-7. I, too, come from the land of pistons and so far, my stay in rotary land hasn't been that bad

treceBturbo

so should i just go Pport for some extreme N/A power or go to a street port? thanks
-eddie

DdoubleR

iTrader: (10)

I would have to agree that a SA that clean should be left alone, find a GSL-SE and this way you will have the added bennefit of fuel injection wich you are already familiar with.

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

It depends on what you want to do with the car.

Peripheral port if the car is track only. Going peripheral port means building your own intake manifold, among other things.

A mild street port (not much you can do with the 6 port irons that doesn't radically reduce low end and midrange) for daily driver use.

Clear plans for the use of the car and a solid decision on power goals are helpful here.

treceBturbo

ya, that makes sense. gotta get my car into the body shop first =)