FC3S RX7's

123abc · 07-19-2007

Anyone here have any real experience owning one of these? I'm looking at some options to save up for and I've always loved the 2nd gen RX7's. I know the typical rotary engine problems, but what about the chassis? Electrical? How does it drive in comparison to a 1g fwd? Detailed info kthx.

Hoffer00 · 07-19-2007

I have an old buddy that live is Brooklyn Park. He as like three and he does all of his own work.

driftn1g · 07-19-2007

i think i know who that is.. he stopped by and i gave him a free cat off my 88

DxCR · 07-20-2007

I have 4 of them.87 GXL, 88 SE, 88 GXL and 88 TurboII. These are probably my favorite car of all time. I actually got 2 rotors tattooed on my back.

Electrically they are simple, but the grounding points suck, you need to run extra grounding points to the engine and the body. The nice thing is you can pull the entire fuel side of the harness from the car without taking anything else, except windshield wiper motor. The most complex part is the auto-adjusting suspension, if equipped. It tethers into the brake and power steering, but can still be removed without a whole lot of problems.

The drive and handle beautifully. The rear suspension has a pseudo rear-wheel steering. When you enter a turn at high speed and enough pressure is forcing the car one way, the rear wheels tilt slightly out of the turn to bring the tail around. It sucks to try to drift with that, but they make kits to remove the bushings and make it more solid. As far as comparing to a 1g, the whole rwd aspect and balancing of the car make it handle a lot better, in my opinion. Mazda put so much time into balancing it, to make up for the weight of the turbo setup, they put in a heavier jack and spare tire.

I only ever had one chassis issues with my 88 SE. I have no bracing in any part of the car, pushing around 350hp. It started to twist slightly, with a few visible ripples on the driver side. It still handled fine though. With a small roll bar and a rear strut brace, everything should be fine. You'll probably end up making camber plates at some point anyway, and you can brace it from there.

I'd recommend these cars overall. They are relatively inexpensive and pretty easy to come by. The reliability of the non-turbo is pretty good. I've seen some even reach 300000 without a rebuild. The turbo has a shortened lifespan, but can easily reach 150000 if taken care of. They hate cold weather and have tendency to flood out. That's usually and easy fix, typically caused by a leaking injector. If you do get one, check the pulsation damper on the s4 cars (86-88, series 4. Series 5 is from 89-91) on the fuel rail to make sure the little screw is still in the center of it. If not, replace it. Most of the time it will start dumping fuel over the engine within a week. I just removed it all together and replace it with an other banjo fitting. If you get that straighten out, the car should be great.

123abc · 07-20-2007

That's what I was looking for. Mind posting pics of your cars?

I've always been a fan of RX7's, any year. They look damn cool, and the rotary engines sound cool too. Not to mention a lot less moving parts.

I've been reading lately on rx7club.com about pre-mixing. It sounds like a very good idea, what do you think about doing that?

If I get one, I'll try hard to get an S5 TII, but if I can't find one I'll settle for an S4. I deffinently don't want an N/A Rex though. It will be my project car if I get one, so I want to make it easy on myself to get some good power.

DxCR · 07-20-2007

I can get better pics after I get off work.

Premixing is a good concept, anything to get rid of the 4 stroke oil in the chambers. A company called Real World Solutions does rotaries in small planes. They had an adapter that sat between the oil metering pump and the block. It had a fitting on the top and blocked off the outlet from the block to the metering pump. You hooked up a small tank with 2 stroke in it to the fitting and it used it as it needed it. It accounts for high boost levels by giving it more oil, which can't be done with premixing unless you know how you are going to use every gallon of gas.

Another thing to consider is using Lead Supreme 130 additive. It WILL serious mess up converter and slowly burn up oxygen sensors. The nice thing is the O2 sensors can be bought for 10 bucks because they are the old single wire kind. It's definitely not a street legal thing to do, but a little leaded gas never hurt anyone (tetra-ethyl lead in leaded gas breaks down in sunlight). I'd stay away from the toluene mixing that I used to do with my 1G, it acts as a solvent to oil and pulls it right off the seals where you need it.

123abc · 07-21-2007

So basically you use the OMP for taking the 2 stroke oil out of a seperate tank and injecting it the same way as the regular 4 stroke motor oil would as stock?

DxCR · 07-21-2007

yes.
http://www.rotaryaviation.com/oil_in...p_adaptors.htm

I know RWS doesn't sell them any more, but there is someone to contact to get the adapter. I haven't found anywhere else that makes anything quite like that. I am toying around with the idea of building a small tube that runs from the back of the pump inside the front cover to a small barb that sits above the pump. it will accomplish the same thing, maybe not cost as much, and leave me with that feeling of accomplishment.

The line would have to run out of the cover no higher than the pump itself because the balancer spinning in the front would tear it apart and send little metal fragments through your engine. There is a small notch where the drive comes out and meets the pump. I don't have a pump right here to tear parts to figure out what flows there. I think it only helps lubricate the pump's drive assembly, so should not interfere with the metered oil. I'll look into it more when I pull a pump off of one of the cars monday.

123abc · 07-22-2007

Thanks for all the knowledge. As of right now I'm lookin around to see if anyone with a tII FC would trade for my Laser. There was one on RX7club but he wasn't interested in trades. Let me know if you hear anything.

DxCR · 07-22-2007

That's an interesting coincidence. I traded my 91 TSi for my 88 TII.

123abc · 07-22-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by DxCR

That's an interesting coincidence. I traded my 91 TSi for my 88 TII.

Haha. Are you going to the meet on August 26th? (I think it is)

DxCR · 07-23-2007

If I can find a way, I'll try to be there. It's a good bit of a drive though. My boss traded his eclipse a month or so ago. Unless I throw this 2G 6g73 project together fast, I'll probably roll out in a mini van.