I've been on the fence for a while, but now that I have about 7k of disposable money saved up I can splurge on a shitbox to have fun with.
I figure spending 4-5 on the car and 2-3 on maintenance, parts and new tires, brakes, ect...
Pros: >AESTHETIC >10,000 RPM Dorito >fulldorifto.exe >have to tools, know how to do any work on her >wanted one since little kid (uncle had one) >plenty of aftermarket/parts available
CONS: >LOL100hp >loud as fuck >constant maintenance
Are there any better options in my price range? Preferably Nippon but any other suggestions are good.
If you understand the maintenance and care they need then consider this: buy a car that makes you happy to drive and work on everyday. It's your car and something you'll spend you time on and in. Life's too short to live with regrets, so pick the car your heart desires.
Levi Sanchez
non turbo rotaries are known to go 200k mi without needing a rebuilt if you take care of it properly (which isn't hard nor expensive to do). also the carbed 12A is simple as hell and easy to work on if anything does go wrong
Ryder Butler
Is there anything unique to the rx7 I should watch out for when inspecting one?
Luke Jackson
Get an s30 you retard, theyre way better cars
Austin Bell
Get an FC, they have independent rear suspension instead of a solid rear axle, rack and pinion steering instead of recirculating ball, and they all have 13bs for much less than trying to find a GSL-SE FB to get one with a 13b. They're a much better car for the same or less money.
Zachary Nguyen
Do it. A holesaw and a carb upgrade will more than double your horsepower. You're not getting anywhere close to 10,000 RPM with a stock engine, though. Try 7,000.
Jayden Turner
They're easy to work on, but they're getting old. 12A housings are unavailable from Mazda; have been for a long time. if you do find new, expect to pay north of $800/housing. Carbed naturally aspirated rotaries are actually pretty reliable, though. About the main 2 things you're going to have trouble with those cars are the fuel system if it's been sitting awhile (gas tank rust issues that spread to the rest of the fuel system and the carb...girl's old; get ethanol-free fuel if you can) and steering box (wondersteer/vague steering feel/excessive dead play in the wheel) New Koyo box is expensive, but you can attempt to adjust it out if you wish.
Um.....old emission equipment get get plugged and overheat, causing fire. Do away with the emissions and uncork the rotary if you can get away with it.
Don't bother putting new bushings in the ass end with the 4 link, you want some play, I'd even suggest removing the rear stabilizer bar for more traction. Mazda fucked up on the rear suspension geometry with the way it's watts-link if engineered. It has a high propensity to bind, causing loss of rear traction and snap oversteer. Firmer suspension components will only exacerbate this, but firmer springs and shocks are fine; just don't put in spherical links or polyurethane bushings in the rear.
Can't think of too much else....if your tach doesn't work, it's most likely that your trailing igniter has gone bad.
Hording parts for the car is never a bad idea. Have a few carbs on hand to do a pop-and-swap if you need to. Cleaning the Nikki is easy, just don't loose the cylinder and ball from the accelerator pump.
If you do need to rebuild the engine, check the housings for flaking...if they're scored, you may still be able to get them resurfaced from Goopy. You may also consider going to a carbon apex seal to be gentler to the housings since they're unobtanium now; just keep in mind they don't last very long and they'll need to be replaced more often. (every 20K miles?)
Charles Thompson
>You're not getting anywhere close to 10,000 RPM with a stock engine, though. Try 7,000.
12A will spin to 12K safely. I'm not even bullshitting. If it was a 13B, then I'd say 8500 is about the safe limit. Anymore and you risk apex seal chatter. 12A has less spinning mass than the 13B does.
Ian Watson
>loud as fuck >con
Colton Bennett
Do it. A holesaw and a carb upgrade will more than double your horsepower.
You have to be able to competently TIG weld too....otherwise you're just cutting into the cooling jacket. For a street car, a half bridge should be fine.
Should say too that the GSL-SE (series 3) is easier to get wheels for; it's bolt pattern is 114.3X4 (AKA Mustang bolt pattern, also S13, AE86, Suzuki Cultus, 180SX, S30, S130, et cetera), the rest (series 1 and 2) are 4X110.
Nathan Thomas
Lol not even close
Joshua Perry
If you ever pop the rotary, a miata engine falls right in with very little effort. Instant horsrpower and torque upgrade
Easton Gonzalez
Tfw MX5 engine is a torque upgrade
Alexander Ramirez
Not OP, but I was briefly considering getting an FC until I read this very informative post. If the spare parts are out of production, and it is a maintenance-heavy car, then it might not be the best choice for someone who (like OP) only has about 7K in the bank.
Leo Rivera
>if you do find new, expect to pay north of $800/housing
Not like decent used housings aren't a thing.
Lucas Sanchez
I need a turbo BP powered FB now. That would be amazing.
Jayden James
Use the Kia Sportage engine with an 85-98 Mazda pickup bell housing. It's the same amount of work as the Miata swap but cheaper bits (no rice tax) and a much better engine.
If you get an FC Turbo II, you can swap in a 4G64 using the 86-88 B2600 bellhousing.
Christopher Watson
$7K goes a very long way for both an SA and FC RX-7. I have both and no where near that kind of income, and my FC is turbocharged.
Like I said, the main achilles heel for the vehicle is going to be it's age. Right now my SA22 (when I was in Japan, series 1-3 were all SA22, so I don't even acknowledge the whole FB thing; FB is probably nothing more than VIN code for left-hand drive SA22's) is down because of plugged fuel system; recoating the tank even exacerbated the problem as the ethanol fuel eats away at it after awhile.
So...finding another tank or cleaning the one you have is going to be the biggest thing, but this can often be done for only a few hundred dollars (if that) when you find someone who can clean it.
You can get a very nice JDM series 2 for 7K with low miles from that dude in VA with 7billion weird ass JDM cars...
Joseph Green
>tfw no fb's for sale and the only fc's for sale are 2 overpriced convertables
feels bad to be a britbong
Cameron Gutierrez
You have some things confused there. But ok
Ian Ward
>lighter >more powerful >better looking
Lmoa
Hudson Sanders
Its not lighter. Its 700lbs heavier. Looks are subjective. S30s look like piles of rust It handles like shit. Brakes like shit. And has a fuckhuge I6 over the front wheels that makes a whopping 140hp. The chassis is made of warm butter. The interior falls apart
Its a shitty car. Just stop
Jordan Rogers
triangles
Josiah Parker
S30s don't weigh 3000lbs, the 240z was only 2300
Joshua Walker
The 280 weighs 3000lbs Good luck finding a 240z Which still couldnt turn or brake for shit. They are piles of rust and flaking interior bits. Fucking terrible cars.
Michael Turner
I have a 240z, they're not hard to find. Kill yourself
Grayson Lewis
Oh. So because YOU have one means that its easy to find and its the beat car ever. Fuck off scumbag
Evan Jenkins
You're really asshurt about datsuns bro
Bentley Morgan
Not my fault they are absolute shit cars.
Evan Russell
Literally all of your arguments except the engine apply to the FB too. Stop being a rabid fanboy for ten seconds and realize they're very comparable cars.
Joseph Thompson
Ive driven both. The FC brakes, chassis, engine, transmission, interior, etc is better. Period. Objectively better. The S30 is like driving a tractor. Slow long shifts, long heavy clutch, slow reving engine, chassis twists with each throttle input, turns like a tractor plowing a field. The RX7 feels like a sports car. Tight steering, tight brakes, rev happy engine, tight precise shifting, chassis doesnt flex under throttle Great car. Yes ive driven 240 and 280.
Henry Nguyen
>FC Meant FB
Jayden Edwards
Having driven both, I'd disagree. The 280z matches what you say.
Jackson Myers
>12kRPM
Enjoy hitting the resonance frequency of the rotor housings and grenading the engine very quickly.
Ryder Hall
No I don't. Sportage engine is basically an updated 2.0L BP with stronger internals that uses the F-series bellhousing bolt pattern. You get F-series engine to M-type transmission front casings off B-series trucks with FE or F2 engines.
Likewise, you get the Mitsubishi wideblock to R-type transmission bellhousing from early B2600s equipped with the (carbureted) Mitsubishi 4G54 engine. The later (MPFI) Mazda G6 engine uses the same bellhousing as the F-series engines, but if you're engine swapping a TII you might as well go all the way.
Nathaniel Mitchell
The FE3 makes less power than the miata 1.8.
Theres no point to it. The bell housing doesnt unbolt on FBs anyway. You have to swap the whole trans.
David Morgan
It won't even come close to 12k because eshaft flex will cause your rotors to slam into the irons. You need a two piece eshaft with a roller center main bearing and even then you'll still want to scallop your rotors and use single piece carbon seals instead of the stock two piece cast iron seals. Then you need electric oil and water pumps because there aren't any that can function properly over an 11,000 RPM range. Either they won't pump at idle or they'll cavitate and redline. Both are critical problems.
Owen Kelly
The FE3 uses the same combustion chamber geometry as the BP. It's what happens when you take a bored and stroked BP and then modify it so it interchanges parts with the FE instead. Kia's stock tune was shit, but it has more potential than the BP, both NA and turbocharged.
The M-type transmissions bolt together in the middle. You take the from half of the case from the engine you want and the back half from the chassis you want. The only differences are gear ratios and input shaft length.
Grayson Reed
Not that I'd recommend porting an engine with a holesaw, but if you do I'd suggest (very carefully) using something like JBWeld instead of actually welding. Rotor housings are precision parts and you don't want even the slightest heat warping in them. I think Devcon aluminum epoxy is what the cool kids use.
Dominic Russell
I see, I see. That's not as bad as I thought. The one I found is from the late 80s and seems to be in good condition. However, there's also the fact I've never owned my own car before, and I don't know much about wrenching besides what few videos I've watched.
Lincoln Brown
kijiji.ca/v-classic-cars/st-catharines/1984-rx7/1242651020?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true >reasonable price >looks good >only carb problems >doesn't appear to be rotted at the wheel wells >currently in school and working, just bought and insured a Yamaha Radian, currently purchasing a Toyota Echo from my mother as a practical daily >tfw no room for project/fun car until I get a decent paying job >emailed him, seeing if I can swing by to give it a look >worst comes, if he doesn't sell it, I stay in touch and buy it later
Lucas Rivera
Daily the bike until you get the dorito up and running. No need for a soulless shitbox.
Blake Carter
I live in Ontario, dailying the bike in the winter isn't an option. Especially if I want to work out of town and can't take the bus then. I will be dailying the bike and using the echo as a winter driver/grocery getter. If I sold the bike and got the RX-7, I'd want to daily the echo and project the dorito.
Mason Nelson
Ayy I'm in Ontario (mississauga) myself.
I DD a 07 rx8 , if you need a hand wrenching I would be down.
Jaxson Harris
turbi ii swap in mine
Landon Bell
...
Ryan Reed
Yes But if you want real power go 13b swap or you're gonna spend thousands on a 12a to make 200whp na
William Taylor
Also OP this may not apply to America land of 400,000 1st gens... but I bought my series 3 limited (gsl-se without a 13b for the yanks) for 5k in 2012 Cheapest running 1st Gen on the market now is 12k... for a series 2 automagic
So a decent investment as well as a God tier car
Connor Allen
>PPort >48 IDA or DCOE >240+ to the wheels It's that simple.
Andrew Parker
Its not simple If running pp you really should go fuel injection, only way a 12a will make over 200whp na. But that's a good way to spend more than a 13b-msp swap to have literally 1/10th the reliability
I love the 12a but it's a shit performance engine
Isaac Diaz
>Orignal ABR S30Z not FD3S not STI not WRX not EVO IX not SUBARU not S14 not S13 not 911 >"i know what i got" >$50k firm >no lowballers >call in weekdays between 8:30-10:15AM and 5:45-7:20PM >cash only
