wannabe-rotary

hey guys, I joined a couple years ago around the time I was ready to buy an RX7 as a project car, and had some questions about reliability. In the end I decided to continue working with my Mitsu 98 GSX and then added a WRX to the stable lol, but anyways ive pretty much tired myself out of AWD for the street, I spend a lot of time rallying on dirt roads and jumping and stuf like that, but Ive decided to pursue the FD dream. So back to my original questions:

I continually hear about the RX7's being unreliable, that they have too small a cooling system and a crappy engine management stock, and they blow up easily or run lean under hard cornering with low gas levels. Things that make me shy away from it just because while building a high power car, or building a moderate power street car is within my ability, I dont want to sink money into a project that will continually be a problem like my GSX was. You do something to it and it blow up somwhere in it.

So here's a list of questions lol:



1) Can it be built in such a way that i cant expect daily reliability at 400-450rwhp?

-(as in can I drive it agressively off and on during the day and not be worried about it blowing?)

2) Can addressing the cooling issues by just increasing the size of the intercooler and radiator?

-(as in: is it that simple?)

3) With all the advances in piggyback or add on management systems, is it still nessacarry to follow (as a member told me once back then) a three mod rule, with the third mod being ECU tweak? Can I expect to be able to tune it myself (and yes i have experience in tuning, just not rotarys) or will it have to be done by someone else with a complete stand-alone?

4) How expensive does it get to try to maintain the twin turbo setup with larger turbos? I'd like the response of a twin setup, im getting tired of the lag of big singles. :P

5) Would it be better to try to find a FD that is blown up already and go from there? Since I would like to build the motor reliable right off the bat, hopefully saving money on the purchase of the car because its blown?



I know that reliable is a loose term, obviously no matter how well built it can blow up from really aggressive driving, but I worry that random problems will just continually show up. Sorry if these are newbie questions to you guys, but I like to have a solid idea of what im getting into lol. Im ready to start as soon as I can find a car and supplier for parts I want, but I just want to make sure im going in informed ya know? FYI i live in anchorage alaska and so things like temperature and air density are less of a problamatic factor in tuning, we are at sea level and a hot summer day is only maybe 80ºF lol.



thanks guys sorry for the long post and questions

-brian

GreyGT-C

1. big turbo....low boost <shrug>

2.yup.... larger radiator with PROPER DUCTING!! and an aftermarket nose does wonders for it.

3.the only real piggy back that i can think of right now is the PFS purple box.. which is outdated... and was CRAP even when it was the new thing on the market.

4. dunno about larger twins. BNR perhaps.... i went when a fast spooling single

5. you can definately get a good deal on a blown one if you find it... if i were you, not knowing much about them yet.. i'd look for a solid one to begin with.. something you can drive and learn at the same time. Instead of a new car that is broken and you'll be discusted with it within weeks....





just my $0.02 worth.

rotaryinspired

One thing in mind is that I believe the 3rd gen in stock for is one of the hardest cars to work on due to the lack of room under the hood. Granted all my experiece is on 2nd generations, but I have recently accquried a 3rd generation and there is so little room under the hood in comparision. I am not the fastest mechanic i the world, but it took me an hour just to change spark plug wires (racing beat street wires). I have recently taken my turbos off to replace them due to blowing the secondary turbo, which I believe is due to my precat. It took a lot of patience and a full day to get them off. I am not saying this to discourage you as my 3rd gen gives me a huge smile every time I drive it. I have a theory that I love my FD but it hates me when I get under the hood. One thing you need to look at when running the twins is the complexity. While I like the low end power the twins provide I often wonder if a single would be better. Anyways that's my .02. I do believe there is no other exotic car that performs w/ the FD for the price. I say exotic because it it a high power sports car that requires alot of attention. But when I went in the back of Ferrari of Houston and talked to one of the mechanics they told me how much up keep the Ferraris are, and a FD is way less. Could you imagine paying some one $3500 to change the belts on a engine. That was on a 83 328. I do drive my FD everyday it has 62000 on the original motor. Good Luck.

rotaryinspired

Oh and I do believe a reliable 400hp daily driven FD is possible if set up correctly, and I think you have the gist of it.

wannabe-rotary

yeah, I guess my thinking is that ive heard so much about higher milage RX7's being prone to problems that I figured it would blow up soon, and then i'd hafta tear into it anyways. So if I bought one i had to do it to right away, I would be able to learn it from the start. You're right about the engine bay though, a friend of mine has a real nice FC in town, and a couple people I know have real nice FD's in town but stock, the FD is cramped as hell lol.

Now I dont have a problem with a FD that has higher milage but has a new/rebuilt motor, thats fine, but I guess i worry about buying a FD with the original motor and equipment that has 60 or 70k miles. From everything ive been told it sounds like around then the original motor is ready to pop, that its only luck or being babied all the time as the reason it hasnt. In any case what about modded FDs? On the one hand it means someone has already paid attention to those details and might have done decent or good improvements, but on the other hand it also lends itself to a more aggressively driven past. Its hard to find a stock one it seems like. Where are good places to look? Aside from eBay?

I dont mind dumping the twins to work with a single, its generally less complex, and im use to workign with single turbo setups anyways. But we'll see.

89 Rag

Autotrader.com has several listings.



Modification and reliability, the first effects the second, imo. In the stock configuration the car is fine, reliability is not an issue, as can be said about many other automobiles in production.



Abuse, poor maintenance, and lack of fundamental knowledge, to name a few, can contribute to poor reliability in a stock configuration, let alone a heavily modified configuration, where in my opinion, attention to detail must increase 10 fold



Can an FD be made to be reliable at 450hp, yes, the question is, will you have the disipline to keep it that way?

wannabe-rotary

well, it doesnt sound like the FD's are very reliable stock actually, but that of course is affected by mods. As for discipline? This would be the first rotary car Id be working on, but hardly the first high power, lightly or heavily modified car I've worked on. Ive owned and modded plenty. I worry that the car will be unreliable from the get go. Either way im gonna do it but I want to be aware of what I can do right off the bat to make sure it maintains.



ill check the autotrader, thanks for the advice

89 Rag

They were very reliable stock, but you have to keep in mind, the last new FD to be sold in America off a showroom floor was almost 9 years ago. Unless you find a beautifully maintained car, with extremly low mileage, you will almost certainly have to put a fair amount of money and time into the car to make the stock configuration perform in a reliable manner, so your worry about the car being unreliable from the get go is probably not to far from realistic, but it is not due to anything other than the previous owners responsibily, or lack there of, in caring for the car.

rotaryinspired

I do believe a FD can be driven on the original motor to 90K or 100K in stock form if it has had proper maintenance. IMO most people slightly neglect the rotary engine since it does have a few more requirements than the typical piston engine. (More frequent oil changes and spark plugs and wires) Another thing to remember is that it is very hard to keep your foot out of these cars becuase they are so much fun. Mine car was owned by a older man and was very well maintained. I did a some research to see how many time a Mazda dealership had seen it and to my surpise only twice. Once for a idle valve and one more for the EGR. I would suggest a 94 or 95 as improvements were made over the 93. My car has very good compression at 62000 on the original motor. Be patient know what you are looking for and it will show up. Dont get excited at the first one you drive and buy it. I think that is were a lot of people mess up, they dont have the patience.

PhoenixDownVII

Agreed. 94-95's had improvements, and reliability in stock form is pretty good given also it was taken care of.



My 94 has 60k on it and at 57k it had great compression, guy garaged it, waxed it often, etc etc and runs like a champ.