nopistons69

I'm going to get a FD. I've been looking at many sports/weekend cars and none other than the FD have caught my eye for so long... something to drive other than the damn Altima and Land Cruiser.



I'm going to get one within the month, and I know plenty about them, about their engines, problems, and everything else... it's just I've never worked on cars before.



I have turned into a rabid FD enthusiast over the past 4 months, reading the boards on this site every day, reading Rob's site, downloading manuals, all of this. I know much about them as of now, but I feel it won't be enough. **** I don't even know how to change the oil.



I don't want a shop to be doing the work on my car. I want to do it on my own, I just don't think it'd be as fulfulling otherwise.



What I'd really like to know is how those people who have just bought their FD within a year's time... and from first purchasing the car and knowing zilch, to learning how to rebuild the engine within that time frame up to this day.



How do you do it? How did you learn?



If I could get some experiences and first hand advice I'd be very greatful. And please, if you're just going to say "Don't buy it.", just don't post. I'm willing to learn as much as I can to be independent as far as labor.



Thanks,



Richard

sidewinderx7

you cant really learn from reading. Its more hands on. Try and find others around your area with rx7's. Get together and work on them. Start small by taking off things you dont need. Cleaning up the engine bay. After reading about something, go out and look at it, mess around with it.. etc. Try to get as much under the hood time as possible and learn about each part. I would save the rebuilding the engine for a little down the road. Once you learn the basics its all down hill from there.

jspecracer7

I basically had IGY and Chris(Dragon) teach me the ropes...whenever they wanted to do anything to their FD's, I'd volunteer to help. When Chris blew an engine, I'd be there to help clean rotors....or when IGY blew a diff...I'd always wanted to see how hard(or easy) it was to take one out. 2 years later....I'm rebuilding my own engine's

Dragon

The best way to learn is do it and when you break it you learn not to do it that way again... also if you have a problem post what it is on here and let sombody talk you threw how to fix it before you go screw things up. There are a lot of people around here that can help you out. I'm to the point where if you show me pretty much any bolt on the car I can tell you where it goes... Just be leery of the advice you receive from some people that know just enough to be dangerous. If you look around here for a while you will see who knows what they are talking about and who's advice you can trust. Some people know allot about specific problems because they have had to deal with it before, others know damn near everything. If you have any questions don’t be afraid to ask it and just ignore the stupid posts that end up in your thread... The most important thing to remember is never give up and don't lose hope because damn near anything can be fixed regardless of how hard it may seem to you now.

Girlpowerrx8

Mr Dragon.

I was looking at your avatar and is that the way that the rotor/plugs fire. I thought that the top plug would fire first then the second one.

Dragon

depends what rpm.. they fire at the same time at some parts of the ignition map, but during tirming slit the bottom fires first then the top and then the bottom actually fires again near the tip of the rotor at it comes threw the end of the power cycle. This is called the wast spark, but the animation doesn't show that spark. When the top plug fires first it's called negitive split and this will cause the rotor to kick back and creat high pressure in the camber and this will break a apex seal. Neitive split = Verry bad.. So you don't want the top plug to fire before the bottom plug...

Girlpowerrx8

Thanks for that Dragon.

Dragon

I modified the .gif file to show the wast spark as well, but it made it just over the maximum avitar size.. grrr.. but here it is..

Girlpowerrx8

Wouldn't the bottom plug wear out quicker than the top one, as it sparks twice as much.

Dragon

Why Yes it does.. since it sparks twice as much it wears away the electrode that much faster.. If you want to be cheap about your tune ups you can replace the top 2 plugs every other tune up, or if you run all BUR9EQ's in all 4 holes you can't rotate the plugs 1/2 threw your tune up ritual what ever it may be.. I like to change all my plugs out every 5,000 kms or so... My current computer running the 20B doesn't fire a waste spark however, so my plugs wear evenly...