hi guys my cousin is looking at an fd rx7 and wants me to go with him to look at a few but i have been reading adout them and the engines seem to cost a bomb to do up and need doing after so many miles has anyone got any exsperiance with these cars and what to look out for and any advise would be appreciated
The advice is get totally genned up before thinking of buying one of these.
Awesome motors AFAIK but research:
- when was the last time the engine was rebuilt
- who did the rebuild
- fuel costs
- insurance costs
- nose cone warp
I'm sure there are lots of other things. Best bet is to go and have a look at the RX7 forums.
yea had a look on a few forums but i didnt realise how lucky we are on RTOC to have such a good forum cos they have very little information and no buyers guide and the such i know its 1500 quid just in labour costs to have engine done but i am going to ring an rx7 specialist garage and see if they can help me price for the worst case scenario or if its do able for a home mechanic to do but he has had insurence quotes and its only going to be a weekend toy so thats fine the main concern is that enginebut thanks for advise trev
just rang a couple of specialists and its 3600 for a standerd build dont think the rx7 is an option
No worries.
You wont be doing a DIY rebuild unless you're an expert mechanic. The RX7 has a 'birds nest' of wiring/hoses/pipes etc and the replacing of the rotor tips/seals is for the initiated.
Good rebuild is probably £3-4k. If you buy one that's just been rebuilt by one of the specialists then that's the best option I reckon.
The bottom line is, if you try and buy a cheap car then you're risking a big bill in the not too distant future. If you try and buy a sorted car you'll be paying up front for it, but at least you'll have peace of mind.
Mind you if it's a weekend toy and it wont see many miles a year, it may be worth risking.
This car looks like it could give a bit of an insight, it includes video links to rebuild etc:
http://classifieds.pistonheads.com/c...rebuild/241617
have a look at the many rebuild videos on the net - see if its something you could do.
i was looking at the used rx8 market- and cars that need rebuilds are about £5-600. the reason is the rebuild kit on its own is quite expensive (£500-1000 springs to mind) - and thats just for the kit!
i am a mechanic meself and i told the bloke that i may have a go at it meself he just laughed and he said they aint like anything you would of ever worked on and advised against it, so that told me
that looks ideal trev and like you say as a toy it wont be doing the mileage i am gunna tel me cousin what i have found out today and then let him make the decison himself i dont want the blame if it goes wrong. i will have a look at them videos now sparkie what did you think when you had a look you can buy them cheap when they need engine doing
my bro works for mazda, apparently the crank casing on the rx8 is glued together! not a job for the hobby mechanic, and thats before you bring a turbocharged FD3 motor into the equation....Originally Posted by Sparkie
I was looking into these a couple years ago, great cars to drive. As mentioned there's alot of bits that have to come out to do the engine, but so has the gtt to someone who hasn't worked on them before. From memory the rotor tips and bearings were about £800 but as that's all there is to the engine it's not to bad, plus a few gaskets, fresh oil etc. I think the tips want changing about 60,000 miles so not exactly a yearly job, it's keeping on top of regular oil changes which is the main thing. Plenty of tuning bits with most imports having something done already. Various generations of them with std parts being improved each time but the last ones were more comforts than performance so not worth the extra price imo.
Pip at wgt is probably the most common place for anything rx7 related, but also seems to set the prices for buying/selling/repairs/tuning across the board too but at least he offers warranty with what he does albeit a bit more expensive, he knows his stuff.
Oh, and I pulled my dad's mk1 rx7 apart before it got weighed in for numerous faults. Not as complicated as the professionals would like you to think
yea i suppose when you look under the bonnnet of a standerd gtt it just looks like a mass of pipes i did what sparkie said and looked at some videos and alot of people are doing the engine jobs themselves
If you decide to take it on, do a project thread on RTOC so we see how you do
i dnt know bout doin a project thread could end up embarresing my self if it goes wrong
If you don't put a thread up you'll miss out on potential RTOC advice/encouragement.
If you're that worried about being embarrassed on here then I'd think twice about taking the project on!
i was only joking mate course i will put thread up its helped no end putting my gtt restoration thread up
you always have to remember, a bloke built the engine, a bloke broke the engine and a bloke can rebuild the engine again.
it may well be 'nothing like you've seen before' - thats why u do your research first. you're mechanically minded, it will be fairly straight forward.
I looked very deep into buying an fd rx7. joined the owners clubs etc.. The problem seems to be , even doign the work yourself the parts cost £££.. Mainly because generally when a rotor tip lets go it scores the casing, which then requires machinging etc or replacement.
but.. you gota remember how many mies are you really going to do, If i was to get an rx7 id be finding a guy on the owners club to help me find a well sorted done one, and actually using the specialist's should anything go wrong myself. The advice i got was buy standard as the tuning parts are pennies but the engines are £££, much like most jap turbo cars to be honest, there more tuning parts than cars.
could you buy a spare block/engine and strip it if its easy enough to put back together then budget it and buy a car, the engine may last or you may have to crack on with the rebuild a bit quicker?
i have been looking at actually buying one with a knakerd engine and then do it up because ones with knakerd engines are going for peanuts and i reckon if i had a crack at doing engine it would still work out cheaper than buying one done but i would have to research it alot more yet and there are some quite good deals on parts but i would have to check and see if they are of a good quality
They are a pain in the ass to DIY rebuild!!
do you know someone who has done one matt ?
Yep, I took an fd apart to find why it was loosing coolant (it was a 8000rpm water pump basically) once apart it was apparent that the water had wrecked the rotors and housings, rust and scored, most of it was borderline scrap, once the prices of parts, rental of tip seal tools etc mounted up we contacted a chap (burgess hill way) who had refurb lumps on the shelf, he even copied the porting of the original engine, it worked out much cheaper.
Also have a word with Oli Davies on here, we took his rx8 apart to find damage inside it, we used hurly rotary for that one, same again, a rebuild was not cost effective compared to an exchange unit.
One thing I will say is they are bloody fast!
thats intresting cheers matt
There are a couple of YouTube vids on assembly of these things, and if needed I have a rebuild manual here somewhere.....
If you do go for a fd, it's wise to make sure the car is complete, I.e the rats nest and all the solenoids are there.
You can modify the rats nest and plumb it so the twin turbos can be used non sequence. They will be like one big turbo.
I very briefly owned a fc turbo last year. Great car and made a great noise but I felt like I was pulling the pin on a grenade every time I turned the key (that's something, coming from a gt turbo owner!!!)
Anyway, three things I'd recommend doing:
1) search YouTube for "the champagne test"
2) ask what fuels been running through it and whether any oil has ever been added to the petrol. This apparantly prolongs the life of the apex tips much like a two stroke bike.
3) get a compression test done before handing over any wedge
Hope you get a good one dude
Ross
Just buy one cheap with a blown engine and shove an LS1 small block V8 in it, 380bhp with a two year warranty on the baby version, spunk the extra two grand and get supercharged LS7 for 700bhp
or buy an mx5 ( £700) non rotton.. and turbo the mx5 engine, Engines are £100 all day long if you get it wrong, theres a wealth of info, And even scoffs recently started dipping his hand into mx5 turbos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15NNc...eature=related
or buy an mx5 ( £700) non rotton.. and turbo the mx5 engine, Engines are £100 all day long if you get it wrong, theres a wealth of info, And even scoffs recently started dipping his hand into mx5 turbos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15NNc...eature=related
He's right! I have experiance with both turbo'd and supercharged mx5's and they really are awesome little cars to drive, to this day i can't understand why Mazda never ran a full production turbo version
They are cheap, parts are readly available, in fact parts are in abundance, they handle fantastically, they respond well to tuning, what more could you want, i was very close to selling my raider a few years ago to fund a turbo mx5 project, and when i type things like this I'm still tempted
The turbo'd one only runs 7psi through a t25 and the performance is fantastic, i would have said an easy 180hp through the rear wheels, and this is with a dog**** G-reddy piggyback ECU, god knows what it would be like with a scoff mapped adaptronic at say 12psi boost
yuppers , loads of people with home brew turbo conversions using td05/ and t28 turbos (cheap turbos to replace), and a megasquirt pnp (basically less than 1k including managment), a lot of them pushing round the 200 - 250horse mark.
I personaly think after a lot of research that rx7s just arnt that viable in this country, lack of parts/specialists and £££ fuel.
Last edited by djinuk; 27-09-2012 at 09:32.
all the points above are true but there is just something about that rotary engine
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