1983 RX7 on $100 a week

Tomorrow is the last autocross of the year at the Houston Police Academy. With that in mind, I decided to replace the flasher unit that seems to no be flashing any more. I'm not sure if I did something bad to it while I was mucking around putting it in or what. I decide to pony up the $12.50 and buy the good electronically controlled one instead of a thermal unit. It works much better.

I checked the weather and it's supposed to be 40 with a chance of rain in the morning. I put RainX on the outside of the windows and Anit Fog on the inside. I have wipers that mostly work and defrost that probably actually works so I'm not too worried.

Ian F wrote:

EvanB wrote: I think magic spinning triangles in a 122 would take a lot of cutting. A 142 however...

Looking at pictures of rotary engines and where the exhaust ports are, a LOT of cutting... I'd almost say it would make a V8 swap look easy.

That's why for most V8 swapped RX-7s, you can install longtube headers from above or from below, without major drivetrain gymnastics.

Heck, you can stick a Subaru EJ engine in there.

I went through that flasher drama on my rallycross 122 about a year ago. The darn thing would fry the berkeleying thermal relays to the tune of about one a month. Finally after the 3rd one I bought the electronic one and the flasher relay gods seem to have been appeased.

No idea why the thermals sucked so badly. Perhaps I stumbled into a bad batch of them? Perhaps the old incandescent tungsten filament bulbs drew too much current?

I drove 20 miles to the autocross this morning. I had some thoughts along the way.
At startup: Crap, I'm going to wake up my wife.
2 minutes later while it gets warm enough to run: Crap, I'm waking the neighbors.
Mile 5: This is really loud.
Mile 8: I should have brought earplugs.
Mile 10: Maybe I should get a better muffler.
Mile13: I wonder if this is loud enough to damage my ears?
Mile 17: I wonder if noise can kill you?
Mile 19: I think noise might be able to kill you.

Mile 20: Huh?

First autocross. 38 degrees and mostly dry. The drive there was loud but uneventful. There was a lot of interest in the car when I arrived for two reasons. The first is that I had a lot of friends there who hadn't seen me since the 2 died. The second is because the car was LOUD. Did I mention it's loud?
We had three run groups and I worked first and ran third. It was a short course and the fast cars were turning 38's and 39's with most of the mortals in the 42 second range. When it was my turn to go I warmed the car up, gridded and started my runs. The first run was great. I was a little gentle with the car but the turn in was amazing. I've never had a car that turns like this. Not the 2, not the 911, nothing. There was a little bit of a hesitation between full throttle, getting off the throttle to brake, and getting back on it.

The second run was more of the same, though I pushed harder and was even more amazed at how the car handled sharp (90 degrees and over) slow corners. It felt great. I pushed harder and really stomped it through the finish. As I came to a stop for the crossing guard (this site is weird, in order to maximize the runs, the hot course runs between the stop box and grid, you have to wait to be safely waved across) and the car sputtered and stalled. I tried to start it but no dice. After 30 seconds or so of cranking they red flagged the course and I had them push me off.

I let the car sit for about 10 minutes and then tried it again and it fired right up. Something is happening on that transition between full throttle and closed throttle. When I'm just under braking the car sputters but stays running. The transition back to throttle on is a little jerky. When I go both feet in under braking the car wants to die. I figured out how to go two and a half feet in to let the engine catch itself for the last two runs and it worked just fine. I'm not sure if I have a jetting issue or a cold day issue or if it's just an old carb car issue. I remember riding carbed motorcycles acting a lot like this in my youth.

All in all a great day. As soon as they post the final results I'll let you know where I stacked up. I was certainly not fast, but this has to be the best car I've ever autocrossed. I really need a set of wheels to mount my old Z2's on and get some grip.

In reply to volvoclearinghouse:

LMK if you need an engine. I can make you a reliable 150hp range for cheap.

Where is the car from? Where is it now?

I know we had to rejet our Nikki carb when going from Denver to race in Houston.

Also, I would look for vacuum leaks. I think they would show similar behavior.

Rob R.

Car is from Atlanta (of course) and is in Houston now. The vacuum system is pretty much gone, but I suppose I should make sure that all of the plugs are still plugging what they're supposed to be plugging. Thanks.

Did the 2 wheels go with it or do you still have them? With the FWD-friendly offset they might leave room for you to run bolt pattern adapters and still have 'good enough' total offset.

I wonder if it's fuel sloshing around in the carb.

Also, you should hunt down a Racing Beat long-primary exhaust. Or buy a new one, but they're not cheap. They are QUIET and flow very well, which is somewhat of an oxymoron in the rotary world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUn3KNqnRTs

Former IT7 car, I'd be surprised if it didn't already have a header.

My RacingBeat race header sure isn't quiet haha

It has a long header. The tubes meet somewhere around the middle of the car. I'm not entirely certain that all of the gasses are exiting the rear of the car like they should, but most of them are and most of the sound comes from the back.

A un-muffled (or lightly muffled) RX7 is a loud beastie. A friend runs one in hillclimbs A few years ago, they showed up at one of my region's autox events and were so loud they were asked not to come back unless they could quiet it down a bit. Our region usually runs a number a karts and a few 2-stroke F-Mods, so our tolerance for loud is pretty high...

I run two RB presilencers and two Lobaks and it's still too loud.

Does a turbo muffle them reasonably well? I've read the Keifel's green bug-eye isn't too bad, noise-wise.

That's one of the reasons he's now turbocharged haha. They make great mufflers

Not on a rotary they don't.

In reply to Knurled:

Sure they do!

You can't hear what doesn't run!

It's supposed to get down to 28 tonight and the RX7 is running distilled water and water wetter. To be on the safe side I drained out some water and added some coolant. I only ended up draining/replacing half a gallon which isn't an ideal mix, but it should keep the car from popping anything important. Don't worry, I ran it for a couple of minutes to get it to warm and circulate.

You'll want to add coolant regardless. Some of the aluminum bits corrode at the slightest thought.

I had good luck with a roughly 33/66 coolant/water mix with two bottles of Water Wetter thrown in, changed every spring or every engine swap whichever came first. Because I'm anal-retentive, I use premixed coolant because in theory it has less minerals in it than the tap water here.

Yeah i fill my liter jugs half way with water i filter from my brita then add coolant. Cap it. Shake it. Pour it.

Why not just get a couple gallons of distilled water for $2?

In reply to DaveEstey:

I've done that, but when I usually forget to get it while im out grabbing coolant. Or one time I did that and I ended up dropping one and it busted open :(

DaveEstey wrote: Why not just get a couple gallons of distilled water for $2?

$2? Man, you're spendy. My local supermarket sells cases of 3 gallons for $2.69. Wal-Mart has then for 88 cents each, too.

:-P