My RX-7 is home!

It's home! I wasn't going to post till I had some pictures, but I couldn't find my camera and I'm too excited to not post something! I bought my first ever sports car yesterday. It is a 1987 Mazda RX-7 GXL, blue/blue, 5-speed, 98K on the body/10K on a dealer rebuilt/installed 13B engine. It's a fixer-upper for sure, but importantly it runs, drives, and will at least pass saftey inspection.

The Good:

-Motor runs strong

-No body rot or major rust spots on the car

-P.O. changed the oil every 2K miles and had recently done coolant, transmission, and differential fluid flushes -Rear brakes have Hawk pads and Brembo OEM-type rotors. Fronts are the big-ass factory 4-pistons, and it has a factory clutch-type LSD

-I was able to fix the high idle it had from 1500rpm to 750rpm, all by turning one screw. If only everything else were that easy to fix...

-Fresh tires (no-name all-seasons, however)

-Has the auto-adjusting sport suspension

The Bad -Some asshat ripped out pretty much everything in the center console and the top steering column cover

-Same asshat also stole the shift boot and shift knob, and berkeleyed up the ignition (I have to use a screwdriver to help turn the ignition. I makes me look like I'm hotwiring my own car )

-Shifter needs new bushings badly- finding a gear is like rowing the shifter through jelly. I plan on replacing it with an evilBay Miata short throw shifter (Lots of FC guys seem to have done this mod and say it works well)

-The windshield wiper switch fried, so the P.O. jury-rigged the wipers to work with a toggle switch. It should still pass saftey, but I won't have intermittent, high-speed, or windshield sprayers until I can rebuild the switch or buy a new one

-The spare tire well flooded a little bit. I will need a new rear hatch seal

-Needs paint, especially on the sunroof. There's a lot of dried tree sap on the body, too

-Front right side tire needs to be remounted

My main goals for this week are to get the plates on the car, remount the tire, do an oil change, have the belts replaced, get rid of the tree sap (clay bar?) and get the car inspected. Then it's onto mechanical, electrical, cosmetic, in that (rough) order. I plan on enjoying my new toy as much as possible before the first snow sets in, then I'm putting it under covers till spring arrives. I'm going to need a lot of help from you guys, since I'm not the most mechanically-inclined person in the world. I'm certain, though, I can make my RX-7 into a nice summer toy and autocrosser come spring!

So where are you located? I happen to have a spare tranny.

Northeast Massachusetts. I think the tranny itself is OK; it's not like the car grinds or won't shift or pops out of gear while driving. The shifter bushings on these cars tend to go kaput rather early, though, and the result is a sloppy shifter.

Congrats

Invest in some service manuals and enjoy the car as much as you can.

Awesome man! Welcome to the world of the rotary! You about the best one you could for sport and longevity, as a GXL is essentially a Turbo II only without the turbo and Turbo II hood.

The only bad part about that car is the electronic suspension. If it works great, awesome! But IIRC, replacement parts can be expensive, and when they break, most guys rip it out in favor of more traditional fare.

If you can find the directions for modding the over-rev buzzer to not go off for an extra 1k rpm, I highly suggest it.

Don't drive it like it's a piston engine, and that motor will last forever. Do NOT lug a rotary engine! Also, those things will run on the most crappy of crap gas - I always laugh when I hear people talking about only putting premium in a rotary. Don't waste your money on anything beyond regular.

Good luck with it, man!

ReverendDexter wrote: The only bad part about that car is the electronic suspension. If it works great, awesome! But IIRC, replacement parts can be expensive, and when they break, most guys rip it out in favor of more traditional fare.

The e-suspension works fine and I'm leaving it alone for now, but Koni adjustibles and Ground Control springs are a future consideration.

ReverendDexter wrote: If you can find the directions for modding the over-rev buzzer to not go off for an extra 1k rpm, I highly suggest it.

Cool, I'll keep that in mind for a future mod.

ReverendDexter wrote: Don't drive it like it's a piston engine, and that motor will last forever. Do NOT lug a rotary engine!

What's lugging?

ArtOfRuin wrote:

ReverendDexter wrote: Don't drive it like it's a piston engine, and that motor will last forever. Do NOT lug a rotary engine!

What's lugging?

Putting a load on the engine at low RPM's... such as accelerating up a hill in 5th gear.

ReverendDexter wrote: Don't drive it like it's a piston engine, and that motor will last forever. Do NOT lug a rotary engine!

For fun, I used to floor it in 5th at 1000rpm and see how long it took to accelerate to 60mph from 30.

In my 1980 model, it took six seconds, but this was with a ported engine so it had more low end torque.

I'm not kidding. In town I upshift at about 1800rpm with my 13B. IT WILL BE FINE.

The key is to never go heavy throttle unless the engine can accelerate. This goes for top speed runs, too...

Drive it like you stole it

Sign up at www.rotarycarclub.com and tell em P71 sent you. The classifieds will net you the interior stuff and switches cheap.

Congrats on the purchase! My first RX-7 was an 87 GXL Blue/Blue and I really loved it. Missing that car is what made me buy the 1st Gen RX-7 I have now.

Sounds like you have a solid plan, I can't wait for progress reports!

I concur, rotaries hate to be overheated but otherwise a non turbo is as solid as a rock

Awesome car. I had an 88 GTU for 4 years. Only ever had to replace oil, spark plugs, brake pads and tires. Tracked it often and revved it out every day.

Konis and GC are a great choice. The shifter is probably the plastic bushing at the bottom of the shift lever which can be bought cheaply at mazdatrix.com.

I think the wiper switch thing can be rebuilt. I think this guy does it: http://www.mazdamark.com/Rebuilding%20Your%20RX-7%20Parts.htm Check his references on rx7club.com. Rotarycarclub is also a great but newer community.

Update: I found my camera and it's going to rain tomorrow evening and the rest of the week, so I'll take some pics tomorrow and upload them before the end of the week.

I also found a CL listing for a complete blue FC interior for $190 (score! ). I plan on cherry picking the stuff I need or want, then selling the rest.

Don't bother with another 86-88 stereo surround, it will break on it's own over time. Go for the 89-91, they are much improved.

I am parting out an 87 base model if you need parts,and I am in south east Massachusetts. I have lots of switches,and stuff left. Email me at cdirado 4t m a c dot com.

Ninja edit: I have a Series 5 center stack surround that was mounted in the 87 if you are interested.

Chris

OK, I think I'm in a little over my head...

Turns out I have to replace the thermostat, front wheel bearings, and oil pan gasket.

I think I can handle the thermostat myself. It shouldn't be any more difficult than a normal coolant flush/refill.

The wheel bearings and oil pan? Not so much. Mazda decided to sell only the complete front hub assemblies at highway robbery prices ($466.41- each!), which means I'm stuck doing the DIY approach to fixing the bearings. The oil pan will require me to loosen a couple of the engine or transmission mounts. Problem is, I don't have access to a press or anything to support the engine's or transmission's weight. One guy who I met at an autocross is doing an FC Turbo II build, but he hasn't replied to any of my e-mails.

I'm not throwing in the towel yet, but for a complete rookie to fixing cars with no gearhead friends, this isn't encouraging.

That's why you got it. Buy some tools, roll up your sleeves, and get greasy! Learn by doing! The wheel bearings won't be that hard, and neither will the pan gasket. Grab a manual and get to work, we'll be here if you run into trouble.

Well, I haven't got room for a full-sized press. Are there any hand-tools available for pressing bearings into/out of hubs?

maybe... I have a set of bearing tools that might work... but I don't know that much about RX7 front wheel bearings to know for sure.

You still have another car right? Take the hubs off and drag them to a machine shop. Most places will press out the old and press in the new for $5-$10. As for the oil pan gasket, rent a cherry picker (engine hoist).

Shoot, many's the time I jacked up an engine with a piece of 2x4 on a scissors jack, stuck wood blocks between the engine and frame mount and snatched an oil pan right on out. Easy. In the FC's case, the right hand engine mount has 3 bolts which go through the oil pan. That means you'd need to support it elsewhere; you can take a 2x4, nail 2 shorter pieces crossways, set that on the strut towers and use a chain to support the motor. Like this:

The hub bearings can be removed from the hubs with a hammer and drift (steel rod, etc). Just be careful what you are pounding on!

BTW, on the thermostat: a lot of the aftermarket thermostats have a very small bleed hole for air, meaning it takes forever to fill the cooling system and there's an air pocket right behind the thermostat making it slow to open the first time. I fixed that aggravation by drilling a 1/16" hole in the thermostat mount flange and orienting that hole in the up position. Like this:

This is a RX7 thermostat, and it MUST have the blockoff valve (the small disc).

Unless the 3 FC's I've done bearings on are different, its a real bitch to get the races out of the hubs. Unlike the FB's, the FC hubs are aluminum and in addition to that, have no relief cut in the hub to make it easy to remove the races. The fact that they're aluminum also means that even if you made your own relief, you'd only get a few extra uses out of them before they'll oblong or somesuch (at least in heavy-duty use).

FWIW I'd bet you'd be fine with just replacing the bearings, although everybody will tell you that's absolutely unacceptable. The other option is to head to the Pick-N-Pull and see if they have any, but generally they still want pretty high prices especially when you consider that the hub you're buying is likely to be just as used as the one you're trying to replace.

The oil pan will be a bitch and a half, there's really no way to get around it. You can use a floor jack and a 2x4 to raise the engine up, but once you do that you'll need to hold it in place, and with no cherry picker I don't have any good recommendations. Getting the 20 10mm bolts out is a bit tedious at times, and getting covered in oil in the process always makes for a little extra aggravation.

Does your car have a second cap on top of the water pump? My understanding is that makes it easier to bleed the second gens.

Your welcome to come by my place in Carver,and work on it. I have an engine hoist,and a press.

@ P71: I didn't know you could rent engine hoists. That will be a big help with the oil pan job. Oh, and thanks for directing me to rotarycarclub. I bought a thermostat from Autozone, and one of the guys on that board told me about how they don't work. I have a Mazda part on the way now from one of the vendors there.

@ ChrisTaylor: Unfortunatly, I don't have ~$900 to fork over for brand-new hub assemblies, but a couple of junkyards nearby have used FC hubs, and according to the car-parts.com website, they're around $100 each. I'll give them a ring this week. Worse comes to worse, I can replace the bearings in one set and keep my FC on the others.

@ Mazdax605: Thank you for your offer. Carver's a bit of a haul from Methuen. Once I get the new thermostat installed, I'll take the FC to work (60mi. round trip) and see how it does in terms of overheating and oil consumption. If it does OK, then I'll arrange time to head down to Carver.

Thanks for the help, everyone. It's kinda tough being the only gearhead you know, and your support should make this build a little easier.

You can buy an engine lift for around $120 most of the time. Get a folding one!

Just a warning, they are a gateway tool! (as in they open the door to thinking a whole new level of broken car is a reasonable purchase)