Question as i want to buy a RX
Is there anyway to tell if an engine has been rebuilt if the owner does not know ?
If this is a stupid question no throwing me out for the wolves !
I am sure a specialist would be able to tell if the engine has been apart since leaving the factory.
What he wouldn\'t be able to tell is the reason, perhaps a rebuild or for porting.
John
Or how long ago.
If there is no proof of rebuild, work on the basis that it hasnt had one. Just cause its on x-miles or \'always starts on the button\' - presuming its had a rebuild is folly :D
just wondered incase there was a little hidden thing to check for ...
Took mine to Pips last year for a check-up and was told it was getting tired...(£2000 approx should fix it)
Saved up, removed engine last week, took to Pips...
£3500.00 to rebuild:( :eek: :eek:
i am still crying
is that £3500 to just to take the engine apart and rebuild? Does that include new housings and refitting of the engine?
will there be any parts that he will replace that dont really need replacing such as the water or oil pump etc..
i am shocked myself at that price i must admit..looks like buying that rebuild kit from usa and tackling it myself :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
QuoteOriginally posted by RobbieRX-7
ii am shocked myself at that price i must admit..looks like buying that rebuild kit from usa and tackling it myself :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Why? People buy a £5000 RX7 which was a 40K pound, 5 second and 160mph super car and then moan about the cost of servicing it or having a rebuild done for a few grand. Seriuosly, if you drive a car as quick as an RX7 surely u appreciate that it will need looking after properly...
Compare it to owning a Skyline or Supra or Porsche or TVR - cause thats basically the perofrmance bracket you are talking about. THink about servicing and rebuilding those babies then tell me RX7s are expensive to own ;-) Especially with the initial capital saving too over some of them.
£3K sounds about average for a rebuild with new housings, bearings, seals etc. That would get you about a crankshaft for a GTR wouldnt it? :rollin
:D
I agree. For the huge performance and sheer driving pleasure Rex\'s provide, £3K for a full engine overhaul is good value. The uprated 6speed gearbox in my Vauxhall Calibra cost almost as much! However, from my experience (which is limited to just a year with the rex) once I had finished uprating the Calibra (£8000 worth of modding), it ran as good as gold for 3 years - to this day. Whereas the Rex seems to throw a wobbly in one way or another, once a week. I guess the conclusion is, if you own a proper performance car like an RX7, you have to accept the increase in bills that the extra power will cost. Its all relative...
:)
well..yeah i suppose your right there.If your getting new housings, bearings..THE WORKS then it prob is worth 3k inc the specialised labour involved too. i just thought it might be a little cheaper even though he took the engine out himself..that means if the garage is taking out the engine and putting it back in then the price will be closer to 4k :o
i see what you mean with the other cars..my mate has a 944 turbo and the dealer charged him £180 for an oil change,belt re-tighten and to change a rubber water hose..all in all an hours worK.
its kinda funny because when i go onto the usa forum you hear lots of stories about folks rebuilding there own rotary with sucess (but sometimes failure too) and how much money they have saved and the satisfaction when all is complete, but when you come onto this forum your hear stories of how much people have spent in getting there rx7 engine rebuilt at the pro`s garage..it seems that the americans are more daring than us, but then your gonna hear more stories of rebuilds over there because usa is like 100.000.000times the size of uk
The usa forum has really inspired me into rebuilding my own with the help of pip, which is closest to me. :D
The £3500.00 includes:-
New housings as the others were sh##ted.
Cracking around spark plug holes.
One of the bearings?
Oil seals,
New water pump etc.
Pip did say that the previous owner had not looked after the car very well...
I don\'t mind paying that amount of money (it is still a lot less than having it rebuilt after going "pop"), just that i was expecting to pay about £2000.00 as the engine was only "tired" and i had gone to the trouble of removing it and stripping it myself.
It just goes to show how carefull you\'ve got to be when buying a Rex without a history or rebuild warranty.
Hats off to Pip and WGT anyway, i wouldn\'t take the car anywhere else..
Cheers
Jon
As a measure of cost my old Sti4 had a Scooby illness called piston slap. It cost me £4000 for a rebuild with parts and labour and no car for 3 weeks. :(
So it is not confined to RX\'s
To back up what 20B boy has said above,unless you have warrenty paperwork for the engine and confirmed with the shop thats done the work assume it HAS NOT been rebuilt.
When I bought my car four and a half years ago it had 54000 miles on the original engine with history from Japan to confirm,since then it has racked up another 10000 miles and is still going strong ,it\'s also been mildly tuned and done about 18 trackdays so they do last if well serviced and looked after.
Some of the cheap RX-7\'s now imported into the UK will probally last as long a Polo mint.There\'s lots of dogs out there in the land of the rising sun.
James
Couldn\'t possibly agree more with Rich, as it clearly states outside a dodgy garage in a Mad Max film; "Horse power costs. How fast do you want to spend?". It\'s £240 for a second hand complete zetech engine for a Ford Escort, rebuilding a 13BREW costs 10 times that.... Is a RX7 10 times a better car? I don\'t think that question needs to be answered!:rolleyes:
I will never understand all this moaning about rebuilds, face it you are mainly buying 10 year repeat 10 YEAR old cars that have mostly been used for what they were intended:- going fast, that means excessive wear on all internal working parts of an engine, a rebuild by a pro is in my mind a fairly cheap exercise [compared to most other \'sports\' cars where the 3k+ will maybe pay to have a full service or change the belts, let alone replacing the seals round those things that go up and down!!!]
I\'m sorry for all those that expected to buy a \'cheap super car\' sorry guys they dont exist. Pound for pound I think the rex is way out in front these days.
Rant over
As a newbie (1 year) to the RX thing I couldn\'t agree more. As stated above I payed £4k for a rebuild on my STi4 and that was done for parts and not a lot of labour as I have a very good friend who is in the rally scene as a mechanic.
I didnt bitch at that because you should go into ownership of any car fully aware of the running costs and potential downsides of that particular vehicle, and every vehicle that is designed to be of higher performance does have them. If you want to pay Fiesta running costs, buy a Fiesta. I think that £3.5K for a rebuild is not OTT.