Hi all,
Just bought myself an RX-7 and have to say it\'s by far the coolest car I\'ve ever owned. Started a website for my little baby at http://www.n104.com (only the pics link works - more pics and links coming soon!). Just had a quick question though, the heat from the exhaust is MASSIVE. It\'s an after-market exhaust, not sure of the make but oh boy... you can\'t stick your hand anywhere near it\'s output. Does anyone else get this with their modded ReX\'s ?? - I used to have a 6" pipe on my Mitsi GTO and that wasn\'t even warm... not sure if its the car just being hot or the pipe (or something else) being dodgy...
thanx
Steve.
rotarys are notoriously hot, i tried cleaning my exhaust once 30 mins after driving it and seriously burnt my finger, (i found out how how the hard way!! )
lovely car, nice wheels!! :)
Hi Steve and welcome,
Real nice car and website, how about bringing it up to Billing in 4 weeks time and put your new baby on the Mazdarotaryclub stand
(see Events for details)
What mods has it got
All the best Clive
clive@mazdarotaryclub.com
//www.mazdarotaryclub.com
Not a huge amount of mods yet.. I bought it because it was a really clean model. Obviously the wheels are new hehe, exhaust, induction kit, dump valve (very loud!).. not sure if there\'s much else.. got it Saturday.. not had a chance to give it a full inspection. Getting a load of gauges fitted Thursday, got a Greddy turbo timer fitted today.. I\'ll stick some engine pics up on my site tomorrow.... Billing sounds cool yeah!
Congradtulations Steve
Kinda laughed when you talked about how hot the exhaust gets. :D I went to emissions inspection last year. While they asked me to rev my car to 2500 and hold it. About minute later ....I noticed smoke, (looking through my rear veiw mirror) I Shut the motor off because everyone was moving to the back off my car....Turns out I burned a huge hole through the ventilation hose connected to the sniffer. :eek:
Your going to love it! Look forward to see more photo\'s
Oliver
:rollin nice 1
oh man, that\'s funny Oliver!
I guess I\'d better not park up next to flammable things... hope i don\'t get another car too close either.. probably torch it. :D
QuoteOriginally posted by sbelton
oh man, that\'s funny Oliver!
I guess I\'d better not park up next to flammable things... hope i don\'t get another car too close either.. probably torch it. :D
the advice i got when i bought mine was "dont ever park it on the grass because it sets on fire"
:cool
hahaha - excellent.
Well you can see the petrol vapour pouring out of the exhaust on mine... i think it might be running a bit rich! - getting it looked at on Thursday to make sure. Managed to get over 15 explosions in the exhuast on the way to work today (then got bored counting) - and I only took it over 3000 revs twice... funny car.
QuoteOriginally posted by ryb2001
the advice i got when i bought mine was "dont ever park it on the grass because it sets on fire"
:cool
That is Very Good Advice!!
Most car events here in Denmark you have to park in the grass because the main parking is full. I always check to be sure the dry grass is not touching any part of the exhuast system. It would be a very sad day to hear over the loud speaker..." Attention: There\'s a Mazda RX7 in section B3 on fire" :(
QuoteOriginally posted by sbelton
hahaha - excellent.
Well you can see the petrol vapour pouring out of the exhaust on mine... i think it might be running a bit rich! - getting it looked at on Thursday to make sure. Managed to get over 15 explosions in the exhuast on the way to work today (then got bored counting) - and I only took it over 3000 revs twice... funny car.
Are you shure its gasoline ?
That should be only water......
QuoteOriginally posted by sbelton
oh man, that\'s funny Oliver!
I guess I\'d better not park up next to flammable things... hope i don\'t get another car too close either.. probably torch it. :D
It\'s funny now :D but at the time, I was not smiling. I had dump some denatured alcohol in the tank. When the smoke started all I was thinking was "....F@ck, I can\'t believe I added alcohol" :rollin
Without a doubt, I know they will remember me next year :D
Iwan,
Yeah... it\'s fuel mate. It has that distinct.. "burn your insides out" smell ;-)
also.. i no longer have any hairs left on the back of my hand after my exhaust fried them. hehe
Bloody exhaust! hehe - Just drove 16miles in the car, got out.. left it running for 3 mins, came back out to find smoke pouring out from under the car - What the hell is that!?!?! - Turned the engine off and it stopped. I can only think it\'s either a small fire in the exhaust or it\'s a new centre section and it was the paint burning off.. ideas anyone ?? (taking it back tomorrow anyway)
:mad:
Hi Steve,
Bit worried about your problems , who did you get the car from ?
l just looked at your web site ( l should have looked in there further the other night )
Well impressed and real pleased with what l found in there thanks for that , ( below is from Steves site)
The best RX-7 club !
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My first introduction to RX-7\'s was on this site. Probably the best owners club to join too
//www.mazdarotaryclub.com
Steve please keep us informed with your car problem in case we can help in any way.
p.s. you can become a full member if you wish by downloading the application form at the entrance to the site below the forum bar.
All the best Clive
clive@mazdarotaryclub.com
//www.mazdarotaryclub.com
Clive, got it from Vehicle Buyers Japan... it could be anything though I guess - might not be something they knew about, they\'re a great bunch of people there. (it was also RAC inspected) I\'ll see what they can discover on the ramp tomorrow.
Also.. i sent my membership form off a while ago.. weird you\'ve not got it.
As your in Reading, might be worth popping it over to RoTechniks and getting them to have a quick look.
Dan
Hi Steve,
Just checked got it, received it Saturday Lisa has had six membership packs to do this week yours will go in the post tomorrow ,
Thanks for joining.
All the best Clive
clive@mazdarotaryclub.com
//www.mazdarotaryclub.com
Cheers Dan. That\'s on my way to work !! hehe
I\'ll give them a call tomorrow.
Clive, excellent! Cheers...
Turns out to be a massive oil leak between the gear box and the engine... back of the engine anyway. They\'re fixing it now as we speak. RoTechniks were pretty helpful, thanks Dan. Getting them to fit a bunch of guages whilst they\'ve got the car too hehe - make me feel better ;-)
Thats what I like to hear, another happy rotorhead.
Dan
QuoteOriginally posted by sbelton
Turns out to be a massive oil leak between the gear box and the engine... back of the engine anyway. They\'re fixing it now as we speak. RoTechniks were pretty helpful, thanks Dan. Getting them to fit a bunch of guages whilst they\'ve got the car too hehe - make me feel better ;-)
The rear main seal is known for leaking on original engines.
Congrats on the buy. If you would like to help on the problem with heat. BTW It\'s not rotary engines that are notoriously hot it\'s the 13B-REW TT that gets notoriously hot. Rotaries are extremely sensative to heat due to their "sandwhich" assembly. The coolant seals between the rotor housings and plates are very thin. They rest in a small groove to protect them from the combustion elements. If the engine parts get over heated and shift the small coolant "o"ring can become exposed. Once that happens the seal fails and the engine will have to be rebuilt. If you over heat your car even ONCE you willmost likely cook it. I highly recomend installing temp guages to keep a close eye on the operating temps. So strapping a set of glowing hot turbo chargers and two congested catalitic converters to the side of the engine was not the brighteset idea Mazda ever had. Hence the 3rd gen warantee claims in the US back in the mid 90\'s.
Anywho...
Remove the Stock Pre-cat and install a down pipe. That is a pretty common modification to help move heat away from the engine. Also make sure that the cooling system is workling properly to help keep down the temps in the engine bay. There are a ton of other things/ mods that can be done to help butthe down pipe is a good place to start.
I learned all this the hard way. I documented most of it if you are interested in viewing it....
http://www.fd3boost.com/my_project_page2.htm (http://www.fd3boost.com/my_project_page2.htm)
-Dave
//www.nopistons.com
:bandit
Hi Dave,
I like your Post! Its all truth! The only thing, you can overheat the engine more then once, befor the seal will fail. Off couse, one time may be enogh.
I\'ve seen the pics on your side. You was doing the vakuumhose job. Are you still using silicon hose? Whats your experience?
I\'ve done the vakuumhose job on my FD to. But I\'ve used Viton ( $$$) instead of silicon hoses.
Regards
Iwan
i know that it dangerous to overheat a rotary and now i know what can happen and will if it happens thanks to the great posts here , but what causes it to overheat? Is it sitting in traffic for along time or idiling for a long time because i would have thought that the fan would come on to cool the engine. Or is it driving v.hard for a long time? Cheers
QuoteOriginally posted by Iwan
Hi Dave,
I like your Post! Its all truth! The only thing, you can overheat the engine more then once, befor the seal will fail. Off couse, one time may be enogh.
I\'ve seen the pics on your side. You was doing the vakuumhose job. Are you still using silicon hose? Whats your experience?
I\'ve done the vakuumhose job on my FD to. But I\'ve used Viton ( $$$) instead of silicon hoses.
Regards
Iwan
Your correct you might get away with over heating it once or twice possibly. I wouldn\'t rely on that theory though. It\'s risky business. The chances of you over heating your engine twice without causing a coolant seal failure is minimal at best. Feel free to prove me wrong :D
QuoteOriginally posted by richrx
i know that it dangerous to overheat a rotary and now i know what can happen and will if it happens thanks to the great posts here , but what causes it to overheat? Is it sitting in traffic for along time or idiling for a long time because i would have thought that the fan would come on to cool the engine. Or is it driving v.hard for a long time? Cheers
Sitting in traffic can be dangerous, make sure that you run the A/C if you do. It will kick the radiator fans on to help cool things off some. Hard driving for extended periods of time can be risky. Something like WOT for 30 min at a time would be bad :)
But you get the jist I\'m sure. I suggest that after any spirted driving (heavy boosting) that you drive the car at least 50mph with no boost just to give the engine a chance to cool off. If the car is parked dont let it run for to long if you can avoid it. Air will not be rushing over the radiator if the car is parked so you see the danger in that.
Other than that just use common sense. In hot weather (which I supose you guys dont see much of in England) say anything above 90 degrees F. take it easy on the car. You can improve the cooling efficency by removing the black weather stripping along the top edge of the firewall to allow hot air to escape the engine bay. Plug any open spaces around the radiator with foam inserts, etc..
Good luck fellas.
-Dave
I doubt we have more than 1 -2 days a year that exceed or even get close to 90 degrees Farenheit :D
QuoteOriginally posted by Fd3BOOST
(which I supose you guys dont see much of in England)
-Dave [/B]
what about Scotland, can rotary\'s drown in too much rain:bandit
QuoteOriginally posted by richrx
what about Scotland, can rotary\'s drown in too much rain:bandit
Sorry, I dont drive mine in the rain. It isnt safe. The ass gets a bit squirly if you know what I mean.
LOL
The average summer temerature in Washington DC is 90 degrees F. With apx. 85% humidity. It gets very hot and muggy here in the colonies. :)
QuoteOriginally posted by Fd3BOOST
Sorry, I dont drive mine in the rain. It isnt safe. The ass gets a bit squirly if you know what I mean.
why do ya think i want an FD:cool
Nice FD and color,I cant wait till I get mine!:cool
FD3Boost, what you talk about in one of your earlier posts here is pretty much EXACTLY the problem I think. They\'ve now had my car for 2 weeks and they say that the gearbox is out so that they can replace 2 O rings. Can I assume therefore that the engine has probably overheated sometime in it\'s life?? - They are replacing the O rings and the main oil seal and then sticking the gearbox back in. I get it back this weekend. Maybe I should question all of this before I accept the car back - might get my money back to be honest since I\'ve only driven it for 4 days!! grrrrrr
Oh, just re-read that post properly. This isn\'t my problem.. mine is the oil seal O rings.. hehe - but nice to be warned about the coolant ones though!