Hi,
I\'ve been looking at getting an RX7 FD, UK Spec (If lucky), around a 1994. I\'ve seen the market flooded with cheap imports, all around the 60k ish miles. From my reading i see that if an FD has around 60k on it, and hasn\'t had a rebuild its gonna need one, and to budget £1500-£3k for a rebuild.
Now i\'m quite happy building \'normal\' engines, and have progressed from std na mini engines, to race mini engines, to Vauxhal XE engine, and now drive a Vauxhall LET engine with circa 300bhp. I\'ve built all the engines up myself, have had things like balancing done by a local well known engineers, and basically built it to a blue printed spec.
Now back on-track to my question, i was gonna buy a knackered FD engine, and have a poke about and try and re-build it, they look pretty simple tbh, and the main problems seem to be the inner/outer water seals, and the rotor tip seals.
Now that was my plan, but i\'ve seen an RX7 pop up on autotrader, for £3k, with a blown engine, i\'ve emailed the guy, and am waiting a response, but i\'m hoping its flooded, and he does\'t know it, and i\'ll get a bargin, if not i could buy one of the members engines, being sold in the for sale section for about £1k, then for £4k, i have a nice RX-7 With a re-built engine as a solid grounding, and a blown engine to take apart and learn.
What are the chances of it being flooded, and the owner not knowing it?.
What are the chances of getting a good re-built engine for £1k?.
If the car is flooded, what are the chances that its gonna need a re-built as the reason its flooded it due to the rotor tips?.
What Rotory specialist do you London\'ish people use?
Good Plan/Bad Plan?
Thats the questions, hope your not asleep due to the reeeaaaallyy long post.
Hi and welcome mate.
Drop me an e-mail for a small chat.... diver7diver@hotmail.com
rgds
Dom
Hi and welcome,
I don\'t know too much about resale values of engines but I sold my freshly rebuilt engine (1000km\'s after rebuild) for £2000 so that might scupper your plan a little bit.
As far as being able to rebuild it yourself, if you have worked on piston engines previously, I think you will find the rotary very straightforward to build. I have very little mechanical experience and was fully prepared to rebuild my own engine with quite a lot of confidence, luckily I didn\'t need to in the end.
Not sure on the location of Herts, but RE:worx is quite close to south/west london, its down in portsmouth. or carl hayward is in Newbury i think.
I have no idea about the odds of it being flooded, I know an inexperienced person would find it quite hard to re-start and could be under the impression it is blown. Usually a blown engine will still turn over, it will just sound like a tractor and/or kick out A LOT of smoke or only run on one rotor, depending on the damage.
I say go for it though! :)
Hope this helps.
HHHmmmm, okay thats kinda interesting, whats the avaliability of parts, like the water seals for the end cover. I can get a full gasket set for Vaux for my let within about 3 days to a week, is it the same deal with Mazda?, can i just walk in and ask for a gasket set.
gasket kits are pretty widely available, any of the garages on the sponsor banner above will be able to supply you with a set, or possibly straight through Mazda as well, but dont quote me on that (some dealers are barely even aware of the existence of the rotary engine!). A vendor could tell you time frame but i dont think it\'s any longer than you are used to.
:)
Hi Nobbie
See the thread below, contact Carl as I think the price may have been reduced. Tel: 01635 846598 - Email: carl@mazdarotary.co.uk
http://www.mazdarotaryclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21930&highlight=yellow
This car belonged to Clive (President of MRC) and myself and was sorry to see it go! maybe worth a look to see if it is what you are looking for.
Regards
Out of my price range at the mo, looks a very nice car though..
The reason i\'m willing to move my rx7 owning forward is this http://atsearch.autotrader.co.uk/WWW/cars_search.asp?modelexact=1&lid=search_used_cars_full&make=MAZDA&model=RX7&variant=&keywords=&min_pr=75&max_pr=4000&mileage=&agerange=&postcode=hp1+2lu&miles=40&max_records=50&source=0&photo=1&sort=4&ukcarsearch_full=SEARCH
Looks ideal for the scenario above, and rather than pay £5-6k for a possible crapper, £3k get you a known bad engine, spend a grand, and get a good one.
hey that looks pretty promising, it already has the PFC and commander (circa £500) and nice suspension, looks a right bargain. :)
if i had a spare 3g...
Bargain if its flooded, almost a bargin if its water seals, not a bargain if t needs a new engine.
Is there anywhere online where there\'s a haynes type manual for it in pdf? I\'ve got one for my LET, through my Vaux forums.
Quote from: NobbieBargain if its flooded, almost a bargin if its water seals, not a bargain if t needs a new engine.
Is there anywhere online where there\'s a haynes type manual for it in pdf? I\'ve got one for my LET, through my Vaux forums.
Look < here > (http://www.mazdarotaryclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24516) :Thumbs-up
Ta, Paul.
Thats excellent, i\'ll do a bit more reading and thinking and try and create a cunning plan!
Thanks
Hi I am looking for an fd too and have been in touch with this guy a few days ago as I had much the same thought as yourself (maybe, just maybe its just flooded). He said that the engine went with a loud pop when slowing down at about 5000 revs and the engine suddenly went lumpy so I don’t think it\'s flooded. He\'s said that he\'s been offered £2800 for it already but will let me know if it falls through. To be honest if your aim is to have a modded Fd it seems to be far better value to get one already done rather than to build it yourself. The cost of parts + mapping etc soon adds up.
Well not really after a modded one, just a std one for now, but maybe in the future i will. Thing is i think of myself as from the old school of thought, if i\'m gonna build a car with a fast engine, i want to be building it, and that way i know at 150mph that someone who\'s gone for a smoke mid-torque up, hasn\'t missed the flywheel bolt or whatever. But to build a race engine, you need to understand the std engine.
I know that if i want to make my engine faster, i up the boost, and fuelling, and slightly change the timing. With the FD, or rotary in general thats not so easy by the looks of things.
Interesting about the one i was looking at though, someone\'s got a bargain i reckon!, but from my limited knowledge i\'d say one or both of the rotor tip seals look damaged?
Hi Nobbie, the auto trader one is already modded about as much as I\'d like. Sounds like you know your stuff already, so if I get one with a blown engine would you like to rebuild it for me? 1 year unlimited warranty? No popping off for a quick smoke though :bandit .
lol, I\'m exploring the possibilities, asking for interest on my car, and if i get what i want for it, i\'ll be getting a blown RX7 for cheapness, and cutting my FD virginity!!
Looks like you can get all seals, gaskets, and stupid little springs for under £1k.
And at the end of the day if i paid £5k for one on autotrader, its likely to need a re-build soon anyway.
On my LET enigne in my current car i have an Air Mass Meter, this meters the air into the engine, and reports it to the ECU, the ECU then works out the fueling on the pre-set map, and fuels accoringly. So if its has a std air filter on it\'ll fuel for the amount of air its getting, if i put an induction kit and cold air feed on it, the ECU gets different values, and runs a different fuelling set-up.
I can\'t seem to see an AMM on the RX7\'s, so what do you guys do when you add an induction kit, and exhaust? Does the Std ECU re-calculate, or do you have to manually up the fuel pressure, or just get a mappable ECU, and then map with every new mod??