Ive owned my rex for about 4 months now but when buying i didnt quite realise how difercult thay could be.
Now ive had the car rebuilt by Roetecnics witch cost me alot of money witch is now plenty run in and had its 1st service and i intend to service it regulary.
I allso check the water and oil levels every other day and have a apexi pfc in my cuboard waiting to be fitted and mapped inplace of a Knightsports ecu, witch i am told are not exsactly good for the engine.
I allways drive off boost when first driveing the car and again off boost for the cooldown.
Now after alot of reading on this site and the amount of things that can go wrong with the Rex. I just want to no if there is anything else i could or could be doing to prolong the life of my pride and joy witch is my daily car and my only car.
Cheers
hey mate
there is one big way that you can do this and after owning two rx7s now i think its the best way if you can afford it.
I and many others have got daily drivers to use so I would look into the possibilities of that. keeps the wallet happy on fuel bills and takes the pressure of running a rex as a daily driver.
louis
Yeah put the car in the garage and don\'t drive it!!:D
Seriously though your all you can really,keep an eye on the oil level,but never over fill.
Always use high octane fuel,shell v power/optimax,the higher ron the better,but don\'t add fuel additives.
Let her warm up and cool down,never turn off immediately always let the engine idle for a while,especially after a long run..
Sure others will add more advice.
Ive thought about a daily runner but havent found anything in my price range at the moment but on the plus side i only work about 7 miles from my house
Quote from: rx7ben;541282Ive thought about a daily runner but havent found anything in my price range at the moment but on the plus side i only work about 7 miles from my house
Oh thats another thing about them,they don\'t like short runs.The engine is best when its at normal running temp,stopped,then left to cool. Fair chance of flooding the engine on stop,start,short journeys.
I\'ve run a rex (FC) as a daily driver for about 5 years. It\'s not running at stock power levels either, but if you want to insure many trouble free miles, follow the advice above, and also:
- Check fluid levels (water / brake fluid / clutch fluid) as well as oil every week or so.
- Change plugs at least once a year
- Drain oil every 3000 miles, and change filter.
- Investigate anything unusual with the feel of the car - catching things early can help prevent wallet trauma
- Keep an eye on battery condition, radiator, belts, warning lights
- Get the car properly mapped.
- Get gauges for oil temp / water temp / AFR / boost - if you don\'t have them already - dont rely on the stock gauges.
- Listen out for odd noises.
But mostly - enjoy it! Not running a car for long periods is also likely to bring on some failures.
Quote from: pete sparrow;541284Oh thats another thing about them,they don\'t like short runs.The engine is best when its at normal running temp,stopped,then left to cool. Fair chance of flooding the engine on stop,start,short journeys.
But if the cars up to temp befor i finish my drive is this not ok. im unshaw of how the car floods
Quote from: rx7ben;541292But if the cars up to temp befor i finish my drive is this not ok. im unshaw of how the car floods
As long as the car is up to temp then thats ok.Its just on really short journies before the engine has got fully warm and then turned off,that undue wear can happen to the engine.
As for the flooding,that can happen when the car is up to temp and you keeping stopping and starting the engine between short distances.The plugs can get oiled up,can\'t spark and with the constant turning over the engine floods.
I use mine as a daily drive too, I keep a close eye on temps, oil, plugs and fuel! Drive it sensibly until it warms up, then enjoy it, reving it high helps stop carbon build up, and ensure it cools correctly (dont get a turbo timer) and thats about it. Take care of it and you should be fine.
Mines only flooded once, plugs were shot and i\'d started it to get into the garage and foolishly shut the car off straight away, swapped the plugs after leaving the old one out over night and she started 1st time.
But as the Prof has said, keep an ear out for odd noises and get anything wierd sorted out straight away.
HTH
Cheers guys
looks like im doing everything i can the right way witch is good to no.
:spank
I\'d say that getting that Apexi fitted and mapped would be the single best thing you could do for the reliability and longevity of your engine.
That and a little precautionary premix.
I really cant wait to get it fitted its just sitting in my cuboard at the mo brand new in the box :Grrr
Will this give me much more power over the Knightsports ECU im running at the moment
Power wise all depends how the knightsport has been configured , you might get a bit more power .. you might get less if the tuner doesnt like the tolerences and the car is runing lean or to rich .
you do the same things i do and mine runs fine .
ive got one fitted to mine with a standard map, i had it mapped properly at the weekend and it feels alot better, only advice i can give mate is to do the normal weekly checks, oil, water all the fluids etc, i allways let the car get up to temp before driving it, the apexi controller normally reads 70 before i start driving it, oh yeah dont boost it till you get it properly mapped, i had mine on the rollers and found out it was running quite abit lean on boost and rich off, plus the boot pressure was too high, not sure about the power increase though mate but ill let you know when its gone back on the rollers and i get a new power figure
the only thing about letting to warm up before you drive off the rest of the car is cold eg gearbox oil, diff oil, brakes.
Bets way is startup drive off straight away without boosting it or going past 4k revs until its warmed up.
Defo recommend getting the Apexi and a good map on the dyno with good safe AFRs
Quote from: BlitzBoy;541332the only thing about letting to warm up before you drive off the rest of the car is cold eg gearbox oil, diff oil, brakes.
Bets way is startup drive off straight away without boosting it or going past 4k revs until its warmed up.
Defo recommend getting the Apexi and a good map on the dyno with good safe AFRs
I defentley dont sit there letting it warm up its far to noisy to do that :yes
I allways drive straight off
I\'d say if it\'s your daily drive worry more about reliability than power. Get it mapped for safety and i should last longer, if you go for power then you stand a higher chance of it going pop. I\'m getting my PFC fitted and mapped soon and safety will be top of my list, even if i loose some power i\'ll be happy knowing it will be running happy.
Another daily driver here. I always drive off straight away and stay off-boost until I leave town, which usually is far enough for it to be warmed up enough for some fun. Fortunately my commute is at least 15 miles, depending how "scenic" I want the run in to be so it gets a good-ish run every time I drive. If I do loads of two or three miles short hops, she starts to sulk a bit and get a bit rough running, smoke on start-up, all that. Never flooded, though. I think you can be as careful as you want and they\'ll still go wrong horribly, or drive it like a TWOCer every time you go anywhere and have no problems at all. Sometimes, it seems, with RX-7 ownership, sh!t just happens! But it certainly doesn\'t hurt to shorten the odds by treating her as well as you can :Thumbs-up. I didn\'t have any major probs with either of mine for three years, then it all happened at once. But I\'ve always been lucky :Giggle
I agree with the others, btw, fitting an Apexi was the best mod I\'ve ever had, transforms the car in every way
Hi there,
I\'m a new RX-7 owner and learning the ropes regarding regular maintenance.
I don\'t have an owner\'s manual so have been looking at the \'93 manual that\'s on the net.
Regarding brake / clutch fluid, oil, that all makes sense and I\'m going to check it out on the car next chance I get.
Regarding the water level mentioned in this post, was the user referring to engine coolant?
Any recommendations on where to obtain a good owner\'s manual for a 1995 RX-7 or should the 93 book cover most things I\'d need to know?
Thanks
Robin
As far as power from a good mapping session with just a decat and a down pipe i gained over 70hp from pip(wgt) on a stock motor with just the add-ons.
Needless to say im over the moon
Just make sure that the fuel pump is uprated :)
Quote from: m1tch;543993Just make sure that the fuel pump is uprated :)
My fuel pump is standard still and pip could have got more out @ 0.9 bar but for piece of mind settled for 0.8 bar safely and still a 70hp increase.
Fair enough though with a 255 fuel pump and regulator 90+hp extra @0.9bar could have been easily achievable
My fuel pump in my FC is 17 years old...if it fails and lets my engine run lean its going to cost me a rebuild lol meaning that fuel pumps in FD are probably over a decade old at the mo.
Just a couple of things that were mentioned on here above;
1) Letting it sit at idle to warm up before driving.
I\'ve always heard that its better for the engine to get going straight away, just not to load it (e.g. no more than half throttle)? Not sure exactly why, blitzboy mentioned the other components, gearbox etc, but I heard specifically the engine. I also read in EVO that free-revving the engine through the whole rev range (using as little load as possible) was a very good way of safely warming the engine, and is used by many race teams (just not very sociable with 92db+ cars).
2) Letting it idle after driving to \'cool down\'.
What I have heard about this is its a bad idea, and technically that does make sense to me, as rotarys generate a lot of heat at idle and with no moving air flowing in to the engine bay to the Intercooler, Radiator, P/S Cooler, A/c cooler, etc ,etc all the engine has to rely on to cool it is a (comparatively) little fan. for the same reason a Turbo Timer is a gimmicy piece of cr@p.
i think leting it idel is ore like when you come of a track or have been kicking the crap out of it,
if temps are very high then siting ideling with fan on should cool it down to normal temps,
and its more about oil in the turbo temps as it can buger the turbo if you have super hot oil siting idle in the turbo,
prety shure thats what turbo timers are for too,
the best thing is on the road drive the last mile or two off bost with little throtle to get temps down,
with a pfc you can see which way works best to get temps lowest before shuting off