Has anyone ever owned an RX7 that even gets close to being reliable?
I think I am fighting a loosing battle here & just throwing money & time down a car shaped hole.
I\'ve owned this 1 for 6 months spent 5K (off the top of my head)and driven it 3 times.
Just spent 2 days off work taking the car to RX motors to get what I thought was a final fettling to complete the looooonnngggg build.
And it was great once they\'d set up the carb, steering & suspension.
I was just saying to my girlfreind how the RX was SO much better to drive and probably worth all the time & money & frustration when..........
(at this point pint I must make it clear that I in no way blame or implicate Tim at RX motors, cos they didn\'t do any engine work. I was really pleased with what they did do & how much it cost. Pure co-incidence, it was the 1st time the car had been further than round the block. Dont trust the re-build it supposedly got before I got it, as is now proven.)
.......what started as a pinking type noise turned into a \'just changed down 2 gears at 120mph\' type grinding accompanied by a massive loss of power. Sounds like at least 1 tip has gone south.
We limped off the M3 and took 5 hours to get home on the back of a flatbed.
How unlucky am I ?
Doh unlucky :(
touch wood, other than a few minor bits mines been fine for the 3 years and 8K miles I\'ve used it.
gutted for you,
used to drive the old mans 1st gen, twr edition, he did 70k before selling and never gave a days problem.
Dont give up, now you can get a proper rebuild.
When its finished you will just remember the good things about driving it.
Un-bloody-believable! Me and Tim were stood around discussing the in\'s and out\'s of your car for about 20 minutes after you left... We haven\'t done that since Brian turned up in a R-Magic car with anti-lag! You own a very special car! I expect to see this up and running with every little bit done by RotorStock\'05. Chop Chop! Cheers for the beers:cheers
QuoteOriginally posted by Don Pamponi
.......what started as a pinking type noise turned into a \'just changed down 2 gears at 120mph\' type grinding accompanied by a massive loss of power. Sounds like at least 1 tip has gone south.
We limped off the M3 and took 5 hours to get home on the back of a flatbed.
How unlucky am I ?
Hi Don,
Really gutted for you mate.
The pinking noise would have most likely been the tip going.
Stick with it and you will find that it will be worth it.
When you have the rebuild done then you should have a fantastic little motor!
Kind regards
Carl
Kinda gives me an excuse to fit some low comp rotors, water injection, bigger carb, fatter exhaust & some porting.:D
EFI...You know it makes sense...
Dunno, power per £. It doesn\'t give you much more bhp for the grand it\'ll cost to source & fit.
Rather get a big turbo & water injection.
A grand... More like £250 if you do it right.
Happy to help you out on this, as it would be good prep work for the 12A turbo in my future somewhere.
Don,
what boost were you running?, the little 1"3/4 su cant cope with much on the elford. If you are running more than 10 psi you will have to be careful, although its draw through you dont have the benefit of an intercooler. If it ran lean even a new engine would struggle to hold together! I hope you get it sorted!
Just an Idea, a rebuild may cost you in the region of 1200 quid and up, may be a little less, if you can change the engine yourself (its quite easy on a 1st gen) you can probably pick up a 2nd hand engine for pennys as people give them away, and 12a engine last twice as long as 13b rew\'s (3rd gen) so it might be worth picking up a low mileage 2nd hand engine and spending the money on water injection. I have a 12a elford engine with low comp rotors built by tim 9 years ago, its going in my Kit car, but even when it was in my elford i couldnt run more than about 11 or 12 psi on the draw through and that was with a wapping great webber on it and uprated fuel pump!
Good luck in sorting out.
Regards
Tony
Just read an old post saying your running 6.5 psi which is quite low, if it detonated, you might want to check your fueling system and your retard system as a simple pipe off would mean that it wont retard the ignition under boost. Just before you rebuild it and blow it again.
Good luck
regards
Tony
QuoteOriginally posted by antnicuk
Don,
what boost were you running?, the little 1"3/4 su cant cope with much on the elford. If you are running more than 10 psi you will have to be careful, although its draw through you dont have the benefit of an intercooler.
point of order. A draw through intercools as it goes. similar principle to pre-turbo water injection. Its not as bad as many claim.
I understand that the fuel cools the air a little but the air also warms the fuel a little, i would rather have a nice big fmic or charge cooler than rely on draw through having worked lots with both!
That is crap luck mate. You have a VERY nive rx7 there so dont give up the ghost just yet. It has quite a unique set up and i have only ever seen one before like it on an rx3 in oz. I think he was running 2 draw through su\'s.
it will be worth it in the end.:D
QuoteOriginally posted by antnicuk
I understand that the fuel cools the air a little but the air also warms the fuel a little, i would rather have a nice big fmic or charge cooler than rely on draw through having worked lots with both!
Not quite sure if you meant what you wrote there. Wherever you inject the fuel it will be \'warmed\' by the air. That\'s how it ends up being vapourised before combustion commences. unless you have direct injection, where this occurs is an engineering decision based on the type of engine you are building.
For the driving I do/would do I haven\'t seen a good technical arguament for an FMIC for one of my vehicles. They add weight, cut airflow to the rad, warm the air as often as they cool it, cause pressure drops and generally clutter up the engine bay.
But that is the joy of choice. you look at the options and chose what is best for yourself.
Funny thing: I was missing the solenoids & vacume venting kit that retards the dizzy under boost
Could have added to the problem.
It was only running 6.5psi when it blewbut it had been up & down the road a few times on 15psi.....oops:eek:
Like the idea of EFI Bill, but how does that work with the Elford kit? Junk the whole lot? I kind of feel it owes me some thing. Could sell it I spose, it is mint.
I only hope the BRAND NEW turbo didn\'t eat the rotor tips on the way out.
There are a number options.
You could gut the SU and put 4 injectors in the inlet runners. You could also put a TB downstream IIRC (I sold my elford kit some time ago, but I could probably get access to one to have a look.
A good port of the runners will yield useful extra HP and the EFI, if nothing else will give a drivability improvement and better economy.
The fact that you can also use it to drive the WI is of course just a secondary benefit :-)
QuoteWherever you inject the fuel it will be \'warmed\' by the air. That\'s how it ends up being vapourised before combustion commences.
I am sure that when you have a liquid and force it through a small space and create vapour. this in it\'s self produces heat. or maybe i could be wrong
compressing petrol heats it, yes. But as the atomised droplets vapourise the latent heat of vapourisation is quite high so it cools things.
silly question but how does heat cool things
QuoteOriginally posted by bill shurvinton
The fact that you can also use it to drive the WI is of course just a secondary benefit :-) [/B]
But I don\'t belong to the Women\'s Institute....:confused:
when a substance changes states eg. liquid to vapour it requires energy to change states, this process uses energy so it can absorb some energy without changing the temperature (in an idealised situation) this is known as latent heat.
e.g water at 100 degree\'s requires energy to convert to steam but the steam will still be at 100 degree\'s
QuoteOriginally posted by Don Pamponi
But I don\'t belong to the Women\'s Institute....:confused:
WI = Water Injection
Silly old me:rolleyes:
The Elford kit uses a pressure switch to read positive boost and then stop the vacume advance from advancing. That may have been your problem. You may have been lucky when it ran 15 psi.
The set up will work well when sorted. My Elford was as quick as a 2nd Gen Turbo II. The elford was running 10psi on a stock engine.
It may be worth sticking a second hand engine in, fixing the retard and see if you like it. Alternatively, Tim will stick a nice 13b engine in it for you. Even with an EGi engine it will have about 170 bhp and lots of torque, and is a very easy conversion. The turbo is a little more difficult as you may have to convert the steering.
When putting a 13bturbo into an old skool mazda or a 1st gen 7 would it not be easier to make a custom exhaust manifold? Does anyone sell them here in the uk?
I think you should stick with the 12a. Go the underdogs!
I\'ll be honest , I dont know where to go next engine wise.
Depends on the £ & whats available at the time I guess.
If I go 13B then its got to be the turbo jobbie or why bother?
I can get 170bhp out the elford after a rebuild & thats got to be cheapest.
Hi Don, the elford kit is a very funky bit of machinery but dont let it limit you thinking to thats how it has to be. Bill has some interesting comments about injection and if you were to mix that with a rebuild, a tad of porting, some dowling for safety etc, then it would be a natural evolutionary step from the original kit. Plus you could sell the kit on e-bay and make some cash back.
Actually you could try to advertise it in oz, plenty of old skool weirdos might really go for someting like it.
cheers.
Right then! 12A turbo it is me thinks.
Gonna sell the Elford Kit on ebay, its also in our for sale section.
Not gonna get the 1200 odd quid it cost to set up back, but it may help ease the pain of a 2K rebuild a touch.
Have you got someone lined up for the rebuild. Please let it be close to me so I can come over and take a look.
Tim at RX motors in Dorset.
A bastid journey for me towing a trailer, but I liked what I saw when I went down there. He seems to be the 1st gen guru - drives one himself!
Rotechnics are much nearer, but they\'d want something like 50 grand.
Low comp & water injection mappable computer + a FAT pipe I reckon.
Where abouts is Hartley Bill?
about 10/12 miles South of Reading. Rotechniks is probably Bill\'s nearest established Specialist. However, I have had work done on the FC and the Gen 1 by Tim and RX motors isn\'t too bad to get to from here.
I have used rotechnics once...not again.
I am lucky enough to work 2 miles from Carl\'s workshop, so if I ever get the car running again I\'ll use him for anything I can\'t do myself.
I however remove engines etc by myself and do my own EFI as I don\'t trust anyone in the UK to be able to tune the motor the way I want it.
However I accept that I am fussier than 99.7% of the people out there.
Bill
QuoteOriginally posted by bill shurvinton
I am lucky enough to work 2 miles from Carl\'s workshop
Its more than just a rumour then? :)
You in the trade then Bill?
trade? Lord no, I\'m a telecomms consultant (CEng MIEE). My current customer is based in Newbury.
I import innovate widebands, but that\'s as part of my hobby of emancipating the petrolheads of this world. If for £240 you can avoid most of those nasty trips to tuners every time you mod something on your car that\'s a great freedom. I charge close to cost on them. OMEX want over £400 for the same box.
All I need is to crack PPP sensing and then tuners will become completely redundant as the car will tune itself :-)
I\'ve never bought anything off Carl and he bought a megasquirt off me for one of his projects and has a demo wideband. All the other reputable rotary tuners in this country also have one of my units.
I have no idea what these \'rumours\' are.
I\'m afraid I have no idea what an inovative wideband thingee is.
Fuel/ignition computer?
Do I need one?