Engine blown in my RX7, rebuild or V8?

[Hi RX7]

Such a mine of information that site, I did go through loads of other weight threads and in all honesty it may be that my lack of \'race tech\' knowledge that draws me to the conclusion that there is so little difference, after all we\'re not running F1 technology are we.

[Spartacus]

Such a mine of information that site, I did go through loads of other weight threads and in all honesty it may be that my lack of \'race tech\' knowledge that draws me to the conclusion that there is so little difference, after all we\'re not running F1 technology are we.

Especially when you consider the cars are now up to 15 years old with many of them on the original suspension and bushes.

[Jit]

quite frankly i doubt theres anyone on this thread who can drive an FD to its potential such that any supposed balance or additional weight one way or the other would make any significant difference to their outright pace.
Its personal choice...ive stuck with the rotary because i like the power delivery, i like the fact theyre relatively easy to work on and i like the fact they are different.
Ive spoken to craig (tinker) a few times about V8 swaps and i was pretty damn tempted by the proposition of going V8 - i mean i wouldnt mind a shed load of torque from 2000 rpm all the way to the redline and the soundtrack that goes with it.

[skybusr34]

Jit, , im tempted by the v8 route as well. oh waht to do???!!!! next project decisions continuue!!

[rx7veilside]

well mine was only touched by specialists first engine went pop and second one had crap compression after rebuild..never thrashed allways warmed up and cooled down finally had its 3rd rebuild in 4 yrs by carl
never got a chance to test that one as was too scared to go on boost personally i wish i had known about tinker 27 as i would have saved myself the grief and plopped a v8 in there
a v8 will not go tits up as long as u dont overrev it
instant torque good economy near identical weight dist bit of a no brainer really
as opposed to the paper mache rotary
please tell me whats so good about a car that will need regular rebuilds even in standard form
assume average 15000 mile mileage after 4 years compression will be down and nearing rebuild time..they are crap for fuel/average co 7% on idle
even rebuilt ones still go pop i would say the tuners workload is 70% rebuilds
now they do look good but the engine is poo to any prospective buyers do ur self a favour by a bucket and get the v8 in asap then do it up

[m4drx]

v8.............

[Nik da Greek]

I find myself a bit undecided on this issue. I love big ol v8s and always have, well, always since that beautiful matt black Ford Falcon with the ludicrous supercharger and drag pipes in the first two Mad Max films made an impression at a young age. I\'ve got mates with Challengers, Mustangs, Lincolns, all sorts of Yank bruisers, even managed to blag a lift to take my wheels to the refurbishers in a mates Monte Carlo (yes, just like the one in Fat and the Furious Tokyo Drift, only not in primer) lol and it fitted three seventeen inch alloys in the damn trunk, for god\'s sake! So, it\'s fair to say I\'m an uninformed afficionado, enthusiastic amateur, if you like.

Oooops, I almost started a sentence with "but" then :Nono!......BUT, I don\'t think the right place for a big v8 is in an RX-7. Yeah, it may fit, and yeah, it may not disprupt the balance of the car, and yeah, it may well give you easy power and enough torque to plough fields, but I don\'t think that\'s the point really. Not for me, anyway. The rotary engine is an icon, it\'s unique in the motoring world (well since two-strokes were outlawed under the onslaught of the tree-hugging nazis). It is, if you like, the Unique Selling Point of the RX-7, cos let\'s face it, lots of cars look nice, lots of them handle well, and lots of them are well balanced. Some of them are even affordable, all of which things also describe the RX. None of them have a rotary engine that Mazda\'s engineers must\'ve been close to crying tears of blood over at many points in it\'s developement. To me, the mere fact that they can even have a stab at getting them through the current emissions circus is a testament to the unbelievable level of commitment shown to the humble little engine by its developers, and that alone makes it worthy of respect.

I just think that to strip an RX of all this makes it lose it\'s soul and heart. It is no longer an RX-7, a unique sports car in a world of shades of grey, it becomes simply another pretty looking car with a big engine. If you want a pretty v8, well, buy a Corvette, they come with a free v8 as standard. Even better, buy a Viper, they nearly go up to eleven!:Giggle

As for reliabilty, well, many highly tuned engines are unreliable. It\'s undeniable that many people on this site have had some pretty sh!tty luck with rotaries going pop, I wouldn\'t presume to deny this. I can only speak from personal experience, and I simply cannot kill mine (famous last words!). Believe me, no-one is more unlucky than me with vehicles, I\'ve killed more bikes in the line of duty than I can remember, I have the mechanical sensitivity of a baboon on pcp (and the good looks to match, lol), and drive as if every day was my last one on god\'s clean earth, but mine just keeps on going. Everything else on the car\'s fallen off, broken, burnt, snapped, rusted through, chafed apart or simply gone bang, but the engines still good. Unreliable? pah! dunno what all the fuss is about!

So, the short version is (too late for that); buy a v8 if you want one for its own sake, but dont do it at the expense of an RX-7, and don\'t neccessarily do it through fears of unreliablity. If the rotaries\' rebuilt properly, there\'s no reason why it shouldn\'t last properly. That\'s my 2p\'s worth, please give me a kick now :Thumbs-up

[Jit]

well mine was only touched by specialists first engine went pop and second one had crap compression after rebuild..never thrashed allways warmed up and cooled down finally had its 3rd rebuild in 4 yrs by carl
never got a chance to test that one as was too scared to go on boost personally i wish i had known about tinker 27 as i would have saved myself the grief and plopped a v8 in there
a v8 will not go tits up as long as u dont overrev it
instant torque good economy near identical weight dist bit of a no brainer really
as opposed to the paper mache rotary
please tell me whats so good about a car that will need regular rebuilds even in standard form
assume average 15000 mile mileage after 4 years compression will be down and nearing rebuild time..they are crap for fuel/average co 7% on idle
even rebuilt ones still go pop i would say the tuners workload is 70% rebuilds
now they do look good but the engine is poo to any prospective buyers do ur self a favour by a bucket and get the v8 in asap then do it up

i spose the only flaw in your plan is that not many prospective buyers have a spare 10k lying around for a v8 conversion on top of the price of their rx7. And very few RX7 owners look to hang onto their cars for any period of time....im a pretty big rotorhead and even i cant hold onto any FD for longer than 2 months at a time.....:WaveBye

[Nik da Greek]

i spose the only flaw in your plan is that not many prospective buyers have a spare 10k lying around for a v8 conversion on top of the price of their rx7. And very few RX7 owners look to hang onto their cars for any period of time....im a pretty big rotorhead and even i cant hold onto any FD for longer than 2 months at a time.....:WaveBye

That\'s because you\'re a child of the MTV generation and your attention span has been strangled from birth!

[Jit]

I\'ve got mates...

Lies..all lies old man.

it\'s fair to say I\'m an uninformed afficionado, enthusiastic amateur, if you like.  

Nik is correct.

please give me a kick now :Thumbs-up

Gladly...when you down in Small Dole next?

[Nik da Greek]

Okay, when I say mates, I mean people that tolerate me talking to them! Doesn\'t mean I\'m wrong, though :p!

[Jit]

wotcher

[Nik da Greek]

Yeah, wotcher back atcha. Got me good there, hats off to yer! :Thumbs-up

[Jit]

Yeah, wotcher back atcha. Got me good there, hats off to yer! :Thumbs-up

Thats ok old man, the old brain cells are giving up. I understand...its perfectly natural once youve passed 50 :Typing
MTV generation coming thru.:Thumbs-up

[gsb876]

I think at the end of the day its all about personal choice really, if the rotary is running sweet its great but we all know it can be agonising when running badly, the V8 conversion will cost a bit but then again it could be trouble free running for a long time :Tongue1