Question:

[Don Pamponi]

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 ?

[MikeLMR]

Doh unlucky

touch wood, other than a few minor bits mines been fine for the 3 years and 8K miles I\'ve used it.

[g11ary]

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.

[mattmaclennan]

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

[Carl]

Originally 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

[Don Pamponi]

Kinda gives me an excuse to fit some low comp rotors, water injection, bigger carb, fatter exhaust & some porting.

[bill shurvinton]

EFI...You know it makes sense...

[Don Pamponi]

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.

[bill shurvinton]

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.

[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.  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

[antnicuk]

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

[bill shurvinton]

Originally 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.

[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!

[travellinbob]

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.

[bill shurvinton]

Originally 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.