gonna need a car soon, was thinking about a 86-91 RX7. I read the "how rotory's work" sticky....

Here are my questions:
Which 86-91 is the best to get my hands on? Turbo II?

How reliable is the rotary for daily driving (ie...bumper to bumper traffic) with mild mods

How expensive is it to rebuild a Rotary is something goes wrong?

What should I look for (or look out for) in a RX7?

Help....

Charles

 

Either an S4 T2 or an S5 T2 is going to be the most powerful . an S4 GTU has T2 suspension , LSD etc but a N/A motor, the S5 GTUs is the best car out of the N/A models , the S4 SE model is 4- lug and has no LSD , people tend to stray from this model , but you can put 5-Lug suspension and the 4 piston front brakes on .

The S5 T2 is 8.5:1 compression while the S4 is 8:1 compression . For mild mods stick with the S5 its newer and has the cool tail lights , mirrors etc .

They are pretty reliable but not that great on gas . Just keep throwin a little marvel mystery oil in it every once in awhile and always run 93 in a T2 87 in a N/A .

The rear diff mounts tend to go out on these cars so make sure thats in good order its 200 for a Mazdaspeed diff mount and the time to change it .

An

 

86-91 are heavy and EFI which makes them, in my opinion more complicated than, the 1st gen!

They are no problem for daily drivers, with a BIG street port, headers, ECU upgrade and will have substantial gains over stock parts. Just with those upgrades you should be able to get an extra 50-100hp, but will cost, because the standalones are costly

And of course the TII is the 7 you would want if turbo is what you are looking for!

A rebuild could cost as little as a couple hundred dollars, doing it yourself and not needing to replace any parts. Gaskets are about $100. Then if you need to buy parts, it could get very expensive, you know how that goes!

WATCH OUT FOR:

gray-blue smoke on initial start up, which would mean a previous owner didnt keep the oil level up and hardened the oil ring gaskets. It will run fine for a while, but prep yourself for a rebuild in the future.

Another smoke on initial start up, would be white and disapear quicly like steam. Which would mean the engine gaskets are leaking cooloant into the combustion chamber and that would need a rebuild soon. Would also be hard to start. You could also let the engine idle with rad cap off and watch for bubbles, similar to a bad head gasket.

Iam sure their is more, but Iam not a 2nd gen guy! anyone else?

 

http://www.aaroncake.net/RX-7/buy1.htm

i use mine for daily driving. just remeber the newest rx7 is already 10 years old.

 

best way to check for bad coolant seals.

1. unscrew radiator cap
2. start car
3. watch flow of fluid
4. if you see bubbles then coolant seals are shot.



blue/gray smoke is not always a bad sign. i get it every morning. but i premix tcw3 oil so i run on the rich side.

 

The best in my opinion for a first time rotary owner would be a 86-88 GXL, or a 89-91 GTUs. Any N/A is good for a daily driver. I've heard TII's are a little trickier to maintain, but I could be wrong. That post that Tory (Rotary Buddah) put up is good reference as to what to look for while shopping for a FC. It is about $1000 plus shipping for a rebuild to be done by someone else. www.rotaryressurection.com is a good guy that rebuilds rotarys for cheap. Good luck in finding one.

 

Rotary engines are the easiest engine to rebuild by far. Very few parts compared to a piston engine. Now for what to look for, that depends what you want. If you want anything faster than 15s get a TII. If not do not get a GXL. The base models are real light and don't have the power options(which have alot of problems). Personally I say get a TII; I had an NA then got a TII instead myself.

 

My car is a GXL, but it has many options like power windows, AAS, and cruise control. Get one that does not have AAS because the shocks are expensive

 

Plus FC's power options tend to go bad. If yours haven't be thankful and give it a few years since you have one of the later ones. I had an 88 GXL. Only thing that worked were the headlight motors, lol.