200K Miles Daily Driver -HERGTUS-

[Phoenix7]

Back story:
Wife owned an escort and a Jeep Cherokee. Both were good to her but she wanted an FC. My friend decided to sell his car at the same time we were in the market and we made the trip to Ohio to pick it up.

Left at noon (or 1) on a Saturday and got back to California by Monday at 3AM.:001_07: We were dead tired!! It had the RB header and midpipe mated to N1 Duals (real Apex-i units from Japan back when it cost BANK!) but the damn car was WAY TOO LOUD! ABout 3 miles into the trip we decided to get ear plugs. Time went on and I repaired and upgraded little things and maintained it as best as I could. We've been DD'ing this car for a good 3/4 years now and it's still freaking amazing.


Well, it rolled over into the 200K miles last December

Oil change every 3000 miles, make sure fluids are topped off. Had a lil overheating problem once and I got that fixed and it hasn't given me any problems.

-87 octane
-spark plugs need changing at this next oil change (~300 miles)
-E-fan
-Pinneaple intake sleeves
-suspension goodies
-RB collected header, MP and catback
-fuel controller (150whp)
-Exceddy clutch stage 1.
-gets 270 miles per tank (usually have 3 gallons left) I think it's running a tad rich so I think it's time to install a wideband and maybe EGT setup (still reading on it to find what is optimal temps and whatnot) so I can lean it out for better MPG.

This thing pulls like a dream. Tested the TPS a while back, on the dot. We took it to Thunderhill in Feb. while trying to finish my turbo project. She has some battle scars but I already have a replacement lip (i don't wanna get into that story). Trying to see how soon I can get the wing, front end and hood repainted. I have a few more things I want to do to it but I want to finish my 7 and get her on DD duty while I work on the NA.

It's fun having two FC's. One does the money earning while the other gets the money in her. Once I'm satisfied with the whole car I'll do the paint, that way everything will be perfect and then possibly look to sell it to get a nice stock FD.

The really cool thing about this car is how reliable it's been and how quick it feels. I've spoken to a few people and they think I can lean it out more and gain another 15hp-20hp so I'll be looking into it as my TII nears completion (remember I want on car in DD duties and another under the knife).

[Phoenix7]

Her car (before the mild scars) and our friend's Vert:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/DSC00428.jpg

Old N1 duals:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/rexansrajah.jpg

Decent engine bay. Needs an Air Isolation Box:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/RAJAH/Engine/0aab9843.jpg


More pics:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/RAJAH/Exterior/036.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/RAJAH/Exterior/bcc6cffc.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/RAJAH/Exterior/DSC00429.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/RAJAH/Exterior/DSC00430.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/RAJAH/Exterior/DSC00434.jpg

HKS 52mm (or 55mm?) old-school cat-back:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/RAJAH/Exterior/HKS52mmExhaust.jpg

[Phoenix7]

It's a little blurry but I was cold. We drove through a SNOWSTORM (in Wyoming) on the way back from Ohio:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/RAJAH/Exterior/snowRX7.jpg


More Pics:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/RAJAH/Exterior/TripToSac-Town043.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/RAJAH/Exterior/TripToSac-Town056.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/RAJAH/Exterior/TripToSac-Town092.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Us/Traveling/Weekend%20Roadtrips/TripToSac-Town095.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Us/Traveling/Weekend%20Roadtrips/TripToSac-Town059.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Us/Traveling/Saratoga%20Drive%20-%20Labor%20Day%2007/DSC01852.jpg


Rolling over 200,000 Miles:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/RAJAH/Exterior/TripToSac-Town130.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/RAJAH/Exterior/TripToSac-Town131.jpg

[Phoenix7]

The U-joints broke on her while driving:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/broken%20stuff/ds.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/broken%20stuff/DSC01386.jpg

A simple replacement would have been fine but this made the repair difficult:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/broken%20stuff/DSC01384.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/broken%20stuff/DSC01385.jpg

Her dad and I replaced the transmission with another one but then I forgot to add fluids and I damaged the tranny AGAIN! I decided to take both broken trannies and made 1 good one out of the parts that were goo and that's what we're driving right now.:p

We have been going to monthly RX-7 meets with a local club (BARC):

BARC1-Emmeryville
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg10/Bay_Area_Rotary_Club/BARC%20January%2012th%20Emmeryville%20meet/BARCMEET1009.jpg

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg10/Bay_Area_Rotary_Club/BARC%20January%2012th%20Emmeryville%20meet/BARCMEET1031.jpg

BARC2-February
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/PhoenixRX-7/MEETS/February%2008/ae5fb374.jpg

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/PhoenixRX-7/MEETS/February%2008/rx7meet2-9-08007.jpg

BARC3-March
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/PhoenixRX-7/MEETS/March%2008/BARC3004.jpg

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/PhoenixRX-7/MEETS/March%2008/BARC3006.jpg

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/PhoenixRX-7/MEETS/March%2008/BARC3035.jpg

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/PhoenixRX-7/MEETS/March%2008/BARC3139.jpg

[Phoenix7]

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/PhoenixRX-7/MEETS/March%2008/DSC_3353.jpg

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/PhoenixRX-7/MEETS/March%2008/DSC_3425.jpg

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/PhoenixRX-7/MEETS/March%2008/DSC_3511.jpg

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/PhoenixRX-7/MEETS/March%2008/DSC_3479.jpg

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/PhoenixRX-7/MEETS/March%2008/621ae957.jpg

[My5ABaby]

FUGLY!










j/k

Great looking car, especially considering the age. :D :icon_tup: However, this thread fails without a picture of the little lady herself.

[Phoenix7]

So, I've been on the track with my previous 7's and I thought Brooke would love to go drive around and feel what the 7 is supposed to be driven like! We signed up to go to Thunderhill for her first event EVER!

Everything went well the week before. Preparing, inspecting, and fixing issues. We leave at 5 AM to make it to the track by 8 AM and when we were 15/20 minutes away from the track we had a tire blow out at 90MPH (I was rushing to make it on time).

We were towed to the nearest town and replaced all four tires and were able to make 1/2 a day of the track event. We were rushed and a little lost so we didn't get too many pics and the real photographers focused on the Drift cars mostly. My ultimate goal was forher to get comfortable with the car and slowly push herself out of that "fear" mode and it worked, too well!

She had a blast, I had a lot of fun and we're looking forward to the next event, hopefully we can take BOTH our cars next time.


BLOWOUT:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/PhoenixRX-7/Thundehill/ThunderhillRaceday008.jpg

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/PhoenixRX-7/Thundehill/ThunderhillRaceday010.jpg

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/PhoenixRX-7/Thundehill/ThunderhillRaceday017.jpg

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/PhoenixRX-7/Thundehill/thunderhill199.jpg

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/PhoenixRX-7/Thundehill/Sergio045.jpg

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/PhoenixRX-7/Thundehill/th_Trackday1.jpg (http://s256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/PhoenixRX-7/Thundehill/?action=view&current=Trackday1.flv)

[Nopis1O]

nice. guys. ya can your really get that much horse out of lust leaning out your mixture. i find that hard to believe. maby if you car is running very very rich? i dunno sounds interesting. when you get your wideban let me know how it goes.

[Phoenix7]

Well others are making 170rwhp+ with less mods so I think it's feasible. I'll keep these threads updated as more work gets done.

[Nopis1O]

kool. ya im going to open up one of my own threads as soon as my itbs get here :)

[Phoenix7]

I'll be interested to see your work on the ITBs. I'm not too familiar with them at all.

[Phoenix7]

Most recent problem:
http://www.rotarycarclub.com/showthread.php?t=1850

[Phoenix7]

The tranny is making noise. I don't know what to do. Used TII tranny and Mazdatrix DS (quite a bit of money) or rebuild the NA tranny.
I don't know how long until the tranny dies so i have to decide soon.

Needs new crush washers for the oil cooler lines. Dunno the condition of the lines themselves yet. 200K+ miles rearing it's ugly face.


If I go TII tranny I'll need this:
-TII flywheel $300.
-TII slave cylinder $20
-TII starter $100
-Mazdatrix DS $300
-TII Tranny = $200 to $500 (depends if it's local or shipped).
--------------------------------------------------------
Total = $900 to $1400 to go TII tranny (not including any labor since I'll do it myself, most likely). I can try to reduce costs a tad more but it's a realistic figure right now (lightweight flywheel is the only expensive unnecessary cost).

I already have an extra exceddy clutch kit for the TII so I'M ALMOST AHEAD.

I dunno how much to fix the tranny yet (going tomorrow to get a quote) so I dunno which way to go.

[Phoenix7]

I think we're gonna rebuild the NA tranny. It doesn't seem cost effective to go TII Drivetrain right now.

I noticed the noise appears in 2nd gear and REVERSE but only at lower RPMS (under 3K). I'll be taking it to a transmission shop ASAP (went to work on my car today instead).

[Phoenix7]

picking up a TII tranny soon. Just preparing.

[N.RotaryTech]

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg10/Bay_Area_Rotary_Club/BARC%20January%2012th%20Emmeryville%20meet/BARCMEET1031.jpg


We see her.
Man law.
Moar pictures of her.
:)

Lots of nice cars in these pics.
Heres to N/As :icon_tup:

[Phoenix7]

I'm a non-conformist. SHe'll post pics if she wants.

[AzEKnightz]

Hey Phoenix7, that white FC with the 10thAE RX7 is my friend Damon =).

I am currently getting my FD single conversion. He wanted me to attend the meet too. But my car was down. Hopefully I can join you guys by the end or early next year =)

-Eric

Nice cars by the way

[Phoenix7]

Hey Phoenix7, that white FC with the 10thAE RX7 is my friend Damon =).

I am currently getting my FD single conversion. He wanted me to attend the meet too. But my car was down. Hopefully I can join you guys by the end or early next year =)

-Eric

Nice cars by the way:seeya:

Damon's car is clean. Maybe we'll both start the year with our running cars! I'm trying to get the turbo running for 7stock and race ready by the end of the season.

[Phoenix7]

Had the engine bay steam cleaned over the weekend. Looks nice in there.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/RAJAH/Engine/triptoSF080.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/madrx7racer/Our%207s/RAJAH/Engine/triptoSF079.jpg

[Phoenix7]

oil cooler lines began to leak so I took the car to rotorsports for the replacement....

3 hours of work later and they replaced the oil pedestal oil rings, the oil pressure sender and changed the oil to 20w50, as they recommended.

While he was under there he noticed the car would cut out randomly and he found that the source of the stumble was the Ignition pack. Apparently the previous owner installed it improperly and was not properly grounded. It would cut in and out randomly which meant that the LEADING coils were not getting current!!!!

That expalins the random misses, the bad idle, the pig-rich smell, the bad low end, and the flooding.

I LOVE Rotorsport in Santa Clara!!!

[Rotary#10]

Brooke is really cool. when i met ya'll at the shop for my hood.. Nothings better than finding someone who has the same passion for cars as you do..Phoenix7 is a very lucky man!

[Phoenix7]

Thanks, I'm very happy. She's coming with me on Fri. to part out an FC...Both our cars need some more parts and she likes taking things apart. How's the hood BTW?

[whitey85mtu]

Looking good. Where in Ohio did you drive it from? You're lucky that you found a mechanically inclined S.O., especially one that likes RX-7's

[Phoenix7]

Drove it From Dayton...yeah, she's pretty cool, always willing to learn....I don't know if I mentioned it it but SHE was the one who got ME into RX-7s over 8 years ago.

[Rotary#10]

LOL! its cool. I can kinda see that the paint is a bit darker than my cars paint. so its like dark blue near black LOL.. don't trip im happy with it on.

lol working on the rx7 is like playing with legos for me now... LOL. I remember when i played with them as a kid i'd build stuff, it'd look cool and i'd want to make it better.

[Phoenix7]

I think I blew the motor today....finished driving 300 miles, got gas and it blew getting back on the freeway....

Dunno what to do....

[whitey85mtu]

get a used short block from the classifieds and drop it in...

[need RX7]

get a used short block from the classifieds and drop it in...

+1. That's what I'm trying to do right now as well. Motors should be way easier to find in you area.

Or you could always TII swap :001_005:

[Phoenix7]

well, it was our DD and we needed a car. We parked it at her dad's for a while. I won't get to do anything for at least another month.

Best case: free used motor (gotta do compression check) and back to smoggable then sell it and put the money into my TII...

Worst case: Part it out.

I won't sell it as non-running...not worth it.

I'll update this thread when something happens.

[Phoenix7]

we're keeping the car.

Picking up a spare motor and bringing her back to life!!!!

[Phoenix7]

Thanks to Mike for the motor...pulled the short-block yesterday....I wasn't having fun (an I feel it today) but we're one step closer to bringing her back to life.

Pics in a bit.

[NoDOHC]

I'm glad you are going to resurrect the car. 200k is pretty good. I am still upset about my second coolant seal dying at 199,087 (couldn't it have held out for another 913 miles?)

The car would start with only one bad seal, after the second one failed I couldn't get it running without towing it.

Keep us posted and I wish you the best (not the sore back, but the rest of the fun).

[Phoenix7]

yeah, technically it died at 230K miles almost even too...Watch, next thing you know I'll be posting pics of both our 7s out and about.

THanks and wait till Mike posts the pics....

[Rotary#10]

well i did pull another motor on sunday with Junpower, then we cut up the vert into 3 pieces and carried it away into a old delivery truck. its was awesome! And I am still tired from yesterday. Hey check out the pictures I posted in my Album. You can save them to your computer and post them if you want. Thanks again :)

[Phoenix7]

well i did pull another motor on sunday with Junpower, then we cut up the vert into 3 pieces and carried it away into a old delivery truck. its was awesome! And I am still tired from yesterday. Hey check out the pictures I posted in my Album. You can save them to your computer and post them if you want. Thanks again :)
Thank YOU! Was it easier than pulling your motor?

Did you take pics of the carnage?

Edit, saw the pics haha, nice ones.

[Rotary#10]

nah I made pulling the motor at Junpowers place more complianted than it is hehe. LOL. I work slow. I have more pictures but I think it would be good to run them by you first. Whats your email. I send them over asap.I got pics of the choping of Junpowers vert on my phone. Crazy Stuff!

[Phoenix7]

bet it was a blast too....PMing email

[Phoenix7]

Finally started the work on the NA...
http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=8174&stc=1&d=1275355901


1. The manifolds were cracked and brittle! Dunno if it's the age (200K miles) and the heat but it doesn't seem normal to break them while breaking the seal.

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=8171&stc=1&d=1275355901
http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=8172&stc=1&d=1275355901



2. The Pineapple intake sleeves were not in the proper position and one of them was damaged...

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=8173&stc=1&d=1275355901


Neither of the sleeves were seated in properly...Never seen this before.

I'll be draining the fluids soon and taking the dead motor out...wonder what it looks like inside.

I need an engine hoist, an engine stand and a flywheel removal tool to give Mike his flywheel back.

[need RX7]

Oh wow, I've never seen an intake manifold beak like that before. I don't think it's related to mileage or age, I took my 202k mile engine down to a bare block before and didn't have any problems like that. That's crazy :o11:.