Hi from Peoria IL

[Ed R]

Hey everyone!

I need your help. I just bought a 94 R2, one owner with 80000 mi, that had an engine fire. It's too nice of a car to junk and I want to resurrect it. I have never worked on rotary cars, but I have been a fan of the 3rd gen for many years. I need a lot of parts to get this thing running again. The fire destroyed the rats nest, brake fluid reservoir, ignition coils, alternator, solenoids, intake manifold, throttle body, wiring harness, vacuum lines and vacuum reservoirs, and other misc wiring. I have been doing some research and found that I can get entire used JDM engines from several different places on e-bay. I thought it might be cheaper to buy the used engine and take everything I need off of it rather than buying all of the parts individually. Have any of you bought a JDM engine? Has anyone rebuilt a RX7 with this type of damage? Would any of you have the parts I need? Here are a couple of pics. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

Ed

[NoDOHC]

Is the engine intact mechanically? If so, I think that I would put a standalone, a custom harness and a single turbo on it and move forward without trying to tackle that wiring / vacuum line disaster.

This might seem to be a little too much for a first time rotary owner but I can assure you that in the end you will find a standalone to be much more simple.

Anyhow, welcome to the club! Congrats on the buy, 3rd gens are awesome (just out of my price range). The car looks nice, it looks like it is well worth the effort required to return it to 100%.

[lt1_fd3s]

welcome welcome... i guess i can't call for pics, u posted them!

[Max777]

dude, this is kinda cool! I have a relative that lives in Peoria, maybe I could help you a bit with this! I'm in Champaign, IL

for all you guys talking about a standalone computer, there wasnt a whole lot of competent rotary tuners in central IL, even less who could tune a single turbo FD. Sure he can get it towed out to Banzai Racing, but that will be hella expensive on top of all the other shit he would have to do.

My advice:

Make sure you have the space, time, and funds to do this project properly.
Get all necessary tools that you will need, like an engine stand, engine hoist (I got one I can lend if you pick it up) rotary Engine stand adapter (pineapple racing has one)

Tear down the car and acess the extent of the damage before making any decisions about what parts you need to buy...

Personally, I would do:

New used stock wiring harness
emission block off plates
convert turbos to non-sequential setup for ease of use
find someone who's parting out an FD on here or the evil forum.
Fix car.


Cordially,


Max.


PS: oh yeah, and welcome to the club, glad to have you over here! :D

[Ed R]

Max,

Thanks for the advice. I am planning to pull the engine and maybe even have it rebuilt while it's out. I will get the engine bay repainted so it looks like new and replace everything that melted. I have located most of the major parts from a guy on Craig's list out of Chicago. He even has a polished intake and alternator. That would really look nice. He also has two harnesses, one with 6000 mi and one with 55000 mi. I might need that engine stand if you will not be needing it for a while. If you have any leads for the parts I need, please send them my way. Thanks again.

Ed

[Whizbang]

welcome to the site! glad to see your going to keep the car going! 94s are rarer anyway.