Allow myself to introduce.....myself.

[dexspeed]

Hello everyone, my name is Dex.

I recently purchased an old Rx7 off of an acquaintance who had adamantly been refusing to sell me this car for 5 years. The reason I have been so fixated with this particular car, is because it was the first RWD vehicle I have ever driven aggressively or thrown sideways in a corner.

After nearly 5 years of my repeated attempts to arrive at a price, (as well as the pleas of various other potential owners) I finally procured the car, and spent most of the past winter tinkering with it and improving it until its current state.




Sadly, after finally getting this thing plated and on the road last Friday, I blew and apex seal the very next day. Right now I'm in the process of sourcing another engine, but can't wait to get one swapped in so I can continue to enjoy it.

[GySgtFrank]

Welcome, very pretty car. Tear the old engine down first and find out what went wrong. There are quite a few people selling parts all the time either here, other forums, or ebay. It'll save you a lot of headaches if you can fix yours. Used engines are always chancy, especially with rotaries, if they weren't stored correctly. They are not hard to rebuild, with quite a few shops around the country specializing in parts as well as complete rebuilds for them. The downside is that if you take it to a local garage they'll look at you like you're crazy. Be careful of who you have do a rebuild (doing it yourself is always good). Others, here and elsewhere, have a lot of horror stories of shoddy and ill informed rebuilders.

[twindragonn]

That is a beautiful fb you have there one of the cleanest I have seen and nice set of wheels. And I second the comment on having a garage do the build inless they are highly knowledgeable on rotorys and as tempermental as they go I wouldn't waste it in buying a used one. Good luck on your car and look forward to seeing what it produces in the end

[speedjunkie]

Welcome! That's a great looking FB. Sucks about the engine dying though.

[dexspeed]

Thanks for the kind words everyone! I was planning on tearing the engine down this upcoming weekend. Don't get me wrong, If the rotors and housings are still in good shape and not completely grooved and scorched from that seal loosely bouncing around in there, then I will likely try and rebuild it myself. Especially if it is just something as trivial as replacing the seals.

As far as shops go, there are not an abundance of shops in the region (Ottawa) I would consider competent to handle an old rotary. In any case I would likely feel much better doing the work myself. As you guys have said, as well as many other rotary enthusiasts I have spoken with, these engines are not the most difficult thing in the world to work on yourself with a little patience.

I'm only planning on swapping another 12a in a worst case scenario, to keep the car on the road until the end of summer, so that I can have the winter months to do a proper 13bt swap. I had hoped that the engine would have held up a little longer than this though. Haha

[Pettersen]

Love the look of that thing, i realy think those wheels and tire setup looks awesome.

Atkins has a very good rebuild DVD, i'm in the process of tearing down and rebuilding my first rotary engine, and the dvd takes you thru every step.

Good luck with you'r engine, hope it isn't to bad..

[dexspeed]

Originally Posted by Pettersen

Love the look of that thing, i realy think those wheels and tire setup looks awesome.

Atkins has a very good rebuild DVD, i'm in the process of tearing down and rebuilding my first rotary engine, and the dvd takes you thru every step.

Good luck with you'r engine, hope it isn't to bad..

Thanks for the tip! I have the trusty old Haynes manual, but I will definitely look into the video as well.

[GySgtFrank]

You might want to check out Fox's site for the factory manuals. He's up in your neck of the woods.

http://foxed.ca/index.php?page=rx7manual

MUCH, better than a Haynes manual.

[dexspeed]

WOW! Thanks a ton! That is a super useful link.

[general7]

Love those rims! nice car as well!

[dexspeed]

Originally Posted by general7

Love those rims! nice car as well!

Thanks! They are Rota Shakotans (Hyashi Street knockoffs from the 80's)

Oh and I finally got another 12a swapped into the car and thankfully it is running again, although I need to change a few gaskets that are being uncooperative.