Not sure what to do.

[Sterling]

Hiya folks.
I'm very likely getting a 79 LE in "fair" condition. I haven't seen it yet, just a crappy picture, but I've been told that the interior is clean, it has plaid-like seats, moon roof, >75K miles, and very little rust. It's a 4 speed.
It does not have the original waffels on her, and some idiot tried to do a black & white Starski & Hutch paint job on her. But other than that, she's relatively unmolested.

Also in the deal is an untitled 80 in "iffy" condition (he says it's good, but it has sat for many years).

Meanwhile, my 85GS sits in a corner of my yard, with a serious cancer problem. She hasn't run the roads legally (except for carb testing) in over 2 years.
She's got a few mods in her that I would like to keep; Koni shocks, LSD, aluminum flywheel, header exhaust, etc.

I'm thinking I might gut her, have her painted, and then install everything from my 85. I won't have time to port the engine till next winter, but the 85 does blow smoke now with 120K on the clock, 55K of them being VERY hard by me.
If I do well selling carbs this year, I'll do a Camden setup.

The thing is, I understand the 79LE is extremely rare in the US. I can't get any really solid data on that, though.
So am I about to commit a crime by not restoring this girl to her original beauty?

[Kentetsu]

God, I hate rust! Nothing is worse than watching your baby slowly die of cancer. I lost a beloved '73 240Z years back after damn near fully restoring it. I was showing off for a friend, blasting down a back country road, and hit a slight dip that practically folded the chassis in half. The entire underside of the car was rotted, but the body was perfect. I cried like a baby...

If the '79 really is rust free, then I'd say build it. Make what you want out of it, because you're the one who will be doing the work and enjoying it when finished. I wouldn't worry too much about commiting sacriledge.

Also, on your smoking issue; have you tried Lucas? My last motor was smoking way too bad to drive on the road until I started using a quart or two of Lucas in my oil. That cleared up all of the smoking except for hard deceleration in gear during autocrosses. I ended up getting another 20K miles out of that motor before an apex seal let go at 213,000 miles. Just a thought, and it might let you get by with the motor you've got for another year or two...


.

[Sterling]

No, I haven't added anything to the oil. It had just started doing it, on decel, when I stopped driving it.

Yeah, my biggest concern really was commiting sacrelidge by molesting an LE.

[Onlyonthurs]

i don't think its sacrelidge ....as long as you restore her (to stock or to you own version) then i think everything is fair game. When it comes down to it you are saving her mang! Do what you need to do but get her back in good condition! ........oh and my advice comes at a cost...i will take one of your sterling nikki rebuilds as payment lol!

[Rotarydave]

Originally Posted by Sterling

...., it has plaid-like seats, moon roof, >75K miles, and very little rust. It's a 4 speed.
It does not have the original waffels on her,

If I do well selling carbs this year, I'll do a Camden setup.

The thing is, I understand the 79LE is extremely rare in the US. I can't get any really solid data on that, though.
So am I about to commit a crime by not restoring this girl to her original beauty?

Sterling, as one of the "self" professed gurus of the old school crowd which IMHO included the 1st gens,

The thing that concerns me right off the bat is "plaid like seats" not original can't be for an LE, nor can a "4-speed" or "waffle wheels". with interior pics and the data plate under the hood we can help ID if she really is a LE or not. Regardless if you don't save the car then it will probably get scrapped and be gone so I say do what you want. It will only make mine more valuable, now if you do choose to go that route I got dibs on any LE specific parts you wat to sell.

BTW which camden setup are you looking at, I think you will be happiest with a 5inch esp with the way you build carbs. SO how many carbs do I have to buy from you to enable you to get a s/c I really need someone with carb experience to help me setup the s/c I think your abilities fit this well.

Last Item for you, you have a PM I have a carb question for you

[orion84gsl]

Get it and go to town. I understand some people wanting to keep a fairly rare car original, but most of the parts we replace on these cars can easily be swapped back to original. Keep the stock parts handy incase you end up selling and the buyer wants to restore it to original.

[j_tso]

Sounds like the '79 was already molested if someone botched a paint job on it.

[Sterling]

Originally Posted by j_tso

Sounds like the '79 was already molested if someone botched a paint job on it.

Yeah, I haven't seen it, so I'm prepping for some real skanky stuff... -I'm a pessimist by nature, glass half empty kinda guy. Keeps me from becoming too disappointed from letting my expectations climb too high.

[Sterling]

Originally Posted by Rotarydave

Sterling, as one of the "self" professed gurus of the old school crowd which IMHO included the 1st gens,

The thing that concerns me right off the bat is "plaid like seats" not original can't be for an LE, nor can a "4-speed" or "waffle wheels". with interior pics and the data plate under the hood we can help ID if she really is a LE or not. Regardless if you don't save the car then it will probably get scrapped and be gone so I say do what you want. It will only make mine more valuable, now if you do choose to go that route I got dibs on any LE specific parts you wat to sell.

BTW which camden setup are you looking at, I think you will be happiest with a 5inch esp with the way you build carbs. SO how many carbs do I have to buy from you to enable you to get a s/c I really need someone with carb experience to help me setup the s/c I think your abilities fit this well.

Last Item for you, you have a PM I have a carb question for you

OK Dave, you called "dibbs", so you get first pick of the parts.
From the pictures I've seen online, the LE wheels look similar to the waffels, compared to anything else, that is. No matter, they aren't there.
Now Dave, if you're gonna fund a new nasty Rx-7 habit of shooting boost in my viens, I'm going to need to generate at least $2500! That's a lot of carbs, and if you have that many rotary cars in need, well you know I could take a nice Camden in trade!

I thought I came away from your responses in another thread regarding the Camden with the advice to get the larger model?
-Maybe it was Jeff who was saying that. Now I have to go reread that to see why.

I dunno if this matter for the size choice of Camden, but I regularly shift at 8K, though I don't know that my driving habits would'nt change with a SC, (I imagine they would need to, which I'm worried might be a tough discipline for me at first...) Pretty hard on my engines, I know.
I al intend to either port a 12a myself, or get someone else to do it. -Just a street port.
I also have an aluminum flywheel.

[Jeff20B]

7" only for 12A. They don't make a 5" manifold for the 12A as far as I know.

Your flywheel sounds good. The SC makes aluminum feel more like light steel. This means better driveability but more sluggish if you're used to aluminum NA.

Street ports or stock ports; both are ok with an SC but I'm thinking a streetport will be more gutless under vacuum (I'm planning an SC for my truck so low end is part of the equation).

You will relearn how to drive a Camden. You say you want to use a Nikki on it? THAT I'd like to see. Hood clearance issues come to mind first. Next is the open plenum. Solve those and you're good.

[Rotarydave]

they now make an adapter to be able to use the 5 inch on anything,

on the flywheel i think he can get away with the alum one on an rx7 the heavy ones like the rx4 or a repu different story

I kind of agree on the porting issue but disagree also, there is room to improve the flow mostly on the exhaust side though, the exhaust needs to be monster ports with a like system. The intake side just pay attention to overlap don't increase it.

I can't prove it but I think additional overlap slows the engine i believe it does this either by loosing boost while trying to "backflow" into the exhaust there by engine braking the motor, or because exhaust gasses are being "recycled" or "retained" into the new cycle thereby causing an artificial inflation of boost with exhaust gases that will not increase power.

The only way to test this would be to measure the volume of air taken in vs the volume of exhaust gases over a period of time say 2-5 minutes and look for an appreciable difference this should also be measured at various rpm as well to compare that as well. and then as a control I would pull the s/c off that engine and check it in NA confirguration this would establish a base reference point.

[Rogue_Wulff]

With a 12A, porting the exhaust would seem to be a requirement for a S/C. Those ports are rather tiny.
I'd guess that the intake ports would benefit more from just improving the flow, rather than the timing. Any port timing changes sould be better off left to the closing side, for the above mentioned reasons.

[Rotarydave]

Dennis

Got some excellent news for you in regard to the supercharger, at least I think it is excellent. As I thought the original kit for the 12a used the 7 inch supercharger. Because of what they have seen with progress and development they (camden/atkins) feel that the best street/strip combination is the 5 inch supercharger as such they have made an adapter plate for the 5 inch superchager. This adapter plate actually sits under the blower, the cool part of this is you can use the same manifold for both the 5 inch and 7 inch so if you end up not liking the 5 inch or the 7 inch you are no longer stuck with a whole kit.

[Sterling]

You have a link to their complete price list? All I could get was the price for the kit that includes a carb.
For the 12a, their interface directed me to a 7 inch Camden, even when I chose a 390 Holley as the carb.

[Rotarydave]

Let me work that for you Dennis I can probably get nearly the best deal