FS: 1993 RX-7, touring model, 5spd, 100k, rebuilt, needs TLC

[Ranger]

Yep. Trying this again.

Up for sale is my 1993 Mazda RX-7. It's a Touring model, Montego Blue in color, with a 5-speed. Has almost 100k on the odometer, but has a rebuilt engine from rotaryrebuildstore.com with less than 5k on it, and rebuilt stock twins. Reliability mods, Power FC, non-sequential conversion, emissions equipment removed, coilovers, etc. See below for full list of mods. Unfortunately the only pictures I have, I had to take at night, but those are all here:

http://s892.photobucket.com/albums/ac124/tentifero/FD%20RX-7%20For%20Sale/

First things first, this car is a theft recovery vehicle, but it was NOT wrecked, and I DO have a clean title. So no, not a salvage vehicle It was recovered with only minor cosmetic damage (see pictures), and a blown engine. After I got it back, my insurance paid to fix it. I had the engine and wiring harness replaced at a local shop, and the turbos rebuilt.

Since then I've barely driven it, as I live in Denver and it will not pass emissions. It has been started and driven around the block regularly, however. It runs great, starts every time, even in the cold, no problems with restarts either. Here's a video of cold start and restart:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvstTsPM8jc"]RX-7 FD Cold Start and Restart - YouTube[/ame]


Hesitation at the beginning is because of the battery (cold outside).

So why am I selling? Simply put, I've reluctantly decided I can't afford to keep a car I can't drive...every month it sits in my garage, it's costing me.

It does need some work, and I want to be up front about it so you know what you're getting. Known issues:

- Rear bumper and passenger side headlight cover need to be repainted
- Center brake light cover not mounted correctly...I can't tell what's wrong or I'd fix it
- Two wheel studs are stripped on the passenger side rear, one is stripped on the driver side rear
- Battery has no tie down
- Fitting for hood cable is broken, so the hood release doesn't work...you have to reach up under the car and pull the cable
- Power antenna is stuck
- No A/C or heat. A/C compressor and lines removed; I believe the heater issue is just because of the switch, but I'm not sure
- Horn does not work. Horns were apparently removed when the FMIC was put in
- The rear speakers (Bose) were removed by the previous owner, as they didn't work. I have them if you want to rebuild them
- It could use a tune. It runs great like it is, but it hasn't been tuned since the rebuild

I'd like to see $12k for it with the Blitz Type 01 rims that are on it, less if you want it with the stock rims. Price is OBO however, so I am open to reasonable offers. Also, I need a winter car, so I might be interested in trading for something AWD (WRX, Legacy GT, A4, etc.)

MOD LIST:

- Freshly rebuilt engine from rotaryrebuildstore.com, mild street port, Atkins seals
- Freshly rebuilt turbos, all seals replaced, balanced
- Non-sequential turbo conversion
- Exedy "Stage 2" twin plate clutch
- Aluminum Y-pipe
- Air pump removed
- Hi flow cat / midpipe from rx7store, also have Megan test pipe
- Racing Beat single tip catback
- RE Amemiya short throw shifter
- Greddy BOV, I think it is a Type RS but I'm not sure
- Greddy FMIC and piping
- Fluidyne aluminum radiator
- Pettitt Racing aluminum AST
- Engine torque brace

- A'pexi Power FC w/ Commander
- Manual boost controller (not hooked up)
- Pettitt Racing boost gauge mounted over steering column
- Bosch wideband sensor mounted in midpipe
- AEM wideband gauge on A-pillar

- Powered by MAX coilovers
- Upgraded differential brace
- Upgraded rear subframe brace
- G'reddy front strut tower bar

[AuroraAxela]

Damn, wish I could afford it...

Someday I shall own an FD

[RichB]

what needs to be done for this to pass emissions?

[Ranger]

I'm not too sure, the only time I tried to test it they wouldn't let me because the factory O2 sensor has been disconnected. (It has a wideband in the midpipe.) It has a cat but it would need a smog pump reinstalled. Forgot to mention that I have a smog pump for it if someone wants to try to reinstall it.

[RichB]

How did they know the O2 was disconnected?

Does the air pump need to be on to pass emissions? It won't pass with just the cat? (Sorry I'm a noob when it comes to the mazda rotary engine)

[Ranger]

You can see the factory O2 sensor in the engine bay and the wire was clearly not connected haha. In retrospect I probably could've just run a wire that goes nowhere, just to make it look like it's hooked up. It might pass with just a cat, especially if you run part E85 in it, but I haven't been able to try...I can't get a temp tag for it, I've had two already, and that's the max you can get in Denver county Anyway rotary engines are notorious for bad emissions. Stock, they have the smog pump, and two giant cats(!) which are prone to overheating, that's why most people just ditch them. As soon as I have the time I'm planning on having it towed to an emissions station to see what the numbers are like.

[RichB]

Yea, I guess the pump is there to help with low RPM emissions.......

Is your wideband plugged in where the stock O2 sensor needs to go or something?

[Ranger]

Actually, the pump is there to heat the cat up, mostly on startup...cats work better when they're hot, haha. It pumps fresh air in too, so that what comes out of the exhaust isn't so dirty. The problem with the factory cats is they weren't built to withstand the constant extreme temperatures that rotary engines put out. Bad design choice on Mazda's part.

The wideband is in a different location...but the car has an aftermarket ECU (that's what the Power FC is) which is tuned to read it. It doesn't really care about the factory O2 sensors anymore.

[RichB]

Cool. Thanks for the info

GLWS

[VRx8]

I actually dig the rims! 17's ?

[Ranger]

Yep! They're Blitz Type 01s, 17x9 +22 and 17x8 +22. I would want 18s for it personally, but I love the style of those. I bought them for my S2000, but they were a little too aggressive for that car with a stock body. So I figured why not put them on the FD? Might help it sell.

For anyone interested, price is definitely negotiable. Make me an offer!

[chickenwafer]

To help you out (your name is Dillon, right?), honestly passing emissions ISN'T the end of the world for an FD. Is it an uphill battle? Hell yes. But it IS doable.

First, you HAVE to run an OEM CAT pipe. Don't bother with a knock-off or high-flow cat. While some claim they may squeak you past emissions, which is true, that's assuming everything else in the emissions system is 100%. If anything is just slightly off, no pass. Avoid the hassle and get yourself a good stock main cat. I have one just sitting in my garage if anyone needs to borrow it.

Second is to make sure the air pump is 100% working. On the FD, it's belt driven off the alternator and water pump belt. It's very easy to reinstall and get working. This is key because it keeps the main cat hot and also pumps air to the AWS system that bleeds it to the LIM and the injectors to help with low rpm (idle) air atomization. Alternatively, you can also run an electric air pump if you are comfortable with wiring one up with a 40 amp relay and know how to plumb it.

That takes care of about 85% of passing emissions. The remaining 15% is the trickery involved and the ECU. Stock ECU is obviously going to be best, save for countless hours of chasing your tail with a standalone. If your car CAN run the stock ECU, DO IT! Otherwise, fire up the PFC (or whatever ECU your running) and from YOUR GOOD TUNE (not some rough tune the car barely runs on, it needs to be TUNED) lean out the correction map in the Datalogit about 5-8% and add a few degrees of timing and decrease your split a few degrees. If you need help doing this I can do it for you, it only takes me a minute or less, and I'd be happy to get another FD on the road.

The last element in passing emissions is to fill up with MID GRADE (87 octane here in Colorado) gas. Premium won't help. You can even do 85 octane, since the guy running it on the rollers won't be seeing much more (hopefully) than 3-5psi of boost. Which brings me to the second element here; limit boost as low as you can. On the stock twins, this means 5psi total, maybe peaking 6psi towards redline. Again, this is very easy to do on a stock twin turbo car, simply remove the pills/restrictors going into the w/g actuators. Again, I can help do this, it literally takes 2 minutes. If the car is single turbo, you should hopefully know what to do!

The last element to the "trickery" here is to drive the car for a MINIMUM of 30 minutes before testing it, doing some higher RPM cruise, not pulls or WOT though, a maximum of 3/4" throttle. Think of the higher RPM as sending a proverbial flamethrower down the throat of the cat, blasting off all the carbon and gunk inside it. This will get the element/metals inside the cat cooking, so they can scrub out most of the bad hydrocarbons and noxious gases. This is a MUST to pass.

I passed emissions relatively easily by doing all of the above in my FD. If you want to, or feel the need to take it a step further, you can add a gallon or so of denatured alcohol to 10 gallons of gas to further help, although I'm still not sold this has much benefit.

The last thing I would add is we have a pretty damn good and strong rotary community here in Colorado. Although we're not large by any means, we have plenty of knowledgeable members eager to help out and get your FD (or whatever) running right. I can almost guarantee between all of us up here one of us is bound to know what to do to fix the problem (and there WILL be problems haha). So that is another bonus.

[G-Man]

Boy, chickenwafer - that was an awesome post! Even though I don't have an FD, thanks. You just stood up as a great example of this "community."

[Operator]

I think someone will be happy with this car! If my wife wouldn't kill me, I'd probably jump on this, and lean on Dave to get me up and running.

[VRx8]

Buy the car and move to the springs! No emissions here