So recently after putting some money aside after paying bills for the last few months I have a little bit of money to spend on my series 2 FB GS.


So far I know I'm going to get an exhaust, but that is going to be custom made. I'm looking into the Racing Beat header for a basis for it though.

$1000.00 budget isn't really a lot to spend on a car, but it is enough to start having some fun with a project.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

Freeing up the flow is a good start
It depends on what your plans are really Coil overs tires and suspension for some really nice handeling or a sterling carb for some juice.
Get you derection that you want to go then start spending until you loose your house.

 

Go for the suspension upgrades, power is nothing if you can't handle it around a corner.

 

Plenty of post on this on
1. Safety first, get brakes, bearings, & suspension up to snuff. (low end $100 up to $250...if you do it)
2. Full tune up - Plugs-wires-cap-rotor + change oil & filters(less than $100)
3. new tires...may as well get a set of wheels while you're at it ($250 and up)
4. (my opinion) get the RB full exhuast ($full set up...close to $800)
5. upgrade suspension - struts/shocks, springs, bushings, sway bar, tie rod ends, ball joints, idler arm, pitman arm (last 4 could go in #1 as well) LOTS OF MONEY
6. Sterling carb (great value, but not inexpensive) and new fuel pump
7. get your interior rockin'
8. body work
9. Paint

Maybe just a tad over $1k, but it all depends on what you want to do.

 

I recommend doing things in this order:

1. Safety (brakes)
2. Reliability (tuneup, bushings, and anything else that wears out)
3. Elimination of anything that doesn't have to be there (emissions if you don't have testing)
4. Performance ( www.re-speed.com & www.sterlingmetalworks.com )
5. Make her shiny (new paint, bodywork, etc.)

Good luck, welcome aboard, and enjoy your new obsession.



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https://www.rx7club.com/1st-gen-archive-71/suspension-500%24-mods-655230/

 

Thanks guys!


I'm about ready to order the header tonight and I have it narrowed down to the Racing Beat Road Race header or the Racing Beat Streetable Header

Should I go with the Race header or Streetable header? Loudness is not an issue, just wondering the HP comparisons between the two.

Is the collector not included with the Road Race header?

 

^ What I'm coming to understand is that the Streetable header has longer primaries to increase low end torque as the Road Race header creates more power in the upper RPM range.

 

The streetable header is collected whereas the road race header is two separate pipes straight to a flange. This is so you can use their long primary system, which doesn't collect until just before the muffler, or build your own system onto it with the collector wherever you want it. If your building a custom exhaust you have to be careful here, because this can effect the powerband. Too close or too far from the engine depending on your other mods can cost you power or net you power. The real problem is that to find out where is best involves a lot of testing and tweaking on your part. If that doesn't interest you, go with the streetable header and build your system off that. It will be cheaper, and lighter. The key is not to go too thin with the pipe wall, or it will just sound tinny.

 

^^ Listen to him, he sounds smart ^^^







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Sounding and being are two different things. 95% sure I'm right, 5% sure something will blow up if you follow my advice.

Is he joking? Who knows?

 

Thanks Orion! And Kentetsu, I'm trying out your Seafoam method today! I actually did get it to fire up briefly yesterday so it's not flooded, but I didn't want to take a chance and fry the starter.

 

The full RB setup is a must and increase suspension is alwasy a plus.

 

I would suggest that you inspect your ignition system. Without a good strong spark, firing at the correct time, she'll never start well for you. And its easier to rule out the ignition system than it is to troubleshoot carb/motor issues, so you should rule it out before you dig any deeper.

 

Wide body and turbo swap.

 

^ Someday.

My dream is to replicate the ISMA car's body style. Complete with whale tail.



But paint it all black.

First I'd like to get a few bolt ons going on with the 12a. Next thing is definately a rebuild on it to get it in top shape. I'm still looking into porting options. Right now it seems still heathy though. I drove it for about a month and a half before putting it in storage and it was a blast. Not the fastest machine, but just fun. And lucky for me my local garage's master mechanic was really big into the 1st generation Rx7 back in the day. Around that time (1984-1986) he told me he used to work for Mazda as a mechanic and he had one of his own. An 81 or 82 GS. He told me he custom fabbed an exhaust for it and swapped in a GSL-SE rear end and interior from a wrecked GSL-SE. I feel lucky to have him around. He is going to work on the braking system and give it a tune up before it hits the road.

I ordered tires as well. The ones on the car are not going to cut it another season, and I also scored a set of rims for free. They are in extremely good shape. They are 14x6.5 4x114.3mm with an offset of 27mm. I have to get some wheel adapters made at a machine shop and i expect them to be 25mm so we will see what type of fitment I'll get with +2 offset and tires of 185/60/14in the front and 215/60/14 in the rear. Got a good deal on some Dean Stinger GTS Radials that didn't break the bank. Plus it will look good until I have money for better rims. Right now I'd like to concentrate on performance. I'd like to get the full exhaust fabbed up and on and then deal with the intake side of things. But something tells me just free up the exhaust and concentrate on a new suspension set up after that. I've been eyeing up the Racing Beat springs.

 

Whoops. Meant IMSA*. ^

 

Think very carefully about what you want before you spend the money on suspension parts. I bought about everything that Racing Beat had (springs, swaybars, etc.) and within a year I knew that it just wasn't enough. The performance level was too low (in my opinion) for daily driving, let alone autocrossing.

So then I had to remove everything, find a buyer for it, then purchase what I should've gone with from the start. I hated having to redo everything, and certainly lost a fair amount of money, but at least now I have a very happy car.



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I'll definitely second Kentetsu on that. I have had the Racing Beat suspension on my car since 06 and while I find it fine for spirited street driving, that's about as far as it goes. In fact I am planning to replace everything except my rear sway bar with RE-Speed parts this spring. The only reason the rear bar isn't being replaced is because RE-Speed doesn't offer one (yet, hint hint Billy) If your going to build a car anything like the IMSA racer, save your money and time and buy the RE-Speed parts. They are just better. You get adjustability, lightness, and fantastic customer support, which is something I can't say for Racing Beat. They aren't horrible, but their parts for 1st gens were designed in the 80's. Nearly 30 years ago. It's time for some new technology and you'll get that from RE-Speed.

 

^ Kentetsu, your Seafoam method fired it up FIRST CRANK OF THE KEY.


It ran good and stayed 2K rpm's (Choke in). I turned it off 10 mins later and couldn't restart it though.

I got the starter clicking which leads me to believe I have a bad starter solenoid.

But it smoked like hell!

 

Something to consider, if you're definitely going to get an exhaust then you're going to have to make some mods to the emissions system to get it to run properly. Therefore the car will not pass emissions testing, if your state has it. Luckily mine doesn't.
With that in mind, by going to a less restrictive exhaust you will have a little more power available, but then the restriction is shifted to the intake side of the system. Though your newly installed exhaust would be capable of flowing more air, your stock fuel pump can't deliver enough fuel and the carb & intake just can't take in enough fuel/air to really maximize the potential of the exhaust. So if it were me and I was hell-bent on doing the exhaust, I'd also make sure I had the funds to do something to the intake side. You can find used setups here on the forum, or on ebay if you're lucky. I'd recommend going with a DCOE 45 setup, because that's what I have. I also have a sterling modified nikki setup on another car but I haven't completed that project yet so I can't offer any feedback on it. But I got it because everyone who had one raved about it, and I wanted to try something different on the other car. I'm looking forward to getting her running so I can compare the 2 different setups. On my DCOE 45 setup I'm using the full RB streetport system even though I have a stock port motor. Before I really fine tuned the DCOE with a wideband, the car was already making 117.5 rwhp on the dyno with these mods alone, and now I think it's probably in the 125 range. Compare that to roughly 85 rwhp for the stock setup.
On my other car I've got a sterling modified nikki and ported manifold, and I'm using the collected header and RB presilencer, along with the stock mid pipe and muffler (less than 30k miles on them) that came off of my other car when I put on the full RB setup.
Of course I also agree with the others, SAFETY FIRST! Take care of the wear items and inspect/ replace belts, hoses, brake pads & rotors, etc if you have any doubt as to their long-term dependability. That sounds funny when you're talking about modding a 25+ year old car, lol. But cars are replaceable, people are not. So make sure you're driving safely as-is and spend your $ on that first, then consider the performance mods.

 

You WILL love your Sterling. If you don't I'll eat my hat. First I have to buy a hat. However you do not necessarily need to upgrade both the intake and exhaust at the same time. I used just the RB exhaust for one season before getting the Sterling. Baby steps. This way you get used to using a little more power instead of dealing with an extra 50% hp all at once. It takes some time to learn to drive with more power. Hell the first time I drove the car after getting the Sterling it actually scared me how different it was.

The Seafoam will make the engine smoke. It's kind of fun, but also a little embarrassing.

 

yup i second that, i've upgraded from stock to RB Springs & Tokico HP Blues, i'm not impressed with it (front suspension is ok, rear is way bumpy for my type), i should've Re-Speed coil over kit & Tokico Illumina at the first place.

 

No emmisions on my 85, gonna go header, presilencer and racing beat muffler.

 

Well here she is. All she needed was some Seafoam down the carb and a recharged battery and BAM! started first crank.

Here she is on (theoretically) 1st generation Celica-Supra wheels. They were originally my father's so I'm glad they are on my ride. They aren't actually on yet, but rather placed next to the car for looks of what is to be with my wheel adapters help.

Going in for brake system check this week.

excuse my crappy cell phone pics.



The tires in front at 185/60/14 while the tires in the back are 215/60/14. Crossing my fingers that the rears won't rub, but with the offset of the rims (+27mm) combined with the offset of the wheel adapters (+25mm), I'm pretty sure I might have to roll the rear fenders.