85 gs 'revamp'
01-17-13 | 05:12 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 693
Likes: 1
From: Schenectady, NY
85 gs 'revamp'
85 gs 134k....40k of those are mine. Had for 5.5 years now and have not put more than 5k on it in the last 2. Anyway, car starts and runs well...has a carb rebuild and carb tune with mechanical secondaries that just need an accelerator pump adjustment. Car is in dire need of paint (primer/matte black effect right now) but no body rust and minimal underbody rust (surface and only a bit in spots). Exhaust broke at the end of the intermediate pipe and cats and just (FINALLY!) ordered the racing beat system for the 12a.
My plans are to obviously replace the exhaust and to also fine tune the carb. Motor is fine and has been very well taken care of. I have a list posted in the parts section for it and I plan on installing a gsl or gsl-se rear end setup. Currently have the racing beat rear sway bar and the strut tower brace as well. I will be attempting paint this spring and am very deeply considering por 15 for the base coat/primer. I am looking for insight on any mods that can be done/purchased that do not involve removing the motor. I have relocated the battery, new mazdatrix high perf plug wires, headlight harness, stock diamond coils, 15" rewinds all around and cannot wait for warm weather!
My plans are to obviously replace the exhaust and to also fine tune the carb. Motor is fine and has been very well taken care of. I have a list posted in the parts section for it and I plan on installing a gsl or gsl-se rear end setup. Currently have the racing beat rear sway bar and the strut tower brace as well. I will be attempting paint this spring and am very deeply considering por 15 for the base coat/primer. I am looking for insight on any mods that can be done/purchased that do not involve removing the motor. I have relocated the battery, new mazdatrix high perf plug wires, headlight harness, stock diamond coils, 15" rewinds all around and cannot wait for warm weather!
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01-25-13 | 06:32 PM
#8
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 693
Likes: 1
From: Schenectady, NY
May be going with the por-15 for the entire job...paint removal, base layer, etcher, color, clear. That hardnose stuff they sell seems to be awesome, hopefully it doesn't weigh the car down too much haha
01-27-13 | 12:57 PM
#11
I have an '85 GS as well, and already made some of the improvements that you first listed. Although I've had my RX7 for a number of years, I'm new to the modifications game as well. I kept mine totally stock aside from adding a CD player (mp3), for almost 20 years of ownership.
The first thing everyone needs to know before modding out their car is what is your goal? Are you just trying to make it a fun ride or are you planning on taking her out to the track? I'm slowly turning my RX7 into a track car. I won't be able to pass the sniffer test next time in a 1 1/2 yrs, but in the mean time she is still registered.
I'm going to ramble a bit, but here are some things that I encountered with my "track car in training."
After installing the headers your air/fuel will go lean and your idle may get worse. Two things to do here. One, find your idle mixture screw (base of the carb on the driver's side, might be capped off) and with the car warmed up, give the screw a quarter turn and test her out. You want to enrich the air/fuel mixture a bit. Some guys enrich it a lot. Apparently rotaries love rich mixtures. Rich mixtures hurt gas economy and the sniffer test, but will help against pre-detonation, which leads me to the next point.
Second, advance the timing by 1- 3 degrees from stock. You thought that headers would give your butt dyno an impression, this one change rocked my world. This one adjustment made as much difference as installing the headers. It was like adding caffeine to the gas. You have to be careful with timing advance because too much will cause pre-detonation, which is a rotary killer. I eye-balled the advance, the width of the timing mark.
Go on a diet. "more power will make you go faster on the straights, less weight will make you go faster everywhere." Lose the louvers on the back window. I know it looks cool, but those things are heavy, and it's high on the tail. I removed all of the interior from the behind the seats back including the cargo boxes. Eventually I'll remove the forward interior pieces. Being small and light weight is the one big advantage of having one of these cars.
I have the whole RacingBeat suspension package and I've been really happy with it. But the last few times out on the track my weak link always came down to the tires. Hi-performance street tires are great for mountain roads and such, but out on the track tire temps go way beyond and the range of a street tire.
Read Jeff20B's write up on a cheap DIY high energy ingnition system:
DLIDFIS
Rear-end swap: Go with the GSL rear. The GSLSE rear is heavier, and the brakes are much larger. Unless you are going to change out the front brakes and calipers to -SE and the brake Master cylinder as well. I installed the GSL rear without changing out the Master cylinder and proportioning valve. Yes there is a small issue with brake bias now, but it's ok most of the time. If I try hard I can lock up the rear brakes first and cause a spin out. This will be much worse with the -SE rear in a GS. I installed all new solid rotors, hawk pads and braided lines. I can late brake deep into the turn just as well as the Miata racers. At least until my tires overheat.
As I said before, I'm new to making mods on my RX7, but I hope some of what I said here will help.
The first thing everyone needs to know before modding out their car is what is your goal? Are you just trying to make it a fun ride or are you planning on taking her out to the track? I'm slowly turning my RX7 into a track car. I won't be able to pass the sniffer test next time in a 1 1/2 yrs, but in the mean time she is still registered.
I'm going to ramble a bit, but here are some things that I encountered with my "track car in training."
After installing the headers your air/fuel will go lean and your idle may get worse. Two things to do here. One, find your idle mixture screw (base of the carb on the driver's side, might be capped off) and with the car warmed up, give the screw a quarter turn and test her out. You want to enrich the air/fuel mixture a bit. Some guys enrich it a lot. Apparently rotaries love rich mixtures. Rich mixtures hurt gas economy and the sniffer test, but will help against pre-detonation, which leads me to the next point.
Second, advance the timing by 1- 3 degrees from stock. You thought that headers would give your butt dyno an impression, this one change rocked my world. This one adjustment made as much difference as installing the headers. It was like adding caffeine to the gas. You have to be careful with timing advance because too much will cause pre-detonation, which is a rotary killer. I eye-balled the advance, the width of the timing mark.
Go on a diet. "more power will make you go faster on the straights, less weight will make you go faster everywhere." Lose the louvers on the back window. I know it looks cool, but those things are heavy, and it's high on the tail. I removed all of the interior from the behind the seats back including the cargo boxes. Eventually I'll remove the forward interior pieces. Being small and light weight is the one big advantage of having one of these cars.
I have the whole RacingBeat suspension package and I've been really happy with it. But the last few times out on the track my weak link always came down to the tires. Hi-performance street tires are great for mountain roads and such, but out on the track tire temps go way beyond and the range of a street tire.
Read Jeff20B's write up on a cheap DIY high energy ingnition system:
DLIDFIS
Rear-end swap: Go with the GSL rear. The GSLSE rear is heavier, and the brakes are much larger. Unless you are going to change out the front brakes and calipers to -SE and the brake Master cylinder as well. I installed the GSL rear without changing out the Master cylinder and proportioning valve. Yes there is a small issue with brake bias now, but it's ok most of the time. If I try hard I can lock up the rear brakes first and cause a spin out. This will be much worse with the -SE rear in a GS. I installed all new solid rotors, hawk pads and braided lines. I can late brake deep into the turn just as well as the Miata racers. At least until my tires overheat.
As I said before, I'm new to making mods on my RX7, but I hope some of what I said here will help.
01-28-13 | 03:27 AM
#12
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 693
Likes: 1
From: Schenectady, NY
I have an '85 GS as well, and already made some of the improvements that you first listed. Although I've had my RX7 for a number of years, I'm new to the modifications game as well. I kept mine totally stock aside from adding a CD player (mp3), for almost 20 years of ownership.
The first thing everyone needs to know before modding out their car is what is your goal? Are you just trying to make it a fun ride or are you planning on taking her out to the track? I'm slowly turning my RX7 into a track car. I won't be able to pass the sniffer test next time in a 1 1/2 yrs, but in the mean time she is still registered.
I'm going to ramble a bit, but here are some things that I encountered with my "track car in training."
After installing the headers your air/fuel will go lean and your idle may get worse. Two things to do here. One, find your idle mixture screw (base of the carb on the driver's side, might be capped off) and with the car warmed up, give the screw a quarter turn and test her out. You want to enrich the air/fuel mixture a bit. Some guys enrich it a lot. Apparently rotaries love rich mixtures. Rich mixtures hurt gas economy and the sniffer test, but will help against pre-detonation, which leads me to the next point.
Second, advance the timing by 1- 3 degrees from stock. You thought that headers would give your butt dyno an impression, this one change rocked my world. This one adjustment made as much difference as installing the headers. It was like adding caffeine to the gas. You have to be careful with timing advance because too much will cause pre-detonation, which is a rotary killer. I eye-balled the advance, the width of the timing mark.
Go on a diet. "more power will make you go faster on the straights, less weight will make you go faster everywhere." Lose the louvers on the back window. I know it looks cool, but those things are heavy, and it's high on the tail. I removed all of the interior from the behind the seats back including the cargo boxes. Eventually I'll remove the forward interior pieces. Being small and light weight is the one big advantage of having one of these cars.
I have the whole RacingBeat suspension package and I've been really happy with it. But the last few times out on the track my weak link always came down to the tires. Hi-performance street tires are great for mountain roads and such, but out on the track tire temps go way beyond and the range of a street tire.
Read Jeff20B's write up on a cheap DIY high energy ingnition system:
DLIDFIS
Rear-end swap: Go with the GSL rear. The GSLSE rear is heavier, and the brakes are much larger. Unless you are going to change out the front brakes and calipers to -SE and the brake Master cylinder as well. I installed the GSL rear without changing out the Master cylinder and proportioning valve. Yes there is a small issue with brake bias now, but it's ok most of the time. If I try hard I can lock up the rear brakes first and cause a spin out. This will be much worse with the -SE rear in a GS. I installed all new solid rotors, hawk pads and braided lines. I can late brake deep into the turn just as well as the Miata racers. At least until my tires overheat.
As I said before, I'm new to making mods on my RX7, but I hope some of what I said here will help.
The first thing everyone needs to know before modding out their car is what is your goal? Are you just trying to make it a fun ride or are you planning on taking her out to the track? I'm slowly turning my RX7 into a track car. I won't be able to pass the sniffer test next time in a 1 1/2 yrs, but in the mean time she is still registered.
I'm going to ramble a bit, but here are some things that I encountered with my "track car in training."
After installing the headers your air/fuel will go lean and your idle may get worse. Two things to do here. One, find your idle mixture screw (base of the carb on the driver's side, might be capped off) and with the car warmed up, give the screw a quarter turn and test her out. You want to enrich the air/fuel mixture a bit. Some guys enrich it a lot. Apparently rotaries love rich mixtures. Rich mixtures hurt gas economy and the sniffer test, but will help against pre-detonation, which leads me to the next point.
Second, advance the timing by 1- 3 degrees from stock. You thought that headers would give your butt dyno an impression, this one change rocked my world. This one adjustment made as much difference as installing the headers. It was like adding caffeine to the gas. You have to be careful with timing advance because too much will cause pre-detonation, which is a rotary killer. I eye-balled the advance, the width of the timing mark.
Go on a diet. "more power will make you go faster on the straights, less weight will make you go faster everywhere." Lose the louvers on the back window. I know it looks cool, but those things are heavy, and it's high on the tail. I removed all of the interior from the behind the seats back including the cargo boxes. Eventually I'll remove the forward interior pieces. Being small and light weight is the one big advantage of having one of these cars.
I have the whole RacingBeat suspension package and I've been really happy with it. But the last few times out on the track my weak link always came down to the tires. Hi-performance street tires are great for mountain roads and such, but out on the track tire temps go way beyond and the range of a street tire.
Read Jeff20B's write up on a cheap DIY high energy ingnition system:
DLIDFIS
Rear-end swap: Go with the GSL rear. The GSLSE rear is heavier, and the brakes are much larger. Unless you are going to change out the front brakes and calipers to -SE and the brake Master cylinder as well. I installed the GSL rear without changing out the Master cylinder and proportioning valve. Yes there is a small issue with brake bias now, but it's ok most of the time. If I try hard I can lock up the rear brakes first and cause a spin out. This will be much worse with the -SE rear in a GS. I installed all new solid rotors, hawk pads and braided lines. I can late brake deep into the turn just as well as the Miata racers. At least until my tires overheat.
As I said before, I'm new to making mods on my RX7, but I hope some of what I said here will help.
02-01-13 | 02:23 AM
#13
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 693
Likes: 1
From: Schenectady, NY
gonna go with fiberglass heat wrap on the new headers and a custom aluminum heat shield for them as well. waiting to order from por15 :paint remover, por15 regular, hardnose and then maybe a clear. cannot wait for warm weather!
02-08-13 | 05:35 PM
#14
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 693
Likes: 1
From: Schenectady, NY
Notice the professional 2x4 used to prop the motor up when removing the motor mounts and brace to get to the oil cooler line...dont worry I also have a jack stand under the motor just in case!
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