85 Mazda Rx-7

I am looking for some suggestions/advice on how to get the most preformance out of my 85 GSl Rx-7. I am looking for more power and better handling. The car has 25,000 miles on it and I am not looking to do anything drastic to it (i.e. changing engines, tranny changes, N.O.S, etc.). Anybody have any ideas???

BadAssRX-7

drop in a K&n filer/kit and slap on a good exh setup...header, highflow cat and muffler and thats about all you can do and keep it simple. and DONT get pace setter or monza they SUCK

Winnipeg85GSL

If you want to get even more power go with a 4bbl holley carb. You can get em from racing beat. For handling get a sway bar and maybe a strut tower brace. also found at:
www.racingbeat.com

85 Mazda Rx-7

Hey how much power do you think I could get out of a new carb? And also, I was looking at Turbos, but would that create too much heat and pressure for my carburated Rx-7?

error402

I totally agree with BadAssRX-7 on the pace setter headers and monza muffler(rust, and a metallic cheap sound). I have a monza mufflers and had problems installing it(doesnt line up worth a crap), the only reason why I still have it is because it was cheap and the original muffler was falling apart. The header sucks major donkey. Prediller holes were off, and where the to pipes meet there is left over metal inside of the header. Poor craftmanship. So, I sent it back to get my money, what a waste of time.

GT1

On my 84 GSL I am using the RB header and a stainless pre and a stainless muffler, with mandrel piping I had done and it works great, shoots big flames and a bit noisy but it produced really good gains from 3.5k up without too much low end loss. For the intake I use a 45mm Weber DCOE and it also produced really big gains in power, but unfortunatly also stomps fuel milage down to a pathetic mpg. And definately toss in some Magnicor wires and some MSD Blaster SS coils they have worked well too. With the suspension try do the Energy Suspension bushings, they really help tighten the car up, the 16-17 year old stock ones are pretty nasty by now.

yayarx7

Throwing in my 2 pennies........

Ok, First thing is to get a RB or Mindtrain exhaust. Then buy an extra carb/intake manifold and send it off to Yawpower for their magic. Remove all the smog equipment and install a dual allternator pulley. Install some really good plug wires, and fab some sort of cold air intake for your K&N. Put in an upgraded clutch to handle the power/abuse, and lightweight flywheel while you are there. Add high performance brake pads with SS lines to slow you down.

On the supension side GOOD TIRES (maybe plus sizing?), then some tokico illuminas(good) or HP's(cheap) and aftermarket springs (jurys still out on the brand). Tighten up the front end with poly end link bushings or better yet a bigger sway bar.

Of course all this assumes that all the pieces and parts are up to factory spec. ie steering box, pitman arm bushings, shifter bushings, lower control arm ball joints, ect.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

speckamp

I guess that depends on the carb. I'm a 13B guy, so I don't know. As for turbo, that's not a "simple" mod. You'ld have to fab the kit yourself, at which point the stock carb, fuel pump, exhaust, (and possably, tranny, rear end, cooling system, ect..) will need to be replaced. This type of thing is not for the light hearted.

You're better off getting a nice exhaust, advancing the timing a touch (search the forum for specs), rigging a cold air intake (again, search the forum, there are pics and such out there), and going from there. Maybe a yaw carb, or buy Felix's Webber 45DCOE setup off him, he'd love you for that. If you do too much you're going to need a fuel pump and regulator ANYWAY, the stock carb'd pump is notoriously lame.

As for handling, poly bushings (available through mazdatrix, suspension techniques, ect.) in the front end will do wonders, slap on some decent rubber (if you have the cash, ditch the OEM 13" rims and go to at least 14" or 15", or just go wider tires) if you want a stiffer suspension, a set of Tokico HP shocks / struts and Eibach springs (look on my site for a write up of the different the shocks and springs made) are a good choice, if you want adjustibility, get the Tokico Illumina shocks / struts. Racingbeat also has a selection of larger sway bars, which you might want to look into. RX-7.com has a whole kit of matched bars and shocks and springs you can buy all at once.

Ok, I think I'm done. Let us know how it all works out

--matt