03/08/87

What kind of preventive maintenance can be done to the chassis?

Exactly where is the chassis on these cars? Would the FSM tell me?

It would be nice if we could protect the steering, suspension, driveline, and w/e else is under the car and holds it together.

Acesanugal

iTrader: (5)

These are Unibody cars. There are subframes in place for the front and rear suspension.

ZeroDrift

iTrader: (1)

Keep the car as a daily. To keep the chassis alive- consider filling the voids w/ structural foam, not stitch welding. The stitch welding is more difficult and time consuming and typically requires a complete paint job. Too much effort for car that would be better suited to a daily driver in my opinion. Here is a link that is helpful. <<<link>>>

I'm actually about to do this to my Rx-7. My girlfriend did this to her '99 Miata with amazing results!

cmanns

Whats the treatment do when you put water into the engine while its running, through the intake.

I forget, we did that to my buddy's SA and my FC, both seem'd to rev quicker and start better. His SA also went closer to the redline after doing it.

Jpk3200

Keep it. It looks good.

InGroundEffect

I bought my 87 in 91 with 210,000 miles. Drove the snot out of it to almost 280,000 miles when it was rebuilt due to a broken corner seal. I drove the car from Tulsa to Winter Haven Florida to ISC for the rebuild with the bad seal.

The chassis now has over 300,000 miles and does regular track duty.

I say keep it and repair things as they break.

Syncro

iTrader: (1)

The chassis isn't worn out... unless you meant rust?

230k isn't that bad, either

brandonn

are those the seat covers on ebay? how do they feel/fit . . was gonna get them haha

clean car btw

TehMonkay

iTrader: (-1)

so the subframe is welded to the frame of the car?

If you can get a new subframe, i'd say keep it, otherwise, i dont think so.

It will at least need new bushings, balljoints tierods and shocks and wheel bearings.

Then a rebuild engine and transmission.

And at that mileage im sure youre at the point to where you need at least new bearings in the diff, right?

LSD-Ryu

That is very clean. I like it. For some reason I really dig the interior.

My GTU is at 212k original miles on the engine. Got the compression tested and it's at 96psi for front and 88 for back. Or something to that extent. Car runs great, needs oil lines cuz of a leak, but other then that...

BrettLinton7

iTrader: (33)

Subframe is fine, the front differential mount snapped, so the nose of the diff was just welded to the sub frame... And now I can happily say the car's about to hit 240,000. I recently had the dynamic chamber off and replaced a fuel line as well as a a few vacuum lines. I think I'm just going to keep the car until it breaks, then buy another one. Then I'll have another car to get whatever off of. I also plan to paint the dash black and do the top half of the interior to black a few months after the new year when I'll say goodbye to my license for a few months. Anyways, this was kinda cool to see a thread I made pop back up after a few months

alexdimen

iTrader: (13)

Sounds like you'll need a mess of ball joints, bushings, mounts, rod ends, etc... pretty soon. That said, it's a tough call because if you decide to buy another FC, it will likely need those things too, just a little less badly.

If everything still works smoothly (including the electronics) and it isn't hacked, I would keept it as a project.

1st7

iTrader: (1)

Bought my car at 222,000 my car is at 229,963 and will hit 230,000 plus tomorrow as its my daily driver....all the electrical works great......even the stock alalrm
Did the seafoam thing......replace the struts and springs......changed all the fluids.....
oil changes at 3,000 using Castrol GTX.

Runs great.....i know its going to need more work.....

But i love it............................

BrettLinton7

iTrader: (33)

yes, the elecrical system's fine, besides the retarted door buzzer that 'flatlines' and the messed up seat belt light. And of course the alternator needs upgrading But that's really it. And whatever I replace on this car can go on the next FC I have, so yeah. And DTSS eliminators are next on my list.

BrettLinton7

iTrader: (33)

these were 22 bucks at autozone, and they fit decent. But only because I stretched them and removed the seat slider brackets when I installed them.

thanks

Brice_Brice

I think you have to keep that...the average car buyer isnt looking for a 230k mi. rotary...I hope it makes it to 300

kustomizingkid

iTrader: (2)

Keep it and mod it. Odds are any other car you will buy will have similar suspension wear. You might buy another car and have a coolant seal crap out at110k and your engine might go to 300k. If you put every dollar into fixing up your car that would go into buyign another one you could easily rebuild the entire suspension.

Roarke

Holy crap. Pardon my french, but 210 THOUSAND miles in THREE years!!!!!!!!
Not even I drive 70k/year.

Did you buy that back in '06 when you registered? under 8k miles/year is impressive in my book.
I have a 100 mile round trip commute to do every day. Thank god for carpooling.
And no, I don't use my RX-7 for that.. lol

EDIT: P.S. Keep it! You can't get rid of a car like that, its disloyal to the car! (I'm the most logical person I know, and I put sentimental value in cars more than in humans... lol)

BTW Clean car.. After I clean the dirt out of mine, I'm hoping it'll be that clean.

Roarke

Jager

iTrader: (10)

I love seeing FC's in good shape with high miles.

Just shows what a responsible owner can do.

TehMonkay

iTrader: (-1)

Just replace the subframe and do everything i said. It'll last you still 400+k miles i'm sure of it.

BrettLinton7

iTrader: (33)

like I said, that incident never happend...

and now we pray, for 250K

BrettLinton7

iTrader: (33)

Wow this is old... I starting looking over my old threads thinking 'God what was I thinking?' Why not an update on the FC?

I've still got it now, and I've got another tornado silver FC as a parts car and a red 85 FB. I had a 91 'vert but semi-parted it out, robbed it's S5 goodies, traded parts for a low mileage motor, and sold it. But for this particular car, I've:

• Swapped in another transmission and clutch
• Replaced the exhaust with a Pacesetter header and passenger exit Apex'i N1 catback
• Replaced that Apex'i catback with a custom one with dual MazdaSpeed cans.
• Swapped in a complete S5 black interior
• Replaced the 2+2 seats with practical black bins
• Added power windows, remote keyless entry, and a full pioneer stereo system
• Added some subs, but not to get black, just for some beat
• Swapped the hubs to 5-lug with the bigger front brakes
• Put on since 17x7.5 R1 5R (Volk GTC knockoffs) with 235/45/17 tires
• Added a T2 front sway bar and a cheap front strut bar
• Replaced the differential, and have an S4 LSD one waiting with the low mileage motor to go in
• Added S5 bumpers, and painting the S5 side molding soon to go on the car
• Added S5 tails and an S4 sport spoiler
• Wired open the 5/6 ports (until I add a high-flow cat soon)
• Swapped sunroof drain pans, since mine was rusted
• Added an S5 alternator
• Put on S5 foglights
• Swapped the idiot light panel to an 88 blacked out one.
• Added an Aluminum black T2 hood
• Added S5 black Aero mirrors
• Bought an Odula S5 bumper lip, bit it's waiting to be refinished due to an accident...
• Swapped redline buzzers and relocated it to above the window
• Added RacingBeat springs and KYB GR2 shocks
• And much more...

I've also replaced: the alternator and starter 2x, the clutch 2x, the water pump, radiator, fuel pump and strainer, differential mount, and whatever else I'm forgetting. Did I mention I've also gotten... 5 tickets since then? Exhaust, exhaust, suspension, speeding, noise ordinance...

And now, sitting in my driveway next to the FB cooling down, the car's odometer reads 272,8XX stock miles. I just thought it'd be cool to post up the car's progress and everything from 2 years ago. I'd love to try to make the motor hit 300K, but before I sell the FB I think I'm going to park the FC, swap motors and rear ends, and possibly do a little bit of body work. Who knows though, everything's always changing with this car Hopefully that covered it all!

-Brett

ultrataco

iTrader: (2)

wow.

I was reading through list expecting to see "rebuilt engine"

BrettLinton7

iTrader: (33)

Haha, not yet. Even though you can feel the wear on the engine and people think you're a retard for still driving around in it, who can say they're running a stock build 270K n/a that still runs well? Believe it or not, I was driving with a friend up in the mountains a while back, and he was in a 89 GTU with 37,XXX miles, all kinds of RacingBeat goodies like springs and sways and strut bars, and he told me to pass him since I was always on his bumper, and later asked what size turbo I was running So it's still got a little bit of pep to it.

incubuseva

iTrader: (13)

You should have a compression test done just to see what it is. A real compression test.

My 91 NA had 208,005 original miles before I swapped a turbo motor in it. The only real reason why I did that was because I broke the exhaust header stud off (twice!) + didn't want to dick with it anymore. She ran great too.


Keep her running!