Guys,

This is a real emergency, got my JDM car stuck in Custom Office because they can´t find the engine number plate anywhere.

In my country, Chile, the engine number is a MUST for registration, so they HAVE TO find it.

If I don´t show it today to the custom office agent he will reject the Importation and we won´t have a second chance until two weeks.

Would anybody tell me where is the damn engine number ??

Attached is my underhood picture...

 

Sorry, here´s the pic.

Any help is welcome...

Gracias..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

If i remember the engine number on a 13B is on the front plate underneath the alternator
You may have to remove some items to be able to see it.

Tell Customs to break out their 12MM sockets

 

jajajajajaja....

Really...!!! have to remove stuff to watch the number ??

Damn..!!!! It means I will have to take the car not running and over a truck for the guy to see the number ???

Can´t believe it... What was Mazda thinking about ??????

 

Drive there. Tell agent to bust out 12mm socket. Start remove. Drive home happy

 

Mazda was thinking of selling the FD in countries where you would not need to see the engine plaque to register it. They never sold the FD in Chile. At the time Chile you couldn't market that type of car there. The only place i know where they sold it in brand new in South America was Venezuela. He was contracted by Mazda North America to perform warranty work there as there were no rotary mechanics familiar with the car.

If you were a die hard rotary freak like all of us, you would forgive them in this instance
and help that customs guy by busting out that 12MM and turning that wrench yourself.

 

Well, I´ve got to make a correction to that.

Mazda RX7 was officially imported to Chile, sold by Official Dealer during 1993 -1995. I got JDM because of money saving. Probably when Local dealer imported units he requested Mazda to write down the Engine number on the invoice or something like that.

Anyway, I know the custom agent will be a lazy *** and will reject me if I ask him to take out one single bolt of the car. I will have to do it myself....

Let´s see...

100% sure there´s no way to see it without removing anything ??

 

Mazda was thinking, hey, this motor is not gonna be in here in a few years... its like numbering brake pads . It's a semi disposable item, like ikea furniture. What happens if they find the number plate but it doesnt match anything cause the motor has been replaced? What if you replace the motor cause it blows up? Not trying to bother you, it's a crappy customs policy... Good Luck!!!

 

Si claro la culpa es de Mazda por las leyes de tu país.

Translation: Yes of course it's Mazda's fault for your country's laws.

If the engine number is not visible suck it up get a wrench and start taking **** off. Dude if this little tibid is actually causing some grief you bought the wrong the car man. As this car is one big *** headache.

Save yourself the headache and just be prepared to do it yourself. For the most part the only time customs agents get their hands dirty is when they are trying to bust people with contraband.

When trying to import an item into any country: it's basically your reponsibility to provide the proof of legalities to the agent. Their main job is to see that everything is in order and if it is then they rubber stamp the thing through. Expecting them to tear stuff apart for you is just not realistic because all they have to do is reject it. No sweat off their back.

Mazda's fault? Lazy ***? Dude you have an odd sense of responsibility. You are trying to go outside the box by importing an FD into your country. Yet you blame mazda and then call the customs agent lazy. But give yourself zero fault for not researching what you needed to have done before attempting this. Nice

 

Hey..!!!

Don´t get to serious about this..!!!

What´s your problem ??

I know A LOT about cars market, during the last 5 years I´ve worked in the Best Sold Car Brand in my country, just in our market we have 75 Different Car Brands from all over the world, probably the most diversified car market in the world, and because of my job I need to know a little about all of them.

And this was the first time I hear about an engine number location issue in an imported car, never heard it even from the local RX7 owners; and doing some research just realized Mazda local dealer approved the use of Chassis Number as Engine Number.

I will print that paper and take it to custom office.

And let me tell that if I go through all this process is because I LOVE the car and the engine, otherwise I would do this for a Skyline, a Silvia or an EVO, same price in japan than an RX7.

Anyway, thanks for the advice, next time I get a car first question & research will be about important stuff... Like engine number location...

 

the rotary engine layout doesn't allow the label to be seen to the naked eye as easily as say a Renault or a Seat. The rotary engine especially in a FD is buried underneath a ton of crap.
From the photo you posted, i was under the impression you expected the serial number to be there in front of you and you weren't familiar with the layout of our cars. Obviously you now see that it is different

We're only knocking you about the comment "What was Mazda thinking about?"
Well that's where the motor goes and its location in the car is vital to it's handling characteristics.
On a Skyline or Supra, because of a straight six design, im sure the engine number is easier to find.

 

1. the number is STAMPED into the front iron, on top, it'll be to the left of the alternator.

2. the engine number will NOT match the vin, or any other number on the car. even if it is the original one.

3. in theory mazda japan has the engine number in their file, but depending on the build date it may not be available, as they didn't go computer until sometime in the early 90's. i was able to call mazda usa with a european vin number and they contacted japan, and would have given me the key code if they had it.

4. if the front iron was replaced with a NEW one, it will not have a stamp

like rotormotor says, nobody is going to steal the FD for the engine....

 

Hola

El numero esta en la primer tapa, arriba de todo, mirando desde el frente del auto, a la derecha

siempre esta sucio y dificil de ver.

Trata de buscarlo por atras de las correas. Quizas si, tengas que remover mas de una cosa, que le vamos a hacer

Saludos desde Argentina

 

pretty much all of the above is true, just hope and pray that they don't require the engine serial number to match anything on the car because even brand new off the showroom floor only mazda had some tiny way of corresponding the engines to the chassis.

luckily these aren't hondas and are rarely stolen otherwise cops would give all 7 owners grief because they would have no way of determining whether our engines are stolen or not without an official mazda correspondence sheet.

 

I apologize I came off a little harsh. Like I said this car will try your patience. If you blame mazda for something at simple as this, give it a years time and you will want to set this car on fire lol This is an awsome car and I love mine to death but it has some short commings right out of the box.

Vast majority of issues can be addressed though: the plastic AST and radiator, precat that is gets clogged, Stock IC being way inneffective, the 72 vaccuum hoses that go bad if thay aren't already bad, non rebuildable stock turbos (yeah they can be rebuilt but they wont last), Fuel pulsation dampener (fire!), Oil metering pump (ouch if this thing goes bad), motor mounts, pillow *****, 5th gear synchro, plastic interior (as plastic pieces will break). Note all of those issues are immidiately eclipsed when you have a proper runing FD. As it's just pure bliss...

 

https://www.rx7club.com/showpost.php...09&postcount=3

 

Guys,

Just came back from Custom Office Inspection Facility.

I made a great report about Rotaries and Engine Number, based on all your comment over here.

The Custom Inspector didn´t even asked to see the engine number I gave him (chassis number), so everything went well and I´ll have the car in my garage Monday morning.

Thanks a lot for all you support (again....), I owe each one of you a bottle of the best Red Chilean Wine...



Saludos desde Chile...!!!!

 

i loved living in santiago at the end of 2009, wish you had the fd sooner and we could have met up and perhaps had a little car meet. chile was much nicer then where im from, in canada it just snowed last week. anyways glad you figured out the issue and have fun with it