turbogarrett

iTrader: (1)

mine blew in the garage! at least the rotary gods let me get home, i guess. always check those silicone vacuum lines after doing a major project, ecspecially the one that goes to the fpr

Savington

Dad's got 80k miles on the FD, and he blew out the rear seals putting oil in it once. No apex seals yet; I guess it's cause he shortshifts it. Redline is like 5500rpm for him... *wacko*

rusty's_silver_bullet-7

I didn't even get to enjoy "popping" my own engine. My "tuner" popped it while delivering it to me (at my house).

I guess he didn't really count on passing my wife on the highway (at high speed). Of course, she called me immediately to tell me that my car was "racing" a 350Z at high speed on the highway and that my car strangely "pulled off" the highway after belching a huge cloud of dark smoke.

Sure enough, got the call soon after that there was "something wrong with my car". I spent $4500 dollars on upgrades and "tuning" and got my car back BROKEN

Lesson learned (the hard way!). Be very very careful who you have touch your car. Firstly, they will NEVER care about it like you do! Wake up Rusty!!!! and 2) There are so many "Rotary Witch-doctors" out there who are "could have beens" Only trust people who have proven REPEATEDLY that they have the goods.

Do they have a working car themselves?
Do they race? Do they win?
How long have they been in business?

Choser

This is nuts. I'm interested in getting a 7 myself but the stock 255HP w/ reliability mods is all that I'm interested in myself. Should I worry too much about this or am I guaranteed a good 40K miles or so on an engine?

rotary-tt

Hasn't popped in the 4 yrs I've owned it. Got 135k out of my old FC before it popped. That one had almost 10 yrs of 7k+ rpm daily running. A blown heater hose about a month prior killed the FC. Full throttle run from a stop on a hose I didn't replace. Overheated. A month later just slightly accelerating and turning it died.

Did blow the turbo cooling hose on the FD 3 yrs ago but did not overheat. Need to remember to replace all the cooling hoses at the sametime

rdavidsrx7

Mine went while driving up a hill hardly any boost just enough to hold my speed, then i went to pass a tractor trailer, and it felt like I tapped the brakes, but then I hear a chunk of apex seal shoot through the turbos and through my exhaust. Must have been that I was low on gas, and i suddenly ran very lean, which could be alot of the problems I have read here since many say it was around hard turns etc. Still drove it for a month before KD and Malloy Mazda hooked me up with a freebie. Damn I was so lucky and thankful for that.
Shoulda ported it while I had the chance though. Oh well...

fitzrx7

iTrader: (1)

hehe

Mine popped with a tire trailer in town on my way to an autocross on a REALLY cold Florida day (30F). Well, it was still running ok, not great, and I was pretty sure it was a seal. I retarded the timing, and it seamed to be fine over 4k rpms.

I headed to the autocross cause I figured I couldn't make it any worse, and I beat everyone there except for a Cobra kit car, a MG race car, and a MR-S with race tires!!!!! Then I drove it home and after checking compression I saw almost no compression on any stroke of the front rotor. Rebuilt it with the help of a friend and its still running great over a year later.

Jon

radkins

First oneoing a long pull in 5th gear and let loose. I was just around the corner from my house. Running full bolt-ons and M2 stage 3 ECU.

#2: Just installed TO4S and the tuner blew my 8 month old engine at midnight in Columbus. Rode a Greyhound bus home overnight to be at work the next day in Indy.

Montego

iTrader: (1)

Hey Radkins,

Whatever happened to your ordeal? Did it ever get resolved?

EVLFD

i popped mine during road rage with a kid in a accord.

cloud9

iTrader: (4)

damn dude what are your driving habits and how often do you drive your car?

TainoIndian

iTrader: (4)

i blew my first engine on my 93 at 95,000 miles i was on my to pick up my girlfriend and my car didnt go out in a bang it just slowly died a natural death it lost compression i was goign down a hill so i managed to get off the road and park in a no parking zone...i was pissed too my girl called me up late for a booty call. i walked home

radkins

No. Going to court soon.

Montego

iTrader: (1)

Good luck.


Make sure you let us know the outcome. That way we can finally put to rest the argument that the tuner is not held liable.

rotary-tt

Wait until it's fully warmed up then run it hard at least once each time. Change the oil frequently, keep it tuned up. Take it to Mazda for all repair work (NuCar Mazda in DE has been working on rotaries since the '70's).

It's worked for all 3 gens of RX-7's for me. All of the 7's were use as daily drivers although my FD has been a weekend car since June when we had a baby.

FYI: Nucar told me that the car looked like it had a new motor when I brought it to them right after I bought it (74k mi). Now has 91k. A Hawaiian Tropics girl owned it before me (no joke). Smelled nice for awhile after I got it - wish I knew the perfume. She did a good job of distracting me from looking at it too much before I bought it

Dan H

How did most of you guys get back home? Is it hard to keep the engine going after it blew since it would die out if you went under a certain RPM range? Did some of you guys had instances where the engine just failed to start?

Just curious. Sometimes I worry about going to a track event and blowing my engine about 100-150 miles away from home. And not being sure if I would make it back home.

rotary-tt

I have some experience with this on my '86. If it pops, just pull off to the side and get a tow.

I limped my '86 back home - bairly ran. I was only like a 1/2 mi away. Nearly caught the car on fire - running so rich that the cat was glowing like the sun. Also, I found out that I had warped a number of other things. Exhaust manifold was toast. Then I kept blowing intake gaskets. Guess what? It was warped too. So I had to replace the exhaust manifold, intake, precat and cat (the RB cat back was ok)...

machinis

103,000 miles later. On the way to work, 0 boost, no WOT, at about 45 mph on third gear. I guess it was bound to happen. Oh well, starting from 0 miles all over again. I really can't afford another rebuild right now, so I am keeping my heavy foot off the throttle.

AREITU

So many horror stories!

My friend abused his nearly stock, knighsports-flashed TII a good amount. It's running fine.

SoCalLove

Doing a freeway run w/ a friend in the car, talking about how reliable rotories were. Then pop! lol, well I'm going to order a reman today, and will be giving extra tlc to this new heart.

driFDer

iTrader: (1)

How likely is it to blow an engine thats bone stock and has around 80k on it thats driven 'casually'?

TracyRX7

No more likely than you blow up any other high performance engine with high miles on it. As you've seen on the thread people have had motors go doing all sorts of things. Just do stuff to minimize your chances...

1. Oil changes (every 3k, and check it every 500-1000 to keep it full [but don't overfill, thats worse than down a bit] as the engine burns some oil)
2. Spark plugs (every 10-15k miles or 1 yr)
3. Coolant (every 5-10k or per season [if you have seasons where you're at])
4. Buy gas at only "quality" stations that have high car volume. This will assure their premium hasn't been sitting for 6 months.
5. Drive the car 20 miles at least once a week. Letting a car sit for 4 months during winter isn't too good for it. The gas in your tank is sitting, all of the fluids are sitting, etc. If it is so bad winter wise where you are turn the car on in the garage and run it for 15-20 minutes a week (if its that cold you shouldn't overheat idling).
6. When your gas tank gets below half find a station and fill back up. This makes sure you don't have any baffle/hill issues causing your pump to get air when it REALLY needed fuel. This also minimzes the risk of "bad gas" since you'll be keeping it mixed half and half. The weight savings from low gas isn't worth the risk if you ask me (its around 120lbs for full tank so 90lbs saving at 1/4 tank...worth maybe 3-8hp and taking away some nice low weight by the rear axle).

I haven't popped the engine in my car yet (only 3.5k miles on it by me and 36k total since rebuild by a good shop). Hopefully I'm not able to vote on this thread for at least another couple of years.