rdtrx7

Hi all! I need to begin posting so I can sell the RX7 in my garage sitting on four flats. I thought I'd begin by telling the story of how it ended up there. It's quite and odyssey and I think all you RX7 nuts will enjoy it.
About 14 years ago our son turned 16 and needed a car. We bought him a salvge title vehicle (Pontiac 6000...Yuck). It was an ok car but nothing special. He was quite a good kid so I began looking for something he would be proud of. We live in Waterloo Iowa. At that time there was a a company out of Fort Dodge named Zuspan (spelling might not be right) that sold repossessed/salvage/etc type vehicles. They were advertising an '86 Rx7 for $2400. Mike was going to be in a baseball tournament in Fort Dodge in about 6 weeks so I kept watching the asking price every week. When we went to the tournament, I snuck off to Zuspan and looked at the car. It ran pretty good and I bought it for $1400. I drove it to the ball park and showed Mike. He asked "They let you drive it"? I replied "No, I bought it. Its your car and I'll take the Pontiac 6000". (At the time I had no idea what a good deal that was for me!!) The tournament ended and we began to drive home, me driving the RX, Mike in the passenger seat and Mom in the van following. As we neared Webster City there was a funny clicking noise coming from the motor. I looked at the temperature gage and it was pegged max hot! After it stopped running and I coasted to a stop I realized three things. I had bought a worthless piece of crap, Dad probably looked a little stupid and I was 100 miles from home with a car that didn't run. I now had a good looking car with a crappy motor.
We found a tow truck that dropped the car off in Webster City at a gas station. We drove home. The next day we rented a trailer and drove back to Webster City. We managed to get the car on the trailer by using the starter with the car in gear (Thank God it was a 5 spd) and we pulled it home. We live half way up a hill. I pulled it to the top of the hill, got it off the trailer with the starter and coasted into the drive way. After a couple of days of trying to start it, it was obvious the motor was gone.
I called the local Mazda dealer and asked about rebuilds. Somehow I got to the parts department and that's when I first met Todd. I found out he was an RX7 nut. He raced them, rebuilt them and changed out blown motors with used ones (that was me!!). He said he would be glad to do mine.
I began looking for used motors. I finally bought on from Pennslyvania for $500 delivered (68,000 miles....well maybe). They shipped it. It got lost. They found it in Minneapolis. Finally it showed up at our home. I can still remember backing up our van to the back of this 40' trailer in front of our house and with me, Mom and the truck driver sliding it off the back of the trailer into our van. When your motivated, you can do great things. We took the motor to Todd, he put it in or RX and life was good.
Mike had a best friend who had a mouth on him. This kid managed to insult some people while he was with Mike in the RX. Next thing they know the insulted are chasing after Mike and his friend. Bottom line Mike drives of the road into a culvert to avoid a collision and wrecks. Other cars are strewn all over the place. When we get there nobody is hurt (thank God) and the police are giving tickets to everybody... but Mike (I told you he was a good kid). We have the car towed to Todd's. Now I have a crappy car with a good motor.
I began looking for a donator body. I found one in Brooklyn Park Minnesota. Mom and I rented another trailer, drive up there and buy it. The guy we bought it from was quite knowledgeable. He told us the head gasket of his RX was bad and offered to lown us a couple of 2x4's to help us drive his RX up onto our trailer. (Good Grief!!) We got the car onto the trailer, drove home and dropped it off at Todd's.
It took Todd a while but he finally got the motor changed out. Life was good again. I bought and installed a header, cat back exhaust and an Edelbrock muffler to replace the catalytic converter (OOOPS, have I just addmitted to commiting a crime!!). The RX ran great and the exhaust note was perfect. Life was even better.
One day my wife and I are in our back yard drinking some wine (another odyssey). I hear the RX coming up the hill (the exhaust note was quite special). All of a sudden the exhaust sounds totally different. Mike pulls into the drive way and says he lost power all of a sudden. Yep...apex seal went by by. Once again I have a good looking car with a crappy motor.
This time we decided to have the motor rebuilt. So that Mike would have something to drive, we bought a Dodge Shadow turbo for him. (This would become a mini odyssey. I bought a $25 gizzmo to control the boost. It took me 8 hours to install it. In any gear, if you floored it, the boost would go to 6 PSI and stay there until 3000 RPM when it would instantaneously go to 14/15 PSI. I remember being in third gear and flooring it and having the tires break loose when it hit 3000 RPM. Mike had a lot of fun with that car.) We have the RX towed to Todd's. He removes the motor and we send it Hayes Rotary in Washington. (This was back in 1998. I think his quality was excellent back then because the motor we got was amazing). He balanced the motor to within 2 grams, improved the oiling, added some fancy heat controlling coatings and gave us '93 rotor housings from the turbos. Todd finally installed the motor (it kept taking longer every time we went back to him). I also sent the intake manifold out to Paul Yaw for porting. He ended up doing a one of a kind porting for us. He epoxied a divider in the middle of the radius on the side of the manifold that has the longest runner length to the engine. He said that this allowed him to do more porting than he ever could with this particular manifold. I'm not sure why he couln't replicate this on other manifolds but he did say he couldn't.
At first this motor ran ok but it idled like crap. I asked Todd what he thought the problem was. He said I had an electrical problem, got on his Harley and rode off into the sunset never to be seen again (it was a divorce thing). I felt lost and betrayed. After much research I discovered that the computer could go lean if the motor flowed too much air. I bought a rheostat from radio shack for $1.50 and spliced it into the signal from the thermostat. I tricked the motor into thinking the engine temperature was lower than it really was and it spit out more gas. Holy **** did it run good!!
About this time, Mike finds a girl, falls in love, gets married and moves to Rochester Minnesota. The Mazda becomes mine (as if it wasn't from the beginning). But over time I have lost interest so now it sits on four flats in the garage and our daughter in law thinks we're ******** (never new an RX that would think that). So it's time for it to go.
I've just read what I've written and I find it theraputical. There was a movie called "Witing to Exhale" and somehow I feel it fits me. I feel like I have exorcised myself.
This is my first post so I am a virgin to this site, please be gentle with me. I don't know how to reply to any of you responces. At 63 years old I'm still confused how this whole internet thing works. I just hope you've all enjoyed my story.

Thanks Randy

blackdbl0si

Cliff notes:

Guy buys RX7 for son, blows up on the way home, new motor and all is well. Son wrecks car due to loud mouth friend, Dad buys new chasis puts in good motor, all is well. Son is driving 7 home and car "Loses power". One motor rebuild later and all is well. Son moves to MN and gets married and loses interest in 7. Now the car sits in the garage on 4 flat tires.

Sorry man, just shortening things up for the ADD crowd.

BTW I have family in the Fort Dodge area. Farmhamville and Gowrie to be exact.

manveru

helluva a life that car's been through. fix the flats and have fun in it man!

RotorBalls

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the cliffs