I must be crazy or @$$ing stupid... (Look what pulled up in my driveway 56K no-no)
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I must be crazy or @$$ing stupid... (Look what pulled up in my driveway 56K no-no) NOTE: Vids are posted of a few of the problems.... They are in bold.
Out of stupidity or my raging hormones, I decided to buy a 1987 N/A FC3S...
Im keeping my EM2 as a daily-driver, and hopefully, I'll be able to make the FC3S ready for drift (YES WOOHOO FANBOY FTW), and with it some cosmetic mods.
Mileage is unknown, (odometer doesnt work, it keeps fluctuating from 70,000-80,000). Clean title (although this car was used as a lease-vehicle for 5 years...) Since its pretty old being '87, im guessing it has around +200k?
Runs, but need ALOT of work.
I thought it was a decent deal. $800 cash
I have no idea what package/trim is, and while on the subject of what I dont know, you can basically add everything that has to do with wankel.
Hoping to get alot of help from the RX7 community and my beloved civic's.
First things first. What worries me the most are:
1) Transmission/gear box/ or whatever the heck is funky with the shifting...
The shiftknob, along with the whole shaft is freaking loose as hell. Just with a slight touch, it'll move.
"Neutral" in this case is in between first and second gear... It just hangs back there by default. Hence shifting in this car is a little bit tricky.
(For the first few seconds of the video, it seemed like I moved the gear in between 5th and reverse, but you would be wrong.)
Shifting between gears is a bad feeling too. First, you need to put some force into it, and then you hear and feel the loud racy metallic *CRUNCH* of the gears changing.
Then, when you step on the gas, it FEELS AND SOUNDS like metal rubbing against each other...
LINK OF THE PROBLEM WITH THE SHIFTER
And A VID OF THE START-UP, the grinding noises in the background is the sound when I let go of the clucth. For some reason, when I step on the clucth, the sound goes away and comes back on if I let go. (Turn your sound up, its just a tad bit hard to hear)
Also, note that the RPM drops everytime I let go of the clutch, and come back up when I step on it again. The entire clutch problem is apparent even when driving the car.
2) Brakes. I dont know if its the fluid or the pads, but theres ALOT of resistance whenever I press on it, and not enough stoppage to constitute for it. You ever have those dreams where your driving, and your about to fall off a cliff or about to hit something-someone, and you step on the brakes, but find out the brakes dont work? Yeah... it feels something like that.
3) The engine itself. I would like a new motor thats under > 60,000 hopefully
Now theres a bg freaking problem with the engine. After driving it for 5-10 min, I popped open the hood, and it sounded like somewhere in the engine, there was a hissing noise. Like the sound of a tea-kettle boiling, or the sound of a mortar about to land (just like those war movies)... And I noticed this:
The coolant seal-thingy looked fine except underneath the cap, tiny bubbles were boiling over it, and making the hissing noise. This happens every time I take out the car now.
A VIDEO OF THE SOUND AND THE BUBBLES ERUPTING (the sound is the actual sound coming from the cap)
Bad times. Maybe this has something to do with the "ADD COOLANT" light on the dash, but I checked the coolant and it looked fine. It looked enough, and no murky gas or build-up in it:
So iono. Maybe just replacing the engine in itself will save time and money rather than go through every little detail. But the problems dont end there....
4) Did I mention the dash/meters? First off, the only meter that seems to work NORMALLY is the temp. gauge. Other than that, everything else seems to be on crack. The odometer is broken as I mentioned above, and the RPM gauge is sorta freelancing on its own. I mean it works somewhat, but it seems like its really innacurate. The speedometer bounces up and down depending on how fast I'm going per every 10-15 mph (literally bouncing up and down)
IE: If im going 5-15 mph, itll bounce about 1 inch up-and-down from 0 mph- 10 mph... If im going 30-40, itll bounce about an inch from 20-30mph, that sort of thing.
IN THIS VIDEO, YOU CAN SEE THE NEEDLE bouncing just a little bit up and down from 5 mph... (It gets larger if I turn up the throttle)
5) And last, but not least, these babies (note, dual.. not single). Ill let the pictures do the talking.
The lefty:
And the righty:
I dont know when this atricious act occured, but it passed smog on 2005... In California...... which I dont understand... The fumes from the gasoline is pretty bad btw. errrr... it might be the coolant... either way, something is leaking.
Yup... That about sums it up. Im not trying to make this POS look like something from a movie, with crazy flashing under-glow kits, NOS and what-not, but just something that I can eventually make into another daily-driver and somewhat fun to drive in.
Probably the flashiest thing I'll have done to this is a CF hood; the freaking stock hood is pretty damn heavy.
The budget im looking at is practically pennies. Army pay just quite doesnt cut it... Maybe I should go active-duty.... hmmmmmm
. I just want to save as much $$$ as possible without endorsing APC, OBX, GHETTO R' US in any way. 
Suggestions?
Tips?
Solutions for any problems?
Good (AND CHEAP) spots in Northern-California that can help out?
ANYTHING is helpful to me at this point.
some random shots of the bay:
Out of stupidity or my raging hormones, I decided to buy a 1987 N/A FC3S...
Im keeping my EM2 as a daily-driver, and hopefully, I'll be able to make the FC3S ready for drift (YES WOOHOO FANBOY FTW), and with it some cosmetic mods.
Mileage is unknown, (odometer doesnt work, it keeps fluctuating from 70,000-80,000). Clean title (although this car was used as a lease-vehicle for 5 years...) Since its pretty old being '87, im guessing it has around +200k?
Runs, but need ALOT of work.
I thought it was a decent deal. $800 cash
I have no idea what package/trim is, and while on the subject of what I dont know, you can basically add everything that has to do with wankel.
Hoping to get alot of help from the RX7 community and my beloved civic's.
First things first. What worries me the most are:
1) Transmission/gear box/ or whatever the heck is funky with the shifting...
The shiftknob, along with the whole shaft is freaking loose as hell. Just with a slight touch, it'll move.
"Neutral" in this case is in between first and second gear... It just hangs back there by default. Hence shifting in this car is a little bit tricky.
(For the first few seconds of the video, it seemed like I moved the gear in between 5th and reverse, but you would be wrong.)
Shifting between gears is a bad feeling too. First, you need to put some force into it, and then you hear and feel the loud racy metallic *CRUNCH* of the gears changing.
Then, when you step on the gas, it FEELS AND SOUNDS like metal rubbing against each other...
LINK OF THE PROBLEM WITH THE SHIFTER
And A VID OF THE START-UP, the grinding noises in the background is the sound when I let go of the clucth. For some reason, when I step on the clucth, the sound goes away and comes back on if I let go. (Turn your sound up, its just a tad bit hard to hear)
Also, note that the RPM drops everytime I let go of the clutch, and come back up when I step on it again. The entire clutch problem is apparent even when driving the car.
2) Brakes. I dont know if its the fluid or the pads, but theres ALOT of resistance whenever I press on it, and not enough stoppage to constitute for it. You ever have those dreams where your driving, and your about to fall off a cliff or about to hit something-someone, and you step on the brakes, but find out the brakes dont work? Yeah... it feels something like that.
3) The engine itself. I would like a new motor thats under > 60,000 hopefully
Now theres a bg freaking problem with the engine. After driving it for 5-10 min, I popped open the hood, and it sounded like somewhere in the engine, there was a hissing noise. Like the sound of a tea-kettle boiling, or the sound of a mortar about to land (just like those war movies)... And I noticed this:The coolant seal-thingy looked fine except underneath the cap, tiny bubbles were boiling over it, and making the hissing noise. This happens every time I take out the car now.
A VIDEO OF THE SOUND AND THE BUBBLES ERUPTING (the sound is the actual sound coming from the cap)
Bad times. Maybe this has something to do with the "ADD COOLANT" light on the dash, but I checked the coolant and it looked fine. It looked enough, and no murky gas or build-up in it:
So iono. Maybe just replacing the engine in itself will save time and money rather than go through every little detail. But the problems dont end there....
4) Did I mention the dash/meters? First off, the only meter that seems to work NORMALLY is the temp. gauge. Other than that, everything else seems to be on crack. The odometer is broken as I mentioned above, and the RPM gauge is sorta freelancing on its own. I mean it works somewhat, but it seems like its really innacurate. The speedometer bounces up and down depending on how fast I'm going per every 10-15 mph (literally bouncing up and down)
IE: If im going 5-15 mph, itll bounce about 1 inch up-and-down from 0 mph- 10 mph... If im going 30-40, itll bounce about an inch from 20-30mph, that sort of thing.
IN THIS VIDEO, YOU CAN SEE THE NEEDLE bouncing just a little bit up and down from 5 mph... (It gets larger if I turn up the throttle)
5) And last, but not least, these babies (note, dual.. not single). Ill let the pictures do the talking.
The lefty:
And the righty:
I dont know when this atricious act occured, but it passed smog on 2005... In California...... which I dont understand... The fumes from the gasoline is pretty bad btw. errrr... it might be the coolant... either way, something is leaking.
Yup... That about sums it up. Im not trying to make this POS look like something from a movie, with crazy flashing under-glow kits, NOS and what-not, but just something that I can eventually make into another daily-driver and somewhat fun to drive in.
Probably the flashiest thing I'll have done to this is a CF hood; the freaking stock hood is pretty damn heavy.
The budget im looking at is practically pennies. Army pay just quite doesnt cut it... Maybe I should go active-duty.... hmmmmmm
. I just want to save as much $$$ as possible without endorsing APC, OBX, GHETTO R' US in any way. Suggestions?
Tips?
Solutions for any problems?
Good (AND CHEAP) spots in Northern-California that can help out?
ANYTHING is helpful to me at this point.
some random shots of the bay:
Last edited by nooboob; Oct 29, 2006 at 09:08 PM.
Back From The Banned!
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Posts: 5,226
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From: Queens, New York, US
Rep Power: 338 I believe your grinding noise problem has to do with the bearings inside the tranny.
I still think you got a good buy! If youre willing to spend some TLC and $ on it, I'm sure it will be rewarding. I knew a guy that a FD 13B in his FC.
I still think you got a good buy! If youre willing to spend some TLC and $ on it, I'm sure it will be rewarding. I knew a guy that a FD 13B in his FC.
Last edited by CuRiOuSfIsH; Oct 29, 2006 at 09:16 PM.
Brake problem sounds like they just need to be bled. Try that out and I bet they'll work a lot better. Wish I could help ya with the other problems. I guess dont get overwhelmed, just attack them one at a time.
i agree with fish...throwout bearing maybe, has gone OUT?? lol, seriously though...i say rip out the motor and tranny and take it slow. you still have the 'vic for your daily so why not? do it yourself and learn loads doing so. from what i read and hear, rotaries aren't the easiest motors to care for and tune, but once you know what you're doing, they can be quite rewarding. nothing like a bridge-ported 13b with that braap-braap-braap idle.....then WOT to 9 grand.....
From what i've heard fds and fcs are usually expensive to work on but congrats on the find. The body looks to be in good shape which is a plus. I would find someone that can do a compression test, usually the apex seals need to be replaced after awhile. Nookiemonster should have should have some good info, you might want to pm him.
Last edited by MisterFrankieJ; Oct 29, 2006 at 09:35 PM.
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Hey! Look At Me!! I'm a Supporting Member!!
iTrader: (4)
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 486
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From: NorCal (707)
Rep Power: 0 Hit me up on Aim man we can talk i have 2 friends one with 87 turboII rx7 and and the other has a N/A 88-89 rx7.
Wanna see a donkey show?
iTrader: (3)
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 1,019
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From: Sacramento California
Rep Power: 0 They are fun and yes they can be pricey. Also never run synthetic oil or let it over heat. I say tinker with it. For the price you cannot go wrong. Let it be your first motor build and play with it. Keep us posted.
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