Roxy

[kenwhiteside]

Thought I would start a thread as I am slowly slowly restoring my RX7. The car runs most of the time... but would probably be considered a semi rolling restoration.
... Called it roxy as we looked online for the stripper name of my girlfriend and it turned out to be roxy. Here is a pic, will get some better ones one day.



So far I have replaced all the cooling system pipes, rebuilt the rear brakes and fitted new hoses and hard lines as well as rebuilt the carb and had a small amout of welding done. Do most of the work myself but some things I will send off if the cost is not too high and I am confident that a good job will be done.

As per some of the other posts, next on the list is to sort out the rusty and leaking fuel tank as well as sort out all the exhaust leaks. Here is a photo of the tank. The wet spot is the leak (obvisouly) and the closest corner is rusty and had been repaired in the past.



I also managed to aquire one of these.

http://www.somerfordmini.co.uk/eshop/in ... s_id=14882

An 83mm inlet K&N filter fits on the end nicely. Reckon its worth about 0.01hp but looks nice.

Over the winter I want to clean off the underside and replace all the bushings.

Tim

[kenwhiteside]

So..now the weather is better I have finally got the car back on the road

Tank has been treated with POR15 on the inside and painted on the outside, fitted new hoses and gaskets (the cork one on the top is a bugger to get sealed BTW)



Also gave the underside of the car a bit of a spruce

Before



After



Took it for a drive and was running OK but slightly hesitant. Then 'tuned' the carb a bit and now I cannot get it running right at all, seems to be a bit uneven at idle however drives and boosts up fine. No smoke on start up or any hot or cold start issues, just not as smooth as I remember it. When I first got it I stripped and rebuilt the carb and managed to tune it up fine before I took it off the road for the winter.

So far I have put a new set of plugs in and also new leads. Stripped and rebuilt the carb again and checked it is all clear. Checked the compression with a standard compression tester that gave good consistant pulses on the rear rotor, front rotor has compression on all three faces but probably less consistant, overall looks pretty good. I cannot compare it to before winter as have never tested it. Good pishh pishh pishh from both holes.

Had a good look around on the intake for airleaks and found none so far. Seem to have developed an exhaust leak before the rear muffler, possible culprit?

So next step I think is to get mazda to compression test it to convince myself it is not a base engine issue then maybe fix the exhaust leak. Have people seen rough idle from exhaust leaks before?

[codge]

Not really, usually had a banging in the exhaust on overrun, caused by air entering at a front silencer leak.

12A standard roadcar tuning......get it hot, turn idle screw up to a fast idle, above 1100 rpm or so, then turn in the mixture very slowly until it goes uneven (ie hunting).
Then mixture screw back out, just until she's smooth. Then reset idle speed (750/800 rpm - from memory.....maybe a bit faster if she don't idle well).

For turbo maybe something different.

[kenwhiteside]

Anyone know the best place near brighton and hove to go for a compression test? Rivervale mazda any good?

Tim

[Lucky]

Anyone know the best place near brighton and hove to go for a compression test? Rivervale mazda any good?

Tim

No. Worse than useless They don't even know what a rotary engine is. Seriously, my five-year old had to explain it to the parts counter bloke when I ordered a gasket from them

I'd recommend Super 7 Autos in Worthing. Phone Jason (the boss) or Dan on 01903 237218. Top guys, they'll sort you out. Tell them Nik sent you their way You can even visit my car for me while you're there, lol

[RamoNZ]

How about that, another Hovite - so close and didn't even realise

Take a short video of it so we can see what you mean by rough. I'm happy to have a look in person though and see if I can offer anything over what you've already done?

[kenwhiteside]

Shame I did not see this in the morn as I took it for a run today and got some fresh fuel so could have got a vid. I was hoping it would just clear out after all the mucking about...

Had a good look through the leading spark plug holes and all the apex seals are at least there and not broken (at least the little bit I can see). Front rotor is definitely suspect. Cranking over by hand to check the seals the rear rotor gives nice tight phissts as it is barred over, front rotor to my mind has one weaker face .

Getting it compression tested this week hopefully at Super7 so will report back. If that comes back OK would be great to get you to have a look at it.

Tim

[RamoNZ]

No problems - good luck with the test and PM me whenever.

[Lucky]

J at Super 7's on holiday this week, dude . Back on Monday

[kenwhiteside]

So the results are in. Rear rotor reading 90's, front rotor has one chamber reading 30! Other two are fine up in the 90s like the rear

So overall the results are not fantastic but bear in mind that this is a low compression turbo block out of a JDM spec. As only one chamber is down on the front rotor it is likely a side seal issue. Hoping it is stuck and not broken. Going to give it the ATF treatment this week. As it was running stupidly rich for a period this may have contributed to the sticking theory.

Super7's were helpful have many interesting cars about. Nik aka luckys car was there looking nice, also a 20B cosmo and more FD's than I have seen in my 7 years over here.