1985 RX-7 In Minnesota, rust free too!

[MinhGSLRX-7]

I have yet to learn how to use the forums, but it has been an interesting year now that I finally get to do mods.


This silver rx7 has sat in a garage for a year in the garage after limping it home and working/selling my stuff to get it somewhat reliable.
The start of junior year has included me limping it to school on the choke and replacing the sludge the previous owner called oil with Pennzoil synthetic blend, and a wix to top it off. I had no idea what an OMP was at the time and wanted to transition to full synthetic for the ultimate assurance of the car I saved from the scrapper lol. The car was in dire need of welding on the underbody pans as it looked like a piece of swiss cheese. I fired up the gas welder and brazed all the visible holes. I then stripped the bottom of the car with aircraft paint stripper and undercoated it with truck bed coating and a top coat of rubberized undercoating, all the seam seals have been done too, especially under the rear tubs. The car seemed happy, but the master clutch and slave went out on the same day I left school. We then assembled the haggard team and pushed it home. The car sat idle in the garage and waited for the carb to be rebuilt, and the carb itself had evidence of E85 in it at some point in time. The engine was compression tested at about 100 psi and about 4 percent leakdown and put a stupid smile on my face. It wasn't the apex seals after all!

The Carburetor received larger secondary jets and a complete rebuild with new seats and floats. No more flooding for now, but the car kept its rpms at 4000k and the cruise control kept blinking at me. I decided on waiting for a fix and to instead bum a ride to school to finish the trimester strong.

Fast forward a month, and now my pockets are somewhat filled; perfect, now the rx7 gets some love. After 3 hours of diagnosis, I decided to tear out the cruise control and hot start assist to simplify the car. Starting a hot engine required me to press on the gas, but it wasn’t much of a hassle like people say. The OMP came out and along with the Rat’s nest and it was topped off by the LRB block off kit. The ACV was thrown out as well, and since the car never visited Mazda, the cold start assist came out too. The intake was filled with this nasty sludge that never looked like coolant, so I deleted the intake path with 10mm deep freeze plugs.
The first month of spring the car ran free, no emissions, no acv, and the free rev up to about 8000 before stuttering… Never bothered me until the coolant lines blew? A quick call and a homeboy towed my car back for me, now to get to the bottom of this. The Radiator came out, was rodded and boiled, the block was drained, and the horrendous Mazda beehive went out. A 14mm and 16mm 10 –AN adapter set later, a 25 row oil cooler went on, and the painted radiator hardware held everything together. The cracked hoses were replaced with Menard specials lol. The thermostat was Prestone and a Stant cap replace the previous OEM cap? A bleed and oil change later, temps are half what they used to be!
Now the brake system was never bled since I lacked equipment and knowledge, but I made pressure bleeder to bleed out the old DOT 3 rust with DOT3/4 mix to transition to synthetic DOT 4, and did all the brakes and clutch, and I have to admit, the solid pedal feels amazing!

Now at the end of summer, the exhaust system clogs and floods my car, and with the limiting budget I have, the saw zall job made the car straight header and it runs like a bat out of hell, granted my neighbors hate me and the cops turn heads.

Planned mods:
Learn how to use forums
Fusible links to fuse blocks
Suspension and bushings
Disassemble spare 12a shortblock
Fix wonder steer

Pics in next post!

[codge]

Hi there mate,
Welcome on board.
I'm amazed at what you've done so far, yet you're not sure of the brake bleeding. It really is simple, being an old design of car. Just need a friend to pump the pedal while you work round in sequence, starting at the wheel with longest piping from the master cylinder. When you want to try again we'll talk you through it.

[MinhGSLRX-7]

Before I realized the paint was shoddy









Some rust repair with my limited shop access and tools lol








Somewhat like new lol

Now for the 80's Cell phone on my kill list

[MinhGSLRX-7]

Carb boiling diy???? The secret is pinesol lol

[MinhGSLRX-7]

Painted battery tray, clutch hydraulics, and a 25 row oil cooler for some reliability I guess












Not half bad imo

Now for the brakes and clutch hydraulics to take care of the soggy pedals and 3rd gear slight grind.