It's another RX-7!!

boosted3

Member
So, yeah.. I purchased a '93 RX-7 and had about the same number of recalls in the same time frame as my speed3. I'm looking at the modifications and watching the guys struggle with fuel issues, spark issues, etc..
I thought I got rid of my RX-7 years ago. Did I buy another pain in the ass?
 
Maybe they are having issues because they are modding the car. A unmoddified MS3 has only had one serious recall issue and that only affected a relatively small percentage of the cars.
 
No you didn't.

How many people with STOCK engines are having these issues? Hardly any.

The guys running into fuel / spark / etc. issues are mostly using "primitive" means of tuning, i.e. manual boost controllers or piggybacks. Not to hate on these methods, but they don't work as well on modern ECUs, like the one in the speed3. They still work, and will yield decent results, but not as well as on an older turbo car that runs in open loop 100% of the time.

The manual systems just change the amount of boost going into the engine and rely on the ECU to compensate for more boost being shoved in without making adjustments to any other parameters. This works fine and as I'm sure you've seen is a cheap effective way to bump up the power of this monster. However because nothing else is changing and the other engine paramters are setup for stock boost levels, they are running into some problems.

The piggyback systems don't work as well because the ECU is adaptive, it runs in a closed loop mode for most driving situations. As such it will change its parameters based on feedback from factory sensors, essentially fighting any changes made by the piggyback system. Yes, good gains are made, but its not going to be a "set it and forget it" type of system, you have to keep fine tuning it to compensate for so many different things changing.

The fact is man, its just a new-ish car with an emerging aftermarket, so the early adopters are going to be the ones who run into the issues, and then work together with the community to solve them and get really effective products out that fix the issues they've found. The mzr disi has been around for long enough now that any MAJOR reliability issues will have shown themselves, and you will probably notice that most stock / near stock mzr disis are still running strong.

So far mine has an intake and thats just about it, and I have had absolutely 0 issues with the car. Its hardly a pain in the ass. Now, if I hacked up my factory ecu harness, installed a piggyback and kicked the boost up to 20psi, I'm sure my car might have oodles more power but it would run like crap most likely since I don't know the first thing about setting spark and adjusting throttle trim and what have you.

This car rocks, I love everything about it, and its going to be an absolute beast once we can reflash the ECU.
 
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yup...i have barely modded my car (cobb sri, corksport rear mount inserts), and i have 0 issues...*KNOCKING FEVERISHLY ON WOOD*!

but seriously...these forums are full of people who actually have had problems and are lookin for answers. most of the people who haven't had issues don't really post anything about it!
 
imho.. and no offense intended but a rotary is only a pita for those who dont understand it...

Yes that is true.

But you have to admit, underneath our intake manifold?

What was mazda thinking?

Thank god im non sequential lol
 
LOL anyone can have a change engine light when we're talking about boosted engines.

Jeez, and i thought this forum had some people with some sense. ;)
 
imho.. and no offense intended but a rotary is only a pita for those who dont understand it...

:) No offense taken. The problem with the RX-7 wasn't the motor. That 13B is pretty solid. The problem was the spaghetti mass of vacuum lines that would either crack from heat or completely come apart from their nipple, the heater core, multiple CEL's.. a set of turbo's at 13k miles, etc. I could go on and on....
 

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