New to the rotary world with my latest purchase!

[PhantomGOAT]

Hello all! My name is Adam and I live in Washington state. I own a '05 GTO and '14 Camaro, but have always had a soft spot for fun Japanese cars, so I picked up a black '80 RX7. It's got a lot of issues (backfiring, missing door handles, can't get up hills without dying), but I'm excited to work on this baby!Hopefully I get to meet some of you some day.

[Exeon]

Welcome to the community! I'm new too, I just bought my 1984 RX-7 four days ago, they're awesome little cars. From what I understand, backfiring is normal, but it it's doing it non-stop then maybe something is causing it. I would love to see some pictures of the beauty so don't be shy to post some on here. Also remember to check your oil very often, every fuel stop or so, because rotary consumes oil, with the way the oil is distributed into the chambers (I believe that's why they consume oil) the owners manual on mine says that they can consume as much as 500 miles/qt of oil, depending on driving conditions etc.

[PhantomGOAT]

Awesome tips, thank you! No wonder the previous owner kept a bottle of Quaker in the back. I'll try and get some good pics when I get her cleaned up and put back together. Been trying to clean up the carb in hopes of a smoother ride. It is a fun little thing to drive though.

[Exeon]

Haha mine too, had a bottle of qauker in the storage compartment behind the seat haha xD!

[Hobbawobba]

Welcome, Adam! I think you should throw up some pics of all the cars aye! Would the car dying whist going uphill be a fuel issue at all? I'm no expert so can't say for sure ha

[codge]

Hi Mate,
Several things to say.......these cars do tend to 'Buck' a bit as you're coming down to stop. The answer to that is dip the clutch earlier than you would on another car. The reason is the engine is very light, no inertia on the overrun. The need to dip clutch early was stated in a Series 3 road test report in the Mazda sales blub. So they knew about it then. Our 3 cars have always done the same thing.

Then the dying on hills.......change fuel filter at the fuel pump. A choked fuel filter will show on heavy fuel demand (high load). We're flatter round here but 5th gear pulling hard will show the same symptom.

Backfiring.......usually air getting into the front exhaust through a hole or crack, especially if it's going off the gas when the engine is cold......the exhaust gasses are then very fuel rich and the extra air makes a bang. That's really if the exhust is original with all the fancy pipework. (We can get rid of all that stuff here and most do).

Hope something in there is useful.

[PhantomGOAT]

Here she is, 100% stock. I just adjusted the e-brake cable but still have the air box taken out, so I haven't been able to wax it down and take it out for some real pics. I appreciate the tips guys, I'll have to check these things out! The girl who sold it to me said she thought it might need a new carburetor. I'm gonna try to rebuild it first given the cheap price of a rebuild kit, but worst case scenario, any advice on carb replacements that wouldn't break the bank? From what I've read in the past month or so, it doesn't seem like people have too many carburetor issues with these things.

[spoddy]

wow what a beauty!!!

really nice s1 mate.

[PhantomGOAT]

Appreciate it! I am surprised this thing isn't rust covered given it's life spent on the coast. The paint looks decent in the picture, but it definitely needs some work.

[SE Survivor]

Nice car,very clean! Not to hijack your thread, but the backfiring thing brought to mind the days i worked in a Mazda dealership. Techs would sometimes bring an RX into the shop with the choke in the full on position and hold it out while shutting off the engine, loading the engine and exhaust with fuel. There would be enough time to exit and walk away from the car before a LOUD ka-boom,scaring the hell out of all around. In a closed shop it was deafening,great fun- til one day someone did it with a female customer in the shop with a service writer showing her a problem with her car. It was quite a loud one,unfortunately the car involved had a very rusty exhaust and the muffler came apart and pieces skittered across the floor right toward the customer. As you can imagine the lady was rightfully upset. There was a no-backfire-you're fired rule in effect after that. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.