86 Mazda RX7

Past Cars:

89 Colt	81 Civic	85 Accord	86 RX7	85 Camery	84 Celica GTS
89 Colt				85 Camery

1986 Mazda RX7 Mazda power goes mmmmmmmmm

What can I say, rotary power is like no other. This car was a bit of a slug off the line. But it had lots of top end. I knew it was up to snuff because I went through and checked everything trying to get the idle a little smoother. Let me tell you if you if there's a vibration in a retort there's something wrong. I even went in and inspected the ECU for cold solder joints. This was suggested by allot of rx7 nuts as a must do. There were apparently alit of problems soldering the ECU at the factory. I think they were wave or bath soldered. They put everything in place on there board and splashed it in a pool of molten solder. I adjusted the idle speed the coreect way and it sounded like a sewing machine. Anyway I know for a fact it was running top notch because every other rx7 stock or slightly tuned I could keep up or even beat. There was a GTU I ran with and he had a bit of low end on me but no top? No top end on a rotary! Something was very wrong with that car. My RX7 was a 1986. I changed the plugs after I read the ridiculously low change interval. Very strange plugs. They have a center electrode with 4 pie pieces around them.

The only performance thing I did to the car was changing the catalytic converter set up. My favorite parts place, AA Foreign car parts, said they could give me a deal on the one cat that was bad. But they have a pipe with single converter assembly that replaces the 3 catalytic converter set up and it only costs another $40 more and you won't have to hope the other 2 catalytic converters hold. There was a Rotary place up the road that used the same part from them all the time. He said "it may give you a little performance". So I went for it.

Even the single cat in the on pipe was smaller than the old main catalytic converter. I guess catalytic converter technology advanced since 1986.

There was definitely a performance difference. Butbefore I changed it I tried a straight header run. This is not recommended. I thought piston engines were loud. Wow! I also read later that on the "6 port" rotaries they need exuast pressure to make them run at there best. Something about exhaust scavenging and the extra shuttle valves in the exhaust. There was a noticeable increase of sound at idle and if you really opened it up. During normal driving the sound wasn't noticeable. But if you engauged in any "spirited driving" (that's what is says in the mazda owners manual) you could hear a little more of that sweet sweet rotary sound. After doing a few more high power runs with the new pipe. I noticed I built more speed. I could get another 10 mpg on the same stretch of road. I tried several times after that during different weather and it was definitely an improvement. There is nothing like a rorary. It would be a bit weak coming out but when you hit 2nd gear you'd catch up in a real hurry. My favorite part about driving the car was downshifting, rpm matching and punching it. It was a passer.

Here are a few pictures of when I installed some fog lights behind the grill. The front bumper underneath the cover and foam is actually fiberglass. Saved weight and balanced the car.

You've got to love free tools. I would have loved it more if more if it wasn't wedged under the intake runners (under the ones its sitting on now). It was even ground down a little so it could fit in tight places. It sure did.