Well the day has finally come. The RX7 escaped the garage, and left out onto the road. The rear brakes are dragging (it was stored with the e-brake on for a couple years), it's running rich as all hell (need smaller jets for the Holley), and the interior still kinda smells (some kinda animal made it's home in there at one point).
But she's all mine.
It's running so rich that at lower RPM you can just smell the gas lol. It's also loud as hell, with nothing but a header, straight pipe, and a cannon. I fully expect to get pulled over.
I did get rubber on a hard 1-2 shift... it's a whole different feeling when the BACK end kicks out on a hard shift . It's pure fun to drive. It has plenty of "go" above 3k RPM, and once I rejet the carb and reset the timing, it'll get a little more down low.
Next up for the car is a carb rejet, fixing the dragging brakes, and fixing the OMP (oil metering pump to you non-rotorheads- this injects oil into the engine combustion chamber, which keeps everything nice and smooth for the apex seals). I have it rigged to work at the moment but know I need to swap it. I have another one off the old engine that is in better shape.
Also up very soon is adding a muffler to the exhaust. I don't think I'll ever have to worry about it being "too quiet".
Then comes the MSD 6AL "DFLDIS" (direct fire leading distributorless ignition system). This won't add much power, but will make it run smoother, and give me a better spark.
I realized last night, this is the first time I've had a running, driving project car (non DD) since 2001, when I sold my '69 VW kit car.
And I just got my '72 TOWED to the front yard near the garage so I can get it running. So far I can get it to back fire really good and found the wire from the ign to the coil + is bad. I need to find new ends and fix it.
After that night, I was having ignition problems. Wouldn't start. No spark.
After tracing and fixing the problem, adding better grounding to the engine, along with replacing the cap, rotor, wires, and cleaning the plugs nicely, I DROVE IT HOME! I live completely across town from my dad's shop, so getting it home is a HUGE leap.
Went on the freeway nice- well, nice and headache-inducingly loud. Speedo working, tach working. Anywhere below 3k and it gets a little mad with throttle, since it's still running super rich.
Pulls to the right under hard braking, belt squeals under hard acceleration, no temp gauge... ah, vintage sports cars
. It's pure fun to drive. It has plenty of "go" above 3k RPM, and once I rejet the carb and reset the timing, it'll get a little more down low.
