oil seals
Asked by Chris Jun 09, 2009 at 05:08 AM about the 1993 Mazda RX-7 Turbo
Question type: Shopping & Pricing
i've been thinking about getting a 93 twin turbo, but people have been strongly discouraging me about the car because of the oil seals. from what i understand, its a cheap part, but its a pain to replace because you need to remove the engine from the engine bay to replace it. any help??
5 Answers
How mechanical are you? If you know what your doing its not that tough of a fix either, similar to doing a head gasket on a piston engine.. perhaps a bit more work. If you really want an FD with loads of power and reliability, do a quick search on ebay for V8 rx7 and you should find a couple for sale usually with ls1 and T56. Youll probably pay 20k for one. The turbo rotary is an interesting engine but quite finicky, if your not confident in your ability to do the work yourself I would skip it, mechanics are sometimes hard to find and expensive.
Yes if you blow a seal you have to rebuild the engine in most cases. A 3rd gen is no joke its a sports car that should be taken well care of for it to last. Sweet ass car if you can afford it. Just remember that it will only last as long as you keep up with taking care of it.
well oil seals aren't that pricy but yes you need to get the engine out of the bay to get to them, apex seals are a bit pricy and are a complete pain to get to considering that you have to rip apart the entire motor to get to them. although those are some common problems, once you get them done you wont have to worry bout them for a long while although it all depends on how you drive the car and if you plan on boosting it, swaping out turbos etc. but i must say i truely miss my FD's, a beautiful car and an abslute dream to drive/own. I will deffinately be buying another fd3s and building it up in the near future.
Think about how you like to drive. If high cornering speed and leaving you foot buried until 8500rpm is a good thing? Few cars enter corners faster or will sustain 8500rpm longer. My 2 cents
best thing to do is to buy one with a blown motor, you should be able to get a decent shell for between 3-4k and then go to a reputable rebuilder and get the motor ported and rebuilt, a rebuild if all the housings and irons are in good shape should cost you around 2k, but if the motor ate a seal that means youll need new rotor housing(s) and probly a new rotor also, instead of spending 8-9k on running car buy a cheap shell and have the motor built for what you have planned for it on the future that way you wont have to worry about the motor popping anytime soon