James'
1984 RX7 GSL-SEJames'
1984 RX7 GSL-SEIf I had been richer, braver, and married to a mechanic perhaps I would have gotten a Porsche 911.
18Feb99: Day 1: Picked up car in Mt View. $1850. Possibly the most desirable GSL-SE- a federal model with no power steering. Came with cut springs and sub-sized but nearly new Sumitomo HTR tires.
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Days 2-4: Busy but got some joy riding in. Fun to drive, good power, motor runs very strong still. Cut springs don't work so well. Clutch and brakes are very good.
Day 5: Took it to my normal mech today to get safety/maintenance items done. Idler arms look good, surprisingly.
23Feb99: Inspection, thermostat/gasket replaced, lube/oil/filter 20-50, new drain plug gasket, synthentic LSD oil, 2 rear lugs replaced, coolant flush, fuel filter replaced (was wrong kind), steering box adjusted (still not great). Runs smoother/stronger, temp now correct. $277.
Ordered Porterfield R-4S front pads ($75), eibach pro kit springs ($205) via eddie.
1Mar99: Ordered tokico struts/shocks ($190). removed air conditioner belt. When summer comes I may put it back on and see if it works, otherwise I will remove the system. looking for rims.
3Mar99: Picked up springs, struts, shocks, pads today. Goes to art's tomorrow for installation and alignment. Strut tower bolt broke with no torque, replaced ($45 part), total $430.
7Mar99: Much better with new suspension and brake pads. Steering much better with adjustment and alignment. Car a little higher in front, quite a bit higher in back, 1" drop from stock all around. Doesn't scrape getting out of the driveway anymore. Bedded in pads- awesome braking power now.
| 8Mar99: Ordered Borbet Type C 15x7 rims ($99) with Kumho Victoracer V700 205/50R15 race tires ($110) from tire rack, total $889 mounted, balanced, delivered. 14 year old Oem rims would have been only a little cheaper with the package discount. |  |
10Mar99: Wheels and tires arrived just 26 hours after I ordered them! Weighed one on the UPS scale- 39.8 lbs.
11Mar99: Going to heat cycle the race tires tomorrow- 100 miles of highway driving followed by at least 48 hours of rest. This improves grip and increases tread life.
15Mar99: Discovered last friday that the kumhos rub a bit. TireRack is researching to see if I can use a 5mm spacer.
Here are four shots of the engine compartment:
13B-1 - shows new fuel filter
13B-2 - shows double coil on lower left
13B-3 - stock airbox and intake
13B-4 - passenger side firewall area
19Mar99: Spacer gives me 4mm clearance. Hope it's enough. Rained Friday so didn't heat cycle the tires.
21Mar99: Autocross Sunday was entertaining. Very fun to drive- skating around on the 260 treadwear sub-stock-sized tires. Tried to follow Mike's advice. Dropped car off at RotorSport in Campbell.
22Mar99: $150 for a 77K GSL-SE LSD total with installation and 6 month warranty: $368. Fuel leak onto manifold discovered. Transmission is not original- from 81/82.
26Mar99: Picked up the car from Rotorsport. Rebuilt the axle and axle bearings: new axle collars, axle brgs, axle seals, used SE diff, gear oil. parts: $292.90+$266 labor. Repaired fuel leak under maniford (injector o-rings). new injector o-rings, injector grommets, injector seals, 2 BAC hose. Parts: $67.85, labor $140. grand total with tax: $798.51. There was some wetness around the clutch master cylinder. Hope that's all for now. Planning to heat cycle tires today, autocross Sunday. Paul said to use only 87 octane, 3/16 inch minimum clearance for tires, need to set choke with gas pedal before starting.
Heated cycled the tires. Tested air conditioning- blows about 40 deg- so I will leave it for now.
28Mar99: Raced at 3COM Park today. Read about on the Autocross 1999 Page.
21Apr99: Racing 5 weekends in a row. Ordered the Ground Control adjustable front sway bar from Eddie. ($139) Hopefully this will reduce strong understeer- unusual for a 7.
3May99: Drove down to Howell's place Sunday after picking up 6 replacement studs for the rear wheels. We kept stripping them at the autocrosses. Didn't have time to pick up front bar. The next four can be clicked for the full size pic (about 200K each).
| Got the car up on the jack stands. The jack just barely got the car high enough to get the jack stands under. |  |
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Once we got the caliper off, we had to pound the studs back through
the seat. I screwed one of the old lug nuts onto the stud and hammered
away. At Howell's new condo it made quite a racket! Funny, all the other
other people had brand new cars and no one else was even remotely close
to banging on some old beater in their driveway...
The one stud we stripped racing at Stockton I had to hammer directly on. |
| It was a little harder to get the driver's side pads back in place. The caliper piston had come out a little, and we couldn't get a C-clamp on it to compress it a little. |  |
We also loosened the front shock tower bolts and disconnected the tension rods to rotate the shock tower for more negative camber and caster. Getting it back together required putting the jack under the suspension arm to raise it enough to rebolt the tension arm. |
We tightened some lug nuts onto the new studs to seat them before replacing the wheels. |
| Driving across the Bay Bridge at sunset in "rx7 heaven". (hahaha) |  |
18Jun99: Got my new stainless steel exhaust installed. I needed to take the header pipe to a special metal wizard to get a piece cut out because the header shape was different.
Grassroots Motorsports mag has an article in the May/June 1999 issue on collector cars of the future. All four top-ten lists included the 1st gen rx7. Two of the lists named the GSL-SE specifically as the single most desirable model. Some quotes "This was the best rx7 model other than the twin-turbo", "A car that has held its price for the last few years (rx-7 GSL-SE) despite getting older indicates hope of possible collectibility", "Having 13B power in the more desirable and lighter first generation body made this car much more desirable."
| 1" drop | Front | Rear |
| Stock | 100 | 85 |
| Eibach Pro-kit |
171 | 100 |
Length: 170.1 in.
Width: 65.7 in.
Height 49.6 in.
Wheelbase 95.3 in.
Track, f/r 55.9/55.1 in.
Empty Wt - c. 2512 lbs
Engine without intake, exhaust, oil pan, oil pump, water pump, and flywheel. The weight for the freight company was 152 lbs including the cardboard box and wooden pallette.
Engine (long block) about 260 lbs.
Displacement: 1308 cc/80 cu in
Compression: 9.4:1
Horsepower: 135 @ 6,000
Torque: 133 @ 2,750
Induction: Bosch L Jetronic FI
Fuel tank: 16.4 gal
Engine oil: 6.1 qts
Transmission oil: 2.1 qts
Coolant: 10 qts
Stock wheel: 14x5.5
Stock tire 205/60R14
The bolt circle is 4x4.5"
Nippon Densos. W27EDR14's are for 84-85 13B's. $3.19 each.
From Feb. 1984 Motor Trend article on GSL-SE:
0 - 60 accel: 7.96 sec.
1/4 mile accel: 16.06 sec @ 85.1 mph
60 - 0 braking: 135 ft
Sticker : $15,095
Trans rebuild on an '85 GSL-SE for c. $500 in 1993. Call Rick at Rotary Performance 925-484-2324.
http://www.rx-7.org/ - excellent club site
http://www.mindspring.net/~crawford2/PERF.HTML RX7 performance modifications
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/3734/ RX7 info
http://www.thepartstrader.com/ parts ads
http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=mazrotary&list webring list
Rick at Rotary Performance 925-484-2324.
Certification Standards, Make sure the engine and emission control configuration on exhaust - controlled vehicles are certified to the year of the vehicle or newer, and to the same or a more stringent new vehicle certification standard. http://www.smogcheck.org/000008.htm
Is there as special method to take it off while on the glass, or do you just pry at the damn thing?
All you have to do, if you are trying to remove the rear wiper cover, is to use a screw driver to gently pry the cover off. There are just some cut out things in the metal plate of the wiper motor that hold the cover in place, and it should just pop off. If you want to remove the whole wiper assembly, you have to remove the wiper arm by lifting the cap and the end of the arm, and unscrewing the nut. From there, to remove the motor, there should two or three screws that are fairly easy to get at, and voila, you're done.
Spec 7 Series:
SHOCKS - Tokico High Performance Gas, non-adjustable.
SWAY-BARS - TMC Front 1 1/8", Rear ¾" In the rear you
may use the TMC bar, the stock bar or no bar at all.
SPRINGS - TMC "Street/Race" springs.
Mazdatrix:
Just Muffler
(5hp) 16432............MUFFLER POWER PULSE...83-85 ALL.............$ 237.00
Dual System
16-MZTX-4230.....EXHAUST SYSTEM DUAL...84-85 13B 6-PORT......$ 748.00
For 79-92 RX7's (non-turbos) the most cost effective, easiest installation, and most horsepower gain thru the full RPM range is the TWIN PRE-SILENCER SYSTEM. IT FITS! The tone is excellent and life is still not determined because none that we know of have burned out yet.
Single (Racing Beat)
16421............EXHAUST SYSTEM SNGLE..84-85 13B SE..........$ 620.00
(requires connector pipe that goes from the rear of the pre-silencer (where
the catalytic converter / heat exchanger was) to the muffler input pipe)
Stock converter to Rear Muffler Connecting Pipe : 84-85 13B GSLSE 40-200B-N304
40-200B-N304.....EXH CONNECTING PIPE...84-85 13B GSLSE.......$ 131.60
1981 Rx-7 Darrin Towers 1981 RX7 GSL In CSP
I run BFG R1(215-50-13) on 13x7 AllyCat Max Wheels from RWS. I run Racing Beat Springs front and rear, with Carrara shocks in front and Tokico shocks in back. I use a Ground Control 1-1/8" sway bar in front and removed the rear sway bar. The rear bar is not needed after stiffing up the springs. If you leave it on the car just picks up the inside rear wheel and smokes the tire on the exit of th+e corner. Ground Control Camber Plates allow up to - 1-7/8 deg. of camber, more can be achieved if coil over springs are used. On Tight courses I like about 1/16 deg. of toe out but on long open courses 0 Toe is better because the car under steers less on the exit of long sweepers and doesn't over steer as easy going in to corners.
February 1999
Bay Area Probe Owners Club Website
