Trouble is you are going to pay a lot extra for a bunch of parts
you will need. Oil cooler, coils, turbo heat shields, etc., and then you
never know what you are getting. I would get a Chicago or Kansa City paper
and see if you can take a trip in there and buy a running car.

Bill any 89-92  Mazda RX7's for sale in KC?

Paul Lamar

mike h wrote:

The problem here is that even the newest 2nd gen is 10 years old, and
personally, if you take a 30,000 mile pristine RX off the road to make an
airplane I'll not be happy :(

Besides, anything with low mileage is going to cost more than that rebuilt
motor (what, 4K for a mazdatrix unit)? I know with my own experiences with
over 100K motors it's really pot luck the condition you get, and that for me
would not be acceptable in an airplane.

That being said, try jemco.com or any other japanese engine importer,
usually they have the 89-up T2 motors for around 1K. With turbo, heat
shielding, intercooler, etc.

The rest of the stuff on the car (except for engine, engine harness, and
computer) is basically the same from 86-91, NA and T2. So you can find a
$200 RX-7 of any flavor for radiator, oil coolers, fuel pump, etc. whatever
else you're going to scavenge. Coils are relatively cheap in the junkyard
(hell, I think I have like 4 or 5 sets now) as are oil lines, AC plumbing
(for extra coolers), and if you can find a whole parts car you can part out
the rest of it and make some money back (interior and body panels sell
pretty well).

As for finding one, most RX-7s are worth below $3K and are too old to
finance, so dealers (even little lots) are loath to touch them. Private
sales are a good way to go.

After my partner and I bought our 2 chassis to begin building the race car,
we've inheritied 3 more more or less complete chassis, just for the cost of
towing them.

Mike Harrington

Low mileage anything in LA is hard to find.

Where do you live Mike? A guy gave me a perfectly good 88 2nd
gen with a cracked rubber boot on the turbo air inlet because
he could not find anyone that could fix it. It was cracked for
over a year while he was trying to find someone to fix it.

The going rate in LA is about $2500. 

The junk yards here are savvy and they charge half the new cost 
for parts which in most cases is a bunch.

Paul Lamar
 
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