Post by flashlcd33 on Dec 7, 2013 16:42:59 GMT -5
I've been getting a ton of questions about what I'm doing with my toys, so here it is. I bought a white 86 RX7 as a roller back in May with the intentions of a 5.3 swap. It sat for quite a while, I got tired of looking at it and had it for sale for a while because I wasn't sure about what to do. Never sold, so I started working on it a little. Fast forward to November, I found a good deal on a modded 98 Z28 and jumped on it. I just wanted a quick, fun driver to not worry about modding while I built the RX7. 3 days later I get a message from a friend about an awesome deal on another RX7. It is a brown 86 GXL model, with a 355 SBC, TH350, Grannys conversion parts, a ratchet shifter and a fuel cell. It was advertised as not running, and no title. I was told $850 would take it as is, and after talking to him for a few more days he said it couldn't be less than $900.... whatever. I pulled it on to the trailer, and ended up getting a title that someone had tried to modify. I planned on just using it for parts, for my white car that I have a clean title to - more on that later.
When I got home with it, still loaded on the trailer, I drained the fuel cell and dumped in fresh gas. I had to tighten a few jankey battery cables, beat on the starter a bit, and get the carb floats unstuck. Viola, she fired up. I dumped a little antifreeze in it, adjusted the timing a little, and took it out for a drive. HOLY SHIT this thing is quick. It felt just as quick as my 450whp Camaro. We were out doing rolling burnouts 30 minutes after I got home with this "not running" car.
Drove it to the scales just for fun... Iron block sbc, iron heads, th350, fuel cell full, no driver
I listed the SBC for sale on Nextech for $1,200... and a week later, a guy was on his way from Colorado to pick it up. I got it pulled out in probably 2 hours.. this little car is actually pretty easy to work on. Total invested in this "parts car" - -$300
Long story short, the Camaro had some issues that I didn't feel like dealing with. I took all of the aftermarket parts off of it, put it back to stock and I'm selling it. It should work out alright, I did pretty well selling some of the more expensive parts (heads, FAST, etc) and I should be able to keep parts for this RX7 build for "free." About a week later, I found a salvage yard that had a 5.3 posted on Nextech. Complete pullout from a suburban, 2002 with 75k miles. He delivered it to my house for $800. Not the cheapest I've bought, but they're definitely going up in price... and he delivered it for free. Gave it a little Hotsy action along with my TH350 and started stripping it down.
The goal is to get this car together and running NA by the end of December, and then start on the turbo build. I am a farmer full time now, so over the winter I don't have much to do, so less income. I want to have it turbo'd and running for TX2k14 mid-March, so there may be some "corners cut" to get it done on a farmer's winter budget. In the spring, summer, and fall I'll have quite a bit more income to make changes. Also, it's essentially a free car and a junkyard build... I'm not going to pile a ton of money in to car-specific stuff. I don't mind spending on the drivetrain, that I can always swap to something else.
Thinking something like this for turbo placement, we'll just see how the LS fits.
When I got home with it, still loaded on the trailer, I drained the fuel cell and dumped in fresh gas. I had to tighten a few jankey battery cables, beat on the starter a bit, and get the carb floats unstuck. Viola, she fired up. I dumped a little antifreeze in it, adjusted the timing a little, and took it out for a drive. HOLY SHIT this thing is quick. It felt just as quick as my 450whp Camaro. We were out doing rolling burnouts 30 minutes after I got home with this "not running" car.
Drove it to the scales just for fun... Iron block sbc, iron heads, th350, fuel cell full, no driver
I listed the SBC for sale on Nextech for $1,200... and a week later, a guy was on his way from Colorado to pick it up. I got it pulled out in probably 2 hours.. this little car is actually pretty easy to work on. Total invested in this "parts car" - -$300
Long story short, the Camaro had some issues that I didn't feel like dealing with. I took all of the aftermarket parts off of it, put it back to stock and I'm selling it. It should work out alright, I did pretty well selling some of the more expensive parts (heads, FAST, etc) and I should be able to keep parts for this RX7 build for "free." About a week later, I found a salvage yard that had a 5.3 posted on Nextech. Complete pullout from a suburban, 2002 with 75k miles. He delivered it to my house for $800. Not the cheapest I've bought, but they're definitely going up in price... and he delivered it for free. Gave it a little Hotsy action along with my TH350 and started stripping it down.
The goal is to get this car together and running NA by the end of December, and then start on the turbo build. I am a farmer full time now, so over the winter I don't have much to do, so less income. I want to have it turbo'd and running for TX2k14 mid-March, so there may be some "corners cut" to get it done on a farmer's winter budget. In the spring, summer, and fall I'll have quite a bit more income to make changes. Also, it's essentially a free car and a junkyard build... I'm not going to pile a ton of money in to car-specific stuff. I don't mind spending on the drivetrain, that I can always swap to something else.
Thinking something like this for turbo placement, we'll just see how the LS fits.
. He had a pretty mean 406 SBC in it, and said it ran 10s. Apparently the motor blew up on somebody, so they put a 355 in it.
