rx7essentials

Boost:
The RX7 Twin Sequential system can be exhillirating, but a few "easy to remembers" can make your turbos last longer. The main thing to remember is stay OFF boost for the first several minutes after starting your car and the last several minutes before turning the car off. The turbos are cooled by both coolant and oil. The coolant however does not flow in the car until the thermostat opens which is 80C. Do not rely on the stock gauge to measure this. The stock gauge reads flat or center from about 50C onwards, so you must make sure to wait for a couple minutes after this. An aftermarket gauge is the best way to measure the coolant temp. I personally use the Apex'i Power FC commander.

The oil is cooled by either a single or dual oil cooler system on the car, but dose not flow until the oil reaches 180C controlled by a therostat in the driver's side oil cooler. You want to make sure the oil is flowing throught the coolers so it does not get superheated in the trubos. The best way besides an oil temp gauge is to monitor the pressure sensor and make sure it drops to ~55psi @3k RPM. This is normal operating temperature.

Obviously you want to make sure your turbos cool down before shutting the car off so stay OFF boost for last several minutes.

One other tip i would suggest is to stay OFF boost if you leave you car sitting for less than ~3hours. I have seen air intake temps reach 70+C on an aftermarket intercooler because of heat soaking. It then takes many minutes at highway speed before the temps come down to a resoanable level (~45C). High air intake temps can help increase the possibility of detonation, which kills engines.

Overheating:
Be very careful to monitor you temp gauge at all times. Overheating is probably the leading cause of engine failure besides maybe over-boosting. Excessive engine temps cause o-ring failures. Common syptoms are slow loss of coolant without any noticeable leaks. You can have the coolant tested to see if exhaust gases exist to see if the o-rings are intact.

I suggest a simple modification to force on the fans during city driving or stop and go traffic. Water temps can easily reach 100C even with an aftermarket radiator If all TSB have been performed on your vehicle then a black box should exist that sits above ECU inside the passenger side kick panel. Coming out of the black box is a wire with a female spade connector. By grounding this wire the fans will turn on medium after 2 minutes and keep your water temps low in traffic. By keeping theis grounded when you turn off the ignition the fans will continue to run for 10 minutes helping to cool down the engine bay. If you wait more than 10 seconds after the ignition is turned off, you can un-ground the wire and the fans will switch to low speed for 10 mintues, not straiing smaller batteries.