Hello from Southern Indiana

JustJeff

JustJeff

Greenie N00B Member
I'm considering buying an 07 Speed3 and don't know a thing about them. I'm here to go to school and learn. I don't know much about piston engine performance but have rotaries and Mazdas have been in my family for a long time. My father bought a 1st gen RX-7 in the mid 80s. Between my father and I we've owned 5 or so 2nd gen convertibles. I currently own an 90 RX-7 convertible which I've done a complete rotary turbo drivetrain swap with a few go fast goodies on it.

I have a horrible daily driver Chevy Uplander which I hate and am needing to learn pretty quickly what to look for in Speed3s. The one I'm looking at has 117k miles. Turbo has been replaced, VVT has been replaced. It has a MS exhaust and tubular header..oh and FMIC.

I've scanned through the forum channels some but haven't seen much of a "newbie-what to look for" thread. If someone can point me in the right direction I'd greatly appreciate it.
 
Tubular header? That's interesting. Do you know what kind? With an aftermarket header/manifold it'll almost certainly need a tune. Does it come with versatune or an accessport?

Vvt is a big one.

Also want to do a compression test and make sure it's even across all 4 cyl.

Hold the clutch to the floor and see if there's a vibration. This is a very rough check for a bent rod.

Some of the trans like to pop out of 2nd on decel.
 
See if the seller can tell you if the HPFP has been upgraded. If they don't know and the mods were done by their PO then make them go back and find out. If it has those mods and no one can tell you if they upgraded the HPFP internals then you should probably run.

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Any upgraded engine mounts? You'll want a new RMM if that hasn't been done, and probably an aftermarket PMM to make sure the stocker doesn't explode all over your engine bay.
 
Run the VIN and check that too. Becoming a metal member here gets that VIN check perk for free.

I got my '09 with it stock looking but someone did a muffler delete and 2nd cat delete. I continued looking underneath to check for typical indications of a collision.

That car seems modded pretty decently, likely treated like a redheaded stepchild. Do all the checks just recommended. Especially compression.
 
welcome! youable to get us pics of the engine bay, etc? might be able to help figure out if anything less obvious has been modified.

if it's far enough to have a tubular mani, the previous owner definitely had a bigger turbo setup. ask for compression and leakdown tests to make sure he wasn't just knowingly offloading a time bomb. does it come with an AP? you'll want a tune ASAP if you snag it; i would be surprised if fmic and exhaust manifold are the only mods he left on it.
 
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