FD3S DD-ability

zer0xp · Postby **zer0xp** » April 25th, 2011, 4:56 pm

Potential FD3S owner here, and I'm wondering if I could get some information from you local rotary guys. Any of you daily your fd? How is the car in terms of reliability? I know about the woes of the rotary engine, and trust that it will be maintained religiously, but I mean the car itself. How easy is it to keep in good condition?

I.e. are the interior plastics of good quality? How hard is it to find spare parts? How much does a rebuild generally cost, parts and labor included? What about the quality of electronics and wiring in the car? Lastly, how well does the car itself stand up to our road conditions?

ImamurA · Postby **ImamurA** » April 26th, 2011, 1:01 pm

my car used to b daily driven without a problem...not anymore i keep it for the weekends..(and some weekdays when i feelin for a lil spin in it)... quite comfortable actually...the only problem is the gas bill...i never had any problems really with my fd to tell u the truth...but i had done alot of preventative maintenance on it(alum. radiator, alum. air sep. tank, etc)....i have the car for over 5 years now...very reliable once u take care of it...

my interior is still in very good condition (probably from care)...spare parts are not hard to find actually there are a few ppl that have a lot of parts (maztune is one of them...always has parts)...a rebuild will cost differently depending on the condition of the existing engine parts and how extreme u are willing to go....wrt the electronics the window switches tend to go bad and break...thats the only thing i can think of....wiring in the car is good in my car...and wrt the road conditions the car will last just as well as any other car it depends on how u drive...dont drive it like a hilux an buss through pothole an ting lol...

the rotary isnt a bad engine really...it depends on how well u take care of it....be careful of overheating and detonation(knock, pinging)....my original engine lasted 10 years when i rebuilt it...not because it broke but for preventative maintenance...

Glitch · Postby **Glitch** » April 27th, 2011, 10:55 am

I DD mine with no issues...My car was a stock series 8 and to be honest the fuel bill was not bad at all.

I got whatever parts i needed from Maztune

zer0xp · Postby **zer0xp** » April 28th, 2011, 12:23 am

Thanks for the posts guys. How about engine reliability on the mildly modded FDs?

ROTARY BRAIN · Postby **ROTARY BRAIN** » April 28th, 2011, 1:51 pm

The FD is a true sports car, wasnt meant to be a daily driver although its possible, all depends how deep ur pockets reading. A completely stock FD, u would hv to do some simple mods to ensure reliability, AL radiator, AL AST, vacuum hose job (the rubber vaccum hoses tend to get hard and crack), change fuel fliter, boost gauge, aftermarket water temp gauge, all of that lets say $10,000.

Modifying an FD is a whole different ball game...depends wat kinda power u looking at, the more power and boost u running, the less reliable the engine would be, cause this increases the chances of detonation, which is the major contributing factor y these engines break. One of the best upgrade wud be a ECU upgrade, most use APEXi FC Commander. U dont jess go crazy and start to modify an FD, take upgrades in stages, ECU, downpipe, intakes, catback exhaust system is among the first i would do on a compleyelty stock engine, nex wud be the fuel system and intercooler and if u wanna get really crazy, there is the best ting u cud do with the FD, install a high end aftermarket single turbo system but i jess dont trust anyone in trinidad to work on them, the best ting is to work on the urself, Get the powerFC and a datalogit and try ur madness, what the worst that can happen, u blow the engine, lol, research is the key, the internet is ur best friend...good luck, u hv to love these cars with a passion or jess be rich i guess, i am the first....

PS my car cud be for sale for the right price, lol, single turbo, POwer FC, AST, RAD, Fuel system, etc etc etc etc...FOR THE RIGHT PRICE, LOL, lata....

karlos · Postby **karlos** » May 4th, 2011, 7:25 am

ROTARY BRAIN wrote:The FD is a true sports car, wasnt meant to be a daily driver although its possible, all depends how deep ur pockets reading. A completely stock FD, u would hv to do some simple mods to ensure reliability, AL radiator, AL AST, vacuum hose job (the rubber vaccum hoses tend to get hard and crack), change fuel fliter, boost gauge, aftermarket water temp gauge, all of that lets say $10,000.

Modifying an FD is a whole different ball game...depends wat kinda power u looking at, the more power and boost u running, the less reliable the engine would be, cause this increases the chances of detonation, which is the major contributing factor y these engines break. One of the best upgrade wud be a ECU upgrade, most use APEXi FC Commander. U dont jess go crazy and start to modify an FD, take upgrades in stages, ECU, downpipe, intakes, catback exhaust system is among the first i would do on a compleyelty stock engine, nex wud be the fuel system and intercooler and if u wanna get really crazy, there is the best ting u cud do with the FD, install a high end aftermarket single turbo system but i jess dont trust anyone in trinidad to work on them, the best ting is to work on the urself, Get the powerFC and a datalogit and try ur madness, what the worst that can happen, u blow the engine, lol, research is the key, the internet is ur best friend...good luck, u hv to love these cars with a passion or jess be rich i guess, i am the first....

PS my car cud be for sale for the right price, lol, single turbo, POwer FC, AST, RAD, Fuel system, etc etc etc etc...FOR THE RIGHT PRICE, LOL, lata....

hehe... talk real sense though

MAZTUNE · Postby **MAZTUNE** » May 10th, 2011, 8:15 am

zer0xp wrote:Thanks for the posts guys. How about engine reliability on the mildly modded FDs?

A good lightly modded fd is a great daily driver running about 280-300 whp . Your main aim should be making the car reliable and efficient then performance comes after. As Imamura said work on the faults of the car- so upgrade cooling, change hoses to silicon etc.

You can upgrade intercooler, full exhaust , dual intakes for the twins (if you get your hands on a nice fresh set of 99 twin turbos you are good to go) and most importantly an upgrade ecu mapped for these mods like knight sports or re amemiya. I get from
time to time. You don't really need to upgrade injectors just open them up a little with the ecu as gas is a factor for the street. Btw I have a nice intercooler kit in stock :-)

MAZTUNE · Postby **MAZTUNE** » May 13th, 2011, 10:57 am

This is a nice example of a good street daily driven FD we did.
- Knight Sports ECU
- Front mount Intercooler bolt on kit
- Apexi Twin Filters
- Aluminium AST
- Aluminium Koyo Rad
- Greddy downpipe and exhaust
- Air pump removal pulley kit.
- HKS grounding kit (this actually made a world of difference!!)

and thats it! well plus brake and suspension mods simple and works great!

karlos · Postby **karlos** » May 13th, 2011, 3:06 pm

MAZTUNE wrote:This is a nice example of a good street daily driven FD we did.
- Knight Sports ECU
- Front mount Intercooler bolt on kit
- Apexi Twin Filters
- Aluminium AST
- Aluminium Koyo Rad
- Greddy downpipe and exhaust
- Air pump removal pulley kit.
- HKS grounding kit (this actually made a world of difference!!)

and thats it! well plus brake and suspension mods simple and works great!

how much hp you get with those upgrades?

MAZTUNE · Postby **MAZTUNE** » May 15th, 2011, 11:48 pm

karlos wrote:
MAZTUNE wrote:This is a nice example of a good street daily driven FD we did.
- Knight Sports ECU
- Front mount Intercooler bolt on kit
- Apexi Twin Filters
- Aluminium AST
- Aluminium Koyo Rad
- Greddy downpipe and exhaust
- Air pump removal pulley kit.
- HKS grounding kit (this actually made a world of difference!!)

and thats it! well plus brake and suspension mods simple and works great!

how much hp you get with those upgrades?

Did not dyno this car but another fd we know with almost the same mods got 330 whp