Is anyone a rotary expert or know someone, im looking at buying an rx7, but it has a problem, im trying to figure out how to repair it before i commit to buying it, i just need to know if its gonna be a money pit.

 

What's the problem?

 

well, the guy bought the car, and it ran great, but then he took it into class (mechanic school) and did an ac vac flush. and afterwords it ran a little bit, and ran crappy, and now it wont start or even crank.

 

ummm

the triangle shapped "piston" goes round and round, round and round....


- I had to !!

 

What year RX-7?

I own an RX-7 and all I have to say is I hope it isn't going to be your daily driver. They are very tempramental. The engines are VERY easy to work on and extremely simple to pull. Never have to worry about cracked pistons, bent valves, etc.

Depending on the year, you can remove most of the vacuum lines under the hood pretty easily (most are for emissions stuff). As long as you get a good repair manual, you should be set. You can also go to www.rx7club.com I go on there a lot and they have tons of great info about the RX-7.

Bottom line...if the car isn't too expensive, buy it. They are a fun car to work on, and once you get that rotary engine running....hold on. They can really scream at high-rpm's.

 

its an FC so its an 87

 

My friend is a rotary expert he owns three, all same year. He's torn apart 3 of them to build one of them up. Only bad thing is about 2 weeks ago he was hit in a truck and now is in a coma.

 

One thing you want to make sure of when you buy a car with a rotary engine is that it has good compression on all three sides of both rotors. The bad part is that compression testers for rotaries are expensive. You can't use a compression gauge from a piston car. As long as the compression is good, the engine should be in pretty good shape.

 

ive came to the conclusion that its most likely a blown apex seal, if it is that, the engine is pretty much trashed.

 

Not trashed, just needs to be rebuilt with new seals. If you want a full service manual I have a digital copy.

(That goes for anyone, just PM me) (I have all three, FB, FC, FD)

I live in at a fraternity where there are three sitting in our parking lot now, two on the way, one here next year, one looking to buy....yeah...we like rotarys.
1 FB - Moded, NA, Fastest one we got
2 FC - My NA not to be so for long stocker, 1 Supercharged Carburated 250HP beast.
On the way this year
2 FC - HUGE Turbo, 1 Is completly modded, the only thing stock will be the body and frame. Hes looking at 450HP.
Next Year
1 FC - Turbo
The other guy is looking at purchasing an FD.
Another is looking at the RX8 in a year and a half.

 

well if the housing is intact (which i doubt it is) its serviceable, if not i would need about 1,000$ in parts ( i can get a rebuilt angine for 1500)

 

i was gonna say u can prolly buy a crate engine for cheap if it would cost too much to fix that one.... im wanting a gen2 turbo and will prolly buy based on the condition of the car itself (frame, paint, interior) not so much the engine, like someone said there fun to work on

 

Might wanna go to these sites for help:

www.mazdaforums.com
www.msprotege.com
www.mazda3club.com

 

If you need to replace the apex, you will have to replace all the seals (circa $1000) and if your housings are crap you can get them ceramic coated at about $200. This is based off of a 13B.

What year is the rotary you are asking about? Because year and setup may mean that the car stopped working for a different reason too.

IE, putting an upgraded exhaust on a third gen will eventually blow the motor because its a MAP sensor instead of a MAF.