Hello fellow Rexer's. I have pulled my RX7 out of the garage after 13 years. I've started to replace the fluids, and body panels in preparation for paint. I have never done an oil change in my life, let alone anything else mechanical. I have heard I need to turn the engine by hand by squirting ATF into the bottom 2 spark plug ports, then turn it over without the plugs to remove the excess. I'm afraid this might expand the seals. I understand this concept, but feel regular engine oil may be the better alternative. I've changed the oil and anti-freeze, and will try my hand at purging the gas lines. I am replacing the air filter, spark plugs, gas filter, oil filter, and battery. I don't know if I need to go further, but I've heard the gas tank might be rusting if it sat this long. I have no mechanical experience, and I'd hate to go through all this work to find out I've just screwed up the whole engine. I'm worried about the injectors, should they be pulled and cleaned, or can I just run some premium with injector cleaner? It has somewhere just over 114,500 km on it and it's in pretty good condition, stored indoors, my first real nice car as a teen. I'd appreciate any advice or opinion anyone has to offer.

 

why did u let it sit for 13 years?

 

Money, and the fact I had to bring up a son on my own. Tried to sell it, but no good offers. Bought it at $10,000. Had garage space, so, why not keep it?

 

your gona have some ill gas on your hands. probably will have to drop the tank and have it redone. new fuel pump too probably.

 

Hi,
Welcome to the forum.
Just use oil to squirt into the holes.
There is a drain at the bottom of the tank. Recommend that you drain it then add about 2 gallons of fuel to the tank for now.
For now do not pull the injectors. Premium fuel does nothing for our engines or the systems.
Recommend that you do just the minimum at this time as I have stated.
Make sure that you clean the battery cables and put in a very fresh battery for cranking power.
Then see what happens.

 

get 87 octane - the engine thrives on it. Anything else is a waste of money. Buy fuel at PetroCan... I know Albertans hate that place, but the additives in their fuels will help clean out your engine. Add some fuel injector cleaner to the first tank or two, but after that the PetroCan stuff will keep them clean.

 

I had one that sat for about that long too.
the gas turned to a turpentine smell from what was left of the fluid part and there was about a 1/2" of black tar in the bottom of the tank from I guess the rest of the organic fraction. I figured this out when the fuel pump would not deliver gas to the carb. This tar also blocked the lines that were part of the tank.
I dropped the tank cleaned it out with denatured alchohol and wires in the lines or wood slats through the sender hole or filler neck to scoop this stuff up. Took time but it worked.

I dried the tank out then: then I found there was still scale and rust in the tank.

Rust and scale in the tank was removed by droping the tank on the lawn. the outside..... go at it with a wire wheel brush.

Pinhole openings from rust spots were all at the top most portion of the tank furthest away from organic layer near the openings. An epoxy putty was used to seal these by application from both inside and out..

I cleaned up the sender port and rebuilt the sender by checking resistance, soldered a weak terminal back in place and applied two layers of rustoleum paint on the outside as well as the rest of the tank. The whole thing looked really good at that pont .
I did not have time to coat the inside of the tank to prevent further deterioration but if you can I would highly recommend it. I think you can get this at the eastwood company in PA or POR15 has it too.

If you see alot or any rust/sediment in your gas filter... OR cant push air back into the tank through the gas line because it is now clogged, I dont think there is any way around doing the above process to renew things.

total cost about $3 for the paint and $5 for the alchoholbut this was a while ago.
Shops would either not do it or wanted about $120

All in all I think you might be OK because you stored the car inside;;;welcome!

hope all this info helps

 

Lots of info here. I restored a sitting 7, you're in for one hell of a project. Cars are meant to move, so anything meant to move that sits gets seized.

Brakes
Engine
Suspension
Carburetor components
Anything made of rubber will be brittle and need to be replaced

and much more

Info here:
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...postid=2385473

Have fun, grab a Heynes manual and be ready to drop a few grand.

Jon

 

good time to replace all the bushings

 

Well, thanks for the quick responses everyone! RX-7 Doc, I'll take that advice. I'll start simple. I looked at the tank, and sure as a fart in a car, there is a plug. I was told there wasn't, but didn't look yet. I think I'll get a tool to poke up in there to see if there is any sludge, maybe a Q-tip to check for rust & scale. I'll disconect the fuel hose to the EFI and see what I can pump out (if it pumps), and run some 87 octane, what's the harm? (THX Mantis). The Haynes does not go into much detail, so I'll fly by the seat of my worn out pants for that one.
Vipernicus; thanks for the advice, my Canuckistanian friend. I've checked most of the rubber, and the only thing I can see is that I need new tires. Otherwise any visible rubber seems to be doing fine. Perhaps from the indoor storage. By the way, it was one of your threads that led me to this site in the first place. THX Thank you one and all for the feedback. I'll be sure to let you know if I get it running!

 

Manntis is 100% correct on the fuel. Naturally aspirated Rotaries like low octane fuel. The premium is a low volitale fuel and works well with turbos and superchargers.
If you are going to activate the fuel pump you need to jumper the connector in the engine bay with the key on. The fuel pump does not come on with just the ignition in the on position.
In member trochoid profile there is a link to the FSM(Factory service manual). It is much more detailed and helpful.
If the vehicle has not moved in that long I recommend that you get a new set of tires for her before you attempt to drive.
The inner cords will be damaged from sitting in one spot for that long.

 

Well, I pulled the plug on the tank and scraped around with a bent coat hanger. What is left is a small bit of moist, foul smelling, reddish brown, granular type of poop. I didn't get into the lines to check on them, but I imagine they are dried out.I think I'll run a bit of gas through and see what happens. I'll wait until after I get it running to change the feul filter and hope all goes well. In the meantime, I'll get the rotors turned with the help of some engine oil in the spark plug ports. When I attempt to turn it over, I'll disconnect the feul line to the EFI. That way I can blow out the excess oil and purge the feul lines at the same time. At that point I'll be ready for lift off. T minus a bit of time and sweat.

 

Moving ahead to step 35 -- check your brakes. What seems to work OK on a car that's moving slowly may not work so well when you get her fired up and go charging down the road. The last car I revived after a similar sleep only had one working brake. The pedal felt OK, and it wasn't leaking fluid (well not much), but 3 out of 4 pistons were rusted in place.

 

dont run gas through that tank and into those lines. i just recently made that mistake. i took posession of an 85 S after it had been sitting a number of years, with a full tank, and drained and disposed of the stale gas. i have gone through a few fuel filters and my tank is lined with the red sediment and keeps clogging up and ruining my new filters. i now have to drain about 5 gallons of fresh gas and dispose of that, as its contaminated(i may attempt to filter it and reuse it though) and i have to drop the tank and clean it myself or send it out to be cleaned. but take my advice and drop and clean the tank first. you'll save a lot of time and hassle in the long run.

 

Welcome to the forum and the Darkside. In my sig line is a link to the online FSMs, sounds like you'll be using it a lot.

Restoration of a working, running car is one thing, bringing back one that has sat for so many years can be fraught with little problems that will drive you nuts and make you wish you'd never started it. Don't let it get you down.

In the FAQs is a thread tittled 'Bringing a rotary back to life'. It's a good start for some of the little things you'll be fighting. As far as lubing the engine internally, I recommend Seafoam, it will both soften up the dried out carbon deposits and lube the internals for initial start. Running it through the fuel system after the fuel tank is cleaned will help clean out the varnished fuel deposits. I was at the parts store today and Seafoam now comes in gallon cans for 38 bucks, sweet.

The more you can clean the all of the fuel system, tank and lines before you fire the engine, the less likely your injectors will plug right off the bat. Do plan on having them sent out for cleaning though.
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My dad's '82 sat in a cinder block garage on flat tires from '91 to '06. He gave it to me because he needed the space. I had to rebuild the carb, replace every piece of steel fuel line (both feed and return) and bought a good gas tank from Texas through this BB. (just do it, it's money well spent). One caliper was seized, I had to replace the bushings in the idler arm, the pinion seal, and had to weld up a hole in the exhaust near the muffler. I also ended up replacing the catalytic converters with an aftermarket unit because both of mine cracked soon after I got back on the road. It's true about tire cords getting damaged with time. Mine have flat spots that are annoying under 10mph but are fine at speed. I ran Marvel Mystery Oil through the 12A while the carb was off. Should have seen the smoke first time it fired up... No seal problems so far after 2,000 miles of commuting. Good luck!

 

Just a few points to make; I have electronic feul injection, not the smaller engine, it has not started since 13 years ago (for some reason my first threads title changed from "13 year old gsl-se found in my garage", or something like that. I only rolled it 10 feet out into the driveway to do the work. The tires are shot, 20 year old perelli's that were worn uneven because the alignment was out. This sea foam, I looked it up. Trochoid said to use it in my engine block as well as the gas lines. Is that going to be OK? I still feel that running the castrol through the engine will be safe as to not expand any rubber. I don't really want to have to remove all the lines to clean them, but I don't want catastrophic failure. I can probably drop the tank and have it cleaned properly. Guess I won't be driving it this summer.

 

I haven't tried the Castrol so I'm not familiar with it. Some have used Seafoam in the oil for brief periods of time to clean out internal buildup of gunk that normally occurs. It shouldn't be left in long, enough for a good warn up and soaking, then a fresh oil and filter change. When I mentioned Seafoam in the engine, I was referring to injecting it into the spark hole instead of using motor oil as Doc suggested.

As far as cleaning out the fuel lines, you don't need to completely remove them. Simply disconnect them at the rubber joints, inject some Seafoam or even Brake Kleen, let them soak a but and blow them out with compressed air until they're clean. It wouldn't hurt to replace all of the rubber fuel hoses with new FI rated line.