So I picked up an 86 FC last summer to work on to get more experience with rotary engines instead of tearing apart my vert. The guy sold it to me for $300 because his "master mechanic" couldn't figure out why it wasn't running. Thanks to RX7club, I found out the TPS was missing. Once I installed that, and put some fresh gas in the tank, and put some fresh oil in it, it fired up. Unfortunately, they hacked up the car to find the problem, so I'm attempting to piece it back together. One major thing is, though, the car has about an inch of exhaust piping off the manifold. Will running it do any damage to the internals from heat damage since there isn't much exhaust piping? Sorry, I'm a complete newb to rotaries.

I plan on rebuilding the entire motor, but I'm just glad it runs. It hasn't seen the road since '95.

 

Do a compression check to see if it even needs a rebuild before you mess with it. You might not even need to do that.

The exhaust will be loud but I would not fret about doing any damage to the car, just don't go off-roading in really tall dry grass.

 

Well seeing as I planned on off-roading the pos, I'm sort of sad. haha
Thanks. I know there is a way to pull the spark plugs and feel for the pulses, but I'm not too sure on that. Also, how long is ok to leave the motor idling without much coolant? I don't want o overheat it and cook the motor.

 

just keep an eye on the water temp gauge.

 

It's a S4 so make sure the temp gauge doesnt get past 1/4 or 1/3 of the way up. And driving it tall dry grass might be fun, just make sure you can outrun the fire.

For checking the compression, unplug the CAS and pull all the spark plugs. Have someone crank it and hold your hand over the lower spark plug holes. If its strong enough to blow your hand off, it'll be ok to run. Getting a real compression tester would be better though for some real numbers.

 

is it really in that bad of shape to just beat the **** out of off road? you may have scored yourself a sweet/cheap shell to start an awsome build

 

Flames will shoot out of the exhaust so you better be good with a fire extinguisher.your Passenger floor should get really NICE anf hot and most likely Melt something.
No Offence,but if you found the problem to the Running of the car,you shouldn't be That lazy to replace a small piece of pipe..That is if you wanna keep the car.

 

woah woah, I'm not going to off road it for real. sarcasm doesn't translate well in text. The car isn't in that bad of shape. I just need to piece back together the engine bay, and then a bit of body work. There is a neat hole under the passenger's door that I might feed a nice side exit exhaust through, that is if I stop being so lazy.

 

Make it into a DANGER CART lol

 

say good bye to your hearing hahahahhahah

 

..............................

 

i have a feeling your about to feel the wraith of the banhammer!

 

haha well thanks to the insight, guys! I'm sure I'll have more questions soon.