crazyjim

Ok, I bought this '87 rx-7 N/A I know absolutely jack **** about these cars, about the rotary motors etc. I know I know, lol, I want to learn though. Hence the reason I signed up.

Ok, heres my problem, I bought the car for cheap, practically stole it from the guy. It ran great on test drive, I was impressed with its power etc for being an import since I used to drive a firebird before someone slammed into me I decided to give it a go. Well, on my way home, white smoke er steam just started POURING OUT OF THE HOOD like it was seriously a smoke screen behind me, my temp gauge was sky high so I pulled over asap.

My buddy was behind me and pulled over also. I popped the hood and found out the nipple on the housing right under the radiator cap was broken. I found it odd that the cap was way out there but eh. It's shooting out steam there, I check my coolant tank. Plum full and cool, so it's not circulating. That's nice to know, we run to a gas station, put some antifreeze in it, and try to get it started again, it cranked and cranked and cranked again. Finally it lit up and I took off tryin to limp her home.

By this time I'm a bit pissed off but oh well... I'll figure it out. I get it home, again it's smoking like a mother. Park it and let it cool down, it's night time so there's not much I can do. The next morning it starts up fine, took a little while longer than I'm used to but again, I know nothing about these cars and what they should sound like or how fast they should fire up. When I started it a decent amount of white smoke came out the tail pipes. So I go to the DMV to get paperwork and it overheats again, I knew it would just needed to see if I could find the problem.

Now I think it may be a thermostat not flowing but I'm not sure, Now here's my question. The odometer says 223,000 miles on it, the guy says it's not the original motor, which from the way it drove when I test drove it, it sure didn't feel like a 223,000 mile motor, nor does it now. But now it's not starting, I sat at the DMV trying to start it for 2 hours. till I finally called a friend, he took me home and later we came back to pop-start it.

I need to know if this is something serious, am I going to rebuild a motor on a car I just bought? If so how much do you think it would run me if I went basically stock rebuild, doing the labor myself, actually a mechanic friend who's like my brother. Just wondering what some of you have spent etc. I really don't need this but if I have to do it I have to do it. So again, problems starting, have to pop-start it when it's warm it seems like, white smoke when I first start it, and overheats like a mother since it's not flowing coolant.

HELP ME!!! plz lol

HeffBoost

Hmm, where do I start?

Rotaries do not take well to being overheated and it does sound toasted to me.

The hard starting is probably a combination of coolant & fuel. The unflood procedure might help - pull egi fuse, crank for a bit, replace fuse, foot-to-the-floor and fire it up.

First thing to do would be to make sure all the cooling components(thermostat, pump, rad clean etc.) are functioning correctly and then make sure it's completely full. A system flush probably wouldn't hurt.

Make damn sure the level sensor is working too.

Rebuilding after an overheat may end up more expensive. I'm not sure exactly what gets warped. I'd say you'd be looking at about a grand to rebuild w/o housings/irons.

My plan if I were you. Get the overheating issue fixed, maybe some block-weld in the meantime and then look for another good engine to either drop in or rebuild.

Hope some of my rambling helps.

P.S. - some links to rebuild parts, prob. some better/cheaper but I don't know them.
http://www.rotaryaviation.com/engine_products.htm

http://www.atkinsrotary.com/engine.htm

http://www.hayesrotary.com/

Sith_Lord

I have an 87, and basicly it did the same thing once. I replaced the water pump and water pump housing. I got the water pump from NAPA and the housing from Atkinsrotary.com. Also replaced all the hoses while I was in there. She has puured like a kitten since.

crazyjim

hrmmmmm thanks a bunch guys, I sure hope it's just what Sith said haha, sounds a lot cheaper.

HeffBoost

Me too. It's just the repeated overheating that makes me cringe.

DAN CARWIN

the 223k makes me worried, even though he said he replaced the motor. defintaley questions ?????????? do a compression test.

crazyjim

yea I was thinkin that, I'll have to have a friend of mine with a compression tester do it. Any idea on what stock compression should be?

crazyjim

me too.. although it seems to be starting ok now, it's like it got hella flooded and then won't start, it's weird, but from what i've been reading here that happens a lot? the flooding?

HeffBoost

Yeah, rotaries are tempermental about flooding. The FSM says 85 is the floor for compression, but I'm pretty sure you can get away with some lower for a while. I seem to be thinking that 60 was around where you'll have trouble starting/idling.

crazyjim

see that's where it messes with my mind, the thing runs like a bat out of hell. idles fine just seems like if I got it hot it doesn't want to start, but this morning, I've driven it three times till it heated up and the add coolant warning light comes on and it started every time with about an hour of cool down time between.

HeffBoost

I'm having a hot-start-flood issue at the moment myself. I think typically it's either leaky injectors, low compression or a combination of the two. I hear people mention vacuum leaks but that would give it some extra air which I would think would help. I may just be off on that one though.

The heating issue is paramount in your case though.

edit - when I say "hot", in my case that's just "fully warmed up"

I've been having luck if, right off the bat, I put the throttle to the floor and keep it there until it catches.

crazyjim

I'll have to try that, my car also seems to smoke a bit when I start it, I hope it won't be too hard to smog omg lol, I live in california too! eek, might be time to call my friend from arizona

86OrangeRx-7

If you wanna know if the engine is toast... take off the rad cap.. try to fire it up.. My seals were so toast I could see exhaust comming out of the rad.... wacked huh... if you see little air bubbles comming up the neck of the rad hose.. your flooding the combustion compartment with coolant.. and your engine is in need of a rebuild

crazyjim

Well the other night when I was trying to start it, when it was hot and flooded it was pushing water out of the radiator cap hole, I had the cap off, and it was like a fountain, probablly three inches above the thing. I'm not liking this so far haha

Amur_

Do the rad cap test with the motor cold.

crazyjim

So I guess I need someone else to crank it while I stand there watching for bubbles? Or should I be looking for exhaust?

Amur_

Fire it up and step out of the car and look. If it's going to geyser, it will geyser constantly. If it doesn't geyser, shut her off and have a smoke cuz your motor's okay.

crazyjim

lol, ok I'll do that first thing in the morning... now I'm worried though because someone just ran a carfax report for me and it says my car used to be a turbo wtf?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
VEHICLE DESCRIPTION
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Year/Make/Model: 1987 MAZDA RX7
Body Style: COUPE
Engine: 1.3L ROTARY TURBO FI
Fuel: GASOLINE
Driveline: REAR WHEEL DRIVE
Manufactured in: JAPAN

Safety Equipment:
ABS Optional, Active (manual) belts

Standard Equipment:
Power Windows Optional, Power Steering Optional, Air Conditioning Optional, AM
/ FM, Power Brakes, Tilt Wheel Optional



uhhhhhh, there's not turbo on my car... no sign of there every being one either ie: gauges etc. again I'm not familiar with these cars so I'm not sure if they came with stock boost gauges or what but what's the deal? Could carfax be wrong?

Amur_

Check the body code and the engine code on your car. That may not be the original motor in there.

Although that's hard to picture - I've never heard of someone removing a turbo to put an NA in... ?

crazyjim

Where might those be found? The codes I mean

HeffBoost

That info s/b in your VIN#. An original turbo s/b JM1FC332.

Don't believe everything Carfax tells you. I've heard lots of cases where this type of info was incorrect.

RX7_ZRO

Hey, heff, just a little bit off topic, but if I'm remembering right, the reason holes in the vacuum lines cause problems is because the pressure in the line drops...the hole lets more of the air escape, therefore, making it so less air gets to where it needs to...just my two cents, from what I've read, although I'm no expert on it myself, so I could possibly be wrong

HeffBoost

Isn't air being sucked in though?

The way I was looking at it was that unmetered air would make it run leaner than it thinks it is.

HeffBoost

It certainly does seem like a vacuum leak may exacerbate the problem, if not actually cause it.

Related to the compression issue is also the viscosity of the oil. When cold the oil's more viscous, which would create better compression than when it was hot. I think that each successive flood makes it a little thinner each time too. Makes me wonder if a heavier weight might help?

http://www.teamfc3s.org/forum/showth...threadid=10818

I wonder how much that transistor in the ECU that sometimes burns out, has to do w/it?
http://www.teamfc3s.org/forum/showth...&threadid=1998

Some more. https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...threadid=16271

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...threadid=75609

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...threadid=53913

OK, that's enough. My conclusion is that it's mainly a compression issue, possibly made worse by leaky injectors. The ECU resistor issue is very interesting.

Since mine's started doing it again it seems to be getting progressivly worse and I think it has to do with my oil getting fuel-fouled, moreso each time. I'll change the oil this weekend and see if it has any effect.

I've been having luck lately by putting the throttle all the way to the firewall and holding there until it catches (which is usually very quick).

If I get it again before the oil change, I'm going to try revving it up before shutdown and see if that doesn't help. I like the theory, in that if you shutdown during decel it would be cutting all the fuel.

Damn, if I don't get sidetracked too easily.

crazyjim

haha, I just pulled my dip stick this morning, smelled like gas... wtf!!!?? looks like I'm due for an oil change too. I'm on my way to go try the geyser thing... I'll get back to you in a few minutes