Hey all,

I know this is a dumb and newbie sort of a question/post, but anyway, I’m currently working on getting my ‘79 rx7 running, and of course I'm planning on changing the oil sometime before I start her up, but I found there’s a lot of rust in the oil filler neck, and was wondering what you guys would suggest on how to fix that. My worry is I might pour in new oil and take in rust with it, or something like that.

Here’s the rust:


What would you guys suggest?

Thanks,
Pascal

 

The neck is pressed in and can/should be removed and reconditioned. My worries are that with that amount of rust, I'm sure some has made it to the pan. I'd also remove the pan to ensure the rust particles are cleaned up. It would also gives you the opportunity to reseal the pan.

 

Great, thank you so much. How would you recommend removing the neck? I've searched for videos before, and just tried again, and didn't find anything helpful. I haven't checked, but is there any tutorial on the forum here?

 

You can take a rubber mallet or deadblow hammer and hit all around it to loosen it up then it pulls off easily.
To reinstall put a block of wood on top and hammer it back down.

 

Pro-Tip; before you start hammering on it, take an oil soaked rag and jam as much of it down the filler neck as you can. At least then, you're likely to catch a fair amount of the loose rust before it falls into the engine oil system. Also, a slam hammer with a gear puller attachment works a little better on the rim of the filler, but be cautious not to peen the edges. It doesn't take much. Just a few taps,

 

Awesome, thanks guys. I’ll definitely try with a rubber mallet, as I don’t have a slam hammer nor a gear puller, so I’ll try my best with what I’ve got, and I’ll definitely use that rag trick! Thanks again

 

For cleaning it up, a sand blaster and then something like POR15 on the inside would be good. If you don't have a sand blaster, maybe find a drill extension and wire wheel.

If you can send it to be, I'll sand blast and powder coat it in gloss black (inside and out). Just pay return shipping. I estimate shipping at around $6.

 

That'd be great, thanks for the offer! I'll PM you

 

Another pro tip - before you reinstall, throw it in the freezer for an hour. It'll help the reinstall be a bit easier.

I media blasted mine, painted, reinstalled and corrected the vacuum to pull all that moisture out.

 

Oh awesome, I'll be sure to do that as well, thanks!

 

So I’ve been meaning to post an update on this, but got busy with the holidays. Anyway, I used my endoscope and took this video that I’ve attached of some rust I found to the left of the channel leading to the oil pan within the center iron. What do you guys think?



Thanks,
​​​​​​​Pascal

 

I'd shop vac that out, snake a tube in there to the pile of rust. Remove the fill tube (with precautions as noted above) and then you might have even better access to snoop with the endoscope.

 

Great, I’ll do that. The issue is though, the stupid endoscope has such a long neck for the camera which can’t flex, that it can’t bend enough to get around that tight corner.



I originally bought it to check the rotors and housings for rust but couldn’t fit it around the intake ports. I’ve already removed the fill tube as well and still can’t get around that curve.

​​​​​​​I figured I’d just try starting the car because I’m not ready to rebuild an engine nor do I have the tools necessary, but if you think it’s unwise to start it up without further knowledge of the condition of the inner-engine, please let me know lol.

 

Oh I just remembered, I tried my best to look into the housings through the spark plug ports and I got a little view of the rotors, and they looked fantastic, but I was mainly worried about the part of the rotors exposed to the intake ports as the car sat for about 2 years with no air cleaner on, the hood down however, and with a cloth covering the top of the carb. I was a little nervous that moisture could’ve done some decent damage during that time, and before the previous owner got it, the car had sat in a trailer park for who knows how long, so anyway just let me know what you guys would recommend.

 

Update: Finally finished cleaning out that rust patch in the center iron, drained the oil, and found lots of lovely things down in the pan with my endoscope lol.

I also realized the center steering link is in the way of the oil pan… 🤦‍♂️
I was originally planning on removing the pan with the car on the ground as I don’t have a lift…
So now I’m wondering, should I attempt to remove the oil pan with the car on the ground or do I need to pull the engine? Another thought I had was I could put the car on jacks and remove the center link from the steering to then remove the oil pan…..

I don’t know what to do at this point lol, so any advice would be greatly appreciated, and also, here’s a few pictures of what I found:





-Pascal

 

You can remove the passenger side idler arm link buy removing the top not and dropping the arm. This gives just enough room to remove the pan. It's tight but doable. It's a common way of fixing a pan link. You can also remove the nuts holding the cross member to the engine mounts and then jack up the engine from the flat portion of the trans just a little bit, maybe an additional inch.

 

That sounds great, I'll be sure to do that, thank you!

 

that’s how Ive done it twice! I also added a few studs in place of bolts to line things up. I used Honda Bond and let it cure for two days before putting oil back in it.

 

I like using the studs in place of bolts. They sell stud kits with nuts just for this.

 

Man, you guys are wizards… simple yet perfect directions, and now I have just enough space to get it down! Thanks so much everyone




Also I’ll be sure to get those studs at some point; I found them on ebay for like $14

 

Success




Definitely glad I’m doing this…

Thanks again everyone!

 

Congrats on getting it off, definitely needs cleaning! Id suggest putting fresh oil in it and running it maybe a couple hundred miles, then change the oil again.

 

All that sludge that settled in your oil pan has also settled on every other horizontal surface, nook, and cranny in the engine. So...once you have reinstalled the oil pan, I suggest you use a crankcase cleaner. There are many brands. I've used Kleen-Flo, Seafoam, and others. Refill the crankcase with fresh oil, but NOT full. Leave room for the crankcase cleaner. Use inexpensive oil...any proper spec oil will do. You will discard it after the procedure. Add the product and run the engine according to the prescription on the cleaner product. Then drain the oil and discard. This will help to clean the sludge that is inside the motor but that you cannot reach manually. I do this at EVERY oil change with my cars. It adds a few bucks to the cost of the oil change, but I believe it is worth it. Here is why I think that. I had a Volkswagen with about 100,000 km (60K mi) that was recalled for the replacement of valve stem oil keepers. When I came to collect the car, the mechanic asked me why I didn't get the keepers replaced when I rebuilt the engine. I was perplexed because the engine was original. He assumed the engine had just been rebuilt because it was spotless inside and had virtually no signs of wear. The moral of the story is: that a clean engine is a good thing. And, while just changing the oil is good....adding a cleaner regularly is even better.

 

Woah, cool story! And thanks for the great feedback, will do Also, a day or two after I posted that I got the pan off, I got it all put back together, but honestly really messed it up.... For one, I put on wayyy too much silicone

The day I installed the pan

Today, by the dipstick

But I'm not too mad with myself as it's the first oil pan install I've done haha. And then the worst part was that I broke a bolt... I couldn't remember the pan bolt torque-spec from my manual, so I did a quick search and got a result from some other rotary forum saying 18ft-lbs which sounded a bit high from what I thought was the right amount (12-16?)... But I went with it, and broke this bolt. It was definitely my fault though, as I was tired and impatient haha, and my torque wrench also wasn't clicking... I tested it on a lug nut and it didn't click there either (I recently tested it again, however, and still works just fine, maybe that day just wasn't a good day for it...) and then maybe there was a slight angle at which I was cranking at, which could've broken it off, I just don't know, but now there's a thread stuck in my block and I can't get it out lol.

It’s the driver’s side rear. I believe it broke flush with the block, but in my desperation I put silicone on top 🤦‍♂️

So I was just curious if you all think it would be fine if I at least fired the engine up when I got it ready to run just to get it running, or if that wouldn’t be smart…

But then there’s also this new variable that might change things.
Silly me hadn’t checked the rotors’ condition well enough before…. and so I need some professional eyes to give me some feedback… my assumption is that I need an engine rebuild, which is both exciting but also very discouraging, as I don’t have the equipment to do so myself, nor the money to have someone else do it, because I’ll admit I have no job and am only sixteen haha. So anyway, I’ll attach the recordings I got of both front and rear rotors. Thanks for reading

Also, forgot to mention that I edited the video clips, making it 2x speed and cutting out the parts where the rotors sprayed some stuff onto the scope, and so I had to take it out and quickly wipe off the lens lol, so anyway sorry they're a little fast, I just needed to reduce the file size to upload them, but if you need certain image stills of the rustier parts then just let me know

 

It should be fine. Just keep a look out for leaks.

I think the torque is 8 ft lbs. I don't even use a torque wrench on this. I just go by feel keeping in mind it just needs to be tight.

The compression numbers will tell the truth about the health of the rotor seals. The other wildcard would be the oil control rings. If you see dark clouds of smoke or oil dripping out the exhaust, that can be the oil control rings. Since this car hasn't run in a long time, I wouldn't make any judgements until it has run for an hour or so. Start it up and just let it run for 20-30 minutes (out side). This will get the engine up to temp and reveal and leaks but will also allow things to loosen up. As long as nothing dramatic happens, do this a couple of times.

If this goes well, then put a can of seafoam in the gas and let it run. It's going to smoke likes it's on fire so do this outside. This should remove the built-on carbon on those rotors.

Make sure to replace the fuel filter first. I bet that gas tank is full of crap.