Barn find
 

Greetings. So I've been studying up from all of your posts. Now school me: my son got his hands on a 79. All original. 5 SP with Tartan interior. Motor seized at 66K (so they say) and we have clean title. Been sitting in a barn in Montana for 19 years. Paint excellent, no mice, etc. I'm thinking the motor would be worth rebuilding to have this rolling original?

sounds good so far, what color is it?

Worth a rebuild. Post pics

Rebuild-yerself doable with some basic tools and a few special ones that are available. My advice is before you do anything, spend $35 and buy Mazdatrix's Rotary Engine Rebuild video DVD. Fab info and shows what you need and what to expect.

'Luck
Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

Would love to see pics of the car. And also wondering the build date. Some of these early cars that have been tossed into a barn or storage can have really low VIN numbers and early build dates. They are kinda coveted around these parts.

all 79's i've seen/had were 4 spd.


good find either way. post up some pix, we want to see.:bigthumb:

My 79 has always been a 5 speed since I've owned it for the last 15 years. I think 4 speed was a base model trans only.

4spds are pretty rare actually,,, 90% of them were 5spds


OP, def worth a rebuild. in the last 6 months or so sa's and fb's prices have been starting to shoot up, clean sa's are $$$. get that guy rebuilt or throw a carb'd 4port 13b in it :D Good luck with 'er

I would even say that before contemplating a rebuild, check the compression as best you can using the 'barn find' method; i.e., take out the spark plugs, get a fresh battery on that thing (hooked up correctly - seems to be a rash of hooking battery up backwards lately!), and then spin the engine over and listen for nice, even pulses from the spark plug holes.

If you hear a whoshwhooshwhooshwhooshwhooshwhoosh - you may be golden.

If you hear a whooshwhoosh...whooshwhoosh...whooshwhoosh - you may have a bad apex seal.

If you hear nothing at all, you have a dead battery! Seriously, though - this is a good indicator if the engine has ANY compression at all, and beyond that the seal condition can't really be checked unless you either remove the exhaust manifold to check apex seals, or pull the engine apart to check oil control rings, side and corner seals, etc. - at that point, you might as well put in new seals and call it a rebuild.

Most engines that have even 'whooshes' can be started and run, even if it requires pull-starting them with another vehicle to get enough compression to fire up. If any gaps in the 'whooshes', you're going to have a hard time getting it going because there's a leak in the compression process.

Whatever you do, good luck with it, and I'm glad to hear of another SA22 (early RX-7) getting back up and running after a lot of sitting in a barn,

In addition to this before you try it with the started, turn it by hand to make sure it's not locked up. After 19 years of sitting it could be locked up. Also, put a little two stroke oil to lube things up in case the omp is shot from sitting. If it start, then drain the tank ad put fresh fuel and premix until you check the omp. Would not want to screw up the motor if it's good.

and-
long storage combined with some carbon build-up can sometimes cause apex seals to stick (so they do not correctly ride along the inside of the combustion chamber and allow gases to blow past). Stick a long screw-driver blade (or just pivot the butterfly externally) past the carb butterflies to pivot them open, and pour ½ a can of SEAFOAM down into each chamber. Disconnect ignition and dry crank the engine a few revolutions to get it around in there - and let is sit a day or 2. SEAFOAM is a great de-carbonizing additive, with no harm to innards. You might want to clear it out the spark plug holes (obv by pulling a Plug) prior to a restart, tho a healthy engine will fire right up anyway.

AND - as others advise, a TOW start can help a reluctant engine start too. Of course all of this presumes you have confirmed it is getting spark!

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska