I recently got this 1981 SA Rx7

Car hasn't run in almost 7 years now, previous owner says it ran well before It was put in a garage. The car has 270.000 KM, engine swapped and the one in it now has 115.000 KM on the counter now. The water pump is broken according to him, besides that all is fine. The engine is a 12A

I put fogging oil in the spark plug holes for 4 consecutive days and handcranked it, one side gave me 3 pretty loud puffs, the other side 1 loud, 1 quiet and 1 almost nothing, I put more fogging oil in it and got the same results, the day after I cranked it with the starter, using a compression tester I got these results, both sides gave this, more or less the same result: 25PSI

I never tried starting the car, should I try to start it? I'm scared it will damage something.

Is the engine totally toasted? Anyone got a general idea of what could be going on?
Could the seals be stuck in the rotor? People tell me to try ATF to remove carbon deposits, is that a good idea?
Some told me to pour oil into the intake and crank it with the starter as it could be lacking oil to compress?
How do I know the difference between a bad apex seal and a good one when checking it trough the exhaust port?

I just want to make sure I'm not pulling the engine for something that can be fixed without having to do it.
I really want to get this engine running and rebuild it if needed.

Thanks in advance!

 

Starting it might actually fix and compression issues like stuck seals. That's what I'd do. Now, with that said, drain the gas and change the fuel filter first and clean or replace the plugs. Use a nice charged battery.

 

Quoted for truth. This is what I would do.

At this point, starting it will do no more damage than cranking it. If it needs a rebuild, attempting to start is certainly not going to make it any worse. It might take a while and expect lots of smoke with the foaming oil you sprayed in there.

If it has spark and it has fuel and it won't start, then you need to look at compression again. Before pulling the engine you can then consider manually unsticking the seals, or using something like ATF to dislodge any carbon buildup. If you read the links in my post in your other thread it describes how to manually dislodge stuck seals.

FYI that compression tester is not going to tell you anything useful other than the engine is producing some compression. You need a specialised rotary compression tester.

 

Thanks! I will use ATF as you said, gonna get a bottle today.
And I will get a rotary compression tester sometime soon!

 

Don't use ATF. It's bad. But I understand not every place in the world has Marvel Mystery Oil. Hopefully the ATF won't do more harm than good. I'll never put ATF into an engine.

 

I yesterday poured engine oil into the housings, turning it around a few times, today I handcranked it and the first side gives me 3 loud puffs, the second side gives me 2 Loud and 1 okayish loud.
Before this it was 3 loud, and 1 loud, 1 quiet and 1 nothing, I then started the engine up, it started instantly, smoked a bit and the smoke dissapeared after 30 seconds.

 

I don't think you need to pull the engine, but a radiator install seems in order, LOL! Good to see its running fine.