We bought a '81 RX7 and it turns out the front rotor was bad - no compression. It still runs/idles, but obviously not road-worthy.

I found a guy that has an car that the clutch went out and he doesn't want to fix it. For $250 we can get the engine. His engine is completely stock...all the emission stuff/solenoids/valves are still in place. It's completely stock. His engine also came out of an '81, but a GSL instead of an S.

Our car has all of that stuff removed, the Racing Beat intake manifold, a Holley carb (not Racing Beat).

I'm guessing we can just remove all of that stuff on the replacement engine to make it just like ours and it should work OK?

Anything else to be aware of?

 

I would buy the engine for $250 open it up and build one solid engine using the best parts from both engines.

 

Hes selling the car because he doesnt want to replace an $80 clutch? Laaaaazy.....

 

Yeah, that doesn't make much sense. Is the car for sale? I'd try to grab the whole shebang, myself.

 

He's putting a 302 in it.

No comment......

 

We pressure washed the engine today. Took the intake/carb off, took the bunch of hoses/solenoids off the top of the engine, took the air pump off.

It's nice 'cause the guy we got our car from rigged up an undersized electric fan. The new engine is all stock and still has the original fan. We'll keep that for now.

I have the original intake/carb if anyone is interested.

 

Nothing special on the actual swapping of engines or clutch?

 

I have the 5 17-mm bolts removed connecting the transmission to the engine, but it's not separating. It's sticking over by the starter area. Yes, I have the starter out.

I did not take the driveshaft or anything else related to the transmission apart - as the manual did not say to.

The top and passenger side of the engine/tranny are separating pretty good, but the driver side / starter area is not. Not seeing anything holding it together.

 

There is a bolt under the starter you missed.

 

I mistakenly loosened one of the long bolts holding the engine sections together. I found the bolt next to the starter and now have the engine out.

This is my son's car and he's paying for parts (limited budget). We're going to take the clutch off his old engine and put it on the replacement. I know, now is the time to replace it, but we're not going to.

 

The car still has all of the air conditioning installed. The compressor turns fine. I'm wondering if it's worth it to try and get it working or just remove it.

 

how much do you want for the original intake and carb I'm interested

 

I would try to get the AC working you can get a retrofit kit to change it over to 134 a for 20$

 

OK. I got the other engine in and started it up today. It's running on both rotors (unlike the old engine).

I put some oil down the carb, rotated the engine by hand and let it sit a while before starting it (it is a used engine, that was out of a car for a month or two).

Obviously it smoked really bad when I first started it up. After all the oil burned out, it stopped smoking. I took it for a spin and the first 3 blocks it didn't smoke at all, but on the way back, I started seeing blue smoke.

The OMP lines are connected to the Holley carb, but the OMP linkage is not. It's not a Racing Beat Holley carb, so there's no way to connect it to the carburetor. Whatever the state of the linkage is at rest is what it's in (not sure if it's at the rich or lean setting).

When the car cools off and you start it up, there is much less smoke. It doesn't seem to start smoking badly until you drive it or rev it up when just sitting there.

I've searched the forum and many of the threads mention either a bad turbo (we don't have a turbo) or bad oil seals. Is this something that may improve with the 'steam-clean' procedure with water in the engine, or a good hard drive to redline or just time? Or a rebuild only?

The car is running pretty good. No surging. Good power. No backfiring. No overheating. I believe good oil pressure (30psi at idle according to the gauge - and up from there).

Link to video of it idling after being driven 6-10 blocks

 

Forgot to mention, regarding the smoking...in case it matters...

There is no catalytic converter. Pretty much straight pipe to a loud muffler at the rear of the car.

 

Well, once it's smoking like that for extended periods, there isn't much you can do.

A few ounces of Seafoam down the carb barrels may help clean the engine out, but that probably won't do much for the oil control rings. Heavier oil can reduce burning, so I typically ran 20-50 during the summer months in my old RX that had bad control rings and it helped somewhat.

The good news is that, aside from the smoke, the engine is idling pretty good and will probably last quite a while, provided you keep the oil levels up and the consumption doesn't get really extreme.

 

theres the small possibility that it could be residual oil left in the exhaust, a good hard run after its up to temp for a while would clear it out. my first engine did that for a while, but after about an hour of driving in and a few pulls to red line, it went away, if it doesn't a rebuild may be in order, but luckily it still drivable, and with thicker oil, should last a while, giving him time to save some money for a rebuild kit for the first motor!

 

After driving it much more, the smoke level has dropped off considerably. I did use some Sea-Foam in the carb and the gas tank. Plus, some time at red line was fun.

 

My engine smokes like that when its very rich and im running premix.

A non-RB holley runs extremely rich at +4k rpm. Something to think about.