Looking into an FB.
 

There's a guy in town that has an 83 (?) RX-7 that doesn't run. He said that he called someone he knew to replace the airpump while he was at work. He said that he came home and the guy had pulled the entire top end of the engine apart- carb, intake mani, everything but the airpump. He told him to just put it back together and just replace the airpump. It now doesn't run, at all. If it helps, when it did run, you could turn it off and a second or so later a six foot long flame would shoot from the exhaust. He's selling it for $500 and I want it to build a drag car. I don't want to buy it now, I think I'll wait until it gets a little more water damage inside and take it off his hands for $200-$300, but I was wondering, what could be wrong? Thanks in advance for helping an FC'er.

well, if you are making a drag car then most likely you are gonna want to put a T2 into it anyways. At least a 13B. Either way it wont matter if the 12A runs or not.

Not necessarily IanS, maybe hes gonna port it and make a drag car out of it. A good bridgeported engine can be just as quick as forced induction. I would say that it was running rich originally causing the flame, or it was still getting gas pumped through the engine after the ignition had shut off and got ignited in the hot exhaust. Like the idle set too high, or too rich. It not running now could be a number of things, most likely an improper re-assembly.

~T.J.

Actually this is my plan for it:
Peripheral Ported 12A, RB Header, 4" side exiting exhaust, Holly carb, N.O.S. carb plate nitrous, ignition, 4spd FB trans, Ford 9" Locker w/ 4.11 gearset, 6puck clutch, backhalved, tubbed, gutted, caged, and running slicks (probably about 10-15" wide). Of course, it won't be cheap, but I need a project 7 while I drive my FC.