deimox

So I was heading back over a pass this weekend, my car overheated and died just as I peaked.

I pulled over, figure its a stuck thermostat, pull that, refill my radiator and am on my way.

Car runs very cool for a good long time (going down hill). After a while my car seems to feel different, nothing obvious, just a general feel of less responsiveness. I'm cruising on the freeway and interstate with nothing horribly out of the ordinary. I go on this way, my car starts getting hot again, (never gets more than half way on the temp gauge).

I decide to pull off to let it cool down as I'm only 45 minutes or so from home and just want to deal with it there. As soon as I clutch in to shift the car dies, I compression start the engine while I pull into the rest stop (a few times), I manage to keep it running by slowly pulling into a parking spot with the ebrake while keeping the throttle open and the RPMS around 2.5k.

Sit wait, and let the engine cool down.

Fire it up and its running rough, and dies as soon as I let off the throttle. I finally decide to check the oil (having done so prior to leaving town initially and it being full). It just happens there is no oil, none, bone dry. And I get a AAA tow home.

Fast forward to today, flushed the engine with oil, replaced the spark plugs and filter, and run the car. It runs, but its rough as hell, it'll idle (rough) if I slowly let off the throttle. Took it for a short drive and it'll die as soon as I clutch in for any more than a half second or so to shift.

Is my engine toast? My oil is still there from the change, no major leaks that I can find, I have cardboard under the engine so as to see if anything comes out. Is there something else going on here that I'm missing? A horrible timing problem? TPS in need of adjustment? (I doubt I'm that lucky, just grasping at straws here)

I'm not a complete newbie when it comes to cars or RX-7's as this is my third FB. I'm just at a loss as to how I could loose all that oil with little more than some felt sluggishness and the engine running hot. And I'm horribly confused as to what could be wrong with the car that caused this initially, and that's causing the problems at present (apart from the obvious that the engine is done).

Any help, or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

dbragg

iTrader: (7)

did you notice any metal flakes in the oil?

Rx-7Doctor

iTrader: (13)

Is the undercarriage full of oil? Or did you lose a oil cooler hose?

First thing besides figuring out where all your oil went to is to perform a compression test. Also do you have fire to the leading plugs?

deimox

Thanks for the posts, and sorry I never responded. There were no flakes in the oil and I found the leak it was at the pipe fitting that went into the oil cooler on the driver's side of the car (lots and lots of oil and grime on that side of the under carriage, so that mystery is solved.) I'm ordering a compression tester as we speak and will see how that turns out. Thanks for the help you guys, and any other suggestions are more than welcome. I'm currently looking into pricing for a rebuild and to have the other work done on the car that I need to have taken care of to get it up and running and maintained in the condition that it deserves.

I'll also test that I'm getting fire to all the plugs.

Thanks again!