Hey everyone. I am a former honda prelude owner, a 4 wheel steering model. But now I am on to new and hopefully better things. I have an 82 lined up and quite possibally will purchase, What are the warning signs and things to look for on these engines. I know about a few things that I've found on the net earlier, oil residue in the anti freeze, bubbling in the rad while running, and smoking.... this car doesn't have these symptoms, is there other things to look for? please let me know. Thanks alot. CHEERS

 

pull out the storage bins and look for rust,check the compression.

 

Check for rust under the storage bins and clogged drain lines.

 

Ditto.

 

where exactly are the storage bins? in the trunk area I guess? what engine specific things to look for? sorry for my lack of knowledge.......

 

The bins are right behind the seats. A few screws and each one will come loose, then remove the lights and pull them out completely. You will then see the metal and be able to tell if the 7 has cancer or not

 

well i would say the most important thing to look for is the engine.
check on how good it starts. and the oil residue on the sides of the housings. especiallt by the plugs. other than that, ir depends on how much you payin for it as to how picky you wanna be.
good luck.

and welcome.

 

I am payin 1500 canadian, the body is pretty mint, for the year, there is oil residue around where you fill the oil, and in that general vacinity, I am not expecting it to be mint... but, I just don't want to have to do a rebuild a month down the road, its just not financially possible right now. If I had the funds I would tear it down and rebuild right off the hop, to avoid any surprizes.

How easy is it to extract power from these engines? will bolt ons like headers and stuff give any decent gains? Or is it more sesible to do a v8 swap? I am just looking at options, I would like to have a pretty quick 7 in time.... would like to keep it rotary if possible. Thanks for the help.
I'll check these compartments tomorrow to see about the cancer.

 

the oil residue is more than likeley the beehive oilcooler

u can either replace the 0 rings or convert to an se oilcooler

-greg

 

If it can start, check for the infamous dowel pin oil leak up near the front plates at the top...

 

just look around for mods on these beauties. fairly easy to get speed from rotaries. headers are just a start. electric fan, emisions removal, better carb, superchargers, turbo's, porting? theres plenty. i knew a guy who had a n/a 13b doin 12's. so get the car and have fun.
KEEP THE ROTARY IN THE ROTARY!

 

I know he didn't ask about a V8 swap did he? I am hemeraging.........NO ROTOR NO MOTOR in these cars. Bottom line. messy oil chages can often lead to reidue near the plugs. take out the rear pugs and check for oil saturation or oil pouring out of the chamber or in the threads. Make sure both the ignigters are hoohed up the the didtributor. I bought an 83 that ran pretty good, lacked a little power, got it home and the jackhole had cut the wiring to the second ignigter to make the car run smooth. plugged the wire back up and cough cough SMOKE! Filled the exhoaust up with Oil it sounded like a deep fryer! Good luck! NO V8 swap.

 

I have an electric fan cooling fan in my prelude right now. I have already thought of putting that into the rx7 if everything checks out. In the prelude, the fan would stay on after the car was shut off until it cooled down enuff that it was ok to shut itself off. I was told an engine will heat up most when the car is not running and has been just shut off after running at a warmed up temp... is that what you mean by electric fan mod? I guess putting one of those in also takes quite abit of drag off of the motor too.... I am gonna try and check the compression today, and the bin rust thing. Thanks for all your help, thus far, I am impressed with this comunity of car owners, the prelude comunity was good, but often lacked the help I would need, thanks every1