Newbie Question: Should I buy this RX-7?
 

A friend is trying to sell his girlfriend's '79 RX-7.
I've kinda been looking for a fun project to tinker with, and RX-7s have been a possibility. I'm fairly mechanical, I know how the rotary engine works, but have never owned a rotary. I'm not afraid to tear into one to work on it.
The body and interior are ok, fairly straight, no rust, but needs paint.
The engine is another story. First, he thought it was a 4cyl boinger because it has 4 sparkplugs, and another interested buyer told him it was a piston engine. That was kind a funny.
He says it has been running for about 20 minutes till it gets warm and then starts smoking alot and quits. He described it as white smoke, but it's not using antifreeze.
He went and cut off the entire exhaust because it was noisy, and another potential buyer told him that is why it's smoking, it needs the exhaust to contain the smoke and suck it back into the engine.

He got it started, (had to jump it, and he poured a little gas down the carb.)
It smoked a lot of blue and white smoke the whole time it ran. It seemed to run ok, never settled down below 2000 rpm. We didnt' run it long (4-5 minutes) because it was so noisy without an exhaust.
He has put a new carb on it, and new plugs.

He wants $400 out of it to get his money back.
As a friend, he's not trying to hide anything about the car, and he really doesn't know anything about the engine. I had to explain the concept, and that it uses oil by design.

I'm considering it, but am wondering you all's opinion. Is this worth picking up or should I pass??
Is this even a good year/generation to buy or should I look for a newer generation?
Again, I'm looking for something to tinker with that will be fun.
Thanks,
Billy

i would buy it

400 dollars you can't lose. It just needs a 13bt ;).

sounds like the water jacket is bad, if it starts to smoke white after it's been warmed up. check the omp to make sure it isn't stuck open(that would cause too must oil to be injected, blue smoke) if it is the wate jacket you need to build the engine unless you like a smoke screen effect for your car. the omp can be rebuilt easily. the fuel pump sounds like it needs work if you had to dump gass down the carb. in other words you get what you pay for and 400 in the car world isn't a lot. it'd be alot of work but we all would help ya

I would buy it too 400 bucks is a great deal and RX7's are awesome to work on :)

For an SA with a good body I'd buy it for $400. I think all it needs is a LT-1:) Just kidding, I want a SA to do a S5 TII swap into.

I think $400 is fair for a straight body and semi good interior '79 Rx-7. Go for it! People on this forum can help you get her running.

buy it, hell. :o:

I just need to convince the wife.
My friend says it's not using coolant, so I wouldn't think the water jacket is leaking. I popped the radiator cap and it was full. The smoke I saw had a blue tint at first, then seemed to be mostly white. Made me wonder if it was dumping too much gas.
I found an RX-7 faq site that was a big help.
One slight problem is I'm 6'5" 235, so it was a tight fit.
Thanks guys.