I just got my stock 85 gs. She's in excellent condition. 116K. Seems to be an oil leak from where the oil filter pedestal mounts to block. The repair manual says there is just two bolts to remove the pedestal in order to replace the O-rings.
Mine does't look this easy. Seems I have at least 4 plus some other things to get out the way too. Can anybody give an idiot some basic advice.

I'm new to these motors and just barely capable of basic repairs!

thanks.

 

ummmm I did this a while ago, I removed the banjo bolt, 23mm bolt on the oil line.... Then I removed the bolt holding the oil cooler to the top of the engine and then there are 2 10mm bolts on the bottom of the filter pedestal... I warn you these are hard to put back on (hint put some glue on your finger tips to get the bolts to stay on the tip of you finger while putting it back on) after these are removed the filter pedestal should lift up, the haynes manual shows a good example of what 10mm bolts im talking about, make sure not to loosen the ones it says not to...

 

The only problem I had when I did this repair was getting to the large bolt on the back of the unit (by the firewall). Some people say you can do this without removing the banjo bolts if you are careful. The instructions in the Chilton's are pretty good, just follow those. Good luck....

 

The back bolts are a bitch!!!!

 

thanks.

 

If you are not much of a mechanic then you might not want to start with this as your first project.

 

Yeah, it's not hard to figure out, but it's a bitch of a job to do. If you can find an under-rad oil cooler and radiator to match you may want to swap that in at this time and get rid of the inefficient and hard-to-work-around "beehive" style oil cooler once and for all.

Log onto the BC RX7 club forum (BCRX7club.com) and ask if any of your local Vancouver guys have one for sale. Then enlist them to help you with the install--- it should only take a few hours and the result will be a much more efficient cooling system with lots more space freed up to do other tasks, such as replacing the clutch slave cylinder for example. One induvidual who may have what you need and is a gold mine of info is Chris at Eunos, located in North Vancouver. His number is (604)924-9669.

What ever you do, be sure to replace all of the copper (or aluminum) crush washers on the oil hoses with new ones--- otherwise the necessary torque required to make the old ones seal properly can and will crack the aluminum oil cooler and/ or front cover. Not good. These washers are available from Mazda for around $1 each and you'll need at least four of them.