Hey guys, My name is Zain and I'm new to these forums as well as rotaries, RX-#, and anything else concerned with Mazda.

My buddy and I bought a 1986 RX-7 for $500 a couple weeks ago, I took pictures of it today and recorded a short video of it running. It's pretty beat up as you can see by the pictures. The mileage meter is broken and stopped counting at around 212k so im sure its close to 220-230k by now. Everything is OEM on the car except for the shift **** and the seat covers we put on. The front left wheel is sitting on a spare (when we picked it up the tire had blown out). The car overheats and leaks coolant as you can see from the videos i shot. Shifting assembly is loose and needs to be replaced, clutch is pretty worn, fuel gauge is busted, speedometer is busted, doors dont lock lol, and some other things i cant think of right now.

We plan to work on it and hopefully get it to decent running condition soon. Like i mentioned i have no idea how a rotary engine works and ive never worked on any mazda before (Subies are my cup of tea), my buddy on the other hand has SOME knowledge, but not much. So the reason im posting up these pics and videos is so maybe you guys could help out or shoot some advice our way! It would definitely be greatly appreciated!

Take a look at these and see what you think, keep in mind it was $500 lol

PICTURES:

http://s661.photobucket.com/albums/uu340/InZain/

VIDEOS:

http://www.dropshots.com/InZain#

 

nice gear shift ****

good luck

read thru the archives thoroughly

 

mine was 350 with less damage and running but i was the interior was that nice..
good find.

 

Thanks for the comments guys!

Is there anything we could do that is relatively cheap with decent gains? Im talking about anything exterior, interior, engine work. We dont have much money but we're willing to do whatever we can.

 

if you want easy gains. read up about a cold air intake and maybe look into some exhaust. if it can breath a bit better you will gain some more power. kinda a cheap way, but can get a but spendy. nice find tho. should fix up nicely

 

^^ yeah a good exhaust system is the cheapest way to get a good hp gain with these cars
i recommend borla

 

Awesome! Ill start looking into intake and exhaust systems for this car

Does anyone have any idea why the car overheats and then leaks and burns coolant like that?

 

Maybe paid a little too much....


Probably has blown seals?

 

looks about right for $500. ***** shifter FTL.

 

The cars runs perfectly well, the coolant problem happened about a week and a half ago. It could be blown seals, im going to check them out tomorrow when i get my jacks. The hose next to the radiator cap has completely come off, i put it back on for now with some duct tape lol. Just until we can replace it.

 

You need to isolate where the leaks are coming from. If the thermostat is broken that would be one reason it would over heat. Go to the FAQ thread on here and download the FSM's (factory service manuals) Use those to help diagnose and located potential problems. Welcome to the Rotary engine!

 

Sweet ive been looking for where to get the service manuals! Thanks for the welcome as well!

 

You are probably going to need a new engine. Rotaries HATE overheating. Will kill coolant seals and/or oil seals and you'll get alot of smoke = rebuild time. I cant watch your vids but i'll bet it leaks from the heater hoses. If the engine isnt suffering from coolant seal failure, you should check oil consumption regularly. Rotaries inject oil into the combustion chamber for seal lubication.

Search for blown coolant seals test.

You need a new Speedo-cable from the dash to the tranny. You probably need a new tranny. lol. Check driveshaft u-joints while you're at it. New doorhandle locks/linkages. I hope you live close to some junkyards.

Good luck and welcome to the club. I'm sure you'll grow to hate/love these cars. Most likely the first. You have alot of work to do.

 

well i dont know if we live near any junkyards but im sure we'll find parts for it slowly. As for the engine we found a $1250 deal for a JDM Turbo II engine with tranny.

 

those are hit and miss. the probability of one of those jdm rotary engines being any good is 50%

if you do wanna get a jdm unit, contact japan2la on the forum. he has a pretty good string of jdm engins that seem to run perfectly.

 

oh cool thanks for the tip, ill send him a PM ASAP.

I didnt know about the hit or miss on the engines, they seemed like they were in good condition. Low mileage and it came with everything i would need for a easy drop in. Regardless, i still want to check out all my options you know?

Today were going to try to isolate our coolant problem. Hopefully we will make some progress, ill post up some more pics and maybe another video or something later today. Ill keep everyone updated with what were doing.

thanks guys

 

ok well the hoses seem to be in ok condition, i didnt get a chance to really inspect everything because i had made plans earlier in the week which disrupted today. What i did do was pretty ghetto lol, i duct taped the radiator cap and the hose going into it so less pressure would escape. I also taped the resevoir cap so it wouldnt pop off and shoot coolant anymore. The car doesnt over heat as fast as before i taped everything. I know, dont worry, this is only a temporary solution. We ordered a new Radiator cap and the assembly for it as well as strut bars lol

i didnt take any pictures because i didnt get into the car as far as i would have liked to.

 

lol awesome radiator leak

 

yeah it is pretty gnarly isnt it? oil change tomorrow FTW!!! lol

 

For the radiator leak, to find out if its a blown seal, take the rad cap off, fill it to the top with water and start the car with the top off. If you sucked in a seal, the water will slowly pour out of the radiator.

As for the shifter, its pretty cheap to replace the bushings. Theirs a walkthrough on how to do it on the Mazdatrix website. Here's the link. http://mazdatrix.com/FAQ\SHIFTBSH.HTM

Nice find for $500. The interior is pretty damn clean with the exception of a few missing pieces of trim. I wish mine looked that good...

 

Thanks much for the link to the bushings, i really had no clue what to do about it. Ill do the water method today when my friend comes over.

I nailed, yes nailed, the driver side fabric to the door so it looks a bit more legit lol

yesterday when i was just messing around with the car, taking parts off and cleaning or whatever, i noticed that the part below the radiator car had a couple of problems. one of the bolts that holds it down had split in two so currently only one bolt is holding it. second, the little hose that leads from the resevoir into the radiator cap area blew off a while ago right where the radiator cap is so im guessing we need a new radiator thing (anyone know what thats called?)

ps. stain remover, oxyclean, and vacummed the hell out of the interior before taking pics. Looked hella worse when we got it lol