I just picked up a 1990 na... owner said it had a bad coolant seal but I was skeptical, figured hey, try and start it up.

I cranked it over by hand, it wasn't siezed.. so I tried cranking... no start.

pulled the plugs, cleaned them... put 'em back... no start.

verified that I had spark and compression... still no start.
tried to find fuel - no fuel.
pulled the fuel pump, oh. it's turned into goo, along with everything else in the gas tank. drained the gas, put in new stuff, put in a new fuel pump, verified that it works.

got the car started with starting fluid, got it running.. had my dad hold it at 4-5Krpm till it would hold an idle on its own (which it did)..

noticed a strange red glow from underneath, looked, the ENTIRE exhaust was glowing red hot from the downpipe to the mufflers... shut it off!

it won't start again, it tries but just won't catch. starter fluid would probably do the trick but I hate using that stuff, especially on a wankel...

it didn't smoke at all, and I didn't get a geyser out of the rad cap.
the temperature gauge moved up pretty quickly though to just above halfway before I shut it off.. the rad was still cold when I shut it down.
the exhaust note sounded AWFUL, it also sure as hell didn't sound like 5000RPM - which was weird... but there are a few holes in the exhaust right before the mufflers on each side so maybe that's why..

any ideas as to what's going on here?

 

Do you have a catalytic converter? Is it dead/clogged?

 

Not 100% sure but I would check the timing. Also (nothing to do with the problem) I would change the fuel filter.

 

the fuel filter sure should be changed, you should've seen the goo in the tank!
I want to be 100% sure that the engine is good first though, before I bother spending money on it.

the cats sure could be clogged too - but the WHOLE exhaust was glowing red hot, right up to the mufflers.

 

I'd say clogged cats.

 

if pieces of cat are all over inside the exhaust..which is most likely,,you will get hot spots,drop the cat ..you'll find out...clogged cat will gag the engine and produce hard starting ..precats are probably shot too..lets face the fact that they are not new..and they do crap out!..just like the cat!..glad you cleaned the crap out of the tank...do the exhaust..you'll start it (fingers crossed!)..with a clean exhaust that is not obstructed.

 

I'll just take the exhaust off...

 

Lets just put it this way, this is what happend when my cheap cat ate itself.


That's what I saw the morning after seeing my manifold turn red...


Let's see what's in here shal we? I had to do this myself because the pep boys, or whoever did this exhaust for the previous owner said that it was guranteed for life for the previous owner only >


Figures...






Gutted it the rest of the way, and sealed her up and all was good in rx-7 land again :-D

 

wellll
maybe I shoulda actually checked compression with a tester, cos it sounded fine, but the front rotor has 0 psi.
owned! lol.

guess I'm parting this one out..

I'll fill it full of diesel (the engine) on the off chance that it's just got stuck seals... but I doubt it

 

hey Terrh..sorry about the engine.. just wonderin..did you check exhaust ?..seeing the posted pics of IM [H]ard's cat ..it really makes me curious as to what you found besides the front rotor seal?

 

The compression test is the clue for sure.

With the front rotor putting unburned fuel in the exhaust you will get a bad *** afterburn.

You were probably only moments away from a rear bumper fire.