Car history. Drove from 1990-1999. 40-120k miles on stock everything (well motor/turbo/exhaust etc...). At 120k miles had engine rebuilt street ported and put a big exhaust, fuel computer, and a bunch of other stuff on.

July 1999 parked it and forgot about it. Although I was starting it once every few weeks so that it wouldn't freeze up. (my 84' did that once! bad!)

I got a new 94 and it got all the attention.

April 2000 the 94 blew up (sigh) and went in for a rebuild. After about 3-4 weeks driving the old car I was coming home one night driving pretty hard in the canyon I live in and it blew. Severe loss of power. Nursed it home and parked it. I checked the compression but I can't remember what the results were.

18 months later (now). I'm selling it (need the money). But, someone emailed me after seeing the adv. on ebay and said that I might be able to get it running again with his 'secret' tips he would sell me for $50.

So I scoured the net and the only thing I found was this ATF trick.

I guess my question is, is this the only thing I can try? What are the odds of success? Many people get their cars working this way?

How long are you supposed to let it soak? I've head 1/8 quart per rotor here.

Also, is there anything else besides this that might get it working?

 

Nothing to lose, everthing to gain (said Hailers who has never done it). I'd pull the top plugs and have someone spin the engine over while I had my finger on the top hole. One at a time. One probably will make a good faith effort to blow your finger off. The other will make you w0nder if you have your finger over the hole. From your description I'd say a apex seal went south(if you were headed north at the time). Everything to gain, a buck fifty to lose maybe. Having lost a rotor myself, doing just 40mph in third, I say your goose is cooked. The cause is lost. Gone **** up. Aloha. The seal has bugged out on you etc. If I am wrong, don't post me and tell me so, please.

 

Hehe probably. But I agree, nothing to lose and everything to gain.

I just poured in a ton of ATF fluid. I cranked it 1/3 let it suck in as much as it wanted and repeat. I probably put in too much. I'm going to let it sit over night and I'll give it a 1/3 twist around midnight or so before I go to sleep. Then maybe another in the morning and then I'll try and start it.

The plugs in the car are ok, so i'll test with those. If anything happens or doesn't happen, I picked up a normal set of NGK bur7eq/9eq plugs and I'll try those.

I wonder if the ATF is bad for the turbo? Hope it doesnt gunk it up too bad or burns off if it starts.

Side note: Even unplugged from the car, the battery has been sitting for 18months and is totally flat. I put it on LOW 12v charge and I'll let it trickle over night. Sometimes that can bring them back to life...

 

this ATF business will foul your plugs so dont put the new ones in until you burn off all the ATF in the system. i wouldnt worrry about your turbo, its all exhaust when it comes out. the turbo dont know what kind of exhaust you got.

you may as well replace the wires as well if you can. i replaced mine after doing the ATF trick, and found them to be from 1990..... its now 2001.... plugs were all corroded too....

i suggest starting her up at night to burn off the ATF.... trust me on this.... it makes quite a spectacle....

 

Well after roughly 18hrs of soaking in ATF (6hrs per side). Fired it up, it started amazingly easy on the old plugs that were in it. Started on the first try which gave me some hope, but alas it is still running VERY rough sounding.

The clowd of smoke was quite fun, I only have one neighbor near me but he definitely came out to see what it was. Good thing I brought a decent smoke mask with me as well.

So, I think i'm still back at square one. I put in a clean set of plugs that my dad made from glass beat blasting an old set I had sitting around and fired it up a second time. It was much harder to start and took considerable coaxing with the fuel-cut switch. I didn't even use the new set of plugs at all.

The only real good news is that the battery recovered nicely with the 18hr trickle charge.

Anyone want to buy my old car? =)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/aw-cg...item=597193024

 

i would definately be interested in that car... to bad i live in canada....

 

Just want to give you a heads up with your E-Bay auction

MAKE SURE YOU DON'T TELL AAA THIS!!!

i am call receiver for them and technically this isn't a covered tow

• Its not Emergency Road Service
• It 's a conveince tow
• Its a vehicle being towed after being bought in an inoperable condition

if the reciver on the other end knows this they will not send service... tell them the engine just blew and your having it towed to the persons house for a rebuild, AND make sure the vehicle doen't look like it has been sitting for 2 years, but that it just died on you. the drivers will tell AAA if the vehicle has been sitting for a while because they get paid more running commercial calls than AAA pays them for running there calls

Just wanted to give you a warning on it... if you don't believe me then call AAA yourself to check it out

... now back to lurking as i learn of the rx-7....

 

AAA - Yeah its a close call technically.

Factually: The car engine blew while being covered by AAA+ service.

So I am entitled to ship it to get repaired am I not? Even if I waited awhile to do it?

If I really have to, I can always drive it now =)

It may not sound pretty, and it may stall under 2000rpm's, but it still moves...hehe

 

whether you had AAA when it blew or not doesn;t matter... hell i had 3 people sign up tonight AFTER the fact....

AS for towing yes you can have it towed... but after 2 years it is a bit beyond the Emergency Road Service point don't you think?

as for driving it now yeah ou could do it then say it died on you... and technicaly they could tell you no as the veh did not just break down... it broke down 2 years ago:p

just tell them you are towing it to the buyers house for the rebuild and let it go at that... also make sure when the driver gets there the veh doesn'y look as iff its been sitting for 2 years (having all the air in the tires, a registered plate and it not being on jack stands goes a long ways) and you won't have problems

tonight i had some guy with a 73 beatle that had just sold it to a friend and wanted it towed... i let him go because it was going to be "repaired" there... and i pretended i didnlt here the sell word (he told me it was already sold but then died... i gave him the benefit of the doubt)

simply put just give them what they ask and nothing more and you'll be fine... and pat your self on the back for beating the system.

 

Heheh i actually meant i could drive it the entire way as long as I don't stall it =)

 

This is on a 10th Anniversary? I'm in the same boat as you are. I tried the ATF trick and it didn't help. When it's cold, it turns on easily. After warm-up, it can't hold an idle and dies. It runs really loud and rough sounding like a harley. Time for a rebuild...

 

I found some old negatives with pictures of the car in them. I scanned them in and put them here if anyone is interested...

http://www.hybit.com/~jriskin/rx7/fc/