Hey guys,
I'm pretty damn close to buying a $1000.00 1987 FC. I followed the faq's about buying FC's which it passed most of the tests pretty well, except for one. The owner told me that from the third Cat the rest of the exhaust system is rusted out. Which brings me to some questions. On the initial cold startup are these engines supposed to smoke this much? (this was a wet 59F day mind you) It kinda stumbled on startup then puffed out white smoke from the tail pipe for about 2 minutes then it started to run clear. now is this that sign where the engine is gonna die? whonder how much $$$ I can knock off? after warm up it ran smoothly. Also for some reason, the rear hatch had a puddle under the glass which I think was strange is this a common problem?

 

i have never seen an rx7 that did not smoke on start up... however 2 minutes is a bit long... try flooring the car in N and see if white smoke comes out at the upper rpm's... if so then the coolant seal is going out and that means rebuild time... or using blockwelder in the coolant system to temp fix the car.... but beware if you do that because i do not believe you can rebuild that motor.. you would have to swap in another one

 

Please read the "How To Buy" articles linked in the FAQ.

 

Yeah I thought that might be the problem. I've read all 3 "how to buy" write ups (nice work by the way Aaron) I think I just needed to hear it again. Thanks guys I'll post pics after it's in my parking stall.

 

he said he did ,, atleast thts how i read it

"Hey guys,
I'm pretty damn close to buying a $1000.00 1987 FC. I followed the faq's about buying FC's which it passed most of the tests pretty well, except for one. "

 

ya white smoke usually means coolant seals are gone, every time is go n see an rx7 to go look and buy, its usually around 2k but puffs out lots of white smoke, if the car was cheaper, i would go n save up some more money for a 13bre n drive the car very carefully!!!! I would ask the seller for a cheaper price, be like, ill give you 800 for it, n then bam, 200 bucks in ur pocket to save up for a 13b-re , then again thats me

 

Sorry, I was a little too happy with my canned responses...

 

Downshyft - One more question about the smoke: How long had it been since the car had been started before you started it up?

about the puddle of water - There's a drain hole on both sides of the "gutter" that the window sits down into. they're clogged up. 30 seconds and a metal close hanger, and you'll get them ALL cleaned up.

 

be carefull about that smoke...I ended up payiing almost 3K for a rolling chassis that way.

 

Almost???

 

wonkothesane- The majority of the car's life was sitting in a drive way untill a month ago it has been started about twice a week to move from one parking stall to another. That evening I started the car, it had been sitting cold for two days.

What's confusing me is it stopped smoking when I started to get on the highway and when I parked it and let it idle after Initial start up. hmmm (maybe I should ask for $800.00 i love saving money!)

 

If it's not smoking anymore, rip em off and save an FC..

 

I'm definately guessing that the coolant seals are NOT bad, but that there was some crap in the engine that needed burned out. But you will have to be careful with the car for the first littel bit that you own it. It's likely to have carbon buildup on the inside since it's been sitting a lot, and it probably hasn't been redlined properly to burn it out. (do some reading on this).

You should always try to negotiate a lower price, as it has been sitting, and there's likely to be some little problems here and there.. and it's fun to haggle

 

good luck man. im with you on your taste in cars

 

well, I bought my FC on saturday which kicked ***. Now what pisses me off is when I paid for it on saturday, it was in top shape. Now today during my lunch break I fill the tank, put the key in ignition and WHIRRRR???? the starter is just whirring. (the car is still parked away from my house by the way) Now I talk to the techs at work and they say it's probably the starter crapping out on me or my flywheel is missing some teeth.... So now I'm pissed because I've done LOTS of tests on this car and I even "carfaxed" the damn thing and now I can't even drive it to my house! GRRR!!! I just want to drive.

 

Rev it up to like 6 grand fo 10 seconds and let go, if it puffs smoke after that look for a different fc.

 

so far so good! That night I posted, I tried again and it fired right up. Held the rpms at 6000 for 10 sec no smoke. In fact the smoke stoped 60 seconds after cold start. Other than the gearbox sticking in 1st, she runs pretty smooth... holes in the exhaust & all! Car needs some serious TLC.

 

you know it was 59 degrees guys. my car does the same thing on cold days. its just warm air meeting cold air.

 

its also not good to start a car up cold and go for the rev. that will cause a seal to go south.

 

What I'm slowly finding out with this car, is no matter what you buy, you're gonna end up with a few problems to fix lol.

If it doesn't smoke when you rev it up that surprises me lol.

Also a good way to find out if your coolant seals are going out, is run the car HARD for a while.

I did this, watching the oil temp with hawk-like corner of my eyes because I could feel the heat from the engine... but it never rose above normal. But when I stopped to take a break at the top of the mountain, I heard a bubbling noise... I checked it out... later came home and searched it... found out if your coolant seals are leaking, you can get HOT EXHAUST AIR leaking into your coolant system. This heats it up a LOT... also people say it's common if the car was overheated... so damn. I was planning on a rebuild anyway, it just means I won't be taking the car to autox if one comes up before I start the rebuild.. no biggy.

Anyway, my car doesn't smoke at all on startup... the only time it ever smokes is if I rev above 6k while it's cold. (That's bad to do no matter what shape your engine is in lol!) Once it's warmed up I don't get any. Pulls real strong, can't wait to rebuild it!! =D It's gonna eat all my money to do the rebuild though. =/

Just roll with the punches and eventually you'll have a car with no problems.. for a while.

Unfortunately for me I didn't even get a chance to do that, some assjack ran a red and now I'm pretty much gonna put everything into a new shell... then resume fixing the problems. lol ~_~

EDIT: BTW forgot to say, the bubbling sound was the coolant relief... I opened the relief tank cap and it was filled to the brim with steaming hot coolant mix...! =( This was after a very...very hard 5 minute run. Lots of rev match downshifts so the engine rarely got into low rpms. Pretty much back and forth between 4k and 7k a lot.

--Gary