Regrettably, I was accelerating (not very hard) my 88 stock n/a (114k) today when suddenly I lost most of my power, rpms dropped and engine sounded louder, as if I was driving slowly in fifth gear. It then died, and I still was going so I put it in gear which started it up but quickly died again. I wasn't able to start it again. Does this sound like a bad apex seal? I'm no expert, so I would really appreciate some info.

 

being in the exact same situation you've been in before...i can tell you...the first and most important thing to start off with is checking your compression!!! I was only doing 25mp in 3rd gear when I felt what your describing.....had to drive home in 2nd gear at 4k to keep it running. Do a comp. test and that'll tell you the most important thing...85 psi is the factory's listed lowest limit. You could spend countless hours troubleshooting for nothing if you lost a apex seal, or 2....3....

If you dont have acess to a compresion tester you can pull your plugs and crank the motor by had to listen for "swooshes"....you should hear one every 1/2 rotation fo the eccentric shaft. I personally believe this method is crap...it works to tell whether you have 0 compression...but I have installed a junkyard engine that had strong "swooshes" every 1/2 rotation...and it had 60-30-30 compression when i had it installed and running. I recc. a guage with the valve removed that holds the pressure.

 

a few others things i've experienced with a blown engine.

1. Will not hold idle...when trying to idle engine will shake alot.

2. Will stink horribly due to lack of combustion and unburnt fuel being tossed out.

3. Will sound like a lawnmower...literally...

 

So many things could be wrong but yes a compression test is first thing to do to asess how big is the problem. -Gabe

 

it could very well be other things besides engine failure...i just remember that i tried to check everything else out BESIDES compression..probably b/c i was scared. Hopefully its just a sensor for you as I was hoping it was for me.

 

All the compression test responses you received are great suggestions. You should definitely check it. Here's one more: how are your spark plugs? Our race RX7 started to behave like yours and we performed all sorts of tests (compression, igniters swapped, distributor swapped, etc) It turned out to be the plugs. They looked ok but for some reason were not working properly.

 

Just to depress your some more........that sounds just like when my 82 blew a apex seal. I was going to jury duty, doing nothing radical, doing about forty mph on the straight and level. All of a sudden running on one rotor. Had to rev the beegees out of it to make the court room on time. Very hard to start when going home and had to keep the revs up all the way. No power at all. I pulled the bottom plugs and put a finger over the lower holes while rotating the engine. Nadda on one of the holes. There will be no mistake if you do this on your car. The difference is dramatic. No need for a compression gauge if you've got a bad apex seal. It stands right out.

Of course it may be something else all together.

 

Finally got my hands on a compression tester--rear hole was great but front had nothing. So is this a definite proof that i have bad seals?

 

what where the compression numbers

 

Yep. Your best bet is to order a jspec and rebuild that or get a factory reman. I will tell you this right now, your rotor and housing is hooched. You are going to need new ones. Unless you want to put used parts in your rebuilt engine, get the reman.