I'm about to buy this rx7 but the guy said that he had the engine going , put some Marvel's Mystery Oil, and it seized up on him, I need some help. Don't know how to get it runnin' again.

 

most likely it needs a rebuild

 

Are you sure?!? Beacuse it seems that he might have washed out the lube and just seized the engine up. Do you think that i could just squirt some oil and try to turn it over? Give me some ideas.

 

check the engine oil to see if it looks like a milkshake or or has metal debris in it.

 

Put a 19mm (or 3/4") socket on the front pulley bolt...If you can't get her to turn over by hand with a 1/2" breaker bar or so, give it up and tear her down

BTW, there are several threads on the inadequacies of MMO- namely that it is more of a SOLVENT (think paint thinner) than a lubricant...Not good for your engine, in other words...

 

Well, according to Bruce Turrentine, the owner of East Coast Rotary, sometimes these rotaries just lock up and there is no hope for them once they do. All the work that you'll put in rebuilding and fixing. it would be easier to get a new engine and use the old one as a cluster of future paperweights and transplant organs. When I had my car delivered to upstate New York from NC last february, I knew nothing about the car and just started it right up off the carrier. I was told later, though, that what I did was just plain stupid in such cold snowy weather with a car that has never seen winter. Oh well. Worked okay so I guess I'm lucky. I would say find a new 7 though.

 

^ why no hope?? yeah some may be like that, but most likely you lost part of an apex seal and its only ruined the rear rotor housing and probably the rotor, (although some have used scarred rotors with no problems). The irons are probably ok, so youd just need a few parts to rebuild.

I say soak it in some mmo, see if you can break it after that, if not, tear it down and rebuild.

 

engine builders usually say that because it takes them more time to take the parts apart, clean them and sort through them to find what is salvagable and what is not. you may not wind up with a fully usable engine but some parts are better than no parts especially if you have spare internals lying around.

 

Aight well I have a couple of friends with 13Bs and i'll sort through mine and get the good parts, his engines only had 42,000miles and ran when he took them out to do an LT1 swap. So I might get lucky and "make away" with one of those.

 

could have a chunk of carbon in there.. try to rotate it in reverse

 

SLOWLY


I know, it's probably understood, but it needs saying anyway

if there IS a chunk of carbon stuck in there, try turning the engine over counter-clockwise (from the front) SLOWLY.

If you feel ANY resistance to the turning, STOP... You have found your 'chunk' of carbon.

Now.... what to do about this?

A few things, actually. It depends on just how much you want this engine to live.

If it were mine, and I needed it to live, here's what I would do........


Take off the upper and lower intake, take off the exhaust manifold, and take out the spark plugs. Put MMO or trans fluid or something similar in each orifice and let it soak for a while. While it's soaking, move the engine back and forth a bit, making sure to pay attention if it gets hard to turn or something like that.

Once it soaks for a while, see if you can turn the engine over for a complete revolution.

If you can, then you are PROBABLY allright. Re-install everything and crank her up. Make sure to get as much of the fluid out of the engine as possible before putting her back together.. The last thing we want is for the engine to hydro-lock after all the work we just put in her

If she fires, she's gonna smoke.. and I don't mean just a little smoke.. I mean people that live 3 blocks over are going to be calling the fire deparment smoke.....

So try and do this in a rural area if at all possible

Let the car get nice and warm, and once it warms up, drive it around the block, but don't beat on it TOO bad..

Come home, change the oil and plugs, and enjoy your ressurected engine


Good luck!!!!!

 

How cheap can i get a rebuild kit for an 87 GXL?

 

I also need to know how much its gonna cost and how long its gonna last, I'm 17 and this is my first 7. I've been reading alot of posts and all these guys are spending their life savings on these rotaries to either get them rebuilt or fix them. I don't have a lot of money but I LOVE THE 7s.

 

If you have the time to do it, read up on everything you need to know about rebuilding her, then tear it down and just get the parts you need.

Bare minimum, you'll probably need about $500 worth of seals & such, maybe a bit less...

 

It's unlikely the engine will hydrolock.

 

I've seen it happen before :P