okay, sounds (to me) like the deal of a lifetime.
1987 GXL kept in storage
wants 500$
60k ORIGINAL miles
say's he's been round rotary's for a better part of 30 years
called me up, said he got it to make his project... never happened, what a shame.
never planned on selling it. saw my wanted ad... (i REALLY want an rx7 by the way)

crack in dash(don't care at all have the rest of my life to fix that)
needs paint (same as crack)

gas is varnished(right term?)- from what i understood it's been in storage for about 3 years.
needs new feul pump- he's including it in the deal.(got it from a junkyard)

so for a teen like me to hear that my DREAM car could be mine for 500$, and the only things in the way of driving it is some bad gas and a feul pump that's ready to install, im as giddy as a schoolgirl.

so i guess what im asking all these rx7 guru's(compared to me... for now hopefully) is any other search i ran for dealing with varnish in the rex left me feeling a little unsure about how to proceed.
what i took from my research is, if im buying a car that won't start and has been stored that long
a- engine could be seized
b- could need to rebuild the carb(no idea where to start there but im determined to find out if i must)
c- could be as easy as what i would descirbe as a chemical bath for my gas tank, and a good high pressure cleansing of my feul line's, along with a complete fluid change for the vehicle.

so guy's
walk me through the possibilitie's of what im getting into.
worst comes to worst, i lose out on 500$
money would be spent on other **** anyway.
im determined to get an rx7, and this one sounds like a good deal to me.

would i be best off with a new gas tank? taking the chemical route? or abandoning hope on this one?
please give me your best advice and don't lead me on a goose chase i respect your knowledge alot and im trusting that you'll all help me on my way to stop bugging you all.

 

no carb

 

determination paid off
so, any idea of how to proceed?

 

You WILL need to clean that tank out, no matter what.

You NEED to do a compression check - if it's got good compression on all faces, you're good.

 

compression check, check

 

any way of guessing how the compression check would go?

 

This is what you need to do.

You need to give me his number so I can call him up and bash him for trying to sell a rotten car to a good-hearted teenager. The Ol' "it needs a fuel pump and that's it" only means the engine is trash.

Just PM me his number. I'll take care of this hooligan for ya.

 

What do you mean guessing?
Google "rotary compression test" or something, it will bring up how to modify a standard tester to use it on the rotary.
Worst comes to worse, you buy the car for $500, sell the shell for $800, sell the rotors and housings for a few hundred and you're laughing.

 

That IS a great deal anyway you slice it. I also just got an RX7 for $500 but mine is in a lot worse condition then yours. but had also been sitting for a few years.

It is now running.

I would grab that car REAL quick before someone else does, reguardless of the engines condition. DO NOT try to start it there! Just tow it home.

On the way home get a Hyanes manual for the car, it will give you more details to what i am about to tell you to do

After you get it home then first drain the gas tank with the drain plug on the bottom.

Then, pull back the carpet in the truck and pull the fuel pump plate off, then the fuel pump out of the tank (read the hyanes book for more).

After you get the tank back together get a 5 gallon jug of gas and put it in there. and let it sit, it will start eating the old junk out.

Now move to the engine bay, remember DO NOT crank it until i say so. you could ruin your seals.

Now in the engine do the basic check all around, fluids, coolent, oil ect. I would change the oil if i was you. Check the clutch fluid, brake fluid and all of it. fill them all up.

Check all the hoses and all the other stuff under the hood.

Now, pull the spark plugs, be carefull to not get them mixed up, the top and bottom ones are differnt. Look them over and clean them with a wire brush and some brake cleaner.

Then in the bottom plug holes put about an oz of motor oil in them. More is better then to little. this will help lubrocate the seals for the first start up.

Now put everything back together and get a wrench and turn the engine by hand 10+ times. More the better. I used the power steering pump bolt to turn the engine.

Then you will either need to jump the battery that is in there with another car to get it running or replace it. Either way hook it up to some jumper cables to another car. you need all the power you can get.

then after checking everything again and reading through this:

http://www.aaroncake.net/RX-7/unstore.htm

Try cranking it up. and see what happends. Don't be surprised if it takes a lot of cranking. Also, it WILL smoke BAD when it start/while you are trying to start it. That is due to the oil you put in there.

After you get it started see how it runs. Then once you know ift is working do a full tune up:
plugs
Plug wires
fuel filter (after you have ran it for a little bit to get the junk out of the tank)
if you didn't already change ALL the fluids, oil, tranny, diff, bleed the brakes and clutch
all the vacume lines (i used silicone hose for mine) the fuel lines are not a bad idea, the radiator hoses
air filter

and anything else i am not thinking of.

Then you should pretty much be ready to go.

 

^sorry, but for as epic as that write up was, I'm not totally convinced that's the right way to go, after seeing advice to "take a wire brush to the spark plugs". New spark plugs are like $5 each; they're worth replacing.

To the OP: Make ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN you get a proper compression test.

For as long as the car has sat, the seals in the engine are probably dried out. To be honest, I would buy the car with thoughts of doing a rebuild in mind, simply because old, dried-out seals are liable to blow.

 

If you read the whole thing you would see i told him to get new plugs after it was started.

I am giving that advise to clean the ones in there from my own experiance. I put new plugs in before i tried to start it and the oil and other junk that was in there fouled them right off the bat. So i am going to have to replace them again now.

If he cleans and uses the old plugs to get it started (which my new plugs are now no better then my old ones) then he will only need 1 set of plugs. Thus making much more sense.

See, there is a reason for it. :-)

 

Touche. I kinda spaced out after reading that part... and only read half-assedly anyways.

I would try wiping 'em off to clean them first, though.... and if you're absolutely going to try using those same plugs to start it, make ABSOLUTELY sure that you don't allow any metal shavings to get into your engine

 

I figured as much, no harm done, all is good.

And by wire brush i am talking like a wire tooth brush like i use. It is just rough enough to clean the junk off them but not get an metal savings rubed off, plus the brake cleaner cleans them off pretty good.