hi, I'm a newb to this forum and rotaries in general, i have a good amount of technical knowledge and experience but almost all with piston engines. anyway my question pertains to a 1986 rx-7 gxl n/a that a friend gave to me after sitting in his shop parking lot for about 12 years( improperly stored, the owner never came back to pay his bill), i have flushed and replaced all fluids and tried to start the motor, i prelubed the apex seals w/ 2-cycle oil before cranking w/ the starter. with the plugs taken out of the rotors(one rotor at a time) on the first rotor i hear three psst sounds all evenly spaced they are weaker than on the second rotor though, the second rotor has two strong psst sounds and one thats about the same as rotor#1 I'm also getting fire out the intake every once in a while when i add fuel to the engine, from what i know about how these engines work theoretically this should be impossible w/ a good motor. not having much experience with this type of motor I'm not sure what is causing this but from what Ive heard on here it sounds like the motor is blown. sorry about going on and on but i like to be descriptive because i know how hard it can be to answer car questions with out enough info. anyway the simplified version of my question would be is the motor blown or does it just need some TLC, if it is blown would it be a good idea to pull it and try to rebuild it( i can get a service manual and i have about 15 piston engine rebuilds under my belt with out problems) or should i just try to find a known good motor.

 

Wait, fire out the intake?

 

yep, like i said i thought it was impossible but after it lit the pass. side of the engine compartment on fire the second time i decide to stop and see if anyone could help my figure out why it was happening, luckily some quick thinking and a well placed fender cover kept the situation from becoming much worse. Oh i guess i should add i have the upper intake off and I'm using this spray bottle thing my dad uses to prime his r/c planes to add fuel, just to test to see if the engine would kick over and run a bit, but its obviously not.

 

o.O

If you've been cranking the motor and it hasn't started a few times, you may have flooded it. Try unflooding it (search tool will yield tons of info). As for your intake fire... beats me man. Did you spill some fuel accidentally that got too hot and combusted? I'm not all too familiar myself with rotories... but i hope this helps (at least the first part).

 

took the plugs out after i was done trying to start it and they where dry it doesn't appear to be flooded, as far as the fire both times a very distinct blue/purple flame cone shoots out or the intake runner closest to the fire wall, being as dramatic as it is, and that the block is cool to the touch even after the fire i don't think its just gas getting hot and catching fire.

 

Why is the intake runner open to the atmosphere? You should have a lower intake, upper intake, dynamic chamber, throttle body, intake hose, air flow meter, and finally an air filter attached to all that!

 

have you checked the timing?