Hey everyone, I bought an RX-7 today, so I thought I had better join a support group . I have been looking into them for a few months now and I finally found an extrememly cheap red 88 GTU 5 speed. It has some minor things missing from the interior, a little rust on the sunroof and a small dent on the driver front fender. Oh and it doenst run.... got it for $300 so I'm not complaining any. The only things that I have done so far have been: cleaned the stuff the previous owner left in the car, checked oil for coolant (none so i guess there is no block warpage), and I took out the battery to charge. Once I have the battery charged, I am going to see just what is wrong with the engine. It has just over 200k miles so I'm thinking that the car is just tired. The guy that sold it to me said that it turns over, just doenst start. If I can even get it to turn over, I'll check the compression, and if its good/acceptable, I'll do the ATF trick to save the apex seals for a bit longer. After that I have no idea..... any suggestions?

thanks in advance,

-Big Mike

 

first check to see if its flooded

 

first off, welcome to the Rotary world and to this forum

Don't do the ATF trick... it's actually bad for the car.. contrary to belief

check the compression... after 200K chances are the engine is either on it's last leg or kicked the bucket... it might not start because it can't build enough compression to start.. but if the body is as good as u say it is.. it will make a good project car..

Download the Factory Service Manual.. and do some reading and researching...

come back with ur compression numbers and then we can help u from there

 

don't listen to poeple who say don't do the ATF trick... it is fine as a last resort. if you were worried about the engine you wouldn't be doing it, cause obviously if it's the last resort it's either it or a rebiuld. I have a friend who didn't do it cause he herd it was bad, and shipped his engine to kevin landers, and he said his engine would have had a a few more months out of it if he tried doing the atf trick.

that out of the way ...

come back after you've tried starting it and done a compression test and tell us what it does... cause it could be like a hundred things...

 

lol, man you guys are confusing him. Its simple.

ATF in the engine is fine, for a SHORT period of time. That means, that if you use it to start the engine, as in, to build compression, and she starts, then its ALL GOOD.

But if you put ATF in the engine like overnight for carbon removal, it will shrink oil seals and can lead to problems with proper oil containment within the housing (ie, burning oil).

So with that said and done, whether you use ATF, or engine oil to put in the combustion chamber to build compression, its fine. But never use ATF to decarbonize a rotary, as in you leave it in there for 24hours.

If you want to decarbonize, use intake medic, or something else that lubricates AND cleans throttle bodies and intakes.

done and done.