So I bought a 88 Rx7 non turbo just to mess around with. The issue with this car is that one day when the old owner was driving he had the car do a buck sputter and then when he pushed in the clutch the engine died and wouldn't start back up. What he told me is that he did a compression check and it was at a flat 0. I originally thought it was a fuel or air issue but now I'm wondering. Can anyone give me advice on this. Thank you

 

Um, this is Rotary 101...the first recommendation is always to check compression.
So run off and do so, quit wondering.

 

Ahhhh not really understandings what your saying but sounds rude. Sooo okay then

 

It's sort of amazing that he could decipher what you were saying.. but he did, and responded to you.

Don't mind clokker too much, he's a grumpybutt sometimes these days.

Sounds like your engine is toast. Go find out for sure.

 

Who's being grumpy?

From the OP...


Compression = zero, zero compression...


Here's your problem.

 

"Grumpybutt", really?
I would prefer "charmingly eccentric".

I made a booboo in my original post- note that B and N are keyboard neighbors- but even so...
Had I just bought a car that didn't run and was told there was no compression, my first move would be to test it myself, not ask a forum what they thought.

But that's just an old man speaking, I was raised in the rugged individualist age before the internets and we struggled alone in ignorance, without the warming comfort of the hive mind. We failed (often) and triumphed (occasionally) all by ourselves, without benefit of Yelp reviews and Amazon.
We rode dinosaurs uphill (both ways) to school and ate gluten freely, without shame or consequence.

So, "grumpybutt" is not accurate.
"Poopypants" may soon be (the ravages of time are insidious and inescapable) but "grumpybutt", no.
Covfefe!

 

Zero how? Zero on both rotors? Did he somehow manage to lose multiple seals on both rotors at the same time?

Echoing what others said, check the compression yourself. Then you can decide where to start with fixing it and how much money you're willing to spend.

 

Oh, the car has already decided how much will be spent, the question now is who will spend it?

 

Touché

 

That's why I am asking for your advice. I understand what having no compression means. The advice I was asking was does that sound normal. This was before I got the car home and could do the test on it on my time. So I thought I'd talk to my rotary companions about the situation. From my experience with Rotary's when a apex seal does go bad it usually smokes white out the tail pipe and you can still drive the car for some time. (I don't have that much experience just some). Thats what happened to my old car until I fixed it. I never heard of it running perfect then all of a sudden boom no engine,no sound,no nothing just stops working. Now that I own the car I will diagnose the problem. I just wanted to chat it up and get some advice from people who might know more about the situation.

 

You're confused.. when a coolant seal lets go, you'll get 'white smoke' from the exhaust and it'll smell like hot coolant. Depending on how bad the failure is, you can sometimes drive it a bit longer or at least a short distance, but that does not mean you should.. it can make your rebuild cost far more money.

When you lose an apex seal, the engine will run like absolute dog poo due to the compression loss, if it runs at all.

 

Ahhh ok see. You taught me something and that's what I wanted to find out. So when I rebuilt my motor and replaced everything with my friends I thought it was a apex seal when it was actually the coolant seal. See now that's what I'm talking about. I'm not confused I'm kinda new to this. See when I bought my rx7 the first one I had to leave for a couple of years and not touch it. Now that I'm back and moved to Colorado I got my car back. So I'm trying to learn. I thank you

 

Your best option is to always search for the information you seek. Believe me when I tell you that almost every possibility of a problem that you could have with one of these cars has been covered already. Sometimes when you are searching for something you may have to play around with the wording a bit to find that elusive thread that contains the answer. A fun trick is to use google.. if you are searching for how to replace control arm bushings in the front.. type 'front control arm bushing diy rx7club.com ' into google and hit search. Adding rx7club.com to the end of your search in google will search those keywords on the forum.

 

Where in CO are you?

 

Just moved to Colorado Springs

 

They can also sound like a big cam’d v8, hence why the video you posted i suggested compression check cause it sounded like that