New to RX7. is it worth it?
 

Ok here is the deal, I recently found a 86 RX7 N/A 5spd, white with sunroof and 150k on the clock, for sale for $500. Runs and drives but the owner says the apex seals need to be replaced. He says that the car runs fine but is lacking power and starts to smoke at 3500-4000 rpm. Now I know if it is damaged apex seals this would mean a complete tear down and that would be spendy. I have read through some of the old posts and noticed quite a bit about the seals being "stuck" due to carbon build up. Could this be the case? Is there any way to tell if they are stuck versus damaged (short of taking the engine apart I know someone was going to say that)? The second part of this is, if they are damaged is the car really worth $500 when you will need to dump the cash in to fix the seals? Thanks for any advice. :D

if it start and drives sounds good for $500, do a compression check, over 80psi you got your self a hell of a deal. even if the ebgine is bad its still an ok deal as a rebuild will run you about 1500 all said and done if you have someone (rotaryresurection) do it for you and you put it back in yourself. or as little as about 600 if you do it entirely yourself. its your call but those are the cheap options. id do it if the car is in good shape otherwise.

Thanks for the feed back, going to go look at the car next weekend so I wanna be prepared. What other things should I check for on the car? What are usual "rust spots" and other problem areas in the FC? May end up takin my mechanic with me (helps he is my best friend) to help check things out. Anymore advice will be greatyly appreciated!

I suggest you check this site out: http://fc3spro.com/TECH/h2b.html Its the best guide that I've seen so far about buying an RX7. It describes so much about what to look for, and it also lets new owners know about problematic parts of the car. After reading that you may thing damn these cars suck, but trust me every car has its problems and most cars have a lot more problems then that (well except for slow cars ;) like hondas and shit). Especially DSMs...talk about unreliable. Mod one thing and the whole car goes to shit :(! Anyway good luck, and if the rest of the car (chassis body interior) is in good shape then you should buy it anyway, and if it runs then you have a nice block to build off of. Rebuild and streetport that bitch and your good to go :D!

Hehe you don't have to tell me about all cars having problems. I use to work at a Porsche/Audi dealer, so I have learned most of the issues with those cars as well. I also have found the number of problems a car normaly has is directly linked to how you treat it, imagine that? :D ...Thats why the hondas last so long....they lack the power to really be thrashed around. However I will admit there are a couple fast Hondas around here but they have a good chunk of change in them. Oh yeah I was going to ask there is a shop called "Pineapple Racing" here in town that specializes in rotaries, anyone around here know how good they are? Deffinately thinkin of doing a slightly modded engine for later this year, if only to give my buddy that runs a Z car some hell ;)

If the engine shakes in its mounts like a paint mixer when idling, one rotor is blown. It will also have *no* power. You can verify the blown rotor when doing a compression test.

*scratchin head* now when you are sayin "one rotor is blown" are you talkin about the actual rotor or the apex seal? or is the apex seal bein blown essentially the rotor being blown? gotta remember i'm new to the whole concept of a rotary engine, but it is one of the reasons i want this car. if the apex seal is hosed what kind of compression will i see? will there be a differance if its just "stuck" ?

When one talks about a rotor being blown, they are refering to one or more apex seals on the rotor being blown.

ok that is what i was thinkin just wanted the clarification. so will you see a differance in a "stuck" apex seal from a blown one or will the compression numbers look the same? i know i have read some posts of people have 0 or 5 psi eep, i'm guessin that is deffinately blown. will stuck seals show a marginal compression?

oh and a little more news on the car found out this is a GXL. oh and a second rear glass. oh yeah what is the easiest way to find out if it has a lsd? he is sending me the vin this week, is there a place i can check the original equipment for the car online? so does that sweeten the deal?

I know in 87 all GXLs were limited slip, but 86s ??. There should be a tag on the fluid bolt on the rear end that says 'LSD fluid only'.

im not a big fan of the n/a's, but hey, i payed twice as much for my tII and it blew three weeks latter,
with 133,000 miles on it :D

All S4 GXLs have LSD.

If I was you I would save myself a lot of money. And save up until u have 5k to spend get a frame fc , and get everythign new. But thats just me. Also no flaming Im just posting my opinion. Make SURE you have a daily driver. IN MY OWN HUMBLE, experience fc's are not reliable for everyday use especially in florida.

sure they are, you just gota start with a good one:D
and a bad motor doesnt neccisarily mean the whole car is bad. obviously you want to look for other signs of how the car was treated in general.

reliability is in the details and general maintenance; NOT in how much money you throw at a car. right?

see now that would SUCK :p: see at least this way i know the engine is an issue and i'm prepared to swap it out. cause i do have to admit if the chasis is good for $500 its more then likely worth it. and the lsd is icing on the cake! i have a buddy that will do an engine swap for me for pizza and beer :D ...so just gotta get the running engine. i'm thinking this maybe a good "experiment" in rotories for me. later on i do wanna get a GTU :cool: but this is a good start

You love to argue don't you andrew?

ahhaaha well in other words all the money i spend on my car was put on maintance, NO perfomace or other stuff 5k on just maintance nothing else but that.

And you cant tell me a 16 year old car with all used wiring, engine, cv joints, brakes, oil cooler lines, blah blah is gonna be just as reliable as a car who's entire insides are new. ( by new i mean saving up and buying all these things at once before they break and cuz something else to stop working or mess up).

By the way andrew you own a 89-91 rx-7 so alot of the faulty stuff the 86-88 cars had was either dealt with or fixed before your car was manufactured. WE s4 owners will always have to deal with more shit, like dual coolant caps, faulty pulsation dampers, gay tranny syncros, etc...
Im not saying everythign was fixed on s5 just that they were a little better improvements.

well all i gotta say is the guy sent me pics of the car and WOW! body is PERFECT, paint is good (not peal up anywhere), interior is in good shape except for a tear on the edge of the drivers seat.

my engine tends to slighty shake every 2-3 seconds, that doesnt mean my seals could be blown does it?

sounds like a great deal then, assuming the engine is blown that's still a good deal for the money. I think it's the perfect car if you're trying to dabble in the world or rotaries. N/a's are less complicated, and swapping out the engine will give you some hands on knowledge about the car, I say go for it and have some solo II/solo I fun.

i wasnt tryin to get on you bro, just playing devil;s advocate like i always do. :cool:

my car has plenty of little problems, you know that. but i would still concider it reliable because everytime i turn the key it starts and gets me to where i need to go. thats kinda the crux of what reliability is, right? all i was trying to say is that you cant buy reliability, its just kinda an issue of luck. im not trying to rag on you but look at your car, you put a lot of money into it and it still craps out because of a gay harness. that was just bad luck i feel bad for you about that. nothing you could have realy done to forsee or prevent it. and all those new parts in the engine couldnt stop it anyways. thats not to say that they wont make the engine reliable in the futier, but in the meen time they have had no impact on the fact that the car sits because of a craped-out harness.

owning and buying a rx-7 is a crap soot--even more so than owning an other type of used car. its just luck, cant fight it, you just have to accept it if you want to own one.

my time for crap with my car will come sooner or latter, ive already had brake problems, ive just been lucky enough that it still starts.

umm.... my point was that 86-88 rx7s had more problems than 89-91 fc's have. due to them being older and being teh first production second generation rx7s. teh first generation cars always have more troubles. I dont want to fuck up this guys thread so ill end it there

s5s have just as many issues as s4s but thats is a hole 'nother thread.;) electric OMP come to mind?

86-88's don't necessarily have more problems. Nor does any car based on age when you get to the decade mark. Maintainence is a big factor here, some cars are abused, some are well cared for.

The 89-91 also had some design changes that some consider less desirable-the electronic OMP, RPM sensing power steering, etc..