I have a question. My girlfriend is looking at getting into the rotary scene. We have been searching around for a suitable RX-7 in the ATL/Southeast US. So far, duds abound. Too much money for not enough car, or just not enough car for any sum is what we are being met with.
Right now, we are looking at an '88 NA 5 speed coupe with with sunroof and AAS. I am rather excited about this prospective project car, but there are some problems that I was wondering if anyone can answer. This guy says the car has been sitting for something like 10 months with gas in the tank. Is this gas safe to run the car on? We test drove the car around for a little while: long enough for it to have warmed up appropriately, but it just has absolutely no power anywhere. It feels like it's had the wind knocked out of it. The exhaust system is missing from the catalytic converter's rear flange back; something tells me this guy had a nice exhaust on it and decided he didn't want to sell it with the car. I still have my original exhaust from my '88, so that's not an issue. I don't think that this could effect the engine in such a way, but I've been wrong before. I actually kind of felt like like it could be a MAF issue or maybe a TPS malfunction. I couldn't really look at the engine bay very well because it was dusk when we got to this guy's place, but everything seemed to be in the right place except for the airbox cover which he had removed for some reason. Other than this lack of horsepower, the car was great. Does anyone have any knowledgable and helpful opinions they would care to offer?

 

Compression test it. Clogged cat? Wouldn't worry about the gas as long as it wasn't a very small amount that sat in there. The larger the quantity, the longer the shelf life.

 

I don't own the car, so I don't have a lot of license to be screwing around under the hood. They make compression testers that screw into the spark plug holes, right? Hmmm, I wonder if this thing can idle with only one rotor...

Oh, I forgot to mention: the car is running really rich. While we were test driving it, the fumes were starting to make our eyes water after about 5 minutes. I don't know if that has something to do with the fact that the exhaust was exiting just under the seats or what.

 

Yes they make a compression tester that goes in the sparkplugs.... As for your eyes watering up yes its from the exhaust right under you. "Hmmm, I wonder if this thing can idle with only one rotor..." Probably..... My motor is shot on the rear rotor... 20psi and the front has 90psi and runs...... and its just like you described as SLOW. I would deffinetly get the compression checked out.

 

What would good compression levels be? 90 to 100 psi?

 

Yeah, but you're buying it. If the car has a current running problem, the least the owner could do is let you test for the most expensive cause before you buy it.

 

90 is a little low. 100-130 is good to excellent.

 

Ok, thanks for the input. I will hopefully get to check that compresison out later this week or this weekend. I'm really tempted to just buy the car anyways and swap all the good parts from my 'vert into the coupe body.