Overheated, blown engine....
 

Yesterday, my 1990 rx7 convertible overheated. I got it home and cooled it down overnight. I tried to start it up today, and it turns but no ignition.

Pulled the plugs, there's water in the ignition chamber. :eek:

From everything I've read, the engine is done, and it's not worth fixing...

Is this true or is a rebuild possible?

If it is true, anybody know where I can get an engine to swap in the SF Bay Area.

Feeling pretty shitty right now. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Deucer

sorry that has to be your first post man. its not the end of the world. you can rebuild the motor. it the coolant seals that are done.

you'll have to make your own decision on what you wanna do. i'd say to rebuild it just so you can have a good motor when your done.

think about the long run too. if you want to make your rex fast, you can have some porting done to the motor while its out.

Yea, I've had the car for about a week...

I'm an idiot, took out personal problems on the overheating car.

I'd actually rather rebuild, but I'd heard that rotaries don't take rebuilds well, and specifically that this problem would be the end of an engine.. I was wondering if it was true.

If I can rebuild I could use a shop recomendation around SF too.

Thanks again for the quick response.

Rotaries are "easy" to rebuild in the big scheme of things.

willing to sell it as a shell ????

Well...

I'm going to get some quotes on fixing it 1st, but I would consider offers from local buyers only.

I liked the time I had with the car, I'd really rather fix it.

coolant seals go on rotaries, it happens. the best part is that you dont really have any real damage so rebuilding it will be fine. they/you will tear it apart check specs and put it back together with new seals and gaskets. think of it like a blown head gasket. rebuild isnt hard on rotaries and it's definitely worth fixing.

as far as a repair shop for rotaries, there has to be somethin out there. there are a bunch of rotary freaks out in the bay area. call around, you'll find someone

fix it or youll regret it, my 7 is the best thing thats happened to me besides sliced bread.

meh, I'd rather have my 7 any day of the week over sliced bread.. I don't mind slicing my own bread, whereas I probably couldn't run 120 miles per hour on my own, even if I wanted to :)

If you're even slightly mechanically inclined, a rebuild is definately do-able. There's a handy "How to overhaul your 13B" video by Bruce Turrentine availible for about 30 bucks. Pick the video up, and see if this is a project that you want to tackle yourself.

One thing you need to do is make sure the housings and stuff are still ok. My car had a small crack around a coolant seal that was made worse by me overheating it. Its very unlikely, but something to think about.

Thanks Guys, I feel a lot better...

I'm somewhat mechanically inclined, but this was supposed to be my commute car and I don't think I have time to do the do it myself thing right now. I know there are a lot of shops around SF, I'm gonna start calling tomorrow. But I'd really appreciate a recommendation if somebody has one. I'd like to know that the person who does the work has some specific rotry-engine knowledge.

Deucer - Completely understandable and respectable. I'd take a look over on the "west" section of the board, its on the main page, but here's a link https://www.rx7club.com/a-31/ . Those guys are limited to the four west-most states, so they can probably hook you up with some more knowledge. Don't forget to search through that section.

Another thing, when you're calling around and stuff, check out the "good guy/bad guy" section of the forum (under the Sales section, near the bottom of the front page). It's sorta like an ebay-esque feedback, so you can see if anyone's been ripped off by the company or whatever.

Good luck, let us know what you find out.