ok so i just stumbled upon and bought for 1800 bucks a 1988 10th anniversary in really good condition it has 78000 km on it and has been siting in a garage for 17 years and hasn't been started since it was parked. the battery went dead and someone tried to steal it and pulled the ignition apart but didn't cut any wires so not sure what to do first about fixing that and trying to start it. is it ok to just turn key and go or should i put oil in the turbo or something. never owned a turbo car before so please any help would be appreciated. also any idea how difficult it is to change the ignition cylinders if it is not repairable. thanks

 

Change all the fluids first.

I would pull the egi fuse and crank it over for a bit to try and circulate the oil around, then put the fuse in and try and start it.

 

lucky son of ....

 

remove oil, coolant, and fuel.

refill with clean new fluids.

and put some premix in the gasoline.

examine the brake lines. examin the tires for dryrot.

check the belts. check the clutch line. check everything.

then get in the car and say these words as you turn the key

"oh god please be alright"

 

its been sitting for 17 years....damn
i wonder if the inside of the engine is alright lol

As everybody said, change the oil, coolant, gas.
Prime the engine first before starting. As nate said, pull the egi fuse and crank it to circulate oil inside the engine.

The car will probably going to give you some trouble at first since its been sitting for a long time. The fun part is that it will pop up on you unexpectedly.

 

May I add, remove the Trailing (top) spark plugs. Add a teaspoon of engine oil into each rotor housing. Since it's been sitting so long, this should definitely help lube the combustion chamber and seals. You can't be too careful with something sitting that long.

 

+1 to the above!

After changing all the semi-liquidey, mostly ooey-gooey mass, and the battery, it probably wouldn't hurt to take a LITTLE bit of oil and put it in your sparkplug holes when you change them out.

That way, it the Apexes are D-E-D, dead, it might help them not shatter, shoot out and kill a random yodeler fifteen blocks away.

*** D-OH! As I was typing this the above post was posted... Grrrr :shakesfist: ***

 

DO NOT JUST TRY TO START IT!

Read this first: http://www.aaroncake.net/rx-7/unstore.htm

 

Thanks guys this is all really awsome info and I'm definetly no goin to just start it. Someone pulled the ignition cylinder apart under the steering column like the pulled the piece that has the wires on it out of the cylinder any ideas if I can just put it back in or need a news ignition cus there 500 bucks from Mazda and discontinued, plus I don't know if cus it's a 10th annie if it's a diferent cylinder than other cars? Really excited to work on this car and hope to god it runs.

 

i got a '74 REPU that hadn't been running in over 25 years, granted i had to rock the engine with some MMO in the plug holes to get it to free up but it ran fine after that initial break free.

 

I just changed the same switch in the FD... No super-secret reason they're 500 bucks: It's a discontinued part that's 20+ years old!

If you can put the wiring back together, do so. The KEYING is the only part to be concerned with, honestly. The part you're having issue with is just the electrical, right? If the wiring was pulled out, look up how it's supposed to go, otherwise just solder the wires back together and heat shrink 'em.

Realistically, you could omit it altogether and just run toggles, but the only time I'd recommend THAT is if it's a track car and garage-kept all other times.

 

mazda wants $500 for the ignition switch? the plastic piece with 3 small brass contacts in it? man, they are smoking whatever they were when they priced the $1600 FD oil metering pump...

 

Screw the 500 dollar switch!
Put up a WTB on the Sec Gen FOR SALE section and ask for an Ignition switch with Key.(or a whole Set of you want just one Key to open the doors,hatch and start the car).
The ignition is really easy to pull and put back in,.
and for about 100 Bucks( that is All locks) you can start that car up and lock it too!
.PS: read AaronCake's Link,.he knows stuff,about stuff!

 

i want pix of the 10th ae

 

No Valves - I just pulled my Turbo II out of a long hibernation also. . . 5 years. On the bottom of the radiator is a drain plug for the coolant. Drain whatever is left in there out and do a flush. I did mine backwards and forwards.

Check your exhaust system - The stock system was/is bad about rusting around the cat (US car?) and then the two mufflers on mine were Holy...! Just today I put a new cat and two cherry bombs on it. It actually sounds damn good. I believe Canadian Tire carries the cherry bombs.

If you are going to poor oil in the chambers - Might i suggest that you do that with your old plugs ... Go ahead and pull them out pour some oil in there (I use ATF) ... and spin it over. Watch the guage on the dash - You might see it move - If it moves I would go ahead and put your fuse back in and try to start it. Then change your plugs after it starts up. if you use ATF it WILL SMOKE ... Plugs are to expensive to have foul.

One last thing - Pull the turbo inlet off and make sure there hasn't/isn't been a critter living in there. Don't laugh ... Ill send you pictures. They ate my ENTIRE air filter and it all ended up at the entrance to the turbo. How they got in the airbox and down the tube I will never known and possibly never believe but sure as hell - Dead rat and all - Packed in the inlet hose.

Best of luck! Let us know how it goes!

 

FYI: When you do start it up, it's going to smoke ALOT!

I would recommend taking it outside of a garage before you fire it up.

 

Yup, key thought above being 'Fire!'

I would want it outside of any permanent structure before starting up, just in case....

Edit: Ok, that was a bad joke.

Good Luck!

 

BWAHAHAHAHAH!

Nice. Yeah. There's DEFINITELY going to be alot of smoke... +1 on the removing it from any structure.

Hm... Maybe you could have your local F&R on stand-by at first fire?