YankMyWankel

So due to bizarre circumstances, I come across this 87 that has been sitting for four years. It has 170k on it and the only the work I believe has been done to it was that the alternator was changed. Which from the number of early second gen's I've seen to not an uncommon thing.I put in gas and a battery and start it.. immediately it billows massive amounts of white smoke and doesn't idle properly. I run it a minute or so... try and rev it out a little and it scales with only minor hesitation. I shut it down and let it cool off. I go to pull the trailing plugs for a compression test.. and find that they are not even hand tight, merely slightly screwed in at all. The number two trailing plug was in good shape, nearly new, with normal burn pattern as was the leading plug for the second rotor. The trailing plug for number one rotor was also only barely threaded. Performed compression test, lub, lub, lub, 30-30-30=90. Oil is a nice golden brown and the coolant is green with no contaminants. I reinstalled the plugs and fired it right up. Now it idles fine and revs up the scale perfectly; but still the billowing white smoke; no sweet smell like you would get from coolant. I shut it back down. This car was sitting in what was an impound/salvage yard that went out of business, so the car stayed here for four years untouched, but during its previous ownership had been meticulously maintained. What I am wondering is this.. what the hell is the white smoke? I am a new convert to rotary but I have a long run of experience with piston engines (decided to move up from an antiquated design). One possible theory I have is that the car reached a high mileage and started to lose compression. Girl that owned it took it to the shop or herself pulled the plugs and let it sit in ATF for a couple days. Compression did not remarkably improve or not at all. Car was donated to a charity, which then sold the car with several others to a used car place (this is the vehicles origin), where it ended up sitting for four years with ATF in it. I have not run the engine as of yet for an extended period of time yet, nor have I put it under load yet, as I wanted to research the ATF trick on here first. Thoughts anyone?
Thanx

VetteKiller

white smoke = bad coolant seals. Also compression @ 30psi on all faces of the rotor is EXTREMELY bad. So just run this one until it won't start anymore and then its time for a rebuild project. Its good the car made it to 170K though

DaleClark

iTrader: (55)

First off, with the engine COLD, start it up and open up the radiator cap. If coolant is shooting out, it might be bad water seals.

Probably you're just burning off ATF and junk. It takes a WHILE to burn all that stuff off, especially if it's sat for a long time. The cats catch a lot of it, and it takes a while for them to finally burn the coating all gone. Let it sit and idle for a while and watch the temp/oil pressure gauges, maybe drive it around the block a bit.

Might have found you a good un'!

Dale

YankMyWankel

Thanx, I'll be trying to burn it off tonight (when the smoke won't be quite as noticable). For the compression test, I suspect I may be doing it improperly, however, I got the same reading I got on my roommates 89, which runs awesome with 107k.

rx7_ragtop

I would like to say again what was said before. Remove the fill cap on the cooling system and start it up. If it blows bubbles or throws coolant all over, the coolant seals are bad. However, white smoke after sitting for an extended time isn't really a reason to suspect a problem. Let it run, be sure it doesn't overheat.

Brad

Ryde _Or_Die

Well I think that it is prolly just ATF burning off. Anyways I think most cars that have sat for 4 years(especially rotaries) will smoke quite a bit. If compression is that bad then you will be able to tell with the loss of power. Do what they said and start the car cold and remove the radiator cap and look for bubbling up of the coolant. If the seals seem good, then I suggest a FULL tuneup. Change every filer(oil, fuel, air), plugs, wires, flush the coolant, and run some good fuel system cleaner. Also, you will prolly need new cats or gut the ones you have.

VetteKiller

didn't think of the ATF burning off, good call guys.

YankMyWankel

Thank you for the advice. I wont quote the advice I got on another board, but needless to say, yours was much more informed and I thank you for your time. Here is what i tried. For those that may be curious, per advice, and having read up on peoples experiences with the ATF trick, and bearing in mind how long this thing sat I tried a couple things tonight (I waited til dusk to prevent the fire department from being called). I started the car (notable billowing cloud of white non-sweet smelling smoke) and observed the coolant with the cap off for bubbling, there was none. I ran the car at a fair RPM (varying around 3k, with occasional revs higher for the hell of it) for about ten minutes before the smoke started to clear up. After another five or so there was only a minor amount of smoke at all. I took the car out and ran it up to 60 or so back and forth in this industrial park and basically worked it some. Acceleration was good and smooth thru-out. No major smoke initially and that went away. After a couple runs of this I parked. No smoke. I am going to let the car sit until tomorrow night and try it again, see if perhaps there is engine oil seeping past the seals, or if it is done smoking. I'll update this then.
Thanks again

SonicRaT

iTrader: (6)

Did you remember to have someone floor the gas pedal when you did the compression test? And, drive it around and watch the temp and you should be able to get rid of that smoking fairly easily. Good find I think

YankMyWankel

I need to redo the compression test with the throttle open, the temp was high initially during the burn off, but went away. So anyone wanna know what I paid for it? <eg>
I have other things I need to do to it if the engine passes muster however.

SonicRaT

iTrader: (6)

Hahaha, what did you pay damnit!? And yeah, they tend to be a little rough after 4 years!

YankMyWankel

Actually, aside from a headlight motor, the poor thing is afflicted with an automatic.. I have a spare real tranny so thats going away. Oh.. it was free.