2.5 years ago, I drove my 88 TII pretty hard for about 3hrs straight. All I can say is that Califronia has some GREAT roads! Just watch for potholes!! Anyway, I got home and parked her out front. By some sequence of events, I did not drive her for about two days. Third day rolls around. I go to turn on my car, and(hold your breath) it won't start! So, I keep trying. Finally it turns over a couple of times but it sounds like ****! Not only does it sound like kaka, but it is smoking profusely out the tail pipes!! Blackish-grey smoke, no doubt. So I stop trying. Head hung low, I walk back to the house. I call my (then) RX7 "specialist", explain what just happend. "Bring it in" he says. So I take the defeated rx7 in.
A day or so later I get a call. He tells me that I have destroyed my engine! Oh the humanity! I beg with him. I plead with him, there is nothing he could do. At the time I could not afford an engine so this was pretty devastating to say the least. *as a side note, I had, about two months prior, torn some ligaments in my middle back. I was on work comp, so I was only getting about two thirds my pay wich was nominal to begin with!*
Flash forward to 1 month ago. I took my broken RX7 to a friend and, conviently, mechanic(he has had alot of rx7 expierence!). I went there to have him put in my new engine! Fortunatly, I desided to wait on the purchasing of said engine as he was able to start my car in the first 20 minutes I was there!!! It smoked like hell but it was running? When all was said and done it was just a F--ked up cat! My engine is in great shape!
So I'm thrilled that my engine is fine, who wouldnt be, but two and a half years without my car over something that I could have fixed a long time ago? I'm a little pissed! Upon retrospect, my ex-mechanic was trying to screw me out of a lot of money! Or he was just lazy, but if thats the case why would he want to be bothered with an engine replacement?
The moral of this story is: GET A SECOND OPINION!!! Dont just trust the "experts" blindly. Their "expertise" says nothing of their ethics!
The upside to all of this, of course, is that I get my car back tomorrow! and all the money that I put aside for the engine went into fun stuff instead! Like the phoenix, she is borne again.
Thanks for reading!

 

Very well said. It never hurts to get that second opinion, especially if big bucks are involved. He probably wasn't trying to screw you, just a incorrect diagnosis.

 

One thing i've learned is to never accept the worse case scenario. clutch every straw that you can and don't admit it until you absolutely have to.

 

This is why I do all my work myself.

 

Glad it all worked out for ya

 

Holy batshit man, you should publish this story. I got all choked up....

 

Ditto Drox, if you have the time, its really easy if you have the FSM, also why I don't believe in Cats...

 

Damn, sad story.
I hope you have fun with her now.

on a side note, I want your engine BlackRx7.