The first time it was just smoke. The car was idling in my driveway when I looked out the window and smoke was coming from under the engine and the passenger area. It was getting into the drivers compartment through the shifter hole. The smoke wasn't that intense and no fire that time.

The next time I saw smoke was after I had taken a trip to the next town over, about 40 miles away, and I was luckily not on the freeway when it started smoking but by the time I got it off the road it was fire. I was lucky enough to run to a truck stop and get an extinguisher, but the fire department had it towed, and I had to have someone from my town come get me and it. Cost me $150 for them to tow it across the street. Damnit.
I digress, my thoughts were (and keep in mind I'm new and know little) that the engine started leaking out the exhaust after a certain temperature, leaked enough once and started a fire.
Any other ideas/confirmations would be great..
I now have a lot of work to do. Thats what I bought the car for though.
Thanks,
Roarke

 

It was probably a fuel fire. You should have figured out what was smoking before diriving it!!!!

 

I know..
The DMV sent me the wrong registration. I would figure I had to prove it to them, thats the only real reason why I was driving the car.
I left my wallet at the airport the night before so I couldn't walk into the DMV before getting that, but I did have the insurance fixed..
lol
it was a loooong day.

 

a PD failure will smoke before the engine catches fire.

A port air valve solenoid failure will also smoke a lot.

If you are getting smoke in, through the shifter area, you need to replace all the shifter boots, as no fumes or even air should be coming through from under the car

 

I don't get air, but I did get smoke.
I don't really care about the tranny, its an auto, it slips a lot and I'm going to put a manual in.

I appreciate your knowledge, unfortunately I'm unfamiliar with either of those terms.

I've got to go to a wedding, so I'll be back later.

Thanks,
Roarke

 

man thats bad.

 

WOW! my car is dooing the same **** right now... anyone know where to start looking for the leek?? it smells like burning oil and its using a lil more oil then it should i cant find where its leaking to but when its warmed up and im sitting still it starts smoking up through the tranny hole and i just drove it on a 200 mile trip and at the end of the trip i was on the freeway (moving slowly at 5MPH) and that same smoke was trying to fill my cab and bellowing from under i was worried it was gunna catch fire but it didnt... maby i got lucky

 

By PD, he meant Pulsation Dampener, fuel pulsation dampener. If you search, or even read the archives and FAQ's, you will learn that a lot of the fires on RX-7's come from a failing fuel pusation dampener.

 

http://www.matronics.com/fuelchec/dampener.html

here's a site with a pic and description of how one works