Hi all,

My RX7 is not sounding right and I'm lead believe it is a pretty severe exhaust leak somewhere close to the engine. I've had a look around the down pipe and O2 sensor and I can't see any obvious leaks around there.

I've got a suspicion it is the turbo gasket or manifold gasket that's blown. What do you guys think? Is there anything else that could be busted that would make that same kind of noise?

Assuming it's the one of them gaskets, how hard is it to remove the turbo and manifolds off the S4 to replace the gaskets? I've checked the FSM and it's quite brief with its instructions. Is it a job someone with minimal mechanical skills could tackle? There any particular gotchas?

 

There isn't really any other way you can do it besides going under and feeling with your hands and listening for starters. Check every connection. Crack at welds, broken flex pipes. Easy fixes are removing and putting on a new gasket. Harder fixes will require welding or resurfacing flanges if they are warped.

you own a rx7, you need to get down and dirty or pay someone da moneys!

 

You could try steaming the motor, you hook up a small vacuum line to the intake and let it draw water through the motor. You'll have to hold the RPM above ~3000 to keep the water from killing it, but steam pours out the exhaust and it could help you visually find leaks. I'd recommend doing it on ramps. Bear in mind steam cleaning is usually done to break out built up carbon, if the internals are coated with a lot of carbon there is a risk of dislodging a chunk big enough that could damage it internally.

However, if it's been sluggish to build boost lately but it otherwise runs fine it's likely your manifold to turbo gasket or a little less likely your block to manifold gasket. Or something could just be loose, but when those pre-turbo joints get loose they like to blow out the gaskets.

 

or better yet just look for a bunch of soot. thats the dead give away. if its been leaking for more than a week or two, you'll see it.