Going to look at a 1988 tomorrow morning, Car runs and drives 170k on the body, 80k on the engine(from a 1990). Has something wrong with the injectors though. Paint is a deep red and looks to be in good condition.

"The car has apex exhaust 3" with racing headers,air intake,17" white rims an 2 nice turbo 2 seats that match the interior which is gray an clean also its lowered 2" with eibach springs."


Pending me looking at it to make sure its all true and there isn't anything that jumps out out me as bad is this car worth the 2,800 asking price? I am going to bring a friend alone who has been working with Rx's his whole life to look it over for more problems as well.

 

Personally I would never buy a modified car. I'm guessing it's owned by some kid who did a poor engine swap, butchered the wiring, and drove the **** out of it. Expect the worst and look over the car very closely. Don't be pressured to buy it right there and then. Write down any issues you see and take the list home and do your homework. Then decide what the car is really worth and if you want to deal with it. I expect the car is a pile and that's why the kid is trying to sell it.

Also, if your not mechanically inclined and have a passion for fixing broken things I wouldn't suggest buying a 20+ year old car...especially one with rotors.

 

What's wrong with the injectors? What are the symptoms?

 

This one isn't heavily modified, and its getting harder and harder to find one in decent condition without any modifications. I figure intake and exhaust isn't too much. The guy sounds older, and claims to have a few project right now so hes selling them off. I'm going to attempt to get paperwork on the swap, if it looks really bad i'll offer less money and do another swap myself. I am pretty good with cars myself and a good friend of mine has been working on Rotary's his whole life and has an 8 right now. Mechanically the car will be in good hands.

He say's he 'thinks' they are bad. Possibly because of the different year of the engine?

Only symptoms mentioned are the car starts right up when its cold, but doesn't like to re-start once its warm. That's all that wrong the car that's listed.

 

Sounds like the motor is tired and will need a rebuild or a engine swap.

 

Is that a common symptom of a dying rotary? If its something i can prove I can defiantly use it to knock the asking price down. If the engine is on its way out, would 2,000 be a reasonable offer to make in your guys opinion? Assuming no other major problems of course.

 

or it has a vacuum leak, or stuff isnt hooked up correctly...

 

Could be the difference in injectors since he used s5 motor? in an s4? but yes could be a vacuum leak and or stuff isnt hooked up correctly doing a compression test will tell you whats going on
TwEaK

 

Still vote for shoddy motor. Heres a guide for the compression test:

http://www.rotaryresurrection.com/2n...ion_check.html

Report back and let us know whats up

 

That's what the seller said, but i figure that a vacuum leak or bad compression is more likely. That is, if the engine is really only 80k miles, i'll believe that part when i see it.

Thanks for the link, I'll bring back the results after i meet up with the guy.

 

Hard starting when warm is not always because of low compression. The ECU injects too much fuel while cranking in some cases. Search the problem and you will find the answer

 

Every rotary engine is dying.

If the injectors are leaking they can be cleaned in a cheap sonic cleaner. I bought one from harbor freight for $55 and refurbished my leaky injectors. Now the engine starts every time anytime. No more flooding.

If that's not the problem then the engine probably has low compression and thats why the guy is selling it. He wants to dump it before the hot start issue becomes worse.

Basically if you shut the engine off when it's hot and immediately try to restart it and it doesn't want to start easily then the compression is bad. If you shut off the engine when it's hot then wait an hour and try to restart it and it's hard to start/ floods then its the injectors.

 

Didn't meet up with the guy this morning, stuff came up at work and couldn't make it out. Thanks for your help so far, I'll keep what was said in mind and in the mean time I'm reading up on the FAQ's and common problems.

Another thing that i figure might be useful for those who are answering, unless I find a car that has a fresh rebuild that can be proven I'm planning on doing an engine swap. So a bad engine isn't a deal breaker, just a price reducing point.

 

Yup. Bad engine can enable you to knock a grand off the top. If you do end up swapping an engine in, get it from japan2la and swap within series.

This owner seems super sketchy. Ciuld have several things wrong with this car.

Like TWEAK said, check compression, and get back to us.....pics too.


john ny