Blown420

I went out to buy a RX7 from a guy and there was white smoke with a hint of blue coming out of the tailpipes.

Most commonly, this is supposed to mean a coolant leak, but the guy said that 20k miles ago, there was a rebuild by the previous owner. However, he has no paperwork. So I'm not sure if he's telling the truth - either way, its not verifiable.

I was wondering what it could be - he keeps saying that it could be the fuel injectors. (Probably to get me to buy the car). But no matter how I think about it - I think the block is cracked.

When the car starts up, there is white smoke and it persists for 15 minutes. When the car is being driven, there is a lot of smoke coming out of the tailpipe.

If the car did indeed get a rebuild, and the car still smokes, doesn't that indicate that the block is cracked? And therefore, I should not buy the car.

Also, is the a handwritten bill of sale ok to get the pink slip from the DMV?

The thing with the bill of sale - the previous owner sold the car thru the same bill of sale to a guy - then that same guy transferred it to the current owner. The current owner is the guy that I'm dealing with now. He just wants to write down that he's selling the car to me on that same piece of paper.

It's just a piece of regular paper - not a form from the DMV.

Please let me know what you think.

This is the description that he wrote:

"I dont have a tittle, but i do have the registration its registered in washington. I was given a bill of sale, and told i could go to DMV and they could sort it out. Ive not done this yet, just been too busy with work and such. I will have NO problem whatsoever of helping you get it registered in your name.

The previous onwer said that The car smoked, so he took it to Atkins rotary, and they did a full rebuild including 2mm apex seals, when he got the car back it still smoked. Heres what ive researched into this. generaly when an RX7 smokes its either a coolant seal or a oil seal. The car isnt buring oil, nor coolant. When niether of these are being burned its the injectors. And the car Does run very rich. The motor is very strong, and you can defanitly tell its been rebuilt recently. unfortunitly I have no recipts for this, the previous owner kept very poor paperwork. The car smokes on startup and after either 15-20 minutes of letting it idle it goes away, or after about 5-10 minutes of driving the smoke goes away, and runs fine the whole time. The previous owner said the rebuild was aprox 20k miles ago. the chassis curently has 259210k miles on it."

Thanks to anyone who helps me out with this.

-BLOWN420

calrx7

rotaries run rich on cold start up and alota smoke comes out.

HOWEVER, after ur car is warmed up, there should be less and less smoke.

u shouldnt see smoke while ur driving.

my guess? fucked up o rings in the housings. in other words, blown coolant seal.

if its not too late, dont buy it cuz ur gonna have to spend like 1000 for rebuild parts.

but yeh u dont have to listen to me, cuz most ppl on the forum dont know what they are talkin about and i could be one of em .

juss keep on checking back this thread till the older guys give u a reply.

-jimmy

Blown420

yeah, i thought about it running rich and such.. but i heard that if it runs rich, it should be black smoke. but in this case, it was white smoke coming out. yea i havent bought the car because of it was kind of suspicious - he only had that hand written bill of sale and the DMV was closed already.

thanks for the advice though.

darktritium

Well, I've had what I thought was white smoke, but instead it was blue smoke. This only occurred at startup when the engine was cold. One thing you could do, is to NOT let it do the accelerated warmup process. (i.e. the tach shoots up to ~3000 rpms when you fire up the cold engine.) You can hold the clutch in when you turn her on and then release and that should stop that. You could also fire her up and tap the gas lightly real quick and that'll bump it down to ~2000 rpms. I don't know what the hell possessed Mazda to have this car scream at higher rpms during a COLD START. Anyway, let us know what happens. Personally, I'd be very skeptical of everything. Everything you've said up to this point sounds sketchy as hell.

riverzendz

If he didn't supply any paperwork on the rebuild at least he told you who supposedly rebuilt it. Dan Atkins post regularly here on the forum and I'm sure you could give them a call or stop by to see if they have any information on the car. I can't say that they will but it can't hurt to ask. At least then you would have certainty that the motor was rebuilt or not.