Ok I have found a 93 with no accidents and good compression. (Front rotor 6.9, 6.9, 6.7 / rear rotor 6.9, 7.0, 7.1 on a mazda compression tester.) Problem is that when I took the car to a Mazda dealer for inspection they found that the oil pan is leaking, there is a clunk coming from the rear and that there is no anti-freeze in the coolant system. Just water. The oil pan is leaking from the gasket so no big deal I can fix that and the mechanic didn't seem too concerned about the clunk from the rear. This coolant thing on the other hand is bad. Why would some one put just water and no anti-freeze in this car? I know that most race tracks make you take your anti-freeze out, but I am really worried that this is a way to hide a really big cooling problem. The car has 115,000km on it and i am looking at paying $20,250 Canadian for it. please help me I don't want to buy a car that will blow it's motor on the way home. Thanks.

Adam Perrins

 

running only water is easier on the water pump. Not a super good idea if you're going to be running really hot because coolant raises the boiling temperature of the mixture... it's not a horrible thing to start boiling (which happens faster if you're running with only water), its just that if it starts boiling in the engine, then the parts of the engine next to the air pockets aren't being cooled. I would flush it and mix with coolant when you get a chance, however, several people on this forum are running 100% water (don't know where they live and under what conditions they drive their car).

Rear suspension noise on the '93's is a common problem, go to http://www.m2performance.com/ > rx7 > suspension to find out what will fix it.

What's that $$$ figure equate to in USD? 71K miles is fairly good, but I woulnd't expect it to last much more than about 30K more miles (50K more km) before needing a rebuild (and quite possibly won't last even that long). keep that in mind when figuring the price.

 

It works out to be around $13,500 US. Would putting only water in hid any problems at all.

 

I just realized that in my turbo II the motor is suported buy a mount connected to the oil pan. Is it the same on the 93. Will I have to remove the engine to fix the oil pan or is there a way around it?

Adam Perrins

 

that's a decent price if the rest of the car is in good shape.

I don't think that would hide anything (putting in only water), but I'm no expert. A long shot might be that if the seals were going bad, putting in only water would mean that only water seeps into the housing as opposed to coolant, and therefore wouldn't smoke.... I guess that could be a valid concern.... maybe have them flush the radiator & refill before you buy. that could just be being paranoid - but who can you trust these days?

 

The 3rd gen. is similar to that. I don't recall the exact way of doing it, but you can redo the oil pan gasket by removing the powerplant frame (I think). Its definitely not like your typical piston engine where you can just unbolt it, but you also don't have to pull the whole engine.

 

Well it looks like these problems are fixable (knock on wood). I don’t know if I trust the Honda dealer to do the repairs and I think I could do them my self. You guys think it would be better to have them fix it or see if they can fix the price of the car to compinsate. This coolant thing is still worrying me though. Would it make a difference in the exhaust cooler and smell if it where burning just water and not coolant as well if the seals are gone. Thanks

Adam Perrins