im looking at buying an rx7 from somebody and they just had it compression tested and the numbers came out, first rotor=6.5-6.8, second rotor=6.6-6.8 is that healthy?

 

You really should have 3 numbers for each rotor (representing each face of the rotor, hence a triangle). 6's are low, but driveable.

 

wouldn't buy one in the 6's. Get ready for a new motor if you do. Just my thought.

 

I agree, go for high 8's at least...

 

The numbers are fairly even. Mazda's min specs are 6.0 (original min specs were 7.0 though). High 6s would seem to indicate an older motor that is starting to wear out. Could be another good 20k miles of life or more, it all depends. Worn down apex seals do tend to break easier than newer seals.

 

i just went and test drove the car and it seems to drive just fine, the owner said that he has noticed a hesitation at 3k rpm but its rare and only if the engine hasn't warmed up, would rebuilding the engine completely fix this problem?

 

Do a search for the 3k hesitation -- it's notorious. There is no definite fix for the stock ECU (or reprogrammed for that matter), only minor band-aids.

With such low compression numbers on the motor, I wouldn't recommend purchasing the vehicle unless you can get it for really cheap. Keep in mind, a good rebuild ran me in upwards of $5k (new clutch, rebuilt turbos, and 3mm milling along with the standard motor rebuild) from a reputable shop such as Rotary Power in Gardena, CA.

You also didn't mention the miles on the chasis. With time, there are a lot of misc. parts to replace (filters, bushings, interior pieces, exterior pieces, along with other worn/failing parts that easily add up to a large sum of money). Factor that into the floor price of that car, then compare it to the prices that other people are asking for a "healthy" and reputable FD on the FS/FT section of this forum to make a good judgement. The reason I would use the forum to seek a FD is that you can somewhat track the history of the car by using the search function. I made the mistake of not using this forum to seek my car at the time of purchase, and I paid a lot more in misc. parts and countless hours of my own labour to get it to what it is now.

Start off by reading the stickies on the top of this forum to get a grasp of what you are getting yourself into. I have spoken with far too many brash teenagers who have purchased what they thought to be a "cheap" FD; and they got just that -- a cheap FD. All the cost in parts and labor of all the little things that were wrong with it easily added up to what the difference between a poor condition FD and a good condition FD would have been.

Be willing to travel to find your FD. Limiting your selection to a small radius is like having a narrow view on life -- there will be a lot of nice experiences [FDs] that you will miss out on. Also, making decisions with haste can also be comparable to life; what is "good now" may not necessarily be "good later". Good luck with your search.

 

Listen to Gramps, his FD is almost stock =P

 

Listen to Gramps, he taught me everything I know.