There's a local selling an FD thats done 152kms, he says its been rebuilt but has no paperwork to back it up whatsoever, I've asked him how he knows itas been rebuilt and he tells me " cos the rota - housings look new". Even I know that this aint a good enough reason but is it possible to see any other evidence its had a rebuild just by looking at it?

 

You're going to decide whether to buy the car or not based on looking at the engine... ever heard of a compression tester?

 

Make sure the compression is good and there isn't much or any carbon buildup inside peaking through the exhaust ports; that's about the best you can do.

 

i know this is weird but i always make it a habit of smelling the oil in cars that I buy. Granted someone could change the oil routinely and still have engine problems but if the oil looks weird or smells weird I'm back in my car before they shut the hood. Other than some anticdotal info, compression test it.

 

The issue with that is rotaries have blow-by basically by nature. So most FD's will have a slight hint of gas in the oil unless its been changed within the last 500 or so miles. In that sense, with an RX7 smelling the oil won't necessarily establish a problem.