Okay just purchased a 93 r1 from a great friend of mine and am super happy and honored!

excuse me and maybe the general Newb question Here. But how do you check if the engine itself needs a rebuild? Is there a series diy “test” you can perform to rule it out? Like I know on most other engines it’s compression and leak down test and it will give you a good idea.

because the car is having difficult time starting. Where it cranks and I’d need to give it gas to fire it up and or sometime keep it idling. Usually when it starts I don’t have to gas it anymore. But it sometime sounds like it wants to die and doesn’t idle very smooth.

it is also extremely rich! I don’t know if all rx7 are like this I doubt it? For it is very close to stock I think it’s got a down pipe that’s it.

fuel pump and engine I don’t think gas ever been replaced or rebuilt. It only has like 50k miles though!
and barely ever races or driven hard much.

thanks so much for any and all help!

 

Welcome!

Best way to check the health of the engine is to do a compression test. Rotary engines are different in that they have 3 rotor faces that build compression in each housing so you need something that can isolate those pulses and record them.

This -
https://www.rotarycompressiontester.com

is a proper tester. You can see if there is a rotary specialist near you that can do the test.

There are ways to do it with a piston engine tester but it really only gives a rough idea of the health of the engine.

I would make some videos of the car starting cold and post them up, we can probably tell a lot from a video.

Also it looks like the AST (air separator tank) is a Pettit Racing part, that's a good upgrade since the stock plastic one has a tendency to explode.

Dale

 

thank you dale! Much appreciate the feedback and comments..
Total newb to rotaries and rx7 so excuse my lack of knowledge in advance.
ill try to get a video of it starting etc.
I drove it around the block for a little bit tonight. Started (with some gas pedal) and drove ok (not the smoothest) and revved out ok and don’t think misfired. But as soon as I got to the driveway it died. Tried to restart it and wouldn’t fire up. Until I cranked it over and gave it gas feathering it. And revved it up into the garage..

the pettit racing air separator tank would you be able to circle which part this is? For all I know the engine bay is completely stock but maybe not!?

thank you

 

The Pettit AST is just to the left of the battery in the picture. Metal can with a radiator cap on top.

Yeah, post a video of it trying to start, I can usually tell by sound if the motor is weak or has a blown seal.

Do you know much of the history of the car?

Dale