Finally cranked the car!
 

I was very excited, cranking the FD for the first time after installation of some things including boost guage, heater core, and ignition wires, and I was gonna take it down the road! Well I had to put some coolant in becuase I took the heater core out. Well I start putting it in and shit just starts pooring out where the Radiator Coolant Only pipe is. Oh, shit what the hell. I put the little dipstick in and it came out like it was full?!? But I took the heater core out? Anyway I decide what the hell, you are getting cranked tonight. I put the key in and turn. It fires up! But oh shit again, it idles at like 3000+ RPM's for like a couple seconds and I just turned it off because it scared the shit out of me, I mean this thing is my baby. I finally got the guts to turn it on again and it fires up and this time settles around 2000, and then goes to 1500, so I say the idle is probably turned a little so who gives.
I back the car out of the garage and I feel this wierd putting kind of thing like at idle the car is just putt-putting, it was really wierd, but anyway I give it some gas and look behind me and holy crap again ! White smoke everywhere! Like it was cloudy outside, so anyway I took it up the driveway and decided the putt-putting and the shitloads of white smoke couldn't be right. So I took it back down the driveway and parked it back in the garage. When I got out all I see in this cloud of white smoke that smells like total crap. What in the hell is wrong with my car?!?

Also the car hasnt been driven but like 5 miles in the last year and a half if that has anything to do with it.

Jesus son, take a breath. Trying to read that was the worst 20 seconds of my life. You sound like your about to break out in tears.

Have no fear though, at the very worst, it's a blown coolant seal, meaning you need a new motor, no biggie.

A blown coolant seal? A new engine no biggie are you freaking crazy? Tell me that this is wrong.

how long has the car been parked before you tried to start it?

Well the guy I bought it from said it had an overheating problem and that Mazda told him the heater core was bad, dont know what the hell that has to do with it now that I think about it, but anyway he said it had been sitting for like a year maybe a bit more, I trailered it to my house and to get it off the trailer it had some trouble cranking, and it now has been sitting in my garage for about a month.

Hmm sounds more like a lie and it wasnt the heater core and actually the O-ring. Sorry =/

when you start it up blip the throttle to bring the idle back down, if it doesnt come back down dont worry. let it run for some time while you monitor the guages, if it even looks like it is getting hot shut it off. the smoke could be all the carbon that has built up over time and is burning off, if it is this it will go away. search for accelorated warmup to learn more about that and why your idle jumps up when cold. do not drive it or get on the gas while it is smoking just let it idle to see it it will go away. if it doesnt go away pull the fuel pump relay and and pull the coolant cap off the neck, crank it over to see if coolant comes out, if it does you have bad seals, if it doesnt that doesnt mean you dont have bad seals. welcome to the 3rd gen world.

So does bad seals really mean a new engine?

An overheating problem would lean towards the theory that your coolant seals melted. What color is you car by the way? I knew of a black fd with a body kit on it that had a new engine in it that they could not get working right that smoked a whole lot. It was around the NewPort News area or I geuss I should just say the peninsula. Did your low coolant light come on?

Pretty much, do it your self for 1,100 + your own labor. =P
Sorry to break it to you, did the white smoke smell like coolant?

I mean I really dont know, the smell was really different though, I thought it might be a fuel problem, with all the putting and smoke.

did it smell sweet?

I mean I dont know if the low coolant light was on, I didnt really look I was so worried about the smoke. I am only 17 and don't make a huge salary so it better not be the seals, because I don't have the money for an engine.

I wouldn't say sweet, but it didnt favor gas.

Anywhere near sweet would mean coolant, sorry man. mix some coolant and water and burn and see if it smells alike. Your in Virgina, your close to Ray Crowe at Malloy Mazda that gets the best prices on OEM parts including engines.

this is exactly why people on this forum caution the younger crowd about buying a rx7... I wish i had listened. :(

I mean are really heading toward bad coolant seals and new engine because if so I am screwed. Where is Malloy Mazda and how much does an engine cost? I mean this sucks bad, I am gonna call this guy soon and kick his ass if this is true.

there is alot of things you could try to rule out the other possibilities, instead feeling screwed you should be out trying to determine if you need an engine or not.

Search Ray Crowe and Malloy Mazda

2nd fill the coolant to the top. This is coming out of the exhaust pipe you say? If coolant drops look around the engine, lets try to troubleshoot every other solution before we decide on o-rings.

Well it wil have to wait till tom because I am so pissed now if I try to go work on it and something happens I will probably take a match and set it on fire. I knew $8200 was too good to be true.

8200$ , stick? 93 or 94. More about the car, even with a blown motor for that cheap aint bad.

93, auto nothing special

but right now what I have looked at Im thinkin that I am starting a "Lets keep all the RX-7's on the road fund" Anyone want to donate money for me to keep mine on the road go right ahead haha. Well I think it probably is screwed, can I still drive the car around? Will it hurt the car?

if your having money issues, sell the car, buy a reliable car, and wait till you have a good job to buy a better rx7.

where can I get a rebuild kit and how hard is it to rebuild yourself with little experience with rotaries?

www.rotaryaviation.com

They have two videos
How to remove the engine from the engine bay.
How to rebuild it.

Watch both alot so you get an idea if you want to get into such a project.

Well I got my dad outside today to help me, he thought it was fine, idled at about 1500, the smoke cleared a little, he said it smelled like fuel, the temp guage never went past halfway, when he pulled the throttle cable it smoked a couple black patches of smoke and then white again but very little compared to last night, the coolant never boiled out the neck, the engine didnt even seem to get hot at all. Then the car died! Crap. But it was alright, it just ran out of gas. Goin to get some right now to do some more testing, any comment would be appreciated!

Alright well, the car now cranks sometimes and then quits, so I guess I am gonna send my car off to someone. I live near Roanoke, Virginia, where is the best place to take my car to for work? I want someone good to do whatever needs to be done.

Have you checked all your vacuum hoses? Especially the MAP sensor? how about the vacuum line to the brake booster? Check for cracks and sh*t. Hopefully its just running rich, anyone played with the ECU lately?

have you changed your plugs already?

well I will check the vaccuum line tom mornin, and I changed the ignition wires but not the plugs.

you could have all the carbon built up on the plugs making them not give full spark causing the car to run rich and possibly die.

Alright that sounds good, do it tom mornin and I'll be back on here soon, holy shit I am boosting backwards, why is that? the guage I hooked up, when I hit the gas the boost guage goes the wrong direction?

what kind of boost guage is it?

defi

My idle was really lumpy also, and high, but I had a hose loose and it got a little better.

Thats engine vacuum whats your vacuum?

what you mean?

Alright, I took the plugs out and they smell just like the exhaust that was coming out of the car! The tops are charred and the sides that screw in are covered in black stuff, maybe oil? Is this bad?

Alright now the car run fine it seems, still smoking some, but like when I hit the gas you hear the ssss sound, the turbos boosting up or whatever, at like 4000 RPMS, and then the quage goes backwards the car kind of jumps and slows down instead of speed up and then it shifts at like 4500 even floored, I got some kind of boost problem?

what mods have been done to the car? how much boost are you seeing before it shifts?

mods are apexi intake, ignition wires, and that is all. it stays at 3, even when the car is off, at idle it goes the 4, driving and hitting the gas it goes to 5 then to -10 or something and it seems that the car SLOWS down when boost hits.

it doesnt sound like the boost guage is working right. off it should be at 0 and at idle you should see about -16 or so. I had a friend who had a similar problem you describe and his turned out to be a clogged precat. his is also auto and would shift at 5200rpm or so, downpipe fixed that. where did you put the vaccum hose at for the boost guage.

in between the manifold plate or whatever, I unscrewed this black cap. I have a dowpipe in my garage I just bought.

recheck the guage hose to make sure there is no kinks or holes in it. if none get another. put the downpipe on and hopefully you will be good to go. if you havent already change all your fluids.

any advice? downpipe install comin now.

To me it sounded like when you turned it off the first time fearing why the idle was at 3000 rpms, it flooded your motor partially. Then the combination of the car sitting there for a year + a partially flooded motor = a ton of smoke. Then, im assuming the plugs are fouled as shit after sitting there for so long, and since they have gone through whatever they have gone through, they are probably in horrible shape.

It's also possible that someone put some Automatic tranny fluid in your motor too if it was flooding before, or the car was sitting there a long time with storage in mind. ( if you dont know, it helps to break down carbon deposits) When ATF burns it produces a TON of foul smelling smoke, that looks like a white glory of clouds.

I mean, anything is really possible since you seem to have no idea what kind of shape the car was in before you purchased it ( no offense).

I'd change your plugs first thing, and let the motor run for a while to burn out any junk that might have built up over the resting period. Fouled plugs can also cause the hesitation your speaking of. You also might want to change your fuel filter, air filter, etc. Give your car a basic tune up, it wont hurt.

Your next step( or first step if you really want to) is to then start the car with the coolant cap off and look for bubbles in the coolant. They will look like freshly poured fizzing soda. If you see anything, chances are one of your coolant seals has a leak or is damaged in some way. You really need to be skeptical of some of the advice on this forum, most people just jump to blown motors the second they hear anything that could even remotely sound close. Take a few steps to determine the water is cold instead of jumping without thinking. and freezing your balls off.

yeah the car was flooded before, I don't know how they fixed it though. I changed the plugs, the old ones were black and what seemed to be oilly? They smelled just like the smoke coming out of the tailpipe.

ah that changes the tables if the car was flooded. good to hear that you changed the plugs. Did it help? Its also possible that an injector is leaking, or your running rich for some odd reason.

did you try the coolant test?