I'm looking at buying a 93 rx-7. I test drove it the other day, and after we stopped there was a gurguling sound coming from the engine. Is this normal? Also is there a way for me to tell if the turbo's are in good shape? The car handled wonderfully, got it up to about 120, no indication of overheating. Sounds like a jet when the turbos kick in!

 

Gurgling is normal, however gurgling with coolant dripping out from right under the passenger side headlight (overflow tank) and overheating means New engine needed.

 

would i be able to see this leaking on to the ground? Are there any other signs I should look for? For arguement's sake if it does need a new engine, what would be a good price for this car? $5800?

 

If you can a well running rx7 for $5800 then you better grab it! It's at least $10,000 depending on mileage, condition.

 

wiht blown engine firgure 8-10k. make sur eit has low miles though becaseu you will be erplacing more than just engine if not.

A little gurgling is normal, even if it spurts out doesn't mean that it overheated, happened to my car once when I drove the **** out of it for 30 minutes and shut it down before nice cool run(yes I let it idle for f ew minutes ). Unless you are lucky 5800$ gets you a junker from a scrap yard. Mine gurgled really badly, what help alot was everytime it cooled down I added water to resevoir and ast.

 

As far as the turbos working. One "TRUE" way to tell is to hook up a boost guage, and put the car in 3rd. Accellerate from about 35 MPH at full throttle. The car should jump to 10 psi till ~4500 RPM, at which point it should drop to ~8psi then start climbing back up to ~9-10 psi till redline.

If you can't get a boost guage, then you should at least feel the extra turbo come online at ~4500 psi.

BTW, my 93 has been making that gurgling sound for almost 3 years now when it gets hot, and I've had 0 problems with it.

 

Getting a metal AST(which holds more coolant) eliminated the gurgling and hose thumping of coolant flowing back into the it.

 

right, because the aftermarket AST don't actually work liek the stock one.

 

Heh.. exactly. Sounds more like when you put on the metal AST you just removed air from the system after topping off the coolant.

Matt
93 SSM

 

mine still has the gurgling noise. i have a pettit ast
this normal?
and after a hard run, if i pull the red lever on the ast cap, coolant would be spewing from the overflow tank by the pass. headlight.