I'm new to the Rx7 world. Purchased a 93 about two months ago. The previous owner had the car for 13 years. In that time, he had tri-point engr rebuild the motor (3mm apex seals) and turbos (at 28000 mi). Tune w/ PFS computer and intercooler, downpipe and cold air. When I purchased the car it had 70000 mile. I have taken the car road racing, drag racing (13.26 @ 107 on normal street radials) and dynoed (263 hp on a Mustang dyno). After removing the cat, it made an additional 24 hp and 14 ft-lbs. Great! Car felt better. Well, going to a X'mas party driving nicely, the car kinda stuttered and then went on as normal (which this car often did). Next thing I know, the car was smoking very badly but running ok. After the party, the car started reving between 2000 and 3000 rpm and puffing smoke. ( It was dark so I could not tell if it were steam or oil). The engine sounded fine except for the smoke and reving. I was wondering if this sounded like a blown apex seal or possibly turbo going out.

 

haha any car smoking very badly is never running ok

there are alot of previous threads on this if you search the forum youll be able to find it. my cars turbos are leaking oil so i smoke alot on start up but i just bought a new set of twins so that takes care of my smoke problem but if your car revs high like that and smoke going anywhere my guess would be apex seal because i dont think a turbo would cause your engine to rev so high. im new too so im hoping the senorities help you out with this i cant do much.

 

knowning what color smoke will really help. if its white smoke then its prob a coolant seal. but i have a hunch that it could just be your map senser vac hose poped off...check that first.

 

I'm new here as well. All i know, i know from reading and researching but from what i read, that CAT was there for a reason, you shouldn't have removed it. when removing mainc cat you must bore the wastegate to avoid overboosting. But first of all listen to 4CN A1R and check the vacuum hose on map sensor, its at the firewall on driver side of LHD vehicle

 

car was burning oil. leaking from turbo (hopefully) or blown seal?

 

Are these cars that fragile? I hoped it would be ok for ocassional track use and agressive driving. Lots are rec going to ls1 or ls2 for reliability. Can these cars survive this driving? I wanted a rotary bc it was different but was warned about reliability.

 

FD is pretty 'fragile' compared to the FC or FB, or most piston engined cars. That being said, it is not like they grenade on you with no provocation...lol!
You keep things pretty close to stock, make sure you never lean it out nor overheat it, you can easily get 75K - 100K miles on one.
Keep in mind you ARE wringing over 3 hp per cubic inch out of the stock motor. So things are stressed a bit more than your average Honda Civic.
Now, take that Civic and make the engine get 650 hp and you can understand some of what the FD goes thru.

 

+1

 

if the engine is running fine, idles fine, is smooth, then it is probably the turbos that lost an internal oil seal.

how much boost are you running?

fyi - turbo rotaries do not take well to running more boost than your system is capable of handling. Your fuel system, cooling system, ignition, timing and fuel maps need to support the overall flow mods. Removing a cat makes it difficult to control boost and allows you to flow more air. W/o adding fuel and controlling boost to the limits of your fuel system and timing/fuel maps.

Hope that helps.

 

Talked to a rotary mech (raced them since 80's) who also thinks it is in the turbos. Hope that's right. I was running 10-12 lbs on the high setting. Removing the cat gained me more consistant boost, but not more. Stayed around 11. I'm cking the intake after work today.