Alright, here it is. I live in Houston and have been looking at RX-7's for literally a few years now... I found this guy selling a 93 R1, but he says the oil pressure is low and that the oil control ring between front rotor housing and front cover needs to be replaced (he thinks this is most likely the problem.) I also talked to him about hooking up an after market mechanical gauge to see what it reads and he said he did that but it still reads low. He said about 50 lbs when driving and BELOW 10lbs when idling. The guy did a rebuild and afterwards the pressure went low and he hasn't put like any miles on it. How much would this cost to get taken into a shop to get fixed because I can't fix this myself... especially if it requires another rebuild since I've read what a pain in the azz it can be. Please... help me. Also.. are there any good RX-7 shops in Houston, Texas? Thanks a lot guys!

 

no one knows.... this makes me want to cry...

 

Dallas is the closest

If you are not in a huge hurry i am going to be in houston this coming week, like wed or thrus
if you want me to help you with it

I do alot of work for people in the houston area

 

Also the Oil control rings dont cause low oil pressure, if they did a half A** rebuild they may have the front cover o-ring leaking causing the low oil pressure.

But i bet you 1000 to 1 it is just the gauge misleading you, mine does what it wants when it wants. Just get a Aftermarket Mech one and make sure there isa problem by for you try and solved it

I am on AIM and Yahoo IM Rx7Nut13B

 

The rebuild: did he rebuild the engine himself or someone else, or is it a Mazda rebuild?

MazMax has had problems with a few Mazda rebuilds a while back. The company that rebuilt them for Mazda, forgot to place the nylon protector around the "O" ring seal. This cause leaking and low oil pressure.

If that is the problem, it can be fixed while in the car but will not be a quick cheap repair.

 

He built it himself and he has already hooked up a mechanical gauge. So it definitely has low oil pressure. Is this really bad or unsafe to drive on? Would I be able to drive it to a shop or would I have to get it towed basically...?

 

I would consider the car driveable, but wouldn't put a lot of mileage or boost on it. Hell, I drove an FC for at least a year while I was fighting an oil pressure problem.

The O-ring can be fixed with the engine in the car, but it's a ROYAL pain in the ***. I would definitely have someone who's good with rotaries do the job - it's VERY easy to screw up the front cover components, and if it's not done perfectly you'll be back in there. Also, the oil pan has to be removed to properly do the job, and it has to be sealed up properly or you'll be fighting oil leaks.

You're probably looking at a good 8-10 hours of labor for a rotary shop to do that job. If it was me, I'd probably go ahead and pull the motor back out to do the job - it might actually be faster, and you'd definitely get it done better out of the car.

Dale