here's the deal fellas: bought this silver 94 w/a salvage title off ebay for 10,500 in may. Since the damn rebuild/title paperwork takes forever, i'm still not driving it, but here's the question. It has 100k and it's bone stock. I budgeted for a new engine because naturally, i couldnt help but notice most people blowing their stock one before 100k. When i got to drive it the one time, it pulled so hard, and felt so strong i was shocked. I remembered the guy who did the rebuild saying he got it from an insurance company and couldnt contact the original owner, and he didnt know if any major engine work was done.
now, i'm looking down into the engine bay from the drivers side with a flashlight, and the letters down there (mazda 13B) as well as the surrounding area, i'm guessing the rotor housing, is the cleanest thing down there- everything else is covered in ****. would this be a good indication of a replacement engine, and if not, is there any way to find out easily. tell me what you guys think, i'd sure love to know so i could put that new-engine money into mods!

 

I think gmonsen said that if you pull the alternator and look on the motor there is a vin # and you're supposed to match it up with you vin on your dash. If they match then it'sthe original, if not then it's a replacement. I didn't catch the whole thing though, this is just what I remember.


*edit* here's the thread:


https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...or+is+original

 

I had my rebuild done using the same front plate with the engine number.. so I guess my car has the original motor then.. with new housings etc... allowed me to ship my engine out of the country to have it totally re-built and shipped it back home without paying duty on a new motor.. just "service, balance and blueprint at my cousins place = no charge=no duty + no tax" or that's what I told customs and they bought it :-)

Strange though, the number on my motor does start with E11 and my vin starts with FD3S11 but that's about it ..and my re-build was done when I hit 60,000 kms. I doubt my cars previous owner also did a re-build when the car was in Japan..or maybe JDM FD's have different engine and VIN's to American cars ?!?!?

 

My engine is DEFINITELY original...and it's dirty as crap! But seriously, get a compression test first. See how well she really is doing.

 

Jspec,

What should we look for when doing a compression test? My guess would be to look for uneven compression figures from each plug.

John

 

i'll probably f something up if rip out the alternator. i've got an apt. at KDR next friday, i'm guessing dave'll be able to tell whats up. thanks guys

andrew