newbiefd

im thinking of purchasin an rx 7,

i wanted to know if a novice like myself could learn to fix the car? due to the rotary styling...

is there a big difference in the way the car is put together compared to lets say... an ae or a civic cause those cars are easy to fix...

thanks...

newbiefd

peejay

They're just engines. The rest of the car is still just a car, just mechanical devices.

The engines are still 4-stroke engines like anything else, the only time you really get into "We ain't in Kansas anymore, Toto" is when you crack the engine open, and objectively, rebuilding a rotary is tons easier than a piston engine.

SingleTurboRx7

a rotary motor is nothing like a 4 stroke. a 4 stoke means each piston makes 4 strokes per cylinder fire, it takes a 4 stroke 1 full rotation just to pull fuel and oxygen in compress it. a rotary only needs half a rotation to do this.

Rx7s are not hard to work on, just has a different motor. motors cost a little more to rebuild and require different tools to do so. but its fairly simple

peejay

SingleturboRX7, you are a bit confused. A rotary is a 4 cycle engine - there are four distinct intake/compression/combustion/exhaust strokes. It just does them differently than a piston engine.

attomica

I echo what peejay has said. This RX-7 is the first rotary-engined vehicle I've owned and I don't feel intimidated at its maintainence just because it's a Wankel. All the peripheral systems are similar to a "boinger" and an engine rebuild is a breeze compared to one too.

Project84

Attomica is right. Every on the outside of the block is no different than a piston engine. A starter is a starter, and a flywheel is a flywheel. On the inside of the block, there are 3 moving parts, (not counting little **** like the oil pump gear thingy) and 5 housings that sandwich it all together. There are a truck load of seals and gaskets, but it doesn't take much more than a book or a decent schematic to figure out where they all go. The only intimidating thing about the whole thing is the price of some of those seal and gasket kits!

Tom93R1

iTrader: (2)

The intimidation factor is multiplyed when machanics say they don't know anything about the rotary engine and they can't work on them. In reality the engine design is much simpler than a piston engine. About the only things that could possibly go wrong with a rotary are apex seal or gasket failure, maybe a bearing in there somewhere. None of the timing belts, valve adjustments, rod bearings, lifters or anything else that a piston engine has. Plus the piston engine also has to worry about the gaskets and piston rings the same as the rotary. Much easier to diagnose a rotary problem IMO.