stripling

I only keep it because I've had it since '95 ... and I'm old ... and it's too late for me

My advise: don't ever fall in love with your car.

With that said, here's my problem:

My FD has about 80,000 miles on it. Five years ago I shipped the engine up to Pineapple Racing and Rob did a great job on it. Spent a ton of money and got it back together and ... voila ... it ran good. Not great... because I was only getting six pounds of boost.

Here we are, almost five years later, and I've put about 15,000 on it. Yeah, I don't drive it much. It smokes like an sob, more and more every year. It goes through about a quart of oil per tank of gas! No kidding! I think the turbo... original... is just throwing the oil everywhere. The greddy intercooler piping is full of oil and there's oil all over the place under the engine.

So, I bought a new rebuilt turbo from Pettit Racing in FL.

I've had it sitting in my garage for almost two months now. The thought of tearing into my engine is too scarry. Five years ago when I did it I had zero fun and removing the turbo w/o removing the engine is a nightmare and removing the engine was hell. So, I just let the FD sit in my garage.

Why can't I just get a mechanic? I'm in Vegas and been here for years and years... and no mechanics for FD's... no rotary dudes at all. I drive my car up to mechanics and they look at me before I say a word and say, "Um, we won't work on that car." "No," I say, "I"m just here to pick up my truck." Inside I'm thinking, "I hope this car never dies on me."

Five months ago I was driving down the freeway. I've got all sorts of after-market money in my car but neglected an important one.

Yeah, my radiator (original) burst open and my buzzer sounded just as my water gauge pointed firmly to the RED!

Damn car... I pulled over immediatly. Can you belive I had a gallon of water in my car?

So, I dumped it in.

It cam spouting out the radiator where the plastic had seperated from the metal.

Damn car.

A Nevada Highway Auto Assistant pulled over and grabbed five gallons of water. We poored it in and cooled the car down. The car was running fine so I limped it to a gas station where I got lots of water. I limped it home from there and ordered a nice, big, fat new radiator.

I put the radiator in the car and decided to fill the car with Evens. I evacuated the water from the car and three or four gallons of Evens later I was ready to rock.

I drove it around, refilled it one the heater core was filled, and was happy.

Then summer came.

Now it overheats all the time. Never boils over anymore and the water gauge never hits the red zone... but the power FD tells me I'm running 107 degrees C!

The regular gauge, stock, just sits in the middle, but at about 103 or 104 the engine changes tone and starts running faster!

When I run the AC the problems are... exaserbated.

Oh my gosh! Is it the Evens? I have a HUGE radiator now!

So, I'd just run it less than 20 miles and it was fine. After that it would get hot. I checked the thermostat... it works fine. I even changed it since I tore into the housing. Nada... same ould song and dance... Damn.

I don't even know if there's such thing as a weak water pump. The radiator gets hot and liquid is flowing through the system... I'm getting desperate, as you can see.

Again, why the hell is there no mechanic here in Vegas I can take this to?

Then it gets worse. Much worse.

Five years ago I lost my front rotor. I threw two of three apex seals! That's when I tore into it and shipped the engine to Pineapple in Portland.

Then, in an Albertson's parking lot, boom... compression loss. Just like five years ago.

I was ticked.

I called Rob at Pineapple. He told me it's just a stuck apex due to the vast oil burn creating tons of carbon.

My engine made a "suck suck suck" sound at idle. Pretty obvious if you put your ear near the UIM. suck, suck, suck... in time with the engine.

He told me to steam-clean the engine, ATF trick it and throw in some sea-foam.

So, I did it all... three gallons of water later, a can of seafoam and atf lube... like magic... my compression returned!

I checked every apex seal through the spark plug hole and there's fine... just sticky.


So, I got my engine back together and drove it around last night. About 15 miles later it heated up... crap!

At about 103 C it started to act up again. I got it home at 103 C... turned it off, then 5 minutes later tried to restart it. It acted like it wanted to start but would not!

I waited a few hours, engine cooled, it started great this morning. Acting like a champ again. But SUCK SUCK SUCK!

That noise is still there!!!!

I wodered if there's a vacuum leak. I checked everywhere with my fingers. I can't find anything leaking and thought I'd have to tear apart my UIM.

I started tearing into my UIM... got everything outta the way so i could see and restarted my engine. SUCK SUCK SUCK! I'm checking around with my fingers... I can't see jack! No lose silicon tubes (yeah, I upgraded them years ago).

I said to hell with it, left the garage and now I'm writing this to you...

Help?

Here's the skinny:

1) suck, suck, suck... what the F? Should I finish tearing out my UIM or is there something I'm missing?

2) why's my car overheating all the time? Is it the Evens? The waterpump? Is my PowerFC tuned wrong? I read something in a search that if the downpipe (yeah, no cats, all downpipe and mid) gets too much carbon buildup it chokes the exhause and heats the engine. Is that crap? The fans work great, kick on at 85C (or wherever I tell datalogit to snap 'em on at)... This heat isue is killing me.

3) Why does my turbo not boost up to 1 bar? I'm getting 1/2 a bar. That problem's been around for 5 years so it's not so much of an issue.

4) Why can't I get a mechanic in Vegas to work on this thing? I can do the simple stuff like change the engine or tear out the tranny but programming the power FC or dyno tuning or diagnositic on overheating and/or the "suck, suck, suck" presumed vacuum leak? COME ON! I need a specialist...

Oh, woewes me... I hate my car, I love my car... sigh...

Anybody got some advise?

David

Rx7_Nut13B

iTrader: (1)

WOW where to start... LOL

1)Do you have a Air Pump? If you do, does it stop when the air plug is unpluged, at idle. The best way to find a vacuum leak is starter fluid, spray it around and under the UIM when the motor is idling, if there is a leak it will rev up, then just pin-point the leak.

2)What speed are the fans kicking on at, there is a few different speeds, One fan Low, Two fan Low, One Low on High, Two High, are you sure they are coming on at 85C, Because you have to use the Datalogit to change the fan turn on temp. Do you have a underbelly, this is VERY VERY important, the fans are only really good at idle and light stop and go traffic, The underbelly make sure that the air is going thru the rad in stead of under the car. Also Evans is very good stuff, I run NPG-R in my car with a electric water pump, 175-180F Idle or Full out. Also the thermostat is one of the only Parts that really needs to be MAZDA OEM. If you want to increase some of the coolant flow, you can drill the outter edge of the t-stat with 2-3 1/4in holes this will alow more water to move while the t-stat is closed, but not enuff to create a problem. This helps alot in stop and go traffic becuase the coolant never really stops inside the motor it is allways moving in and out. When the T-stat is closed there is a very very small amount of coolant making it around the motor.

3)A number of things could be causing this, the secondary turbos charge controller maybe open when the primary turbo is trying to build boost, this is a problem because if the computer doesnt see XX amount of boost then it will not switch to the secondary turbo. So in other words the primary turbo is working its *** off to produce 6psi of boost with basiclly a open hole on the secondary turbo. The secondary turbo is spinning, but not fastenuff to over power the air leaving the turbo. This is where you oil problem as come from, the Primary turbo is seeing most of the exhaust trying to create 10 psi of boost and is spinning WAY faster than it should so the oil seal has probably just given up from 5 years of work. But then agian it could be a simple vacuum leak or boost line that controls some of the turbo controls. But if that was the problem then it would create more than 6psi at the start. http://www.turborx7.com/images/turbo...simplified.jpg

4)Well considering that Mazda is just about the only company that makes the rotary and a Rotary shop doesnt make that much money would be the reasons why there are so few shops that will touch these things. Just think about it this way. Hold your noise, jump with both feet and see what happens, "Mazda making great mechanics from the average joe"


5)No matter how much smoke you have coming out of your motor, if you dont have a pre-cat or main cat then there isnt a problem with carbon build up causing high temps. But a Plugged Pre-Cat or main Cat will cause thows problems.



There are alot of people in and around Houston that are great full that I am in the area to troubleshoot there cars and do the hard parts, Rebuilds, Porting, Auto-5Speed swaps ( FD's in less than 8 hours), FC NA-to-Turbo II swaps in 16 hours.

If i was closer than I would be more than welcome to drop by and shoot the **** and find the problems, but there is alot of land between us.

But I will be going to SevenStock and we where thinking about driving to Las Vegas to stop by my Grandparents house, so I maybe in the area end of next month. Shot me a PM and i will take to you some more.


ONE MORE THING, DAM THAT WAS ALOT OF WRITING

bewtew

iTrader: (7)

holy ****

rotarforlife

wow

stripling

yeah, i was bored and frustrated...

thanks for the great advise... you're invited to stop by anytime. i'll have my girl make you rice-crispy-treats... it's her thing... she grew up in utah

no airpump, i took that off years ago to encourage global warming. i grew up near spokane, wa and feel the need for as much global warming as we can get

i have an oem thermostat... can you tell me, what temp is "alarming"? is 105C on the power FC alarming w/evens? i HATE to get over 100C! this whole thing is just... so frustrating to me... my oem thermo has a tiny hole in it with a little piece of metal that rattles around in it. i have no idea what it's for, i was told it's a "one way valve" to let tiny amounts of evens (fluid) through it one way and block in case it wants to come backwards. i don't know if i believe that.

i know one thing: i can't become a super-expert on this thing. i'd need a dyno, powerfc expertice (just looking at that fuel map intimidates me), lots of knowldge about the syncro turbo... sheeze, why don't i just tear into an auto tranny while i'm at it?

to be clear, my car is a manual, dp, mp, stock turbo w/fmic (greddy) trying to stay sync turbo as factory intended (yeah, big octopus with silicon hosing), powerfc w/datalogit and commander, no airpump, all the under-pullies you can get including the main pulley, greddy intake and comp. tube, i still run oil injection (i'll never do the add oil to my gas... as a matter of fact i've been thinkng about adding acitone!... see this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=van5VmJ1yno

the motor is a stage 2 upgrade from pineapple racing. that's it. and it overheats like a m-f'er

i'm pretty lost at this point. it's sitting in my garage all torn up on top. uim hangin' there --- looking at tubes, tubes and more octopus tubes trying to find the "suck suck suck" noise knowing that when and if i do it still won't help with the overheating issue.

nice to know that with nothing but straight pipes no matter how much oil i dump on the thing it won't clog my 3" tube. i'll be taking exhaust pipes off and checking them for the heck of it once i get to replacing my turbo but i don't wanna replace my turbo if the "suck suck suck" noice is due to a "chipped apex seal end".

the suck noise seems to be coming from under the uim so i don't buy that chipped apex stuff yet. but if it is and i need to tear out the engine then i'd rather do the turbo then.

and dude, you seem to know a lot... my tranny is starting to go bye-bye... can i upgrad the tranny? i read something about upgrading to a 6 speed? some aftermarket tranny? is that bs? should i just rebuild my stocker?

you are my hero... thanks for the advise. you wanna stop by, i'd love to have ya.

Rx7_Nut13B

iTrader: (1)

Glad I can help

Toyotarx7

iTrader: (13)

y not just buy a new engine from mazda with a warranty?? im sorry to hear your going through alot.. i wish you the best of luck

stripling

i was about to purchase a brand, new motor from my local mazda dealership parts dept. but then i checked the weather report and i'll be damned if it hasn't started to snow in hell yet!

Rx7_Nut13B

iTrader: (1)

You mean Stealership

rotard_robbie

Call Ray Crowe at Mallory Mazda. He's a good guy and he'll get it to you alot cheaper than the local dealership. BTW, sorry to hear of your dilemna.

stripling

what's his number? who's ray crowe and where's mallory mazda?

i could use a driver's side quarter panel. mine's been smashed (hit and run) for like 3 or 4 years now and i'd love to get her fixed but the dealership wants, like, $600 for the fender. What a rip!

Ya know, what i'd like to do is get my fenders rolled out custom like i've seen some of those fd's... so i can stick some big old 330's on the rear. oh, how sweet would that be? not those stupid as hell looking pettit racing tack-on flares crap. i wonder how much an A-1 job of rolled out fenders would cost?

rotard_robbie

He's a parts manager I believe for a Mazda dealership out on the east coast. Very very nice guy, his number is 18885333400. I was on a waiting list for a reman engine and I called to let him know I had one already on the way, hopefully you can get ahold of him and he'll have one available for you. I hope it's not your cooling system that's bad, otherwise would be another engine shot to hell.

Supernaut

iTrader: (83)

Ray is freaking awesome.

I've spoken to some other guys at the other dealerships and some of them are very good but Ray is the best.

gracer7-rx7

iTrader: (16)

One of the problems with any complex, low production car is finding someone knowledgeable to work on them. So as FD owners we are left two options:

1. Learn to work on it ourselves
2. Find a good shop

If you aren't willing to do the former (which I can understand as it takes a lot of effort with no guarantee of success), find a good mechanic.

Being in Vegas, you have limited options but you do have options.
One is Arizona Rotary Rockets - www.azrotaryrockets.com
Another is to get over to the Los Angeles area where you have a bunch of rotary places to choose from.

The initial effort may suck as you'll probably want to tow the car over if its misbehaving but the end result should be worthwhile.


Might also want to check out the Regional Forums on here and see if there are any shops in your area beyond what I mentioned.

stripling

High production, low cost, complex car... I agree... nobody will touch it, there's no money in it.

So, it's a labor of unrequited love... sigh...

update: I tore out my thermostat, figured I'd see what's up with the heat issue.

Little bubbles, like soda-pop carbonation, floats to the top of my coolent immediatly after starting it. Now the thermo's removed the air bubbles can go straight through to my view without causijng the fluid to bubble-up and flow backwards causing a slow guiser leak.

So, I test drove it anyway 'cause I'm stupid like that and w/o the termo it heated up almost as fast as with the thermo.

Blown waterseal... case closed.

I called Pineapple Racing, they said they'd "look at it".

It's still under warrentee so I'm hoping for the best. I'm certain there's nothing wrong with the car other than the leaking, blown water-seal so other than tearing the damn engine out and paying like $250 for shipping I might get away clean. We'll see.

They (Pineapple Racing) sell an oil-pan that takes plust 1qt of oil and does NOT leak (like mine does, did and probably will) for like $400 or so.

So, I'd for sure get that but the mechanic told me the "low oil sensor" and thus idiot light do NOT install on the new pan!

OH CRAP! Why the CRAP would someone dev. and after-market oil pan w/o giving you the option of the stock oil level sensor?

Anyway, I MIGHT have it done anyway but ... ya know what ... no way. I love that little idiot light and if something happens (hole in the oil cooler, oil leak of any type) then I want that light. Dang... I guess I'll be talking "leak" in a couple years.

So, that's the story. Tearing it out, shipping it off, sticking it back in late september and then voila... no more whining from me.

...ps... you know what car I really wish I had instead?

Yeah... me either...

Rx7_Nut13B

iTrader: (1)

Get a Autometer Low Oil pressure switch, when the pressure dropped below XXpsi it will turn on the Red light in the oil pressure gauge. I have warning lights for everything.

Megabridge

iTrader: (2)

I was told the pan did not include the level sensor hole because it would cost an extra $40+ dollars and they asked, Almost no one used it. They said there is a pad with enough material to machine for one....

stripling

Check this out!

I've got a buddy in town I met at a car-show in Vegas who's owns a 1st Gen and is working on a 3rd Gen tripple rotor.

I'd lost my job in Vegas and was planning on moving to Seattle. His wife wanted a FD so I told him I'd sell him mine since I needed to move and the money.

So, I left town and left her the car. I've been trying to sell my house in Vegas (nightmare!!!) and my wife and I have been traveling back and forth from WA state.

Well, this girl and her hubby call me and tell me the car is acting this way. This was like 2 months ago. She bought the car from me for 7 grand and I thought I had another 8 months on the warranty for the Pineapple Racing engine.

So, I came into town to work on my house sell and spoke to her about the car. She couldn't run the A/C without the car overheating.

I was told Pineapple Racing wouldn't honor the warranty of an engine if ownership was transfered so for this girl I didn't mention the sale in this thread until now.

I flew in and out of town and spent some time on the phone with Dan and Rob at Pineapple trying to diagnose the problem.

I left town and was getting tired of all of it. This girl took it into some mechanic and he told her it was a broken water jacket. That bubbles were leaking into the engine.

I told her it was covered under warrenty still and that my over-heating problem months ago must have been related to the water jacket going bad. On the phone Rob implied the water jacked went bad BECAUSE it overheated.

Now, that's just stupid because last October, months before I sold it, I was driving it along on a 75 degree day and it overheated and split my radiator due to pressure! I was driving at 65m/h!

So, the water jacked FAILED right then! Fortunatly I had LOTS of water in the car (2 gallons I'd just gotten from the sparklets dispenser) and some guy from the Nevada Highway Emergency Auto Help stopped and he had 5 gallons of 50/50.

We cooled the engine and limped it to a gas station. I had my wife help me tow it home until I could put a new super-radiator in it.

I drove it Novermber and December and January all the time! Cold months, and it NEVER overheated. February or March I sold it and moved up to WA while trying to sell my car.

So, what's this got to do with anything? I started this thread because once the weather started warming up I got a call from this girl I sold the car to telling me it was overheating.

We talked about it and I called Rob who suggested it was a sticky apex seal. While in town I did his "steam cleaning" which didn't seem to work. It did improve the engine performance and being unemployed I had a little time and felt bad about the whole thing.

I spoke with Rob and Dan several times and they were very cool. I became CONVINCED the waterjacket failed and cause the exhaust gasses to leak into the coolant. The car ran fine and the compression was fine but at higher RPM and after it started getting hotter in the summer months ... wow ... it ran like crap.

So, I told Kiki, this girl I sold the car to, the engine was still under warranty. My wife was getting angry that I was spending so much time with this problem but it didn't really take that much time up and it was kinda fun.

So that's it. I told her to send the engine back and it should be under warranty.

But even though the jacket failed in October/Novermber the WARRANTY ended in January! I didn't know this so this poor girl spent like $400 to get the engine taken out and another couple hundred shipping it to Pineapple.

I called Pineapple once the engine got there. This girl's boyfriend was calling me every damn day asking what was going on.

I needed to pretend I still owned it to get the warranty. Rob at Pinepple got the engine and was about to tear it down when he noticed two things.

1) The engine was OUT of warranty. (he was cool about this and said he was flexable)
2) The ORIGINAL engine work was NEVER PAID FOR!

I was like, "NO WAY!" In Jan 2003 I sent a check but when I put the engine in it leaked oil BADLY and my wife cancelled the check thinking we'd been ripped off.

I took apart the A/C and there was a big, fat hole I needed to plug up. Rob told me (just a couple days ago) that the hole was for other oil flow options and they must have forgotten to send the plug and instruction set.

Bottom line is I fixed it and my wife never bothered NOT cancelling the check.

Rob says he tried calling and contacting me but neither my wife or I got ANY messages and my phone number has not changed in more than a decade!

It was a $3300 bill and I didn't notice because back then I had a lot of money in my account and my wife takes car of the bills. Always has.

So, Rob gets the engine and says, "Sure, I'll fix it. That will be $3300 plus $1000 since it's out of warranty."

OH CRAP!

Sigh... well, back in 2002/2003 I had money but since then... my economy has gone to hell. I feel bad about this whole thing.

I told the owner, Kiki, via email. I just got an email back from her.

SHE called Rob and told him she was sad because I told her it was UNDER Warranty and it was not. She was sad about the $1000 she'd have to spend.

ROB told her, "This is my engine, it was never paid for."

WOW!

Now, I can understand how Rob would feel that way, having never received payment from me, but this poor girl and her husband are screwed now without an engine! She had me talk to Dan and Dan told me to send it long-block and that would save me (her) money from her mechanic. So, this girl sent the engine LONG BLOCK and now Rob is like, "It's mine now!"

What a bunch of crap. I understand if he has a beef with me, but I sold the car to this chick Kiki and it's hers.

So, she mad and crying on the phone with me at 7:45AM when she called my cell phone and her husband is mad!

I don't know what to tell 'em. I wish I had the money to give Rob but I totally don't. I'm losing my home to forclosure in Vegas and am still outta work. This girl, it seems to me, just got HER engine STOLEN FROM ROB.

SHE told me that *I* stole the engine from Rob six years ago. Well, that was never my intention but maybe in the final analysis I unintentionally did forgo payment.

BUT NOW HE has stolen the engine from HER!

And that's the end of the story. Now here I sit up in Seattle feeling bad. I mean, if he got his engine back then hell, I don't owe him jack for money having returned the property. But now this girl is out and I sure as hell can't afford to buy her a new long-block engine!

And further more, in 2003 I sent that engine up short-block! If rob keeps the engine now he's keeping it LONG block!

Oh, my gosh, this dude told me they also sent him a turbo they got on ebay that I asked Dan to install before sending it back!

So, maybe six years ago I inadvertantly didn't make payment on the engine, but he's now stolen the engine LONG BLOCK from her PLUS the turbo they sent to replace the original burn-out that I sold them with the entire car.

Well, say what you will but my NOT paying Rob six years ago was NOT intentional and him keeping this girl's long-block as well as her turbo... now that's stealing.

What a sad situation. I think it's illegal for Rob to keep this engine and that's what I told Kiki on the phone. She was mad at me for never having paid the bill and I was sad about that too, but there's nothing I can do about that now. I called Bank of America to verify it but since I'd closed that account a long time ago they told me they'd have to have their records department call me back. Rob said he had the check and my wife told me she thought I'd cleared the check and I'm sure I never did. Also Rob said he's still got the check so I'm thinking Rob is totally in the right as it deals with me.

But as it deals with this girl Kiki, wow, his actions are intentional! Man, I feel bad.

She told me she just wants to get her money back but believe me that money went to the lender of my house months ago!

Well, I'm in the clear. I called an old college buddy of mine who is an attorney in Tucson, AZ who said the statutes of limitations are long up for me. He told me that the engine is legally hers and she can sue him for non-remittance. He said the warranty is up, even if the engine broke before it was up, since it was not reported until after. So, that sucks.

Anyway, my wife is dissapointed in me. I can tell. This is very unlike us to have anything bad on our record.

But from Rob's POV and Pineaaple racing: 1) The "super" water jacket he sold me FAILED only 8,345 miles into the engine he sold me!

So that sucks

2) He said he was flexable with the warranty and might honor it once he got it apart.

So that's cool, so long as any overheating damage caused by this crappy water-jacket he boasted about doesn't cause more expense. Seems like he'd be responsible for damages if his waterjacked failed and cause the catostrophic problem! Like in the 80's when the space shuttle exploded due to that seal-ring not holding... that company was held responsible for the entire destruction. I'm not sure, I didn't ask Boyd my attorney friend about that

3) Rob has stolen this engine from this girl along with her long-block parts and the turbo she sent him! This is NOT cool. What's between me and Rob should not touch this girl and her husband.

4) Rob's warranty engine SHOULD be transferable to NEW OWNERS! This policy, "once you sell the car I don't honor the warranty" is crap.

lastly, I'd like to mention this

I like Pineapple Racing and think they do good work. In this case the seal f-d up but I'm sure that's not typical.

5) Rob seemed cool about doing "cheap work" for an engine he'd done in the past, but he never said it would be free even when he thought it WAS under warranty. That nickle-and-dime stuff is not cool.

He said he has a 5 year 60,000 mile warranty. When I sold that car the engine had LESS than 9,000 miles on it! NO KIDDING! I never boosed it over 6 pounds either, since the turbo was f-d up. So, this is not cool and IMHO HE should do the WARRANTY WORK he boasts about for FREE.

It seems to me that if you get a warranty engine from Pineapple for 5 years 60,000 miles and it dies due to a super-water-jacket failure then you:

1) have to pay a grand to get your engine in and out
2) pay a $300 to get it shipped up to him (he says he ships back free for work and warranty
3) THEN he charges you for parts, even if the parts broken are due to his warranty work. This could be $1000 plus or even more!

So, your "warranty" engine costs you $1000 mechanic, $1000 parts and $300 shipping.

Wow, $2300

I think his warranty is ONLY for labor.

That's good to know if you are thinking of doing stuff with Pineapple Racing. I see engines on Ebay used for sale for $1800 all the time. Hell, if your warranty engine dies then getting an Ebay engine will be cheaper than your warranty engine!

That's screwed up. Even the Ebay engines come with a 90 day.

Then again, you still have to extract and install... sigh... screw this... FD rx-7's are expensive as hell.

After I sold that FD I went and bought a 1999 Toyota SUV (forerunner)

It's got 92,000 miles on it and I bought it for LESS than I sold the FD for! I got it for $6,850

MY FD only had 68,400 miles on it when I sold it and it's now ready for it's THIRD engine!

My used Toyota? YOU KNOW this thing will run 250,000 miles if I just keep the oil changed. The engine is cheap, anyone can work on it, it's reliable.

Like I said at the beginning of this thread, if you're rich you buy a FERRARI!

The RX-7 is a mean trick. I loved that car but I will never make that mistake again. 2010 RX-7, 2003 RX-8... makes no differance. I just don't trust rotaries anymore.

BOTTOM LINE: Rob seems nice, but his warranty is for crap and as bad as I feel about not getting him his money in 2003 it does not justify him stealing from the girl I sold the car to.

Ahhh! done! No more RX-7's... they say the best two days of your life are the day you buy a boat and the day you sell a boat.

The RX-7 must be a boat.

stripling

Kiki, the girl I sold the car too, took a bunch of photos of the engine before her mechanic shipped it up to Pineapple. I was re-reading this thread and taked about the oil-pan leaking. Last month when I was checking out the car there was oil everywhere!

Turns out the oil pan that Pineapple Racing installed was bulletproof. Her husband (d'oh! she's saying it's her live-in boyfriend, my bad) over-filled the oil and it threw it all over the place.

So, oil-pan? Solid from pineapple. I think this whole thing was a waterseal/jacket fluke.

Ya know, I feels sorry about the mix up in '03 but this girl was in tears with me on the phone this morning. Bad form, from Rob at Pineapple in this respect... that's her engine now.

Kiki's email address is kiki.bernard@gmail.com if you have any advise for her. i don't have her boyfriend (or husband) contact info but any advise of a helpful nature i'm sure she'd appriciate. she was pretty upset on the phone.

also rob can be contacted at sales@pineappleracing.com if you wanna hit him with a letter. i'm gonna write him a letter and tell him about this phone conversation i had. or maybe i should just forget it. my wife says to just wash my hand of it. sigh...

stripling

okay, i put in her email address wrong...

it's kiki.bernards@gmail.com ....... i guess i forgot the "s"

cmanns

This thread is super confusing, what I gathered.

You had FD, you had it repaired by pinapple racing (The engine) and it ran bad for years.

You tookt he easy route out and sold the car, knowing it wasnt working great.

New buyer has issue

All i can say is when you sold is knowing it had issues, you should of changed your phone number and forgotten about those people...

dradon03

iTrader: (2)

For the price she paid it was robbery. A 95 not salvage, the price you sold it for is a blown engine terrible paint price.

Your being too hard on yourself and should just tell her tough at least she didn't pay it too expensive.

R-R-Rx7

iTrader: (24)

actually. it would be the same situation if you sold your car while it was on finance with the bank and the bank is after the new owner.
even 5 years from now you still owe the money to pineapple racing. Its their mistake too since they didnt let the cheque to clear and get the money first.

if shes fed up with it im offering to buy it the way it is now anyway

Supernaut

iTrader: (83)

What year is the 7?

stripling

Oh brother.

I wasn't gonna come back to this forum but Kiki, the current owner of my old FD, asked me to document on this thread the drama that's going on with she and Pineapple Racing.

Oh, by the way, Kiki is a singer at The Phantom of the Opera in Las Vegas at the Venisian Hotel (hope I spelled that right) as well as a student of fassion design. So if you're ever in Vegas you know which show to go to. She offered me free tickets for when me and my wife go back down to Vegas in October to visit family on my birthday. Woo hoo!

So, to answer your questions the car is a '93

She talked to me on the phone this afternoon and told me Rob at Pineapple is tearing down the engine now and will quote a price after damage is assessed. Now, you and I both know, good readers, that the ONLY thing damaged is the water jacket. Now, when I got the engine done the first time 5 plus years back Rob convinced me spending $100 on the water jacket was a great deal! Well, obviously NOT because it broke. The engine worked perfectly until it heats up and it heats up do to exhaust gasses being forced into the cooling system. I sold Kiki the car last April when it was cool in Vegas but as it heated up down ther the overheating problem grew and grew until she couldn't drive the thing anymore in the daytime.

Kiki wants me to document what Rob at Pineapple Racing's actions are. So far nothing good or bad. He hasn't quoted her anything so far but has only told her he's tearing it down to asses damage so he can quote her, like I said before.

Stay tuned for the bill. Will Rob be ethical or join me over here in the dark side?

Then again, I don't feel like I'm in the dark side, really. I didn't KNOW I had not paid Rob but what he's doing he's very aware of. So, let's hope Rob does the right thing and keeps it UNDER $1000 for repaires like he told me he would when he thought I was an owner in good standings but slightly out of warranty.

So, stay tuned for more. I'm gonna try and get Kiki to take over this thread. My wife says I'm just adding "coal to the fire".