HELP!!! MY 79 RX-7 ran without oil-locked up! What can I do???
 

I have a 79 RX-7 I bought and restored. Replaced almost everything, my dad put an oil cooler on it and didn't tighten the lines well enough and it lost all the oil and died. All oil was depleted from the engine. Since then we have put oil in it, used lithium grease to try and free it and it still has a bad knock! I am fairly new to mechanic work and have some help from my grandpa. I have heard to maybe use some lucas treatment and try to run it through to loosen the lifters. Any thoughts? This is my a labor of love and I have put several thousand into the car. Any advice or ideas I would appreciate. Just keep in mind that I am not super experienced. Thanks!

I will assume that you are being serious here ... so ...

welcome to the board. :)

good news:

1. you don't have to try to loosen the lifters on a '79 because there are none. as a matter of fact, there are no lifters, pistons, cams, rods or any such drivel on a '79 or any other Rx-7.

2. you have a rotary engine.


bad news:

1. your engine is hosed! you can pull yours apart and try to pick through the carnage and see if anything can be used, but personally, I don't see a point to it. just look for another engine. without lubrication, you've likely left nothing unscathed inside your current engine. just use this as a lesson and be careful next time around.

Alrighty, Thanks for the help, not exactly a mechanic, and my family has only worked on domestic cars... Do you know of any site I could go on to look for a new engine?

Your best bet would to gain some posts through reading the Rules at the Top of the Intro Section,Post up an Intro and make a couple replies,etc..
Then you can access the For Sale sections on this Forum and look in the Regional section( that pertains to your area) and cruise the Classifieds for a Used engine..or something "similar"..
I say that as there are doors open as to what you can do with the car when there is no engine in it.You can keep it stock or entertain a V8 Swap..(Did I just say that???)

new engine? hmmm ... the best you're going to do is "new-to-you"-engine. i'm not aware of remanufactured 12As being available. if I am mistaken someone will correct me, i'm sure.

as far as sites go, you're here. you just have to wait until you get enough legitimate posts before you can look through the Regional and Classifieds sections of the board.

my opinion on the best use of your time in the interim would be study the rotary engine and acquaint yourself. also read the stickies because they will basically give you "free" posts.


EDIT: misterstyx69 beat me to it. :)