wrathfirex

Hello everyone! Name's Azlin and I'm from South East Asia.

I just bought myself a very low mileage 8000km (approx. 5000miles) 1994 FD rx-7 bone stock except for aftermarket wheels. It has a blown shock in the rear and the interior has some minor tears and wear. However it starts up nicely every time. The owner is a collector and only bought it for display at his garage. Now its mine. Did I mention its automatic

I'm definitely going for the daily driver route and keeping it as reliable yet fun car with simple bolt ons. I have been ordering vacuum hoses, tein coilovers, new spark plugs and a better radiator.

My question is I'm worried about the seals of the engine. I mean most of its life its been parked. Besides the seals, what else should i check or look out for?

Thanks in advance!

diabolical1

iTrader: (3)

welcome to the board.

my advice would be if it ain't broke ....

if it starts up without drama, doesn't smoke and makes appropriate power, then you can't really expect much more from it. do common sense stuff: check rubber hoses for rot, change fluids, full tuneup, etc. keep strict maintenance and drive the bloody thing. enjoy it as it was meant to be enjoyed. 5000 original miles is practically a brand new engine.

however, if you're really going to lose sleep over the health of the seals, i suppose you could run a compression test or get a baseline dyno - just so you have numbers to quantify.

wrathfirex

Thanks for the reply!

Yeah I'm actually losing a lot of sleep. I never dared buying an rx-7 so many years ago when I was bit by the tuning bug. Especially when in my country they only import rx-7's.

But my mechanic friend said he can rebuild the engine. Now at first I thought rebuilt mean totally new engine with new internals and all that. But as I found out rotaries are not like piston engines and he calmly assured me that if seals are gone they can be replaced. Its just that you have to open the rotary motor to get to them that's all.

Anyway I will take your advice on the Dyno. Now to use the magic search button for whp of automatic FDs~

Sgtblue

iTrader: (16)

Why? If it were a piston engine would you be worrying about the rings? If the car has been parked for an extended period, I'd stick some quality fuel system cleaner in it, fresh tank of gas, replace the coolant and change ALL fluids..transmission, differential and brake fluids. Then make a point to drive it. If it's as you've described, it should be fun, not a source of indigestion. If it's not, or you're THAT paranoid about a rotary, you should have bought something else.
If it's ALL stock, get a good aftermarket temperature gauge in it. The stock gauge isn't linear and worthless. You need to be able to monitor temperatures and coolant seals have caused way more rebuilds than hard seal failure over the years. Those will fail quickly from overheating, so a gauge is essential.
A boost gauge is also recommended, and if it has a pre-cat, remove it and install a decent downpipe.
Take the time to READ through the 3rd Generation Section FAQ stickys.

wrathfirex

That's why after 14 years of motoring with pistons I've decided to try the rotary engine. Mind you only the RX-8 was locally sold; the rest of the previous rotaries FD, FC and 1st gen savanna were imported. So there aren't many rx-7's here and even less who know how to fix them. Most of us actually have to cross the border to our neighbouring country to rebuild the engine or buy a totally new one. As a perfectionist that really scares the daylights out of me

Thanks for the advice, I will definitely do as you recommend. I have been reading a lot but there is so much information! Trust me I had a look through my old Sports Compact Car magazine collection to check their project RX-7 just to bump up my knowledge. slowly 'm gaining confidence in the rotary.

Funny thing was, I was looking at some old Hot Version clips on the Rx-7 from youtube, in one of them they raced lightly tuned AWD cars VS. lightly tuned FDs. Both the Lancer AND wrx DNF, while the rest of the FD's carried on. Now that really made me chuckle.