Hey guys. My neighbor has an Rx7 sitting in his front yard. It's pretty beat, but I was thinking of turning it into a project car and restore the body. For starters; I am not new to turning wrenches, but to be completely honest I know nothing about rotary engine cars. I have/had a couple good builds. One being a 200sx SE-R (previous) and currently a 1993 Saturn SC2. My other is my DD which is a chevy malibu.

On to the 7. It looks like it is a 1990 Turbo II. The engine looks like it's been sitting for a while. The belts are cracked, you can just see some age in the motor in general. I didn't see any apparent leaks or anything, but that doesn't mean there aren't, I didn't really get the best look at it. The owner wasn't there to show me the car but the hood was open so I took a peek. It's a five speed, all the windows are fine. There is no radio or heater controls (not a big issue), the inner door panel was removed but sitting in the car. The tires are dry rotting but not completely deflated. There is a slight bit of rust on the trunk under the spoiler, the fender also has a bit from were someone hit something and slightly bent the fender.

All in all... it needs work. Since I'm not pressed for a car, I have some time. I'll get some pictures so you guys can give me an idea of what its worth. I figure anything under 300 is reasonable. Really, 100-150 sounds nice to me if the motor is no good.

I'm sure the Apex seals are probably shot and need to be replaced. So here is my question for all of you. Roughly, are parts decently priced, meaning would you say they are fair or outrageous? Is it hard to replace the Apex seals, several people have told me it's not worth the work... but they don't own an Rx7 so maybe they don't know ****.

If you have any how-to threads or general reading information that I could benefit from, feel free to tag that along.

Thanks guys, and I hope I'll be able to join you as an Rx7 owner.

 

See the FAQ for detailed How To Buy links.

There is no reason to assume that the apex seals are bad. It is possible, maybe even likely, but may not be the case. Generally it is the engine block itself that is the most reliable part of these cars.

As for parts, you will spend a bit more then is typical, but not outrageously so. You will spend a lot more in gaskets and seals for a rebuild but you will then save that money in machine work. Unlike a piston engine, the parts of the rotary don't wear in odd ways.

 

Yeah I saw a water seal kit for 175 or so. Is that a good buy? I also saw 2mm apex seals; all 9 for 67.00.

How can I diagnose the apex seals? Is there a differnce in thickness as to reliability?

 

I checked the Faq at the top of the page but when I searched buying all I got was a bunch of 'buyer beware' things for buying from the classifieds section... lol

I was wondering if there was a pre-made checklist for when buying a 13b 2nd gen. I know how to basically do an overall check, but I don't know what typically goes bad with them.

First I need to find out if the damn thing even turns over.

 

One of my co-workers (who is a VW master tech) used to work for Mazda back in the day. He just informed me that these cars have an incredibly hard time passing emissions because they run too rich? Is that true? And the cats are junk. Something about filling them with little pellets.

I don't want to buy something that I cannot fix up and put on the road. MD's emission inspection is pretty hard. They failed my saturn once and it has a high flow cat. The re-did the test right away and it passed the second time.

I talked to the owner. He said to make him an offer and that he still had the title. Originally, they were going to race the car. He says it didn't start because the battery died and then he got really hard to understand (thick accent). So I'm gonna try to get this puppy to start up tonight and try to drive it a bit.

I'm pretty sure it won't start based on the condition it's in (from looks), but I've been surprised before.

 

How long ago was "Back in the day"

It's not hard to get these engines to pass emissions. The combustion temps don't get nearly hot enough to burn nitrogen, so NOx is not a problem.

Lean it out and make sure the catalytic converters are good and it's a done deal.


I hauled my GXL out of someone's yard after sitting for a few years and she fired right up after charging the battery and a change of fluids...

I hauled a 1988 Turbo out from behind a clueless dealer's storage lot from sitting a few years with leaky injectors. I originally thought the engine was blown as it had little to no compression. It needed a long while of cranking (And the timing set properly, and a good bit of oil in the combustion chamber.) but eventually fired up and had 90 PSI on all faces.

(Both cars were $250 a piece)

Where at in Maryland are you?

 

I don't know how to lean it out with out a SAFC. I live near olney MD right outside of Gaithersburg in Montgomery county, but I work in Bethesda. I really just don't have a lot of money to dump into the car. It would really be a project car with no intentions of getting it on the road soon. It would be nice if I had someone with experience come with me, but I don't know anyone and my friend that did work on them, doesn't really approve of me buying it unless I have money to fix it.

I would need to find a place to store it as well. Possibly my sister's but I don't know. She has a garage, so I was going to put it on stands and tear it down little at a time and take my time to rebuild it. But I don't want it to be a 3 year project. That's why I asked how reasonable are normal items (things that always need to be replaced).

Basically, I support my fiance and dog on my paycheck. I don't have health insurance yet, but I could afford it. So there are other things I need to get in order first, but I don't want to pass an opportunity on a car that I have always wanted to own. Preferably a 3rd gen, but I won't be picky.

 

You could do some more research on the internet before making a decision.
Aaron's site and fc3spro.com are really informative in regards to the 2nd generation RX-7. My suggestion would be to check those out first.

In regards to rebuilding and working on it as a project car.
Parts are not extermely difficult to find in my understanding, since there are many people who are looking to get rid of stuff sitting in their garage, or parts that were replaced from new parts being put on.
Nonetheless, it's best to construct a budget list on how much you could afford....
for example, how much money could you put into this project every 3 months? 6 months?

Rotary engine is just different from the piston engine, those who say it's not worth it.... I would assume that they know little about rotary engines.
Many rotary specialist have said that rotary are high durable, it is just very sensitive towards bad maintainence.

For passing emission.... one of my friend told me the car should be driven for a little while(15~30min) before taking it to the emission test.
The engine needs to be warmed up to proper level to ensure full combustion with in the chamber, otherwise the gas and oil injected into the chamber are not combusted fully, it would not pass emission test.(Correct me if I'm wrong)

Rotary's are great, even though there are misconceptions from many people, even though it's very sensitive.... but doesn't every car deserve the proper care and maintainence from its owner, regardless of what engine it has?

Anyhow, good luck with it!

 

Yeah, I'm just getting cold feet and a ton of second thoughts. I guess it all comes down to; how much and where am I going to put it?

I'll find out the price and I'll post some pics of it tomorrow. If it's unreasonable, then I will not be returning and I thank you guys for your help.