Im looking at buying an 89 rx7 it has just over 100k on it. When i went and looked at it the guy started it and it ran pretty rough and a little bit of smoke was coming from somewhere behind the engine. He told me it had a blown exhaust manifold gasket would that cause it to run poorly? If that could be the problem how hard
of a fix and how expensive would it be?

 

for one if you can post a video of it that can tell us if either the motor be blown or something else be wrong. Is it white smoke? Blue? Black? Need more info to kinda tell ya if that'd be worth it.

 

$500...yeah worth it
$5,000 no...not

 

well he is only asking 300 for it so its pretty cheap and the smoke wasn't coming out of the tailpipe it was just from behind the motor and it was white but very thin. there were no grinding sounds or anything like that. I will work on getting a video also any other info u can give me
on what to look for when i go look at it again would be extremely helpful seeing as i dont really know anything about rotary engines.

 

For 300 you can't go wrong!!!!

 

In general, a blown exhaust gasket would not cause the engine to run rough. It would also be easily recognizable by a significant ticking or hissing noise coming from around that area.

Any smoke would indicate a leaking fluid of some type probably hitting the hot exhaust manifold. Around there it could be coolant which would produce a kind of bitter tasting smoke. If it is actually coming from inside the engine and leaking out of the exhaust gasket, it could be anything from normal condensation to oil to coolant.

Ask if the cooling system ever needs to be "topped off".

 

Thank you for the info Aaron Cake and I will ask about that. Do you have any tip's on what I
can look for that might help me know why its not running well?

 

try to get a compression test done. always a must when buying any car IMO. should be hitting steady numbers and a good motor has at least 90psi on all faces. it its hitting irratic like 80, 30 ,10 its got a blown apex.

 

Alright i will do that thank you Red Rotor.

 

Aside from compression, it could be a lot of things.

Most common are vacuum leaks and bad injectors. An injector issue can easily mimic a blown engine.

 

ya vacuum leaks suck. a leaky injector can cause flooding too, making it a pain to start up. also if its a clean body with no dents or missing interior 300 is worth it with no engine at all!

 

Only worth it if the person purchasing has the time, money, talent and space to reassemble it.

 

If you are questioning whether or not you should buy it, the answer already is probably no.

 

ya if the engine happens to be shot and ur usually broke, ur better off lookin somewhere else and getting one with a good motor. also FYI s4 motors on average last longer and are more common. so that means its easier to get parts and they are cheaper!

 

$300? Say ionno would you take $200?

Then turn around and sell the car for $500 lol

Seriously any running car for $300 is worth it. Even just to practice doing donuts in then drive it off a cliff in a joy ride.