Long time no post. Also, long time no running Rx-7. For those of you who may know I went down a rotor last summer as my car's engine reached a turning point in its life cycle. It is a 1987 Red 2 seat grey cloth interior. It was my first car and it is still in my ownership. Mazda's and more gave me an estimate for a rebuild on my engine for about $3,000. Being a wanna-b gear head I decided to take this project upon myself to replace the engine along side the guidance of a friend of mine who has worked on his own vehicles many times (none of which are rotary). At this time I worked at gamestop and this was my only means of transportation and source of income. I took a loan out through BECU for about $4000 and decided to get my project underway.

Mazda's and more wanted to rebuild my current engine and only really replace parts that needed replacing. Unsure of their reputation at the time I shied away from their offer. When the engine was taken apart at Atkins rotary to see if a rebuild was possible on it they found rotor damage as well as actual damage to the housings. I could have rebuilt from the 'good' parts left but fate had another twist in store for me.

Dan Atkins had an engine for me that was built that a client back out on so I picked that bad boy up at a bit of a discount. I have taken a rotary engine out before and put it in, so it wasn't a new process but with all projects snags get hit. Upon removal of my clutch I found it was virtually torn to bits when my throwout bearing literally got twisted into a deformed hunk of metal, quite impressive that I was still able to shift to the smallest extent as slippage was noted before it finally gave out at a stoplight a mere block from my work.

All is well in good, so I figured it was time for a new clutch. I loved that center-force but I found a good deal on a lighter flywheel clutch combo so I decided to do that as well. I refurbished the transmission just in case of any after damage as well as inspected how 'tight' it still was. Of course a new throwout bearing was ordered and a new bearing sleeve was inserted. Ready to get myself back on the road we hooked everything back up and tried for the gold. Nothing. We could not get the bastard to start and idle.

A few notes about my car. There are no emissions on it, I've traced and tracked every possible emission line a million times over. Block off plates are installed rather then flashing from ace hardware. Vac. leaks were eliminated and tweaking was done everywhere.

After fussing with many settings and configurations we finally got it to idle. However if you feathered the gas the engine would die out. If you quickly pressed the gas you could get it to maintain but if you let off the gas again it would choke out. Fuel pump was tested for psi delivery as well as function. New injectors were bought and installed. Air/fuel ratio was tweaked to no avail.

Depressed I took it to the one person whom I had any hope for. Jerry's little car shop. I had him give it a look over and a diagnose but he could not pin anything down that wouldn't begin to cost more then an average estimate. With a gamestop paycheck unable to afford a more complete job with no promise of a complete diagnosis. Defeated I returned the car home and tried taking apart the upper and lower manifolds hoping that possibly it slipped a gasket or something.

At a BBQ the forum had last year I tried seeking any advice I could from people, even had one or two people look at it with the same result of. Damned if I know. Horribly depressed I let the car sit there, out of money to work on it and out of will. Now give or take $4,000 in debit because of this little adventure. Many times it was advised I just rid myself of the car but I couldn't do it. The though alone of loosing it was making me cry. Finally my recently in service daily driver died.

It was a 93' Dodge Spirit. It belonged to my sister and had really no proper care taken of it. So there was underlaying heat damage to the engine. It was a blown head gasket. Taking it in to be resurfaced they found no less then seven cracks in the engine head. It tested well enough to hold if re-installed. Well, tests are just tests. It quickly blew and lost all power and function in driving.

Finally at the start of January of this year I bough a Kia. This would be my new commute car. I now work in a medical testing lab and am better off then I was before. Still seeing my RX-7 every day kills me inside. I feel like a horrible owner and I have so many feelings about this car. All the time, money that I put into it and yet I've still failed her. (Being even more in debt now because of the new kia)

This is where I stand now. I can't do this alone and I really want my baby back. Sure the car may be twenty years old, but it is still a thing of beauty at least to me. Nothing can replace your first and I know it wants to live again. I need your guys' help. Any repair shops that can take my case, any private individuals who are rotor-wizards under the hood, tips tricks or advice on things I haven't tried yet. Anything.

I've posted in the past asking for help, but never with such sincerity, honesty and humility.


Emails: Ril_Silver@comcast.net
RilSilver@gmail.com

Yahoo! Message: enigmatic_entropy

 

Get a 1st gen.

 

If you were in Tennessee I would help out.

Good luck. I hope people in your neck of the woods are a willing to help out as our guys are.

 

Well, I know how you feel. My RX-7 lost an engine at a point in life I couldnt afford it. Then, when I left it to come back the next day, it was stolen. When I recovered it later, it was stripped. To this day it has only had minor repairs done, it just sits, and I feel horrible about it. You at least had the drive to get the new engine, and do the other work. You're about 100 times better off than I am now.

As for getting it running, Ive never actually worked on a second gen, but a lot of the stuff is the same (obviously).

Do you have the whole intake hooked up properly with no cracks or leaks? Sometimes if you have a leak between that AFM and the throttle body its gonna get more air than it thinks, which could cause the poor running off idle. Have you checked the TPS sensor on the throttle body?

Sorry I cant be more help right now, but at least I tried, haha.

~T.J.

 

Can't swing a first gen, guess I like my car to have a big ***. What can I say?

 

Well where are you located at?, also you first need to do a compression test, otherwise your just wasting your time. If you have good compression, then you can trouble shoot. Start there.

 

yeah, a compresion test would be the first start. the best person i know of for diagnosing these cars and figuring out what is wrong would be Lopie at Import Auto down here in olympia area. He's a stand up guy that doesn't BS and knows rotaries like the back of his hand. He will be up front and tell you anything you ever wanted to know about these cars.
Import Auto Repair
Engine, Repairs
Lopie
(360) 753-5887
9611 Littlerock Rd. SW
Olympia, WA 98512

or the other person i would goto is Jeff at Jeffs automotive in puyalup. he knows these things also and is staight up too.

Jeffs Automotive
13815 Canyon Road East
Puyallup, WA 98373
(253).537.8075

give one a call and see for yourself. tell them allan or ketlman sent you.

wish i could give you some info, but those damn fuel injection cars puzzle me.

 

Hey Kettle-butt long time no see. Yeah I know about those two guys, i'd need to find some way to transport the car that far seeing as limping it that far would be an epic undertaking. I think chaining two cars together for that distance would also be a little wonky. So any idea on how to transport a car that far?

I don't know how to do a ghetto compression test, should I just leave that upto the pros who have those nice little machines to determine I didn't damn the engine?

 

im to far away to zip over and help, but in a few months i should have a weekend or 2 off if you still need help. maybe you should dump the whole FI crap, do a compression test and run a holley or weber on your fc.

isaac


p.s. you should post on nopistons as well, a lot of the local (wa) rotorheads are there instead.

 

what city do you live in?

 

ugg i hate jeff hes an ***, he does know his stuff though but watch what he charges ya, in my cases, too much. lopi is a good guy, last time i was there he had a kid workin for him, smart kid and he seemed pretty cool, he did some of the work for lopi.

 

Currently residing in Renton, wa. Yeah only gets worse the further south you go. Yeah I want to dump the FI stuff but I have to wait for my emissions stuff to be passed over by the state then i'll be taking it out on mother nature...and my wallet. Stupid liquid go prices.

 

well how about mountain peak. mark knows his stuff also. he's in emunclaw.

Mt. Peak Automotive
Repairs
Mark Moses
26806 SE 432nd st.
Enumclaw, WA 98022
Office: (360) 825-1170
Toll Free: (866) 825-1170
Cell: (253) 653-2323
mt_peak@msn.com

 

Thanks Kettleman, these links are are pretty helpful. I'll have to see what kind of time they have to play with such a strange issue as mine.

 

if you want to spring for a 1 day rental of a dolly or trailer from uhaul, i got no problem hooking on and pulling you that far... got 3 rigs that will pull a 7... pm me.

 

dollys are usually around 80 bux after tax for 24 hours, I have had to go that route brfore.

 

I don't know why I haven't mentioned him before, but my good friend Pat Boyle of Pats Autosport is in Auburn, WA. He is an excellent technician and is the chief mechanic and part-time driver of the reigning ICSCC RS Championship RX-7, owned by legendary driver Steve Pfeifer (former Winston West driver, multi-time RS champ, former Grand Am Cup driver, prototype driver at the Nurburgring, etc). In the Puget Sound region, that's who I would recommend to anyone needing diagnosis or service work.

http://patsautosport.com/page7.html

 

I've got a truck and a trailer, pm me.