I ran the car at Lime Rock a few weeks ago, and it was fine. I started it today just to let it warm up...and it was smoking out the exhaust like I have never seen it! It was white smoke, and the engine didn't sound too healthy. Sounded like it was running on one rotor. Then, after a few minutes, the smoke stopped and the engine sounded fine. Did I blow a seal at Lime Rock? My thinking is, a seal is bad...and once it warmed up it expanded and gave a proper seal...hence the smoke and poor running when it was cold. Am I right? I hope not!

 

white smoke? sounds like coolent to me.

 

It may have been was running on one rotor until the other one dried out enough to fire properly. You should be able to get a few more hours of use out of it. Soon it could either not start without changing plugs or overheat too fast and eventually start shooting coolant out the exhaust.

 

What would cause this?

 

May have run a little hot causing a plate to warp which unseated the o ring and allowed coolant to seap by. Or it's just an old rusty engine with bad seals

 

What plate? Sorry, I have never taken a rotary engine apart! I am about to however!

 

If the smoke is pure white, the seat between the coolant vanes in the housings and the combustion chamber is ruptured, allowing coolant into the "suck-bang-blow". Kind of like when you see a car fire at the track... it starts off black, and when they get it extinguished the smoke turns white. It could be something as easy as an intake gasket, but if a rotor is stuck I doubt that's the culprit. If you're not worried about doing a rebuild, I'd do it anyway, but you might pop the intake off and see if any of the gaskets/o-rings look bad. That's a lot easier and quicker than a rebuild, and if nothing is wrong there, you're already halfway towards pulling the engine out!

EDIT: Ben, if you see a checkered first gen RX-7 with the number 7, tell him I said hey. I painted that car.