Batmobile80

Ok,

My name is Patrick and im posting this for my little brother.

He just got his first car...its a 1980 rx-7, its black, and every thing is in decent shape... He (well, my dad) paid 1700 bucks for it and they bought it from some guy at hiley mazda in arlington tx. Needless to say it needs some attention, it smokes pretty bad and has recently stopped running. (maybe starter solenoid?) Im a C- mechanic at best and as far as rotarys go im an F. He knows nothing about cars whatsoever and has a little problem getting motivated...(hence me posting and starting his account)

What I am looking for, is to see if there are any RX-7 owners in the Midlothian, Waxahachie, Red Oak, Maypearl, Mansfield Arlington, South Dallas area etc. that are willing to help us out getting it to be reliable. The only car he has ever showed any interest in is rx-7s (thanks vin diesel lol) and I love them too we just dont know anything about and my family's not exactly in the financial position to have it dropped off at marvalspeed (ive been doing some searching on this form) and have it rebuilt...even though im sure thats what it will come to.

I want to find something to get him out of the house and interested in things other than cheap autozone seat covers television. hes 18 and needs to make some friends that are into this kinda stuff. I love working on cars and I would like him to be the same way so if you live in the area please help!

Thanks for reading, I feel like im writing a personal ad lol.

oh and if anyone is interested Ive owned a
79 cadillac fleetwood brougham diesel
2000 S-10 6in drop and lots of goodies that succumbed to a car thief. (I hope those people rot in hell for all eternity)
and I currently own a 92 wrangler 4.0 manual 2.5in lift and MT baha 31s with more to come, that i just destroyed the transmission in 2 days after i bought it...

I think that pretty much covers every thing, so please help!

RX-7Tunner86

Well there alot of people around you i'm from venus,tx and theres like 4 or 5 of rx7 owners down here. What exactly is wrong with it?

Batmobile80

Thats what were not really sure about yet, I never had a chance to see it run myself, I live in San Marcos and came up for a weekend to help him fix it. When I got to Midlothian, My brother went to start it up to show me, and nothing happened, We pulled the battery, tried to jump start, tried to push start, I got underneath and tapped the starter, and all were getting is a click...All the accessories work fine, the lights flip up strong and the interior light comes on, The only thing I saw that makes me keep thinking its the battery is when the key is turned to RUN, the tach is maxed out. It doesnt flip up and settle back down to zero like i thought it should...thats all I know as far as the start up goes...

The smoking, Like i said I havent got to see it myself but from what my dad told me is that when the car is on for more than about 5 min, it starts to smoke, and overheat...Not steam smoke, its burning oil, and there is oil all over every part of the bottom of the car. Pops said he thinks its going through about a quart every 4-5 days when its running. My first thought was head gasket...and 3 seconds later i realized that there is no head gasket...because its a rotary...

Now, when they first test drove the car back in Feb. My dad said it wasnt burning oil, and that it ran fine, but all they did was a parking lot run and it was really cold that day...so im thinking the engine just didnt have time to get hot. There are two little hoses coming from the radiator that are not connected, there about the diameter as a spark plug wire, but there black and look like they are for water. (Not sure) but i still dont think that would have anything to do with it burning oil...

Im going to be going back up there this weekend after I pick up my jeep, so hopefully I can post some pics of everything that looks out of place then.
Thanks

Rogue_Wulff

Starter issue- check the battery cables. Especially the positive cable at the battery and starter. Everything except the starter draws power thru the smaller wire attached to the positive battery terminal. If that has no effect, have the starter tested, it may be bad.
Tach issue- The tach also acts as a volt meter when the key is on, engine not running. Once the engine starts, it *should* switch to tach mode.
The 2 small "hoses" on the rad, only thing I can think of is an auto trans cooler. This is a normal item to find in a replacement rad, even though it's only needed for auto trans cars.
Burning oil- all rotaries are desinged to burn oil. They inject oil into the intake system (carb, in this case, at the top should be 2 small hoses that look like vacuum hoses).
This should narrow down most of the issues, other than overheating. Until the starting issue is resolved, overheating isn't an issue. Once it will start, DO NOT let it overheat to the point steam starts pouring everywhere, or you will need to rebuild the engine. Thermostat and water pump are the places to start checking for the heating problem.

Batmobile80

Ok, So we have it started and running again...
The only problem, its smoking something furious...definitely burning TOO much oil...so what should I check for as far as that goes? Looks like its coming from maybe a seal near the front of the engine????

cpa7man

iTrader: (2)

Good advice from Rogue.
The smoke is oil for sure? Is it blueish or whiteish? Smell sweet?
Blueish = oil seal issues
whiteish and sweet smelling = coolant seal

Now it's somewhat normal for worn rotary engines to smoke on startup for a minute. The motors can still run like that, but will need a rebuild at some point. Does the smoking clear up after a while?

Rogue_Wulff

When you say "Smoking something furious", do you mean out the exhaust pipe, or from under the hood? I'm guessing you mean under hood, as you say it looks like a seal on front of the engine.
Smoking from the pipe, see above post.
Where, exactly, on the front? Behind the bottom pully, from the driver side lower front, ot passenger side? Oil can leak from any of those locations, but they have different causes.
Lower front drivers side could be from a loose or broken oil cooler hose. If this is the case, repair that before proceeding any further. All of the engine's oil supply goes thru the oil cooler, before lubricating the engine. Running the engine with an oil cooler line leaking will starve the engine of oil, not good.

Batmobile80

thanks for the help guys, I wont get to get my hands on it until this weekend, so I will post some more about it then.

While im down there if any of the guys on the forum want to lend a helping hand, or at least come by my house so my brother can see your cars or something that would be great...I know the weather has sucked there but like I said I really want him to get into working on his own car and the more he sees of other RX-7s I know the more he will get into it...

If anyone wants directions to my house or something just pm me and we can see if we cant meet up this weekend.

Batmobile80

alright, this is the brother, Rick, it's my car. my brother got to look at it tonight, the smoke is coming from the back of the engine, near the transmission. he is thinking that there might be oil leaking onto the exhaust, but we aren't sure. it's either that, or there is too much oil going through the carbuerator, causing it to burn more than it should, but i had already suggested that. i have a friend that has been teaching me about rotary engines, so im not completely ignorant, but could still use some help. any opinions on the afore mentioned problems?

Batmobile80

Bump!