After looking at a number of sites I came to this forum for the since it seems the people here know their $h!t and I was wondering if ya'll could help a 1st time buyer out by possibly answering my questions.I am looking to purchase a `93 Mazda rx-7 with twin turbo and I have some questions. The car is in remarkable shape, it was owned by an older man and it only has 75k miles as it has been garaged for the last three years and only been driven rarely during that time. The owner told me he went through the necessary arrangements to make his car ready to sale including a thorough checkup of the car. The car was in good condition, but they told him the compression was low and that he might have future engine problems. I was wondering what potential problems might awaken if I actually bought the car, and what could I do to impede the problems and about how much would it cost. I talked to some people but they said that it might possibly need a new oil pump, but recommended me to ask someone who knew more about this particular car. Any help would be welcome.

THANKS !

*Is there anything else I should look at in purchasing this car?

 

i would give u an answer but they tend to keep me in a cage aroun dhere

 

low compression means the apex seals are wearing out, it happens as the engine gets old. to restore some compression in the engine you can put ATF through the spark plug holes and it will eat up most of the carbon in the engine. worst scenario will be hot start problems and lack of power. a mazda reman engine can be had for $2000 + labor . it all depends how far you want to go with the car. if you plan on modifying the car you might as well rebuild the engine that's in there and have it street ported etc. if you have anymore questions let us know

 

If it's running on the original engine, chances are high that it will need replacement soon, especially if it has low compression. The twin turbo engines seem to have a maximum lifespan of about 110k miles, average being around 70-75k miles. Not sure exactly what a Mazda remanufactured engine replacement costs, but I have heard costs in the $5k range. Anyone else know more about this?



Another thing to check is if the exhaust smells like coolant when first started up cold, the engine may have bad coolant o-rings, which would ultimately result need an engine rebuild as well. A little smoking on startup is normal, but if it smokes a lot of white (burned coolant) smoke, I would consider the engine to be in trouble.



Boost pattern is fairly important as well. Check out Rob's site for more info on the expected turbo boost pattern.



Good places to look for more info are:

Rob Robinette site (Rob's site has a page called "Buying a Used RX-7 How To" which is pretty informative)

Steve Cirian site



Good luck with your purchase, they are amazing cars, you just have to expect and engine replacement sooner or later. If you can figure the cost of a new engine into your total cost for the car and still be ok with it, I'd say go for it. Maybe you can talk the seller down a little knowing this information...

 

well the guy said he would sell it no less than 10k so i would probably end up spending about a total of 15k-19k to get the car back up to conditions and more for the mods. So ima go bitch at the guy to reduce the price knowing this info and ya'll could gimme some ideas of what i could tell him for him to gimme the car cheaper !

 

No offense man, but if the car is in "remarkable shape" like you said it was... 10k is a pretty damn good price in my opinion. You could replace engine, $5k, and have a like new car for $15k, that would be a steal! The guy is a moron if he's willing to sell a running 3rd gen for any less than $12k.



You wanna give me the guy's phone number, I'll try to talk him down some for you.

 

$10k is pretty fair even if its gonna need a new engine soon !

 

if i had to do it over again i would have rebuilt my engine 1st then worry about any other mods