Rob x-7

Here is the story, it makes for a good read:



Few months back I see this ad for a RX7 convertible for sale, 61k miles, bad motor. I ask the guy what the problem with the motor is, and he tells me it would not start, he had it towed to a shop, they told him it had flooded due to low compression from a bad apex seal, charged him $400, got it running for him, and sent him on his way, never pushing a engine rebuild on the him.



Figuring I have a spare motor coming out of my vert to throw in there, I make the deal and get the car shipped from Illinois. The car is driven onto the transporter's trailer, transporter unloading the other cars at another stop is scared to shut the car off because he is told that the engine is "bad"



so he leaves it running for a hour or so, puts it back on the trailer, then drives to my house and unloads it, telling me "the guy you got the car from says the engine is bad, but I dunno whats bad on it, I had it idling for over a hour and it was fine"



I get the car and in the dark pull the plugs, hook up my compression tester and get 3 even bounces around 125 or so on each rotor. I notice right away the firing order is wrong, and when I go to pull the wires off to pull the plugs one of the trailing spark plug wires are limp in my hands at the boot, in other words, a bad wire.



I put the plugs back in, which were all the same heat range Nippon's, correct the firing order, then procede to drive up and down the neigboorhood beating the **** out of the car to see how it runs. Temp never goes about 1/3 or so, oil pressure stays around 30 at idle, going up to 50-60 in gear, the car performs like this for a good 20 minutes or so. I could not get the thing to miss a beat.



Fast forward to the next day, I take plugs out, put some MMO in, let it sit another 2 days, then put new NGK plugs, new wires, change the oil, air filter, and coolant.



Sold the car weeks ago and the new owner LOVES it, it drives perfect, runs perfect, passed NYS emissions with flying colors.



So how could so much go so wrong? was it bad diagnosis or them trying to get a engine out of the guy?

banzaitoyota

Maybe they just dont give a ****?

j9fd3s

lol i dunno, but ive seen that many times. its funny how people can find a vacuum leak on a ford but not on a rotary

Rob x-7

I even emailed the shop asking them what the problem with the car was, playing dumb like I didnt get it yet to see what they would say.

Jeff20B

I've got a similar story. My friend bought an '88 NA automatic for $100 that didn't run. It turned out to be flooded so we unflooded it and it fired right up. It had a small vacuum leak which he fixed and it also had a tranny fluid leak so he got a fluid filter kit, which contained a new gasket, and then it ran and drove great. He turned around and traded it for a $5000 professional pressure washer and some accesories.

vosko

i paid $500 for black S5 T2......alternator belt broke and it flooded....

phinsup

I think the "bad apex seal" response is just habit for most shops that don't want the work. Them not pushing an engine rebuild indicates they either have no interest in touching rotaries (and maybe don't know them) or they didn't want the work.



Who knows.

Rob x-7

they advertised on a RX7 forum at one time though, why advertise if you dont want rotory work?



why would a shop not want to rebuild a stock motor for stock car?

1revnrex

Simple they're Commies.