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1987 Mazda rx7 Turbo with 141k miles. REMEMBER IT IS A TOY!! I want to fix up later but I want something to last at least 10k miles.
OK i showed up a little early at this guys house, it was dark outside but like I said I have already looked at the car in the day.
Engine was cold. I checked the fluid levels and antifreeze and motor oil were on the marks (no brainer) I checked the sides of the engine and it seemed to have just the beginings of some sort of goooie sealant ozzing out but so slightly. Ive seen pictures of rotary engines with more gooie oooze which were on recently blown engines (Much worse in picture) meaning this is just a first sign. I could not even pick up any oooze with my finger because there was so little.
So the car started right up, I listened as it seemed to build up a little compression before actually firing, started in about 3-4 seconds. It idled at around 1700 rpm and the owner seemed to kind of rev it just a little to keep the rpms up but it didnt seem to be skipping, I think it might have wanted to stall if he didnt give it just a little effort, but he didnt like race it. Maybe he tapped the throttle like 3 times
After about 10 seconds of begining to run the owner stepped out of the car and it idled OK i guess for about 10 minutes before i test drove. There seemed to be a slight bit of sputtering at random times but never constant. He explained that there was old fuel and in need of a tuneup (2 years ago it was done) and thats exactly what it seemed like to me. Car warmed up to about 1/4 the way up the scale, owner explained that during summer it usually runs at about half way up. By the way, rich smell of fuel out the back and no smoke or smell of oil. He said car uses 1q per 3000 miles. When I reved the engine to 3k I could feel vibration but it was pretty much smooth, engine had a slight visual shimmy of maybe 1-5 millimeters under the hood at idle, i dont know about when it reved. Also idle seems to waver between 700 and 1000 but never wanted to stall.
THE TEST DRIVE (and Exhaust leak)
The car is most definately faster than my ng900 turbo, at least below about 4000 rpms. the ride seemedvery rough but shocks seem good, handeling was as good as bald tires can do, still better than saab. All electronics seemed to work, NO POWER STEARING?????
Accelerating: 1st gear no tire screach but moving pretty good until about 4k, exhaust leak is in front of cats and got very loud, I suspect a good loss of power. Turbo spooled up ok, spoolup slower than my saab but thats not surprising. RX7 has awsome amount of torque, suprised on how hard it actually pulled at 25mph in 5th gear (1300 rpms, floored). I am not concerned with the exhaust leak at this point cause I wanna fix this car up.
To be honest the car seemed to pull as fast as my buddy's slightly modified 1993 5.0 mustang (he has gears and intake and no cats w/ flowmaster) but only until about 4000 rpm, then it felt like my stock saab! No offense!!!!! Im wondering if the turbo has coaked bearing or does backpressure have a lot to do with engine performance/turbo spool up. Clutch seemed high but grabbed perfect, he said it was new, tranny was notchy much like a mustang but synchros were good (no grinding or nonsense). Transaxle seemed a little sloppy but maybe I am not used to rear wheel drive.
I put a deposit on this car and he is going to hold it for me until Nov 1st, so let me know what the heck you guys think please!!!!!
posted by 207.251.21...
, Mon, 22 Oct 2001 16:06:56, Sun, 21 Oct 2001 19:26:07
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