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From: Frans van der Voorde on 28 Jun 2010 08:42
Hello,

I never owned a rotary engine car, but was always facinated by them.

Now I can buy a Mazda RX7 1.1 1979 87.000 km second owner, according to the
add, (of course), in excellent condition. Asking price Euro's 2.300.
Who can tell me what specific points we should give close attention to. I
understand this was the first year this model - with rotary engine - was
built.

I hope this newsgroup is the place to ask. If anyone knows a better place to
ask this question, please let me know.

Regards,

Frans


From: hls on 28 Jun 2010 09:16

"Frans van der Voorde" <voorde(a)chello.nl> wrote in message
news:2ef5f$4c289a5a$d4bb4a65$4931(a)news.chello.nl...
> Hello,
>
> I never owned a rotary engine car, but was always facinated by them.

I have owned one. I bought it for the fascination, and was disappointed.

They have some quirky characteristics about stopping the engine and
then restarting... If you do this, you may have to prime through the
spark plug hole before you can restart. I cant remember the exact
details. I finally sold mine to a racer who wanted to put a big Chevrolet
V8 into it.

Added to that the rather poor gas mileage and the unusual parts and
repair inconveniences, this is just an engine that presents more problems
to a person like me than it is worth.

There are many fans of this combination, but I am not one of them.

From: N8N on 28 Jun 2010 10:27
On Jun 28, 8:42 am, "Frans van der Voorde" <voo...(a)chello.nl> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I never owned a rotary engine car, but was always facinated by them.
>
> Now I can buy a Mazda RX7 1.1 1979 87.000 km second owner, according to the
> add, (of course), in excellent condition. Asking price Euro's 2.300.
> Who can tell me what specific points we should give close attention to. I
> understand this was the first year this model - with rotary engine - was
> built.
>
> I hope this newsgroup is the place to ask. If anyone knows a better place to
> ask this question, please let me know.
>
> Regards,
>
> Frans

I considered buying one years ago and I passed on it... one thing that
I was told that is hard starting is often a sign that the engine is
just slap wore out, and at least in my neck of the woods, there
weren't any shops that were recommended for rebuilding a rotary
engine. So if it doesn't start at the first twist of the key, you may
want to consider moving on.

nate
From: hls on 28 Jun 2010 11:23

"N8N" <njnagel(a)hotmail.com> wrote in message news:fa7f6ddb-3348-4661-9

I considered buying one years ago and I passed on it... one thing that
I was told that is hard starting is often a sign that the engine is
just slap wore out, and at least in my neck of the woods, there
weren't any shops that were recommended for rebuilding a rotary
engine. So if it doesn't start at the first twist of the key, you may
want to consider moving on.

nate
*******
Worn out is one issue, but there is, IIRC, a more common quirk that
leads to a no-start situation at times even with engines that are not in
that bad condition.

I cant trust my memory now to tell the exact story, but the OP or others
can google it and find a ton of information.
From: Tegger on 28 Jun 2010 18:55
"hls" <hls(a)nospam.nix> wrote in
news:gOednWKCH_tTPbXRnZ2dnUVZ_q6dnZ2d(a)giganews.com:

>
> "Frans van der Voorde" <voorde(a)chello.nl> wrote in message
> news:2ef5f$4c289a5a$d4bb4a65$4931(a)news.chello.nl...
>> Hello,
>>
>> I never owned a rotary engine car, but was always facinated by them.
>
> I have owned one. I bought it for the fascination, and was
> disappointed.
>
> They have some quirky characteristics about stopping the engine and
> then restarting... If you do this, you may have to prime through the
> spark plug hole before you can restart.



I owned a '74 RX-4 (early 13B) for two years, and I never once had that
happen. But I did once have a muffler explode once on shutdown. Plus the
exhaust was so awfully hot they gave you an exhaust-temp warning light
on the dash, with the sensor being under the trunk floor. Once, the pipe
did break, above the rear axle, which led to the rubber trunk mat
actually /melting/. I was grateful for the warning light.

The rotary does (or did) have a serious need to have the coolant level
remain proper at all times. Low coolant would set off a warning buzzer,
as low coolant would wreck the rotary.

The carbed rotaries also /needed/ to to be revved, and part of the
problems with the early ones was that people insisted on babying them
like reciprocating engines, which loaded-up the plugs (especially with
leaded gas) and caused other problems that I forget just now.

The thermal reactors on the pre-converter engines tended to crack from
the extreme heat, and I remember that the twin-pipe exhaust system (one
pipe exhaust, one pipe cooling-air) was dealer-only and was very
expensive.



> I cant remember the exact
> details. I finally sold mine to a racer who wanted to put a big
> Chevrolet V8 into it.
>
> Added to that the rather poor gas mileage



That is very true. I got 19 mpg. At best.



> and the unusual parts and
> repair inconveniences, this is just an engine that presents more
> problems to a person like me than it is worth.



The original engines were a real problem. They go maybe 80,000 miles,
then the jury's out whether they'll seize solid or not. Mine seized.
They did NOT just fail gradually, over a long period of time, like
reciprocating engines do.

My understanding is that they fixed most of the reliability and
durability problems by the mid-'80s, and recent rotaries will see over
200K without issues.




>
> There are many fans of this combination, but I am not one of them.
>
>


It was a wonderfully amazing engine in 1979, comparing it to
contemporary 4-cylinders. These days it's sort of unremarkable except
for its smoothness and novelty. I guess the primary selling point now is
its novelty and exclusivity.

For those who are OK with the foibles of the older engines, they're
really interesting engines to own.


--
Tegger


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