New FC owner, Help!!!

Hello everyone, I just got my first RX7, an 89 GXL FC after wanting one for some time.... I got a pretty good deal on the car, and I got it delivered home, and I have a bit of a problem and I really need some help.

Ok, the battery was dead because it had sat for a year beforehand. So I had my freind help me charge it, we were able to crank it up pretty easily at first. We let it run for a bit... It seemed to run pretty well for the most part, I was very pleased... but when I hit the acceleration with a bit of pressure, I would hear a strange knocking noise, It didnt happen much at first, my friend thought it was missfiring. So he wanted me to continue to try to make the noise real quick, so I did, once or twice, And then the car shut off entirely.

We had a bit more trouble starting it after that, It would spin the fan, And barely try to start. So eventualy, my friend held the throttlebody all the way open, and had me try to start it, and it started after a few tries. But the knocking/clacking noise is quite a bit more common now.... And it will not idle right. If you leave it idling by itself for very long, it will shut off. I was able to get it to do one good run idling, but then after about 8 minutes, my friend pressed the throttlebody, and it shut off immediatly.

They seem to think that the knocking/clacking is most likely one of the apex seals having come off, or a rotor slapping around in there somehow... Now... Im really hoping thats not the case.... The car has 100,786 miles on it, and I was hoping not to have to rebuild the engine just yet!!

Im going tomarow to get a new battery, and a few things so I should hopefully be able to tell more, but If there was a rotor problem, the motor shouldent be running at all, and I should have a check engine light on, right? The car also has a bit of trouble redlining. I havent really tried to really rail on it, but If you press the pedal slowly, you can get farther with it than you can flooring it, also, If you floor it, it makes the knocking noises, where as, pressing it slowly, it doesent much, or at all. Please Help!!

if the engine wasnt blown when you bought it, chances are you did the job pretty well, it has sit for a year, oil meetering pump can be slower to get back to work after that time, its recomended to lube up the engine before starting it again, and run premix oil/gaz for a while. anyway, if you've pop a seal, to have it reving harder will do more damage to the engine itself, these are 500$ piece, and you could have damage the rotor, rotor housing, and both side housings.

first thing i'd do is get a compression tester, remove the check valve and take the compression.

then, id check for a new engine, lol

In the words of my generation...... DOH!

Well... Time to pull and rebuild, or pull and replace. Ill go do a compression test as soon as I have a second set of hands, to make sure.

Anyone know a good place to find one of the motors? Id like somthing inexpensive.... Or is it just a better Idea to pull and rebuild myself?

you should consider a T2 swap, turbo engines cost almost less than n/a


i'D do a compression test, then take the engine out of the car and open it to see how are the damage, then i'd check out whats blown and whats not, a rebuilt kit cost roughly 500$, if you can find cheap housings and stuff, consider doing it yourself, you might pay a used engine 500-700$