What should I do if the vehicle has sat over a year and never been started?

Asked by gonesailin06 Mar 18, 2008 at 03:42 PM about the 1989 Mazda RX-7

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

I was told to spray wd-40 or sae-30 motor oil in the spark plugs. Is that right?

12 Answers

if engine will turn over nothing buy new gas,fuelter,and change oil and filter and collent in raidor.

35

If engine doesnt turn over, charge battery and change spark plugs and clean the leads? expect alot of smoke to come out after its been there for one year.

35

Yes alittle bit of oil won't hurt, this way if any of the apex seals are seized this will help get the compression back and it will start alot easier. after it starts you will want to get new plugs, because the oil you put in there will foul them and hell it's been sitting a year.

2 people found this helpful.
45

Pull EGI fuse out. Take out the bottom plugs, put a little bit of tranny fluid in, turn over the motor for barely a second. Continue to do for at least a week until apex seals feel lubed. Then troubleshoot from there if it doesnt start right up. It will smoke a lot, but will clear soon

2 people found this helpful.
75

Well,after a long hybernation of your beloved RX7,you should put MYstery Oil up the carburetor if is 12A or if is 13B take the upper intake manifold and add at least 2 shot glasses per port.After that take all spark plugs that way you don 't have resistance due to compression,wait at least a feww days that way the oil does its magic and try to rotate the engine by hand if is possible.If doesn't move ,try a breaker bar very gently moving just a coule inches at a time and adding the mistery oil at the same time..

5 people found this helpful.
290

definatly change the oil ,fuel filter,check coolant,check for any mice nests in the intake ( more common then you might think) really want to go to town pull the plugs and put a couple ounces of risslone engine treatment in each cyl let it sit for a day. this will loosen up the piston rings from the cyl walls. turn it over with out the plugs installed. then reasemble and go

1 people found this helpful.
1,060

Once you get it started let it heat cycle, or in other words let the car run until the radiator fan comes on, this insures that your cooling system is doing it's job and allows the motor to clear itself out. Seeing as though it is an RX7 it will probably smoke for a little bit, or more so than a car with pistons.

235

That's the FC3S right? It's a 13B for sure, the steps above are correct, and you also have to make sure that the engine will not flood when trying to start it again. If you do happen to flood it (meaning too much fuel in the combustion chambers), grab a pair of long needle nose pliers and pinch the fuel line until it starts then release the line, of course thats for 13Bs without the fuel shutoff. Expect a lot of smoke (mostly blue, this is normal) on first startup, run it until it comes to it's normal operation temperature range, then you can shut it off from there.

4 people found this helpful.
335

For what my 2 sense are worth an RX7 should NEVER not be run for that long. For a normal car it is not a good idea... But for an rotary engine I would be really worried about it. There are several very small and very fragile seals and gaskets that go on the rotor. After a few years I would guess the motor may run for a day, week, or even a month... But I think those seals will fail and than you have no compression and then the motor is dead... I will have to be rebuilt. Also unlike a normal motor that can run for a while when a cylinder or even several of them loose compressoin, a rotary motor will be a giant paperweight real fast once the gaskets and seals fail...

1 people found this helpful.
75

i personally will recommend MMO (marvel Mystery Oil) or SeaFoam if you can get it, seafoam is better but costs a lot more, all you do is squirt a bit through the plug holes, manually spin the engine, repeat about 5-6 times let it sit overnight, repeat 2 times next day and try cranking it..... also check this forum out for all your mechanical needs. rx7club.com

2 people found this helpful.
10

I have a rx7 with 12a rotary and it has 10k miles on motor but has been sitting for 3 years motor has been rebuilt for about year before it sat what should I do to try to start it

1 people found this helpful.
5

i've asked a rotary specialist from a local mazda dealer, and he said something about removing the leading sparkplugs, putting some oil in (around one liter in total), crank the engine for 15 seconds, put the plugs back in, try and start it and if it does, let it warm up.. BUT, don't take my words for it, i dont remember the entire process, therefor, there are some steps missing, and even the ones i've mentioned might not be completely correct, i just remember him saying to take out some plugs (leading or trailing is what i don't rememeber) and how much oil (don't remember the exact quantity, but i think it was 1L total for both rotors combined), but i do know for a fact that he mentioned cranking the engine for 15 seconds (presumably while the plugs are removed, again i don't remember). the reason why i don't exactly remember is because i knew i couldn't remember it all, so i just held a few keypoints so when i'd see something including these steps (and a few more, being the ones i forgot), i'd know it's someone with the correct proceedure,and not just some know-it-all idiot saying things like "just start it and you're good to take off immideatly" etc. but back to the steps. these are to insure that the seals don't break due to the long time without running. again, don't take my words for it, look around and you might find the full proceedure. worst case scenario, try asking to yout local mazda dealer, maybe they have the answer, who knows....

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