flooding problems?

[REd88GTU]

so am few months ago i bought myself a 1988 (non-turbo) rx7, as a daily driver, and ive been having some issues recently.

my engine has had some trouble starting. it used to only happen when i didnt drive it very far in the cold weather, and usually it was only after the first drive of the day. it will crank, just not turn over. sometimes i just need to crank it once, and then wait a minute or two and try again and it will reluctantly turn on. the rest of the times i have to get it going fast enough to pop the clutch and then it will start and be fine as long as i dont turn it off again. this hadnt been happening more than once a week until yesterday when it did it 5 times. so im taking that as a sign to get it fixed as soon as possible (tax returns are great!). the first thing im going to try is replacing the spark plugs and if that doesn't work ill move on to something else.

so has this ever happened to anyone else? is this a typical rx7 thing? and if so can you tell me how to fix it?

thanks, and yes i realize im a rotary newb.

[Ranger]

VERY typical for RX-7s to flood, especially the 13Bs in FCs. Hate to say it but you may have some seals failing. If you can't get it unflooded, check out these pages for some tips:

http://www.rx7.com/tech/unflood-fc.html

http://www.rotaryresurrection.com/2ndgen/tech_fuel_cutoff_switch_unflooding.html

[REd88GTU]

thanks alot! it had occurred to me that the seals might be partially to blame, but im really not looking forward to dumping a whole bunch of money on a rebuild. lol

[Ranger]

Haha, I hear that...but the good news is, since most of your engine is fine, your rebuild shouldn't cost much. Around a grand I'd say, maybe $1500 at most. The seal kit is like $750. And once you do rebuild, it will last a long time if you treat it right. I would probably order a motor from somewhere like Atkins, Pineapple Racing, rotoryrebuildstore.net, etc. instead of having a shop build it here. However, I know a guy who is trying to get a shop going, he works on 13Bs a lot and he'd probably help you out for cheap. Especially since you would only need the seals replaced. How many miles are on your car?