53, 63, 58 ...

[elford_tim]

... appear to be my unlucky numbers today. For those who haven\'t guessed, these are the compression reading of the rear rotor in my Elford Turbo, done today at RoTechnicks. The front one was pronounced mostly OK at 85/80/86 but that doesn\'t help very much. The bit that\'s pissing me off a bit is that the engine in the car was fitted approximately 20k-25k ago by a reputable specialist.

Gack. You win some, you lose some.  Now all I need to find is two-grand-something for a rebuilt engine, unless someone here has a known good 12A that they\'d let me have for less. Arse and double Arse, especially because the rest of the car is in pretty decent nick - the mechanic thought it would be well worth sticking another engine in, but then again he wanted to sell me one...

Not a happy bunny tonight...

[Gman]

bad luck mate, surly there will be some 12a\'s kicking about somewhere?

[MikeLMR]

is the low compression causing any problems ? if not its not going to hurt anything if you run the car for a while. Just enjoy the car as it is and then change the engine when you can afford to do it or find another.

[elford_tim]

Yes and no. It still starts alright, but it doesn\'t really like to run while its cold, it starts coughing between 2.5k and 3k. It really didn\'t want to know this morning, took about five miles until it calmed down. If it\'s a bit warmer it\'s not too bad though, plus it now has a new airfilter, plugs/dizzie cap and rotor on and the timing\'s been corrected.

Once warmed up it pulls like a train - the mechanic was surprised how well it went even with the low compression. For the time being I\'ll drive it but I\'ll keep my eyes peeled for a good 12A, just in case something comes up.

That should give me enough time to sell my other classic car which in turn should raise enough money to pay for a large part of the engine rebuild. Trouble of course is that the option of a rebuilt engine appeals because that\'ll allow me to get some sneaky upgrades in...

Speaking of sneaky upgrades, can someone clue me in to the multitude of different tip seals Hurley seems to offer? Is there any benefit to go with anything but standard Mazda ones?

[mireck 12a]

Sorry to see these figures Tim,

Hopes she lasts long time enough to get a rebuild
You can check-out my Elford setup here :
http://www.rx7-service.nl/html/12a_turbo.html

click on "foto\'s" to see more pics (sorry no english translation.... yet )

[bill shurvinton]

If you catch it now, chances are you will not need new housings, which brings the cost of a rebuilt down. If you call Pip at WGT then he does sometimes have a used 12A on the shelf for 300-400 notes.

(And this is why my RX7 has been off the road a while, 80PSI on all faces. It would run for some time more, but could fail destructively and expensively).

[elford_tim]

Bill,
I can see that. Unfortunately it looks like the RX7 is suddenly my only working car, so unless I can get the daily runabout going in the next hour, I *have* to drive it for about 600 miles over the next couple of days. It\'s that, or a very pissed off girlfriend.  Who\'ll be pissed off anyway on account of me and yet another car...

Anyway, I\'ll probably feed it a bit of two-stroke oil to minimise the damage and hope for the best. Oh, and get a 0% credit card to pay for the engine if I blow it up...

Mireck,  I had been to your site before and admired the other cars but I hadn\'t seen that one before.  Inspirational :-). Fortunately my reading of Dutch is still good enough to decipher the text and I\'m impressed...

[Gman]

Good luck with the drive, i sometimes think we should all put in a tenner and buy a heap from ebay to loan to members when there cars go pop, I run my Rex as my main car at the mo and if it breaks i\'m up the creek without a paddle.  On the plus side of it being my main car my customers are quite impressed when i pull up at their offices.

[mireck 12a]

Tim,

We also have another Elford but that one is still sitting waiting for restauration, no nice picture page yet

[bill shurvinton]

know how you feel. I bought that 1st gen as my mail get abouter, then had to buy an old Golf whilst I got it fixed, which hasn\'t happened. The golf, at 196000 miles is still going strong.

Bill