1st Generation Specific (1979-1985) 1979-1985 Discussion including performance modifications and technical support sections

Hello new to rotary

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Old 11-29-16, 03:05 PM
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Exclamation Hello new to rotary

Hello All,

I am new rotary and I have been having a hard time troubleshooting. I have a Datsun 510 with a 13B that is ported and running a holly carb. The car was running fine, until it overheated. Luckily, I was near my home and was able to cool it down with a water hose before it shut down.

Since then, I have not been able to get the car started. I changed the oil and found no water or coolant. After a few minutes of trying to get it started without luck, I noticed a ton of gas pouring out from the muffler. I think I am not getting a good spark. I have tested the coils and both test good. I pulled the plug wires and ground it and I see a spark.

Also, can someone tell me if this would be the correct way to wire up MSD coils?



Old 11-29-16, 07:52 PM
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Sounds flooded & like you have a bad water jacket. tough luck :/

take your gas line of the carb, turn the engine over for a bit to try to de-flood it

once your sure it's dry (empty), you can put your gas line back on and try to fire it up.
If you have spark, it should start... maybe check your timing too.
def sounds like water jacket failure though, causing water/coolant to get into your engine where it doesn't belong and getting burned off and/or assisting in the flooding issue.
Old 11-29-16, 08:10 PM
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Water and oil don't ever come into contact with one another as they do at the head gasket like on a piston engine.

Are you sure its gasoline coming from the tail pipe? could it be water? The cooling system does quite often fail near the combustion chambers. When it does, the area that combustion takes place can fill up with water. Then the water (coolant) will get forced out of the engine through the exhaust.

You've got it wired proper, but there is no need for ballasts on an electronic ignition. Those were used for the points system. The electronic ignition can run at 12 or more volts.

EDIT: wait something is fishy with your diagram. You should have 12VDC+ at both coils when the ignition is turned on.


Got a pic of the Datsun?

Last edited by Qingdao; 11-29-16 at 08:12 PM.
Old 11-30-16, 09:26 AM
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Thank you very much for the reply Sh00bs and Qingdao. From what I can tell its gas coming from the tailpipe. Once I am done trying to turn it on, my garage sell really bad. I could check the radiator to see if I have lost any coolant. Right?

If it is water and its a bad water jacket, what would be the cost to repair it?


Qingdao: wait something is fishy with your diagram. You should have 12VDC+ at both coils when the ignition is turned on.

So should it look like this?



Here is a pic of the datsun.


Old 11-30-16, 11:49 AM
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Real nice car.

Both coils have to have power. And if you are running J-109's you don't need ballasts.
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Old 11-30-16, 02:20 PM
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Qingdao,

Something like this?


Old 11-30-16, 03:59 PM
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that looks correct but I'd feel better if one of the expert wire people one here gave it a checking.
Old 11-30-16, 04:06 PM
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Originally Posted by Qingdao
that looks correct but I'd feel better if one of the expert wire people one here gave it a checking.

EXPERTS>>> please chime in.
Old 11-30-16, 08:20 PM
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Well run it that way... worst case it doesn't work and blows a fuse.
Old 11-30-16, 09:17 PM
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If it is water in the tail pipe and its a bad water jacket, what would be the cost to repair it?
what would be needed to fix it?
Old 11-30-16, 09:36 PM
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Depends on how bad the damage after it got hot.

I personally don't like to re-use apex seals. So I typically just plan on a new set at a minimum. Also you'll need a gasket set. Fel-pro makes a complete set of good quality oe style water jacket gaskets.


Getting someone to do it for you; now that's the cost. I don't know who rebuilds rotarys.
Old 11-30-16, 09:44 PM
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ball park repair cost?
Old 11-30-16, 11:04 PM
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I think Rotary Resurrection does them for $3k??? I don't know if he's still around. I bought a few rebuild parts from him a few times.

I know for a fact Atkins does rebuilds. How much... Dunno, check out their website. I do use their apex seals. Cheap and they break in quick so you can rebuild and get on with your life. I wanna say their rebuilds are like 4 or 5k??? Shipping is extra... I think.

Same for Mazdatrix. Mazdatrix is also really good at having strange rotary related parts that you can't find else where. Like piolet bearing grease seals (can you believe my local Mazda dealer didn't have one in stock?!?) Once again 4 or 5k but I'd guess maybe they are more than Atkins.



I took one look at rebuild costs when I got in the rotary game and said F&$K that I'll do it myself and screw up a whole bunch first.... then I won't have to pay jack the next time I need to do it. Worked out ok for me.

Last edited by Qingdao; 11-30-16 at 11:13 PM. Reason: prices?
Old 12-01-16, 09:31 AM
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Funny that an engine that you could pickup in the junkyards for $200-300 cost so much to rebuild. DAMN>>>>
Old 12-01-16, 10:23 AM
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How much do Mercedes Benz diesel fuel pumps cost from a junkyard? How much do they cost in working order? Same thing.

If its specialized or hard to rebuild or the parts are just freaky expensive the rebuilt one will cost much more than the pig in the poke.

There are plenty of good 6 port FC engines out there. Lots of people in the FC world throw them away for like $300-400 because you can't boost too hard on the higher compression N/A engine. You might want to look down that road.
Old 12-02-16, 07:50 AM
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That last wiring diagram looks correct to me. You may want to add a relay between the battery
and the + to the rest of the system to take the load off the harness. Other than that looks good.

Rebuilding a rotary is much simpler than a piston engine. The soft seal kits are $100.00 - $200.00. You have to open it up to see what, if any new hard seals you need. A complete soft
seal and hard seal kit will run about $1000.00 or more depending on your source. Quite often
you can get away with just the soft seal on a rebuild but YMMV. Literally. LOL!

If you need new housings or sides then the costs goes up a lot. This is why the shops charge
so much, they don't know or care what condition the core is in and they don't do this unless
they make money. Plus most places stand behind their work, so that costs as well.
Old 12-02-16, 09:17 AM
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Thank you all who replied... I'll proceed with wiring via the last pic and added a relay as you suggested t_g_farrell.

Hopefully, I can get it started over the weekend.
Old 12-04-16, 09:48 AM
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as for the water jackets, there's the right way to fix (rebuild) or the cheap temp way. I have a couple PR friends here in MD that have this stuff they swear by... pour it into the radiator and it'll repair/fix your water jacket so it stops leaking coolant into the engine. Now I don't recommend this but times are tough and repairs cost a good bit of coin if you don't do it yourself so I get it. if interested lmk and i'll find the name of the stuff and post a link
Old 12-04-16, 05:52 PM
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Originally Posted by Sh00bs
as for the water jackets, there's the right way to fix (rebuild) or the cheap temp way. I have a couple PR friends here in MD that have this stuff they swear by... pour it into the radiator and it'll repair/fix your water jacket so it stops leaking coolant into the engine. Now I don't recommend this but times are tough and repairs cost a good bit of coin if you don't do it yourself so I get it. if interested lmk and i'll find the name of the stuff and post a link
You might be thinking of AlumaSeal (?)

Link to a discussion on lots of white smoke and water coming out the exhaust:
https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...aseal-1076256/

But the engine needs to be running.
Old 12-08-16, 10:12 PM
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Welcome to the dark side... we have Doritos.




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