rotordogg

iTrader: (4)

Bought this nice little FB at the end of April and have been loving it. Even though the only time I spent driving it was the two hours home that day. My Dad and I have been tearing it down and cleaning/replacing parts to bring it back to its glory days.

I'm keeping a blog here: rx7rebirth.blogspot.com but for those of you who don't like lots of words, here are some pics.







It's hard to believe I drove this thing 65 miles with this radiator. With the fan and shroud on, I couldn't see the bottom and had no idea it was this bad.








As I rebuilt the carb I found the choke plate AND the secondary butterflies were rusted shut. There was also a fine silt like puddle at the bottom of each float bowl.






Engine out, de-greased and pressure washed.

rotordogg

iTrader: (4)

Here are a few more pics...

The engine after using a wire brush wheel over the entire surface.



The engine after two coats of cast aluminum engine paint.



The engine bay after powerwashing.

Kentetsu

Nice work man. Nice to see another one of these badboys being brought back to life.








.

Boriquaguerrero

iTrader: (18)

Nice!!!!

82transam

iTrader: (18)

Body looks to be in very good shape! Nice work on the engine bay cleanup, how is the interior?

rotordogg

iTrader: (4)

Thanks all. As much fun as it is to fix it up, I really wish I could be done working on it and just driving it.

The interior is decent with the exception that it is Burgundy and the dashboard has a huge crack in it. I haven't done a carfax yet but from the amount of sun damage to the dash and the lack of rust on the body I would guess it came from somewhere in the south.

mazdaverx713b

iTrader: (91)

the car looks great! nice to see another ohioan here! whats the history on the car?

if you are anywhere near northern ohio, i have a near complete 81-83 burgandy interior. so if you need parts shoot me a message.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

yeah whats the story on the car? it looks like its been sitting, lots of surface rust.... ive NEVER seen a radiator that bad either!

but the paint and body look quite nice

Jibaro 12A

iTrader: (8)

Looking very good! Im tackling a similar project myself, in a attempt to drive down to Sevenstock.

rotordogg

iTrader: (4)

Thanks Mazdaverx, I am in Fairport Harbor, about 25 minutes northeast of Cleveland. I might just have to PM you about a few small items. I've been reading your posts and you seem to have done a TON of these rebuilds, so I might have to ask a few questions as well. Hope you don't mind.

j9fd3s, I don't really know. I picked it up from a guy near Akron/Canton who said he traded a motorcycle for it a week before I bought it from him. I think it might have been the car that used to belong to a member on here, bd83fb, but I PM'd him asking about the car and never heard back.

The light surface rust on everything in the engine bay definitely suggests it was sitting for some time. Perhaps in a humid environment? I don't know.

Eventually I'll get around to a carfax and see if I can find anything.

Thanks Jibaro, I would love to make it to Sevenstock. My wife doesn't want to spend two days driving to California in an RX7. If you make it, take lots of pics and post them for me.

mazdaverx713b

iTrader: (91)

feel free to ask me any questiosn you can think of. i love these cars and i love restoring them. my wife thinks i'm crazy but it keeps me sane...i'm 45 mins west of cleveland so you're not much more than an hour away from me. i live in a town that literally butts up to lake erie, so i'm as for north centeral as you can get.

rotordogg

iTrader: (4)

So I begged my wife for 3 days and $500 to finish my car. She agreed and my dad and I spent all weekend working on the car. We got the entire thing put back together with no extra bolts!

We pushed the car out of the garage and I pumped the pedal a couple times, pulled the choke out and cranked it. Nothing. Dad sprayed some starter fluid into the carb and I tried again. Nothing. Then, as I was cranking, I stomped the pedal to the ground and BANG! She was running!

That is the good news. The bad news is she will only run if I keep the rpm's at 2000 or higher and it isn't very smooth. And she won't start, even warmed up, unless I have the pedal to the floor.

So, I have another week of diagnosing the issue and getting it to run properly. If anyone has anything I should look for, let me know. Here is what I have checked:

Float Bowls are 1/2 full
Spark to all 4 plugs is good.
Fuel pressure is good.
Carb was rebuilt by me, maybe something I missed inside?
I turned the pulley to the yellow mark, lined up the dot and shaft on the dizzy and dropper her in...the rotor points to L1. So I think I did that right.

I am going to get a timing light tomorrow and make sure it is correct, only thing is I will have to check it at 2000 rpm's. Will that throw me off?

All in all I am pretty happy. At least I know it will run.

74RX4

iTrader: (10)

Your symptoms could be caused by a good sized vacuum leak. This hose can cause a fairly large vacuum leak if it is damaged. https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generation-specific-1979-1985-18/hose-question-750125/

mazdaverx713b

iTrader: (91)

you must check the timing at idle and have the engine fully warmed up.

rotordogg

iTrader: (4)

Thanks Dave, so does that mean any attempts to adjust timing at 2K rpm are futile?

74RX4, I think you found the answer. I did the Rats Nest Removal and took off the ACV so that hose is gone. I don't think I ever capped that hole! I'll check tonight after work and let you know.

Thanks guys!

dantheman

iTrader: (4)

Yes, adjusting the timing at 2k is not going to work.

Nice buildup btw!

rotordogg

iTrader: (4)

Thanks Dan! I should get some more pics and video up soon.

Dad and I got to put a few more hours in tonight.

Yep, that hole on the intake manifold was open. We plugged it and she started a LOT easier and once she was warm she would idle at 1100 rpms! It still popped a little and the idle wasn't very smooth. And as soon as the idle dropped below 1100 it died.


I didn't get a chance to hook up a timing light but as Dan and Dave mentioned, timing wouldn't do any good with a high idle. Any chance 1100 rpms would at least get me closer with a timing light?

I double checked all the hoses, and since we removed the rats nest, there isn't much to check. So I think I have ruled out any more vacuum leaks. The only two things that could be causing this is the carb and the timing.

On the carb, the only two adjustment screws are the mixture and the idle, correct? And the idle screw only pushes on the linkage, correct? I will check the FSM tonight but is there a general procedure to tuning a carb?

Thanks again for everyone's input!

vipernicus42

iTrader: (4)

1100 should be close enough to at least let you know if you were off by a notch on the distributor when you re-inserted it. My bet is still a vacuum leak / carb issue. It took me forever to track down all the crazy issues that kept my idle up when I first started working on mine.

If you can find anyone in your area with a running FB you could see if you can convince them to let you swap carbs with them for troubleshooting to tell you if it's the carb or something else. Otherwise it's time to go over the whole vacuum system with a fine toothed comb to figure out what's going on there.

If it's stable at 1100rpm, you could try just running a few tanks of clean gas through it like that with some Seafoam or other carb cleaner and see if that makes your idle smooth out enough to lower it.

Start with the timing though, definitely. It's WAY too easy to get that distributor off by a notch.

Jon

vipernicus42

iTrader: (4)

I haven't seen any pics of what things look like now that you've got the engine back in. Have you done a rat's nest removal? I would assume so, since you have no cats, but if not then that would be an easy way to track down vacuum leaks.

If you "start at the engine" and work your way up looking for any source of vacuum leak you'll be sure not to miss any.

On the intake manifold you've got the Air Control Valve (or preferably a block-off plate), the Anti-afterburn Valve tube (or preferably a bolt and some JB Weld), that tube with the two 10mm nuts that would go to the cats (or a block-off-plate), and that random vacuum nipple that's always capped off on pretty much every stock car over on the driver's side at the bottom. Oh, and the shutter valve if you haven't removed yours and blocked off all the appropriate spots.

Then there's the carb spacer. You can use those little rubber caps to block off everything except the 2nd from the front which then runs to the vacuum advance pots on your distributor using a "T".

There are a few on the carb itself depending on what you removed or left in place.

Take pictures of your carb, intake manifold, and rat's nest area for us.

Jon

vipernicus42

iTrader: (4)

Oh, and other things that messed up my idle:

- Leak at the intake manifold gasket
- Throttle cable too tight
- Piece of throttle linkage getting caught on carb spacer plate
- Improperly hooked up vacuum advance

Good luck,

Jon

Glazedham42

iTrader: (4)

Jon,

Where do you have your vacuum advance hooked up? Just curious. I usually run mine to one of the front two nipples on the black carb spacer.

Jamie

Kentetsu

Sterling's writeup on how to set the idle speed and mixture might help a lot: http://sterlingmetalworks.com/tuning_the_nikki.htm

vipernicus42

iTrader: (4)

2nd from the front for me. As per the original tutorial by Rx7Carl, verified by tracing the vacuum diagram in the Heynes manual. There was a big debate at some point about which one to go into, with some very compelling arguments for other spots, but I didn't spend enough time looking into it to really make an educated decision about whether to change mine. It was running fine with decent mileage (for an FB) and good power so I didn't mess with it.

Jon

rotordogg

iTrader: (4)

I double checked every hose and tightened every bolt. If there is a vacuum leak it would have to be internal. I noticed the 4 bolts that hold the air horn on took a good full turn until tight so maybe that was causing a problem? In any case, I double checked the dizzy and noticed the trailing plugs were firing at the same time as the leading plugs, so I loosened the screw and set them to 20 degrees atdc.

Then I followed Sterling's steps to setting the idle but it wasn't working. I ended up turning the mixture screw counterclockwise to raise the ide as I let out the idle adjustment screw. Doing this I was able to get the idle to a perfect 750. But again, I am pretty sure sterling said to turn the mixture screw clockwise. I guess this means I am probably running a little richer than I should be.

At this point I am just happy she is running and idleing. Now I just need to finish the exhaust so I can drive her. Trying to custom bend a 2.5" pipe over the rear axle is proving to be nearly impossible.

Thanks again for everyone's help!

Jibaro 12A

iTrader: (8)

Will do. It took me some time but I finally convinced her to go. If push comes to shove I'll drive there solo. Your making really fast progress, can't wait to see how she turns out...