1985 RX-7 needing some TLC.. Vac Leak?
 

My friend just got a 1985 RX-7 from a guy down the road who was moving. Car starts, runs and drives, but once started, the gas must be pushed in a little to keep the car from stalling. My friend's dad who works at the honda dealership said most likely it was a vac leak. I asked another guy i know who used to have an 83, carburated? and he said he sold his cuz it had the same problem and the guy he sold it to brought it back 5 mins later all fixed- solution was a lose vac hose under the air filter. is this where i should be looking. what else could it be if it is not a vac leak? any suggestions? thanks in advance.

uhm, well there is a few things. Where does it idle at? could be idle air/mixture screw. But if you want to check for vaccum leaks, get like a spray, shit what's it called.....starting fluid type stuff....lost the name. Well if i think of the exact name i'll get back with you,lol. but anyways, take that stuff and spray a little at a time around the vaccum hoses, where the idle changes or you hear a diffrenece in engine RPM's start looking really close to that area. More than likely it's under the air cleaner housing.

Is your friend's 85 fuel injected or carbureted? (carbureted ones have a big round blue air filter assembly on top while FI ones have a silver box that says RE-EGI).

Vacuum leaks are a bugger of a problem to track down, but they're not a big deal. If you take your time and be systematic, vacuum hose is cheap as dirt.

One of the biggest ones to spring a leak is to the rear of the carburetor on the passenger side. It goes from a little mushroom-shaped valve thingy to the intake manifold. This one sits right above the exhaust manifold and the exhaust heat over time causes the rubber to become brittle and crack, causing a leak. Mine had a big gaping hole. Here's a pic of the mushroom shaped thingy (it's the Anti-Afterburn Valve or AAB). The hose on the left in the pic isn't supposed to be pointing up, that's the hose you're looking for.

http://csdev.cegep-heritage.qc.ca/st...Apr23Carb4.jpg

Unless I'm mistaken :p:

Jon

Yeah that could be a problem. Another one that I had with iddling was the ignition. I had a crappy coil ! if you've got a bit of money to spare change all spark plugs, wires cap rotor and 2 coils ... If not, at least change both coils. It's not good to only change one they always say change both hehehe.
If not, well a vaccum leak could be a problem. I know I had a problem with it and it caused my cruise control to not work ! lol ... That hose is on the passenger side and goes to a sortof cylinder next to the windshield washer fluid, on top of the sub-zero fluid reservoir. It hooks up into this metal hose that eventually clamps to the firewall ... Hope it helps keep us posted ;)