1st gear, 2nd gear now its dead. Help!
 

Hey guys

I drive a 84 GSL-SE with 5k on a streetported motor.

So today I washed my car, and went for a little drive, cruised around a bit. I pulled over to look at the river on this beautiful day. Got back in the car and headed for home.

Now the good part

I take of, Rev to about 7k in first, shifted to second, the car went into second sputtered once and died. Wouldnt start back up. My friend who was behind me said that there was a puff of smoke after I shifted into second. (bigger than the usual running rich smoke I produce) Pulled to the side of the road, got out and there was a deputy behind me, he called for a tow and went on his way.

So I get out the tools check with a screw drive while cranking it, spark on all plugs, pulled the top plug on the front rotor, cranked it, sounded like 3 good swooshes, same with the rear rotor. I checked for any vacum leaks, not hard b/c the motor is pretty stripped down with most things capped off. Cant find anything.

Tow truck arrives and takes me and the car home $65. I try to roll start it, it runs with a roll start at 2k with the petal floored and sounds like crap bad misfire or something.

Any ideas or suggestions. Mods are listed in the sig.

Greg

PS anyone know any local Southwest Virginia RX-7 specialists?

I don't know too much but it sounds like you lost an ignitor

Sounds like you got something electrical wet which is causing a short maybe?

If I lost an ignitor wouldnt I have lost spark as well?

maybe ur running off trailing alone? try swapping ur leading and trailing ignitors?

I am getting spark on from all the wires, leading and trailing.
Could a bad ignitor still be the problem?

Im just hoping the motor isnt blown seeing as there are no local rotory mechanics much less people who know what a rotory is.

If you're getting spark on all four plugs, then you can rule out ignition and concentrate on fuel delivery. Check your fuel pressure and flow rate for starts. Good luck...

Mmmm fuel delivery. . .

Update, went to start the car this morning, it started, ran very poorly while smoking whitish smoke that smelled like gas. Wouldnt rev past 3.5k and was very rough and breaking up, it would not idle on its own just die.

any other suggestions?

Coolant level? Is it dropping? Oil level? Replace fuel filter, check colour of plugs...

Mine did the same thing. I had bad plugs. Have you over heated or are you running a lean mixure?

Get a compression test done even if you have to be ghettofabulous and use a piston tester. At least you will have an Idea if it's electrical or mechanical.

I put my extra set of plugs in today after I cleaned them with a brush,
the car starts for a second when the leading plugs wires are off also it does the same thing when the fuel pump power (little blue plug on the coil) is off but it dies quickly either way.

dude! its the fuel filter! if you drive it, get on it in first, then it sputters and bucks in all the gears, its ur fuel filter! please just try it, to rule it out, i had the same exact problem

Update

Changed the fuel filter today, to no avail and did a compression check.

With the cheap compression check I bought the front rotor produced about 89 psi, the rear about 91psi
This was done by cranking it over with the starter. I couldnt get anything more than 30psi when I held the release button on any sides of either rotor. But there were 3 pulses each hitting 30 psi then falling immediately b/c I was holding the purge button.

I really dont know what this means but 30 psi seems low and the 90 seems about average. Noone had ngk plugs in stock so I guess Ill have to wait til tomorrow for those.

Any helpful hints? Longduck, rotarygod anyone?

Thanks
Greg

I messed around with it a little more this morning but the battery was about dead, still nothing. I cleaned off the spark plugs with the wire brush on my dremel but it still seems to not want to do anything.

Also the plugs are soaked everytime I pull them even if I have the power to the fuel pump off (little blue plug on lead coil).

Ive got no ideas right now.

RP Performance in Manassass, VA got my FC back to great running order two years ago (and it had 210k miles plus) http://www.rp-performance.com/ is their web page. They know their stuff, I have called them a few times asking for help, they are always friendly. Also, when I finally brought my car to them, they found that I needed new secondary injectors (in the FC, obviously) and they were nice enough to just give me a used set that was setting around free of charge, so they are good people. good luck!

i have a guy here in memphis that works on my fb and he knows his shit so here's the web site and his number is on there www.rx7heaven.com he should be able to help you out. :bigthumb:

Thanks for the links, Rotary Performance is up in my hometown, and Ive been there before

But... Im at school and thats about 4 hours away from me right now.

Update... I was under the car after trying to start it some more, there is actually gasoline coming out of a little hole in the exhaust. This is bad shit...

I may just have to tow it up to RB performance and have him look at it when schools over.

Gas coming out of the exhaust?!? Now that's what I call running rich!!!

I am just about ready to give up and wait to have it towed home for RB performance to look at it,

Tomorrow I am going to pull the upper intake manifold to see if the injectors are leaking really badly even though I bought them cleaned and balanced and all from a forum member about 5 months ago.

I was reading a post by longduck in another thread which he stated that if enough gas gets in the oil it will cause real stange problems, should I just go ahead and change the oil while Im at it?

I wouldn't gamble with the oil. If you think there might be a problem with it then in my opinion you might as well change it.

Better to do it and not need it, than to need it and not do it....

You haven't run anything unusual through the gas lately, have you? Like maybe some type of cleaner or something? Wondering what would cause the sudden onset. Good luck man...:)

No nothing funky throught the gas, I was down to about a quarter tank, no problems before hand with this tank.

I really want to get this thing running, I have a week left of school then finals,
So the deadline is coming up so I can drive it home.

How would I go about checking to see if my injectors were leaking constantly?

I was just going to pull the upper intake manifold, take out the injectors while still attached to the fuel rail and turn on the key, and or try to crank it with them out.