81 GS giving me issues
 

hey guys. i just recently bought my third rx7 which is a gs and has no power steering. its got about 35,000 miles on a rebuild.

ive been driving it for almost a month, and drove perfect. shifted great, it had alot of power, sounded good, doesnt leak anywhere at all, seemed like it was a real strong one. well, i decide to dig a little into it and make a few modifications. of course the first thing i do is take off the air/smog pump and pull the belt off. i dont think it would have anything to do with it, but i also wired in a radio. the oil level was a little low, so i filled it back up to its normal level with some unopened oil ive had in my garage for a while.

heres what its doing now. it used to crank up nicely and start right up. now, it starts, but doesnt want to idle, for a while. when it does idle, it idles at 700 rpm and idles smoothly. when i rev the car, itll reach about 4 and choke up. when im driving and its in gear and im not pressing the clutch, if i let my foot off the gas and press the gas again, it will hesitate untill i press it harder or hold it for a minute, and the car will rock back and forth. also, when i decelerate from around 3000 rpms, it seems to make a backfire popping noise pretty constantly untill the rpms are pretty low.

my thoughts are: leaving the ACV unplugged and open without the airpump could have damaged it or somthing could have happened to the timing. the car feels alot like a car with a bad MAF and is not meetering air.

i cant put my finger on whats going on, so im asking for some help and advice. i would verrryyy much appreciate it.

i take back what i said about the reving in neutral. it studders while climbing rpms, and cuts off if i try to hold it at a steady rpm above idle. could it possibly be a fuel delivery issue? what should i see when looking down the carb at idle?

check for vacumm leaks. my car was similar when i removed the rats nest and installed my header. the emission on the mannifold under carb had a huge vacumm leak, and also the little nipples on the carb was sealed up tight enough on my car anyway

back firing seems to be normal, anyway my car has done it since the cats were removed.
if ur cats arent removed they might be getting plugged to

otherwise check fuel voulme and pressure

Have you installed a new fuel filter?

ive yet to replace the fuel filter. ill do that today. but the back firing isnt coming from the exhaust in the back, it sounds like its coming from the front of the car in the engine bay where the smog pump is. is that still normal? ive also been looking the car up and down for a missing connection or a vacuum leak but havent found anything yet. im not giving up though. how can i tell if the cat is blocked up?

not sure how to tell, ik my car ran like shit, had no power wat so ever like it wouldnt go above 45mph, then the exhaust blow apart in front of the cats and all the power was instanly there, except at low rpms