My 84 GSL-SE Project
 

Alright, picked this car up from a guy at work for $800. Car only has 112k miles on it, but its been sitting, from our best guess, 2001. I meant to take more pics of it before I put it in the garage because unfortunately I have to leave enough room for the fiancee to park her car, so I don't have much room.

When I went and looked at the car, the battery he had didn't have a good charge on it, but it allowed the engine to turn over and you could hear the compression. He said it would start up, but stall shortly after. That was the condition it was in when he bought it 3 years ago. He did say when it was delivered, it was started and pulled off the tow dolly and made it down his drive way. I trust his word on it. I figured $800 was a good price for a GLS-SE with an almost perfect body(2 small dents in it, hood and the panel in front of the hood)

I got it to my house this past weekend but didn't have a battery for it. Just got one today and heard it fire up for the first time...for about 3 secs and that was all it had. I plan on going through and replacing the normal maintenance items and go from there. I'm not running completely blindly in this project as I know the theory behind Rotary engines, but have never worked on them, still they don't intimidate me.

Anyways, here are the 2 pics I have of it at the moment. Plan to take more pics as I do more work to it. If anyone has any suggestions on its running issue, please feel free to chime in.

http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/n...4_172933-1.jpg
http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/n...4_172925-1.jpg

Looks like a good starting point. What are your plans with the car?

Not a bad deal for $800. Keeping it stock or modding it?

gsl-se
 

I have a sunrise red 85 gsl-se with about 110,000 miles on it and i know my car inside and out they really are fun cars once you get them going. The gsl-se is like the hot rod of the first gens they are getting hard to find in good shape despite what others might tell you na rotary's when takin care of properly can last a really long time. So if you need any questions answered i give it my best shot just send me a pm and i'll do all i can to help.:icon_tup:

Currently the plan is just to get it running and on the road. If it wasn't a GLS-SE, i probably wouldn't have gotten it, not as big of a fan of the body style as I am the FC. But since it did have all the goodies, I can handle it.

Right now I just want to get it running so I can take my other car off the road and start fixing it, which is the black/white honda sitting behind it that recently got rear ended. I haven't thought as far into it if I'm going to just keep it stock, or if I'm going to upgrade it(the FB).

Today when I started it, it ran for about 3 secs and then died, wasn't able to get it started again after. I guess my next step is pull the plugs and make sure its not flooded or anything in the chambers.

If it was flooded, it wouldn't start.

What's the engine speed during those three seconds?

Maybe the fuel can't keep up? Weak pump or bad fuel filter?

I didn't get a chance to look at the engine speed. I do plan to check the fuel filter and the pump as well.

If it's revving high, you should check for an air leak between the airbox and the intake manifold.

Start form cleaning the tank out and changing fuel filter if it was sitting so long. if it sucks something up in the line it wont stay running. I had a similar scenario car has bin sitting for 8 years when i got it and it had a better portion of gas tank full of gas well when i dropped the tank it was full of grime and the fuel pick up was clogged up with it.

I had that same problem with mine. I ended up having to have the tank dipped.

Same for me with my prior SE. Car only had 29k on it and was clean as a whistle, but the tank was rotting from the inside. The new fuels blends are pretty unstable; it had turned to varnish, which promoted the problems as well. Ruined the fuel pump too.

Thats what I was thinking when he first mentioned the problem with it. I worked in a salvage yard for awhile and we ran the old gas from the incoming cars in the yard cars, after awhile it clogs the sock on the fuel pump and it has the same problems.

The main reason I mentioned removing the plugs was just to make sure there is nothing in the chambers from sitting, even though it has been started every once in awhile.

Thanks for the help guys, I will get to checking things as soon as I have time to do it...and get a real jack instead of a butterfly jack.

as for the tank cleaning go to home depot and get 2 gallons of muriatic acid same stuff they use to clean concrete with drop the tank put water to about half and then a whole gallon of acid and slosh it around fill the rest of the way with water and let it sit for a day or to. Pour it all out rinse with garden hose or a pressure washer if you have one handy if there's still stuff in there do it again. That what i did to mine anyways haven't had a problem since.

Alright, dropped the tank today, got some nasty looking fuel out of the fuel line and from there smelled like bad gas. Pulled the pickup out and the screen on the filter looked mostly clean, but none of the fuel that was in it would come out of it. Can you pick these up at the local parts store? I'm assuming it shouldn't hold the fuel like that.

And the fuel inside the tank actually looks clean, so they did drain the tank and put new fuel in.

hmm try the filter then. also make sure that the Fuel pulsation dampener is not leaking if it is it will run like crap they are prone to going bad it would be located on the fuel rail usual fix just get a fuel rail bolt form a second gen of the secondary rail thats what i did.

Still trying to find the pickup filter, but ordering a new fuel filter and spark plugs. I did pull the plugs today and they reek of old gas and still wet. The fuel I'm getting to the engine smells like old gas, while the gas in the tank is some what fresh. I'm still going to drain the tank and put some fresh gas in it, but its a little strange. I am also planning on replacing the rubber lines coming off the gas tank while I have it out.

A guy at work use to work on these and said he had to work on a lot of flooded ones and told me to check the oil and see if it smells like gas, guess what? it smells of old gas again. So I will get with him tomorrow about what steps he suggests on clearing it out.

the smell of gas is in oil is ussually a sign of failed oil control rings that the reason i ended up pulling my motor out. but yeah get all that old gas out of there and keep trying. As far as the pick up filter goes I had to make one up from a screen I had for a chemical sprayer since I had no luck finding one anywhere.

change the oil, flush the fuel system and check compression. if the compression is low no amount of time and money spent fuel related will make it start. pull the plugs out then spin it over with the starter and listen to the blasts of air coming out of the plug holes. should be even pulses from each. if any sound alittle weak, put some atf in it, turn it over, add some more, then let it sit for a day or so. could just be a stuck seal. make sure u have a very good battery for all this. a rotary engine that's been sitting for 9+ yrs, especially and se, can be a bitch to get started if it will. if compression is good i suggest having injectors cleaned and tested. great find and g/l getting it running.

also, what part of nc? if u haven't done so, get over to the SE section of the regional forums, especially the I77 & I44 crossroads thread. probably lots of ppl there that can help u out. those guys have a meet on the 2nd sun of each month.

I have learned that you are correct rotarycrazy, no one has the pick up screen. I am going to go to the part store at some point and see if I can make something work off another vehicle, something they keep in stock.

Like I said, it has started, for 3 secs and dies. I'm ordering new fuel filter, plugs, and air filter this weekend. Will change the oil and spin it over with the plugs out and check things then.

I live in North Charlotte, I40 is about an hr drive for me if I want to burn the gas for it, which will be the problem with meeting up there.

2hrs for me. i've made one meet and hope to make another before too long. sometimes u just gotta want to.

Nice wheels! Haven't seen those before.

Those are the stock wheels, they've just been painted.

Yes as far as I knew, they were stock wheels powder coated.

Alright, had a little delay in the fuel strainer issue. Guy at work found one online through RockAuto.com that said it would fit the 85, I was still skeptical, called Rock Auto to verify, which they called Ac Delco and verified, everyone said it would fit. Got it in the mail and what do you know, it doesn't fit. Got a full refund on it though and still have it to through in the pile of random stuff.

I did on the other hand find a fuel strainer that I made work, was the only one the parts store had that would fit over the pick-up tube. I got it from O'reily's, Part number is: FS202 There will be a small gap between the sock and pickup tube, I just used some plastic banding that was laying around to fill the gap and hold it on there. Probably not the best way to make it work, but it works.

Got the tank back up, changed the fuel filter, disconnected the fuel lines at the engine and was going to run the pump to clean out the lines...but the pump isn't getting any power. Ive tried looking in the Chiltons that I have for a fuse or something, but no help there. Any suggestions?

Check your trailing ignitor, it runs the tach and fuel pump relay. Those J109 ignitors are very expensive and go out often. You might find one at a junkyard with a bit of searching, or if there are any rotorheads in your area we usually keep a few spares lying around. Some of us even wire up gm hei ignitors, but there are many other threads on that subject.

Right now the HEI ingitors are beyond me, as I am still trying to wrap my head around the rotary as it is. How do I go about checking the ingitor?

I am a capable mechanic, just rotaries are a little new to me. I know the theory behind them, but still trying to figure it all out as I have no real orientation with it.