Preludesi

Ok guys Im new to rotarys so help me out. I did one search and found nothing, then tried again and again and the search didnt seem to work. some sort of proxy error.

I took my newly purchased 84 gsl-se to the smog shop yesterday and paid 40 bucks to find out that my timing is way off. (needless to say i didnt pass) The leading is at 15 deg ATDC and the Trailing is at 20 deg ATDC. WOW 10 degrees off on the lead timing. Im guessing this could be the cause of the rough idle, and fixing it could gain me some power?

This is my project car and a learning experience for a future automotive engineer, so I want to do a much stuff on my own as i possible can. I have never actually timed and engine by myself, but I have seen it done on piston engines. I have several shop manuals for the rex and have read how to set the timing, I understand most of it and it seems pretty easy however,it is pretty vague and they assume that you already know what your are doing. Anyone want to give me a more detailed explanation, or a "how to time your 13b for dummies" explation. Also, any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.

Latin270

Lots of good info on the "1/2 BRIDGEPORT STILL WONT START!" thread.

Preludesi

its now timmed. Wow that was easy. Idles a lot smoother and pulls harder in the high rpms now that its not retarded 10 degrees.

Preludesi

I was messing around today in the rex and killed the engine by reving it to 8k. I was came around a corner in 1st gear, punched it, tires spun, tach went to 8k and engine quit all in the matter of about 1 second. It scared the crap out of me, and i was affraid that I hurt the engine, but it started up and seems to run fine. Is this normal?

LongDuck

Not normal. There is no idle-cut on the SE's, so it's likely that something in your ignition system couldn't keep up with the high revs and blew the spark out, shutting down the engine - which is a good thing in your case.

You should be aware that the SE's best power is at 6k rpm, and the torque peak is slightly lower than that - i.e., there is NO reason to rev the engine up beyond redline, unless you're really not paying attention. That rev buzzer is there to warn you before you spend a lot of time in the red, and spinning the engine at revs that high can lead to a lot of problems that will require a complete rebuild to fix (thrown apex seals, spun bearings, oil starvation to the eccentric shaft, etc.).

I notice that you have very few posts on the forum so far, so would recommend that you take it easy on your car until you learn a little more about it. It's your car, you're free to treat it however you like, but for reliability's sake it already has at least 150k miles on it and that's when you should be backing off a bit. Unless, of course, you want to learn a lot about the internal workings of the rotary engine by performing a garage rebuild by yourself!

Preludesi

Yes, im new to this page and new to rotary's but i know better than to do that crap. It was a total accident and I just wanted to find out why the engine did what it did. Like you said the engine makes the most power from 6000-6800 so there is now need to rev it any higher. I know its not good to rev the engine that high, however it is a freshly built engine from pineapple racing so Im sure that taking it to 8k one time isnt going to kill it. I would like to say that it will never happen again, but being a track car, im sure there are a hew mis-shifts in its future life.