Dunno what's up with the car. I never really got interested in to cars untill I received this lovely 82 GSL. I really don't know a whole lot about cars, but I am learning quite a bit, especially about the rotary engine. Now, I'm not stupid either. I can learn fairly quick and I'm pretty handy with tearing things apart and putting them back together.

Anyway, to the point. Ever since I've had the car (the past 8 months) when warming the engine up (choke *** pulled out) I notice alot of misfiring/backfires (whatever you'd like to call it) In anycase, it does this everytime. Somedays it is pretty bad, others it's not too bad. (In fact I think ONE day it didn't misfire at all) Point is, it happens everytime at warm up. Once it is warmed up and resumes to idle, it's not at noticeable, probably because the engine is revving at 2500~3000 RPMs. However, when driving I don't notice any misfires (except when I shift. If I rev high and then shift it will back fire. The thigher I rev then shift the louder the backfire usually is)

So..basically I assume the timing is off. I really don't know the history of the car as I the guy I bought it from didn't seem to know anything about it either. (I just knew it was $500, looked sweet and seemed to run fine. And that's what I needed. A cheap ride. heh)

So I ask, what do I do to set the timing? How hard is it on a rotary? I've asked some mechanic friends and they seemed to be clueless because of the leading and trailing plugs. (They're all like..wtf..)

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

I've called around to some places to do it, and have been quoted from anywhere from $20-70. However, I'm pretty sure once I bring it in, they're gonna be like...what the....what is this thing. Unless I take it to a dealership, and even still I'm not quite positive about that.

 

see thats the problem with these boinger mechanics....dont ever go to another one with ur rex....do a search on timing there are a couple threads bout it...

later,
Gufran

 

at 17 i had an 81 and now i'm 30 and have an 84 gsl-se and driven in 1st gens in between, i've always noticed the muffled backfiring during warm ups and assumed it was normal...i've also read here that it is normal during warm up but should clear up once warm

 

ok i got a stupid question....how does a backfire sound/feel/look like?

 

oh yea nd fave rx7 check out paul yaw's timing page...heres the link: http://personal.riverusers.com/~yawpower/dectech.html

 

Well, I bought the car from a co-worker. And from other co-workers, I was told that he tried to make it go fast. So I dunno what he might have done with timing or with the carb and what not. Everything is a guessing game it seems.

And I don't think violent backfiring is normal. heh Most of the time it's not that bad, but it is noticeable. (And then sometimes it's really bad. I swear a sniper rifle was fired off in my car sometimes. haha)

 

Dumb question of the day...how do you turn the motor over by hand?

Remember, you're dealing with a car mechanic newb here. haha

 

grab the main pulley. big one in middle bottom. rotate it.

 

What i do to my 82 in the morning, tap the gas 2 times,
turn the key, it starts and then i pull the choke, not all the way out,just enough to keep it at 2800-3000 rpm's
it runs rough a bit i don't think it's missfiring, just rough.
and then i push the choke in and give it a rev. then i pull the choke out to keep the engine at 1000 rpm's and it even's out and runs smooth.

 

haha..i figures, just want to make sure. I am that way with things, I want to make sure I am doing something correctly the first time.

 

hell yea, nothing wrong with that!

 

heh..cool.

Thanks guys. I guess I'll do some forum searching and book reading. By the way, any timing gun you think I should get?

 

yo...are u opening up a shop or u just gettin all this stuff for ur garage to do ur own repairs?

 

I just need stuff to do my own repairs. I'd rather do things myself than have someone **** stuff up for me and then ME not knowing what the hell happened.

 

thats soo true man...and u know wat i hate bout gettin it done else where those ******* charge u soo much more....and they change ur stock exhaust and put racing beat or sumtin on and keep ur stock headers and stock perfectly fine exhaust and wen u ask them later on for it they say it was rotting so they got rid of it

 

anyways good luck wit ur mini garage....i would love doin that but i live in a god damn condo so i have no drive way to spill oil on and no garage to have a nice tool box and all in

 

haha...indeed. I have done all the work on my car myself, other than the exhaust which I had a friend do cuz I was lazy. heh

 

good stuff

 

The problem sounds like a combination of timing and air/fuel mixture to me. I had similar problems on mine at one point as well. Depending on the carb you have, the air/fuel mixture is controlled by either one or two screws at the bottom of the carb and the idle is controlled by one screw at the right hand side of the carb, when standing on the drivers side of the engine bay, buried underneath a bunch of stuff.

A good starting point on the air fuel mixture is three and a half turns out. The timing is set using the dowel pin on the engine just above the pulley and is set using the two notches in the pulley. You will need a timing light to set them.

I play with my timing all the time when I am at the track and change it according to the weather conditions so, since you said they were trying to make it faster all the time, there is a good chance that the timing is out of wack.

Good luck with it.

 

Faye, I have a 79 RX-7 with points cant be sure but assuming the timing is set the same minus the points the big pulley called the Eccentric pulley has two timing marks on it one leading one trailing they are actually small notches you can feel them if you don’t see them. Standing on the drivers side you can turn the pulley with a 19 mm socket and breaker bar, the first notch is the leading it is usually painted yellow you can use a triangular file to clean it up then use a model brush to paint it. The second notch is the trailing supposed to be red. I paint the timing indicator white above the pulley. Warm the car up let it idle, I use the Sears inductive timing light don’t like a lot of Sears tools but the timing light seems ok. Attach the clip from the timing light on the lower front spark plug wire that is the leading plug, point the light toward the timing indicator pin see if the yellow mark lines up with the timing indicator, if not loosen the 10 mm bolt on the distributor plate and rotate left or right until the mark lines up and tighten the bolt. Next put the timing light clip on the upper plug (trailing) I usually put the clip on plug boot I have found if you put it on the wire sometimes it picks up a reading from the leading plug, point the timing light at the indicator pin look for the red mark if it does not line up there are two screws on the vacuum advance. The vacuum advance pot has a T stamped on it loosen the screws, move the vacuum advance forward or back until the red mark lines up, tighten the two screws. The timing is now set. Hope this helps

 

That was damn sweet Tuna, thanks alot. I guess I could just goto sears and pick up a timing light. It's the stock carb on there by the way. If anything I bet I need to tune the carb as it is 20+ years old. heh