Well I finally got around to sticking my RB headers on today at my brother's house. We mounted a brand new magnaflow in the place the main cat used to be, and it took us all day to line it up right. Eventually we had the headers bolted and the muffler welded in. We were too exhausted to put on the last half of the pipe so we decided to call it a night. Well we fired it up and it kind of sounded odd. So I looked under the car and it was shooting massive flames and sparks. We then popped the hood and noticed that the top of the headers were glowing very red. The neighbor across the street saw (or heard probably, haha) and came out to see what was going on. He said that the headers could be getting red hot because of lack of backpressure or something along those lines. Also since the muffler is coming straight off of the header it shouldn't be unusual to see flames shooting straight off teh header.

Well that was the story. So my questions are as follows:

Is this indeed normal?

Should the headers glow red hot even if the exhaust isn't complete?

Is flames shooting out of my muffler bad?

 

No, they shouldn't glow red like that. Could be that your timing is off...

 

Ditto, it is either timing or fuel. Back pressure has absolutely nothing to do with it. In fact, if you had more back pressure, it should glow more because it would be retaining even more heat. You might want to check and make sure the choke is pulling off completely too.

 

Gahh confusion. I just wanted to replace my old shitty clogged to hell and back cats, now I have this thing to deal with. Don't I need some sort of a special light to check the timing? Also, Trochoid, what with the fuel could be causing it glow red?

 

Timing too retarded causes the fuel mixture to light too late in the combustion cycle, causing more of it to burn in the exhaust. When there is too much fuel, it will not burn fully, until it hits the exhaust and burns there.

 

I just put My headers on today as well, took a bit of work to get it together but i eventually got it all hooked up, i love how it sounds.

 

Which could account for the sparks/flames?

 

Try cranking your dizzy a bit clockwise (this will advance the timing). If you get out on the road and it sounds like marbles in a coffee can at high rpms (rotary spark knock), then you'll know that you've turned it a little too far. Pretty easy to do...

This is actually a good thing for you though! This shows that you have an easily correctable issue that, when fixed, will result in more horsepower than you had before. Chances are that the issue is simply an adjustment to be made, so then those will be FREE HORSIES which of course are the best kind...

 

JUst woke up, time to go back to work! Ok after reading a few posts and being somewhat coherent now the car does kind of buck somewhere between constant speed and deceleration and it kind of idles funny and actually smells like its running rich to me and my brother. I thought some of those things might be attributed to my clogged cats or the fact that the previous owner left the split air pipe unplugged. I didn't know it was unplugged until yeserday day and haven't driven it since it was plugged. However I think most of those problems could also be something with the timing. I don't have a timing light though, and I'm super poor from buying headers and magnaflow mufflers so I can't afford another 30-50 bucks on one. I'll just have to find someone I know that has one..... to the phone!

Also thanks trochoid and kentetsu for the info. These rotaries scare the crap out of me, I don't want anyone else touching it that isn't a specialist

Another question, if I'm standing on the drivers side looking down, which spark plug is the leading and which is trailing?

 

the leading plugs are on the bottom and the trailing are on the top. did your car buck and did the exhaust glow while the old exhaust was on the car?

 

I didn't see the old manifold glow ever, but then again it had that piece of metal around it so I could never see it very well. It did buck before, and I'm too afraid to drive it now to see if it still does.

EDIT: According to the wires coming out of the distributor cap my engine is like this



T1 T2
L1 L2

T L

Does that look right?

 

yes, thats right.

 

too bad you dont live close to me id lend you my light....

 

Backpressure has no place on a rotary and don't let anyone argue otherwise. One shop refused to install my headers because "backpressure is SO important on these cars". That's Bullshit.

The more free flow the better. Nobody can provide me with a compelling arguement to the contrary without citing parts of a piston engine that we don't have.



Other than that, if you are running lean it can definitely cause your headers to glow. Same goes for improper timing. Remember, if your cats were clogged "to hell and back" there's probably a reason for it. Just replacing the cats with headers and presilencers is not going to solve the root problem which is either a carburetor/fuel delivery problem or a timing problem.

Time the car, and if that doesn't fix it, you're looking at a carb problem. I'd suggest rebuilding the carb and since you're not concerned about emissions, remove the rat's nest, air pump, ACV, etc... while you're at it to simplify things.

Jon

 

Well I don't have a light but I decided to muck around with it anyway. I loosened the screw and turn it about 5-10 degrees clockwise, no more red hot headers and no flames. But since I don't have the light I don't know where it's set, so I need to hear some opinions on this cause I don't want to have it being advanced too far. Thanks for all the help so far, you guys are pretty smart.

Ok, well I just took it for a drive around the block. Its really, really loud with just the one muffler but it's also coming out right under my practically. The only problem I had is that it is still chugging and bucking at a costant speed.

 

you may have masked the problem by advancing/retarding the timing. you need to get a timing light., go to sears, they're like 20 bucks. get your timing set first. after that, look into carb adjustments. if you dont have the factory service manual, you can download it here on the forum. at least get a haynes manual for specs and such.

 

I have the factory service manual downloaded on my computer. I didn't want to have to mess with the carb, blah. Oh well, at least I'm getting somewhere.

 

If it's bucking at constant speed, it sure sounds like a carb issue.

Jon

 

let us know what you come up with from that fsm

 

I'm gonna have to take it to someone who can work on carbs. Even with the service manual I'm pretty skeptical of tuning it myself, or if something in general is wrong with it. My timing, I found out, was actually pretty close after messing with it. It actually needed to be advanced a little more to get it right. It's still doing the chugging thing at a constant speed, and it's worse when I'm in lower gears. It's really bad in second, gets a little better in third, isnt very annoying any more in 4th and is almost not noticeble in 5th. If I keep accelerating it never chugs.

My RPMs is still dropping from 1000, to around 400 until it revs itself back up to around 900 when I have my headlights and heater/blower on. I checked the wires on the alternator and they look ok. The battery drop from 13 down to almost 12. My car idles pretty rough under 1000, so that's where I have it set. I'm thinking the idle and the chugging may have something in common, but thats just speculation. I just wish there was a rx7 specialist in the area that could give everything a look over. I'll probably try looking for an S4 alternator to swap in to see if that helps with my electric problems.

Anyway, thanks for all your tips and suggestions. This car has been pretty fun to drive around in despite its problems, and I'd like to get in awesome condition.

 

Once you have the rest of the exhaust on, your hearing returns, and you can hear the engine at idle. You can set the timing by ear and get it close. If the carb is set right, the idle shoul be smooth and go for 750 rpm on the tach. Take it out for a drive, if you don't like it, move the dizzy either way and keep rest driving it until you get the smoothest accelleration, with no pinging or glowing. Then find a bud with a light and see how close you are.

 

Run a can of Seafoam through the gas tank with 1/8 tank of gas (for a strong solution). Then take it out and run it hard for about 20 minutes and see if things change...

If you have advanced your timing too far, you will be able to hear it. It will sound like a bunch of marbles rattling around in a coffee can at high rpms....