Well... I need some--no--LOTS of help...

Ok, I'm at a friend's house and when I cranked my 7 to leave, it idled REAL rough and the idle was just bouncing around. As I pushed the pedal, the engine was shuddering pretty violently. Since I REALLY had to get home and there's no way I'd get a tow truck, I drove it out, stalling it 3 WHOLE times on the driveway... So now I'm so scared that I was gonna **** in my pants--I said lots of things that I shouldn't have. But, I discovered that above 3500 RPM the engine would be just fine and smooth but under would rock and turn roughly... So I drove home above 3500 RPM (luckly, my friend lives pretty close to me). 1/5 of the way home, the engine just dies (during traffic)--Boy, I was pissed as hell now... After a little inspection, I cranked it up again and noticed loud random pops coming from my car. Same results, but once I was half way to my house the car was perfectly fine--wow, huh? After parking my poor 7 in the garage, I did a quick checkup. Everything was fine excpet I noticed that my exhaust tail pipes (muffler) were scalding HOT... Then I thought: "WTF?!?!!? The tips are not supposed to be that hot!!!!" I cranked up the car again after about 10 minutes and still, everything was fine.

Possible problems:
Last weekend I put a little more coolent in my radiator (to keep it full) and put in a little more oil. I also decided to de-grease my engine with good, high-quality GUNK. (Yes, I covered my carb and open tubes.)

How did I manage to get home?
Left hand--almost constantly on choke to keep RPMs over 3500
Right hand--steer, shift and hit steering wheel while I cuss
Feet--they do their thing themselves (my feet had to do alot of fancy pedal tapping and clutch-ing)

Wow, this must be the longest post I've ever written... *sleepy*

 

Sounds like either a fouled spark plug (when was the last time they were changed? should be NEVER more than 6,000 miles) or an apex seal stuck in its groove, and either way, driving the car cleared it out.

ATF the engine and get new plugs!

 

I would check and make sure to have good compression. Or just do it the hill billy way pull one plug out crank it over and you get used to the puff puff puff rythym. Put the plug back in and pull one form the other rotor and is it goes to the same rythym than you have good compression. I did this one mine and discovered blown apex seal. And if you read my new posts title bad thing you can hear about what i did to my spare motor.

dan

 

If I test it the "hill billy" way...

I pull all the spark wires off the plugs, right? (so my car won't fire?) Then I pull on spark plug and then just crank to hear for the same rhythm? Then I pull the other rotor's spark plug and do the same?

 

That was how i check mine. Pul the wires and one plug off one rotor. And to my dismay the front one made the puff noise 3 times faster than the back one. Blown apex. But it is an easy way to check it. Plus you can check you plugs and wires.

dan

 

Do you mean that if it puffs 3 times as fast the seals are bad for that rotor? Or do you mean that the back rotor's seal is bad because it was 1/3 slower at "puffing" than the front?
Basically, both rotors need to be puffing exactly the same (at a constant rhythm)?

 

Hey, Check your fuel filter for rust. My car did the same thing, but didn't get better. I had to have the carb rebuilt, and it was filled with rust particals. I now have two fuel filters and change them every 6k. It's been cheaper than a new tank so far.

Oh, yea a blown apex seal won't cause your engine to "bounce around". If it's not stuck, your'll be down on performance. You can allso run a piston compression check to get the good or bad verdict. Pull the wires, the leading spark plugs, and run the test one rotor at a time. According to Racing Beat the typical compression should be 120-150.

 

ok a rotor is a triangle and it get compression on three sides. If on apex seal which are on the points does not work you only get compression on on side out of three. This means it puffs 1 time when it should have done it three times. Thus if it puffs one third of the time you have a blown seal. It is a simple check for a severe problem. I am not saying it is what is wrong just sounds similar to what happend to mine.

dan

 

Well... when I first got this car, the fuel filter was real dirty... REAL dirty... I changed it and it hasn't been 6k miles yet--it's been about 4k miles and b4 this incident occurred, the car was just fine...

BTW... could i have messed up the seals (or rubber parts) with carb cleaner (the kind that's in an aerosol bottle that you spray into the carb that eats paint)?

 

no clue for sure but check the compresion and work your way out form there.

dan

 

By wokring your way out i mean go system by system. Start off at the center being the compression. Then check spark. Then check the carb. And it might not hurt to check the exhuats if the cats gte clogged it can cause some weird things. But just go form one system to the next and sooner or later you will find it. God bless the process of elimination.

dan

 

it's funny... whenever i try something to improve my car, bad things occur and it takes me twice as long as planned to fix or something just plain goes wrong...

Since last thanksgiving, i've been a friggin magnet to bad luck... *sigh*

 

ok i blew my motor new years eve. And if you read the post bad thing by me you can see my bad luck out weighs yours.

dan

 

Well... I'm sad to admit that my bad luck goes OUTSIDE of cars...

I'd say... 60% bad luck goes to my 7, 30% goes to expensive luxury items, and the last 10% goes to women

 

WEll my luck has all been forced onto the 7 and i have no monye for luxury due to the seven and i have not time for women thanks to the seven so some one just


dan