How to: Bits of FC wisdom, including easier unflooding
 

Ive learned some easier ways to do stuff than some of you guys post here. I thought Id share it, in hopes it might make you guys lives easier, as well as a resource to newbies for FAQ's. To many of you this stuff is probably common knowledge.

Flooding: happens for no reason when car is shut off for long periods of time. Most people here say pull the underhood egi fuses and crank, and if that doesnt work pull the lower plugs and crank then fill with atf and replace plugs. Well, listen up guys, here is the ultimate easier way. BTW, this only works for 86-8 non turbo cars. Hoses on other models are harder to get to. Still, a large percentage of people have 86-8 non turbos.

Get a hand pump for oil. IT costs like $3 at autozone. Mine only fits gallon jugs, but Im sure they make some for quarts too. You want to pump atf with yours. IF you suspect your car is flooded, get your pump of atf and raise your hood. ON top it says mazda 13b injection. Right below this there are 3 vacuum hoses. remove the largest one, on top, from teh manifold. Pump 2-4 times into this hose with your atf pump. Replace the hose. Let sit 1 minute, then start your car. It will smoke like a biyatch.

IF it doesnt start after this, you may have a fuel or spark problem. Both are easy to diagnose.

To check fuel, remove the frontmost fuel line from the driver side of the engine. Crank the car, adn see that fuel aquirts out. Replace the line. IF you have fuel here, your fuel system is in good shape to start the car. IF you have no fuel, get a voltmeter and start checking voltages at the fuel pump and along the wiring. IF you have voltage at the pump but it doesnt pump, you have a bad pump. IF you have no voltage, you have a bad connection, a blown fuse or relay, or you might just wanna run yourself a new fuel power wire, and a anti-flood switch at the same time to eliminate the problem and prevent future flooding.

To check spark, take an old plug and insert it into one of the lower plugwires you pulled off its plug. Lay this wire/plug next to a ground on the driver strut tower, so you can see it from inside the car. Crank it and watch for spark. IF you have spark then your ignition system is good enough to start the car. Make sure your actual sparkplugs are tight and in decent shape. IF you have no spark, first check all fuses inside and out. Next unplug your airflow meter. Try to start the ca. With the AFM unplugged the car should start and die regardless of throttle applied. For some reason afm's can go bad and disable spark. IF it still doesnt spark, check your computer and wiring. The ignition systems are very bulletproof.

To prevent flooding in the first place, get yourself a 2 prong, 2 position toggle switch at radio shack, along with a pack of appropriate female connectors, 2 foot of 16-14 gage wire, and a pack of wire taps(the kind that you slide over an existing wire, and insert a 2nd wire side by side adn use pliers to clamp down and join them together. Find the fuel relay under the dash, beside the steering column toward the passenger side. It is a black box with a yellow base, and 5 wires. Cut the middle wire, black with white stripe, about 1" away from the base. Use 1' of your wire for each end of this cut wire. Use the wire taps to join each end to each 1' wire. Run these 2 new wires to the steering column or dash where you mount your switch. Plug them in and you have a fuel cutoff switch. When you go to shut off your car, flip the switch off first, and let the engine run until it dies, using all the fuel in the line. This prevents flooding. When you return to start it, Crank the car with the switch remaining off, then flip it on and the car will catch and run. Bulletproof if done right. A $5 fix to a problem ive seen cost people $1000+.

For those of you experiencing chronic cooling problems. You've checked for external leaks using cardboard overnight under the car. Youve replaced the thermostat with a new mazda unit(NOT a cheap replacement). You have the alternator and smog pump belts turning the stock fan, which has moderate resistance to turning(not locked up, not freespin). It should spin 1/2-1 turn when spun by hand. You have the stock fanshroud, and have tried flushing your coolant system. You have checked teh bottom of the ater pump while running, to see if the weephole is leaking, which is hard to spot sometimes. IF you still have bad overheating problems, check this:
Let your car sit and cool for a while. Fill the coolant as high as you can. Leave the cap off. Disable fuel and spark by removing the 2 underhood egi fuses closer to the engine. Crank the car over, watching the coolant fill area. Coolant should NOT shoot out like a guyser. IF it does, you have an internal engine problem known as bad water seals(o-rings) that requires a rebuild to repair. The problem will continue to grow until the car cannot be driven very far, and has problems starting. There is a way to "rig around" this, temporarily until a rebuild can be obtained. IT is said to have a decent success rate and last about a year per treatment.
Email me for details on this, as I dont feel like typing it out.


Ill post more later on, if I get time. Im tired of typing right now :-D

WOW u are a very knowlegable person.
that was very kind of ypu to post that as that has just changed my view on selling my Rx,
Thanks


and admin this shuld be sticked

Another way to get around the flooding problem..

REmove the fuel pump from your car.. ontop of the fuelpump nipple you should see a white or pink plastic collar.. this is actually a checkvalve.. grab yourself a small tool, a thin sharp pointy thing will work.. now pull the checkvalve out.. you will find that it's in 2 peices.. the plastic piece and a smaller mushroom/peg shaped piece... once you have done that, put everything back together...Voila.. no more flooding..
When you shut your car off, the removal of the checkvalve allows fuel pressure to bleed off.. ie: no fuel in fuellines .. basically the same thing as turning off the fuelpump with the kill switch to remove the fuel from the lines..
It may take an extra second or so of cranking time to get your car started again as fuel pressure builds back up, but with this method you don't have any switches to play around with...

Definitely archive this.

Great info Kevin, hey the motor that you sold me is coming out great! Thanks again.

SO you are rebuilding it now? I know it ran like a spotted ape the time that I drove it around, with a DP, full exhaust, FCD, boost controller and K&N. Well, good to hear. Hey, you remember that other car I told you about, that your transmission came out of? IT had caught on fire, and the owner told me it was blown up. SO I stripped it and was about to sell that motor for parts. So Im taking it apart, to get the wiring harness off it. I decided to turn it by and and see which rotor blew a seal, because Ive been considering taking a core with a blown rear rotor, and transplanting good seals from another core motor into it to make it run for cheap. So anyway, the biyatch isnt blown! I dunno what happened to the car to catch it on fire though. The entire ass was burned. I think the dealership that did the clutch/tranny install flooded it badly, and couldnt get it started. There was lots of atf already in the chambers. I think they got it started and somehow caught the exhaust on fire, and the owner thought that literally meant it was blown up.

So anyway, that engine is now in my p[roject 86 gxl, using an NA drivetrain and NA wiring harenss with T2 ecu. The only thing I dont have as far as stock T2 electronics is the knock sensor. Ive never had a t2's knock sensor kick in and retard timing on me anyway, so I figure I oughtta be alright at stock boost levels. Ill keep you guys posted on how it goes. IF all works right, Ill have a T2 conversion for what amounts to a t2 ecu, boost sensor and engine. That means I can tell you guys how to buy a jspec and a t2 computer and make your na run like a turbo for cheap, without changing all that shit.

Yea I have the motor all torn down right now. Everything looks great. I sent the end and middle housings out to Racing Beat be lapped yesterday. I did buy new rotor housings even though the housings were in pretty good shape (rather be safe than sorry). I got in all the new seals and all that other shit. I ordered hardened stationary gears also. Im still waiting for the new turbo to come in from Turbonetics as with the intercooler I ordered and still have to order the Haltech. I will keep you posted on the progress and hopefully within a month I will have pics posted of the new motor with the turbo. It may take longer seeing that everything I order takes forever to get in.

i'm not very knowledgable about the rx to say the least, but isn't trying to run a fuel injector, dry, a bad thing for it, doesn't that cause damage?
that's what i've been told, and that alone is the one reason you must avoid running out of gas (aside from the obvious)

Great tips! Gotta keep this in the archives!

Peace,
AJ ^_^

The situation described above is referred to as "detonation". When the ratio of air/fuel of normal running is gone. More air and less fuel would result in a higher A/F and a hotter burn. So hot, that the housing can get quite hot, igniting the next cycle of intake that is ingested into the motor. The resulting unexepected explosion is referred to as a "ping" or "knock". Unfortunately, the rotary engines don't do well with pings. But for N/A's this is less of a concern, as most people that worry about this are people with turbos.

Letting your car run out of gas is just letting your car run out of gas ;)

You can only cause damage to the engine by running it dry of fuel under heavy load(boost or WOT). At idle, as in the shutdown procedures, will never hurt anything. You are also not clogging the injectors because it is clean fuel. IF you were to run your tank low/dry, you'd be running on dirty fuel, which could then clog your injectors. When youre idling normally, assuming you have a fair amount of gas in the tank, youre using clean fuel.

And Brian, what are you gonna do with those rotor housings? Wanna sell 'em cheap? :-)

Sure, make me an offer.

You're the man holding them, name your price and Ill tell you if I can swing it or not :-) I dont really need them as such, but Im sure at some point I cna use them.

The main reason why you don't want to run your fuel injected car completely out of gas is that the intank fuel pumps are cooled by the fuel itself.. By consistently driving the car right to empty, you are putting alot of strain on your pump and it will be prone to early failure...
shutting the fuel pump off during idle will have no detremental effects on the pump or the system itself..

Man, you don't know how glad I was to read your post. For a bit of history, please read my posts under "flooding problems". Anyway, I really need your help. As I mentioned earlier, my rex has been at a foreign (specifically German) shop in Franklin, TN for over 4 months now and these guys cannot diagnose and correct the problems. Currently it's "getting too much fuel volume in the injectors and they don't know why". Would you be willing to take over the repair? We live in Shelbyville and would gladly bring it to you and leave it (hopefully on a weekend if it's convenient for you cos it's quite a haul from Shelbyville). Can you and would you help us?

:blue:

I hate to ask such a stupid question, but RX-7 is flooded and my boyfriend is trying to get it home from work...so the dumb blonde question of the day is...what is ATF??? Automatic Tranmission Fluid??? or is it the brand name of a certain product???? Thanx!

Yes ma'am! Any old ATF will do...make sure it's fresh and red. :)

Thanx SOOOOOOO much...I've actually learned alot from you guys today...reading and searching all the posts THANX bunches!!!

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