I bought a 88 n/a rx-7 in marginal condition and towed it home this week. It starts and idles fine, but won't run over 1700 rpm's. The guy had removed the air pump belt, which I replaced. But that didn't make any difference. Still cuts out and drops back to an idle, like its getting flooded. It's my first rotary, where do I begin?

 

Check the pressure sensor on the right side strut tower make sure it has vacumm to it from the intake just under air intake boot on the right lower side of the lower intake manifold. Hell there many possiabities it could be like a badly stopped up exhaust. Or not enough fuel pressure.Make sure to have good tune parts hell someone could have messed with crank angle sensor and have it out of time, A lot of times when there `s problems with these cars there simple and they can have more than one thing out of wack where someone who doesn`t know rotarys just goes jacking with everyting till some good come from it, But usally by then you can have a real damm big mess.

 

First off, welcome. Ok, it can be many things. Does the car reak of fuel in the exhaust? If so it could be that you're dumping way too much fuel..

-First id check for good spark on all 4 plugs... make sure your plug wires are wired correctly (L1 and L2 to the front and rear bottom plugs, respectively. T1 and T2 to the front and rear top plugs, respectively)

-Get a timing light and check your timing (check the FSM for directions, or theres a link in the 2nd gen FAQ list in this forum)

-Check for any air leaks. Do you have a guage to measure your vacuum at idle?

-Your exhaust could be badly plugged. Running cats? Has the car been sitting?

-Check compression. Make sure you remove the valve on the unit so it doesnt hold a reading. That way you can check for 3 solid bounces on all rotor faces.

Just a few to get you started... good luck

 

Maybe your exhaust/cats are clogged and aren't allowing gases to escape freely enough to run high rpm. Try removing cats. Just unbolt them from the manifold and give it a shot. It's going to be really loud so make sure it's in mid day.