duhblr

First thing, Thanks for the help I've gotten so far from the archives. I am not an owner of an RX7, but my brother-in-law is, and I'm trying to help. His '86 n/a 13B is having some major issues. If someone here can point me in the right direction it would be a great help.
This car has about 88,000 neglected miles on it now. It's a 5 speed without A/C. It's been having problems starting, especially hot. Through researching the archives here, I've replaced the vacuum lines(the ones I can get), and replaced the plugs and wires (ALL were original!). Checked the igniters and coils(they checked okay). Noticed and repaired melted wiring for the TPS. Tested it, seems to be okay. The air filter is recently new. Now, each time he has a problem starting this thing, I go to help, and we end up having to jump start it. It'll crank and crank until it fires. When it does start, it smokes like a freight train, kind of like steam, but masses of it. And it reeks of gas, like it's dumping fuel. This has been an on-going problem with this car. But recently, after I replaced the vacuum lines, he was driving it and it lost almost all its power, to the point that he got passed up by a pickup truck pulling a horse trailer on route 95! It idles real rough, doesn't run smooth at all, seems as though, if it were a piston engine, it lost all but 1 or 2 cylinders.This happened suddenly. The vacuum lines I replaced are all okay. Also this last time we noticed it was pushing coolant out of the overflow reservoir. It's not running hot. He overheated it once about 2 years ago, but shut it right down, and it's been okay up until now.
I am a mechanic by trade, but I haven't messed with cars for over 15 years now, and never on rotarys. I work on diesel trucks. I've been out of the car trade for so long that I've lost my touch, and I don't have all the testing equipment for cars. Can anyone set us straight here? Any insight would be greatly appreciated from you people, seems to me you are all very serious about these cars.
If it makes a difference, we live in Connecticut (for considering weather-related issues). Thank You again for any help anyone can give.

WAYNE88N/A

Sounds like she's flooding bad when warm, due to a lack of compression...

And the lack of compression could be causing all the other problems you're having...

Perform a compression test, give us the numbers for starters. Search for "compression test"...

May be rebuild time, which you could probably do after reading all the info on this forum

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

First I would take a compression test to see the engine condition. If it passes, you can look further, but sounds like it's seen better days. Coolant seal kaput.
My opinion.

duhblr

Hmm... compression test.. okay, I'll see if I can find my guages and let you guys know what it comes up with...probably in a couple of days. We have manuals for this car so I can look there for procedures and spec's. I have a feeling you're all right though.
I'll post again after I check this. Thank you so much for your guidance and support!

duffles

sounds like leaking injectors are causing the flooding, does it have problems starting right after a quick turn off meaning it did not warm up all the way? if so the injectors are leaking, but the coolant seal soande to be gone. it is prob. time for a rebuild do it yourself and you will learn about the engine while saving an a** load of money.

duhblr

An update....
Thanks for all your help guys, but I think we've found a good part of the problem. I disconnected the cat converters and all the power is back! I never did get to do a compression test-couldn't get my hands on a tester. The owner says it's running good now and hopefully the starting problem is fixed, too. I think this contributed to both. However I did notice that the after market battery clamps he has on this were not connected very well. We repaired them as best as we could for now.
With crossed fingers, I say again, thank you all! I now know much more about this engine than I ever wanted to! LOL A pretty amazing little power plant for its size, I must say!