I have a mostly stock 87 Turbo II that has developed a drivability issue. The only mods are a catless downpipe and the air pump removed.

My issue is that the car misfires horribly. Mainly under load, but also Shen you rev it in neutral. There is also a hesitation at idle. It sounds like it gas an exhaust leak on the front of the motor, that gets louder with the throttle plate closed. I'm assuming this is coming from the EGR.

I've been searching for a while now and I can't find anything telling me where the EGR is located. Pics would be nice, but a detailed write up of how to get to it wound work too.

Will it hurt anything to remove the EGR system? The car has no cats, and there is no emissions testing here in Indiana. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

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EGR is on the back of the TII block, as Hailers pointed out. You can somewhat check its operation by applying vacuum to it at idle. If the idle gets worse with vacuum applied to it, then it's probably not the issue. If you pop the hose off and the supply hose is applying vacuum to it at idle, then it's possibly hooked up wrong, or the solenoid valve is bad. The ecu controls when the egr solenoid valve is open. Should be cruising over 30mph usually, I'm not sure if the Rx7 is any different.

You should search for the TII vacuum diagram. There's a good colored version on the forum here somewhere.

 

Ok, so if the EGR is on the back if the motor I don't think this us my problem. The exhaust leak sound seems like it is coming from the front of the engine.

 

Damn fat fingers on my iPhone. :p

 

Removed the airpump.

Is the ACV still bolted on the engine. See attached jpg?

The airpump fed the ACV air in stk form. Is the sound of the exhaust leak coming from the large metal nipple on the ACV??? That large nipple is NOT seen in the attached jpg. No sound or air should be coming out the large ACV nipple shown in the attached jpg.

 

I don't recall it being there, but I'll have to look again.

 

Ok, the acv is still there and open. I also located the EGR, but I have no idea how I'm going to get to it with the abs in the way.

 

I capped off the acv and started it back up. There is a sound like an exhaust leak coming from the very front of the motor, almost like it's behind the water pump.

 

I would get a block off kit and do an emissions delete. Removes a lot of clutter and makes diagnosing problems like this much simpler.

As far as finding the exhaust leak goes, you could wait til the car is completely cooled down, spray soapy water where you want to check for a leak, pull the EGI fuse, and crank the motor. The compression from turning the motor over should force enough air out the exhaust ports to get some bubbles where your leak is. If not, you can put the EGI fuse in and try letting the car idle, but its not going to take long before the manifold/turbo/exhaust heats up enough to evaporate the water.

 

Is it easiest to pull the engine to do the block off kit? It seems like the abs takes up half the engine bay. I can't even get my hand near the turbo.

 

Well I did mine with the engine in, then again I don't have ABS. However, I still think it should be do-able with the motor in. You shouldn't really need to get to the turbo anyways for the block off kit. Take the UIM/throttle body off and all of the intake piping and there should be plenty of room to work.

 

The exhaust sound noise turned out to be the acv sucking air. That noise went away when I capped it off. The misfire/lack of power didn't, so I did the water trick to try and get rid of any carbon buildup. After 10 gallons running through the motor, it idles perfectly smooth, revs smoothin neutral, and holds a steady speed better. It still has a pretty bad misfire when accelerating though. I think the EGR is bad, and that's what is causing the issues. I just don't want to have to take off the uim to fix it.

 

pulling an engine on a car with ABS is even less fun than working around it doing small things like a block off kit.