caje

Allright, I've got some great help from this forum already and appreciate it greatly. I'm new to the rx7 and have a learned a lot reading this site, but im still having some problems I hope someone can help with. I have an 88 n/a convertible. It sat up for a month due to some clutch problems which are resolved. Of course I learned from here that sitting up is very bad, and resulted in some flooding problems. The car ran fine before sitting, always started and performed well. I had noticed some exhaust rattling , but no real loss of performance. Ok, so after some advice from here, I did the unflooding procedures and could get her to crank after a while. However, I would have to run her at high rpms (minimum 4g) to keep her running. If she dropped and I didnt give gas she'd die. Well one day after hearing another's story of the same, I decided to run the hell out of it til it ran right, but then flames from cat under passenger door side ignited leaf litter under car. So I was advised I probably had a clogged cat also, which would explain the rattling previously heard under there before sitting. I have no $$$ at the moment to buy new cat or pipes. So I was advised to remove cat get her running then gut the cat if i wanted or get new exhaust. I removed the big cat under driver door area tonight and finally got her started twice. Of course it popped and was rough as hell, but still ran under high rpms as before for a while before dying. Flames and sparks shot out occassionally, but caused no damage. My questions are : is that normal? Do I have precat probs also? If it ran ok and started ok before even with somwhat rattling exhaust, why the hell won't it start and stay running now? Can it run right without the rest of the exhaust not hooked up at an idle, or is that why it wouldnt stay running again tonight after removing cat while rear exhaust not connected? And finally; if i've done correctly so far, should I just be prepared to keep her running high rpms til she warms up or burns whatever **** out and disregard sparks and flames cause that's normal for this car, just make sure nothing flammable is underneath??? I know a variety of these questions have been covered somewhat separately, but i couldnt find anything that covered both my problems simultaneously. So I mainly wanted to know, am I on the right track, just have to gun it for a while and ignore the sparks til it warms up, or am I missing some vital step that would simplify getting it running right again. Thank you very much for any advice offered.

Hollywood56

First check your compression,anything above 80 psi is fine, check to see if you have spark and fuel,fuel filter,check spark plugs and wires too,vacuum leaks.

Hollywood56

set and check your tps also.By multimeter.

J-Rat

iTrader: (2)

Vacuum leaks...Most definately.

caje

Thanks for the responses guys. I'll check for the vacuum leaks, but I just dont see how I acquired one since the car ran ok b4 sitting, why would I have a vacuum leak now? The plugs are good, but it wouldnt hurt to check the fuel filter, thx for the advice on that too. From what I read, can I safely adjust the TPS since I cant really get the car warmed up to check it accurately? Also, does anyone know if it will run correctly without cat and catbacks hooked up, or is it necessary to have rear exhaust in place in order to get it to run?

Rotary Racer

Interesting, well let me see if I can shed some light onto the subject. While it sat with clutch problems I am assuming you had to replace the clutch? If you did replace the clutch are all your ground wires and wires to the starter connected securely? Also if you did a clutch job and did not disconnect the battery before you started did you by chance touch a positive wire to the chassis (IE you were taking off your starter and forgot about the battery and grounded the positive cable). Other than that I would say it’s a vacuum problem but as you said it ran before, so the object of this would be to go back everything you have done to your car from when it ran good till now. Can you give us a list of the things you have done to here while she was sitting?

- Dana

caje

The clutch problem ended up being a hole in the slave cylinder hydraulics, so I didnt have to disconnect anything but that line and slave cylinder. So really all i did initially after replacing the slave cylinder was the deflooding procedures such as removing plugs, egi fuses, squirting oil in cylinders etc. When having it run, the cat shot sparks and flames and got red hot while revving. So last night I removed cat being advised it was clogged, and hoping that was why it wouldnt stay running. Exhaust from cat on back is still disconnected. I got it started this morning and it was revving fairly smooth with the occasional popping from exhaust being open. It would run steady and strong at 4g rpms, but if it slipped below it would start to sputter out if i didnt keep the gas steady. I had to get to work so i didnt have time to keep it running for a long length of time. I did check vacuum lines, everything seemed ok. Somebody in an older thread i came across that seemed to be having flooding problems said he ran the hell out of his once he got it running and had to do it for a while then it was fine. Maybe I just need to commit to doing that , I dont know. I just wonder if its going to hurt anything keeping it at 4-6g rpms for an extended period of time. I dont know if this gives you any more insight, thanks for your help.