Lately my startups in the morning and after the car has sat a couple hours have been challenging, with the car not cranking over and backfiring for up to a minute sometimes. My pal Eriksseven who worked on teh car when i originally purchased it said that it might have been from a bad LIM gasket so I ordered a new one from RB.

Today my part came and i started to follow the chiltons on intake manifold removal. After hitting a roadblock with the removal and figuring out that the turbo needs to be taken out, I give up and start putting everything back together until the weekend. But before i put the UIM on, i look at the area where the engine meets the transmission and there is a HUGE space... probably between 1/4 - 1/2 inch at some points... the car has been driving alright and everything other than the initial warmup thing so what is up with the gap?? anyways, I then put everything back together and started it up... for some reason, the car actually had a normal start up (loops around 1500).. i shut the car off and tried again, but this time the car jumped up to 2500, then dropped down to 1500 again. iit slowly climbed back up the 2000 and rapidly pulsed around there. What is happening to my rx-7??

 

I would think that this -"i look at the area where the engine meets the transmission and there is a HUGE space... probably between 1/4 - 1/2 inch at some points..."- is priority one.
Bad idle and cranky starting pales in comparison to the transmission apparently falling out of the car.

 

yeah i agree completely. I am going to baby the car until i get it checked out... i think i'll just take it to a transmission place this weekend, but it is my daily driver so i have to drive it for now.

 

Take some pics of that gap, man!!

 

why not just tighten up the bell housing bolts, i know it sounds difficult, but you can reach most of them with a wrench. and it would save you from paying an overpriced tranny shop to do it,,,,

 

There is sections that are naturally spaced as the iron is indented. Pay more attention next time and look if it's a machined gap or a separation gap and judge if the bolts need tightened. This is auto mech 101 if this is to hard pay someone. The other issue is more then likely vacuum leaks or sticking throttle body I would also check the TPS.

 

the gap is normal, if you look on a normal tranny, there is a thin cover bolted over it to prevent dirt,etc from falling into the bellhousing area

 

alright reading that the gap is normal just made me feel so much better. This weekend when i swap the gasket i will tighten up the bellhousing bolts, but it just look like a seperation from the irons..