So last weekend I decided to do a nice tuneup to my '88 vert. I replaced the spark plugs and wires (both NGK), the O2 sensor, the pulsation dampener, had the injector's cleaned (witchhunter, all passed), and replaced the spider hoses for the oil injectors (kit from mazdatrix). I pulled off the upper intake et al. to do the work, and put it back on, start my car up, and it starts belching white smoke from both the exhaust and the engine compartment. It smelled and burned very much of half burnt fuel. From what I could tell, the smoke in the engine compartment was not coming from the O2 sensor or exhaust manifold.

It also wouldn't stay running. It would rev up to 3000, then almost immediately drop and stall. If I held the peddle down, it would rev fine at high RPM, but would hesitate at lower RPMs, ie bounce back and forth between two readings. Another interesting tidbit is there was a repetitive clicking noise from the BAC when the key is turned to on, but the engine is not starting. This did not occur all the time, though.

I'm thinking something is awry on the primary fuel rail given the low rpm hesitation. I double checked and I can't find any hoses disconnected or loose terminals. When putting the manifold back on, I didn't replace the gasket, but I did use a high-temp putty gasket maker.

This is my first rx7 and the first real engine work that I've done to it, so any thoughts or suggestions would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

Didn't happen to mix up the plug wires, did you?

 

Did you spill any coolant on the engine? That would explain the white smoke in the engine bay.

 

no, I double checked the spark wires, they're all on correctly and snugged. There was a little coolant spilt, but not enough to cause all of the smoke. Any ideas what the symptoms would be if the primary was leaking by pulsation dampener? I'm wondering if I got that tight enough. And I did get the two crush washers for it.