RoTo_007

whats up people.... im fairly new to the world of rotary motors and knoweledge of them is very minimal..being that ive had all hondas in the past it alot harder for me to pick up on **** as easily as i would with a cylinder motor.....but heres my problem:

i just recently picked up a 1987 RX7 with the 13b non turbo rotary motor. i got the car for about $200. the guy that i bought the car from said that i was sitting for about 6 months before he last drove it. when i first went to go see the car and run it, it didnt start. i was cranking but it wouldnt start. i noticed that the battery, and the terminals were very corroded so i bought new a new battery and terminals as well as some ether carb cleaner. the next day i trued again to start the car with the new batter and the terminals and the car started! i was so happy but as soon as i took my foot off the clutch it turned off????..so i thought i might have had it in gear but it wasnt it was in neutral and it still shut off so i kept my foot on the clutch when i started it again and it started up but now the onyl way it would stay idling was if i kept my foot on the gas . i was like what the @#$ !?? how is it possible for the clutch to controll the engine idle?? and why isnt it idling on its own?? so basically i couldnt start the car unless both the clutch and gas was depressed even tho the car is fuel injected. so i tried to use my knoweledge of cylinder cars and figure it out. every car needs air,fuel, and spark to start so i kno it was gettin air and it was ovibously gettin spark or else it wouldnt have started but i didnt kno about the fuel....at this point i decided to spray some of the carb cleaner into the throttle body .now i know the car isnt carburated but the cleaner is pretty much made out of the same stuff as the starting fluid so i sprayed some of that into and i started and it started and idled for about 5 seconds and shut off . so i figured that i spray some more so i did and i tried to start it but then it didnt even start at all. i went back ot the store and bought some straight starting fluid (ether) and i sprayed it into the motor and it started again but for only 5 seconds and once again turned right off.i sprayed it again and now it dosent start at all...so im right back where i started.. i dont understand why it wont idle...did i spray too much starting fluid?? it was starting earlier and running as long as i kept my foot on the clutch and gas pedal but now it dosent even turn on at all..i went from running to starting, to nothing?? im assuming from the random idling its doing when i spray various fluids in ot the throttle body that its a fuel problem but i could be wrong. one person it could be that theres no fuel pressure which is whi it starts but dosent stay on unless i keep my foot on the gas. someone please help me out and point me in the right direction.

selanne8

depending on how much starter fluid you put in, you might have flooded the engine. i don't have any exp with unflooding, but if you do a search here, you'll find that plenty of people have done it.

as for keeping your engine running, you might have an intake leak. my car had the same behavior when i swapped engines. for me, my intake manifold wasn't sitting flush and caused a leak. the engine made a loud whirring noise when that happened.

good luck,
j.ho

WonkoTheSane

iTrader: (2)

It sounds to me like it might be a combination of two problems:

1st is that the spark plugs are likely old, which is what's causing it to not start every time you crank it. get some new NGKs from advance or pep boys or whereever. Just make sure you get all 4 (two leading and two trailing). The ones labeled T (trailing) go up at the top, the L (leading) go on the bottom.

2nd - When a seven starts up for about 4 or 5 seconds, then dies, it's normally the AFM (Air Flow Meter). There's a switch in there that cause the fuel pump to kick on, yours might be broken. The way to check this is to jumper the fuel pump test lead. Look in around the front of the pass. side shock tower, find the yellow(I thinK?) two-pin connector, it will have a black rubber shield all around it. if you jumper that with the key in the "ON" position, you will hear the fuel pump pushing fuel through your fuel rails. Try to start the car now. If this works, very cool I wouldn't recommend driving your car too much with the fuel pump jumpered, go to the classified section at the front of this forum, find someone parting out a car and grab a used one.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

RoTo_007

ok cool thanks for the info althought i dont know where this shock tower your talking about is located....like i said before this is my very first rx7 ever and i really know nothing about them and im not to sure i kno what u mean by jumping the fuel pump.. im assuming you mean to run a constant positive wire to the fuel punp so it stays on?? ...also where is the air flow adjustment on the RX7?? i kno that on hondas its located on the throttle body but i cant seem to find it on the tihis car??

WonkoTheSane

iTrader: (2)

Alright, first things first: Go read the FAQs up at the top of the 2nd gen section. You can download Factory Service Manuals (FSM) there. This will help you quite a bit in locating things. You may also want to invest the $15 dollars in a haynes manual. Not nearly as comprehensive as the FSM, but it's nice to have a reference manual out in the engine bay with you.

Now, I'm going to borrow two pictures of dDub's engine bay, I hope he doesn't mind. Both pics will be at the end.

The shock tower will be on the left (passenger) side, he has an engine brace/cross bar going between the top of the two shock towers. mounted to the front of the shock tower is the "Boost (or vacuum) sensor." [it's a small black square with an electrical connection, and a rubber vacuum line out the bottom] Follow the wire down from that to the wiring harness, and you're looking for the connector I desribed above somewhere in there. You're correct about the jumpering process, all you need to do is "short" the two sides of the connector with a wire.

dDub's Bay:


This side you can see where it will be hanging at:

gassrx

The exact thing hapenned to me. My problem was that the BOV was stuck open. In other words HUGE vacuum leak. Check the TID, and all air hoses to the throttle body.