darkwaveboi

hey, its pretty cold down here in the Washington DC area and i earlier today started my car and began to drive. i normally rev upwards to 5000 rpm on any stop to go acceleration and when i hit around 5000 rpm it feels like the air going into the engine just flew through w/out detonating..i know it sounds weird, but it feels like a HUGE vacuum leak. This only occurs when the engine isnt warm at all (7 hours of school the car sat b4 startup daily). i was wondering...is this MY cars problem, or is there some reason why when its cold it feels like the power curve absolutely dies around 5000 rpm. this doesnt happen once the car gets warm though. also, when starting up, it doesnt usually do the normal cold startup routine. it goes up to like 500 rpm, dies down to around 250 rpm, then makes its way slowely up to 2000....

oil has been changed recently, looks like the coolant is empty though, im putting more in today though. could there be anything wrong with it before i go through the stranuous work of finding a vacuum leak in the intake?

ZachSpazz

Why would you want to subject a cold engine to high revs? That's terrible for the seals, housings, EVERYTHING! My procedure is to drive like a granny (shifting from 2500-3000) until my idle drops to 650-750 and about 10-15 minutes into a drive. It takes a while for the oil to warm up to operating temperature and until then i refrain from driving above 3K and not getting on the boost.

darkwaveboi

yeah..when my dad was teaching me to drive stick, he'd always yell to go easy on it when it was cold..."dont ruin my integra" i heard all the time...but now that i actually SEE that its no good for the whole car, im starting to understand. I guess the book is right, no matter how much someone (dad) tells u not to do something, you refrain from it till personal experience...now im starting to get a lil more tedious about a TII swap w/out an experienced rotary tech doin it

ZachSpazz

Glad to see you understand...engines don't like operating in the cold. Hell, many new cars have a lower redline until operating temp. is reached, this prevents premature wear and damage. Plus, the gearbox feels so much better when it's been churning for a few minutes anyways...

NevadaLoneWolf

Starting it in gear might help?

Scott 89t2

the second set of throttle plates don't open when the car is cold (on purpose) so if you try and rev when it's cold the air is just cut off. this is probably what you are feeling. just drive at 3k till it warms up.

Mallard Duck

I know exactly what you're talking about. When my car is cold, it feels like it wants to be anything but hauling my buttocks down the street. In fact, it runs / feels / sounds /acts like **** if I rev it past like 3,000 when it's cold. This is fine, because I know all of the terrible things that happen to an engine when it's run hard, cold.

Think about it. Your rotary engine is a giant sandwich, many types of metal held together by long rods. All these pieces need to be warmed evenly. Nothing good can happen when you take cold, brittle metal parts and churn them upto 5,00rpms

Once the temperature gauge begins to ascend, let your rotary spin.

darkwaveboi

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Mallard Duck
When my car is cold, it feels like it wants to be anything but hauling my buttocks down the street. In fact, it runs / feels / sounds /acts like **** QUOTE]

lol