Anyways, I just sold this TII-swapped Rx7 to a local guy who had never owned an Rx7 before--much less a stripped down, freshly rebuild Turbo Rx7... Anyways, he called me the next day basically unable to deal with it, so I offered to take it back and reinstall the thermowax and the BAC for him, as well as a different UIM without the TB-mod done to it--basically anything to make it easier on the guy while he was getting used to it.

Upon meeting the guy, I started the car and it seemed pretty flooded but it was able to hold a (hot) idle after about 5-10 seconds, at a semi-low 600 RPM's. Anyways, I drove it out of there, and everything was normal--smooth cruising, decent idle etc. However, several minutes later, and (ironically) as I entered the rush-hour traffic on the freeway, the car basically started to idle like it wanted to die, and began popping like crazy. As I revved the engine to prevent it from dying, it shook A LOT in the lower RPM's, and basically felt like it was running on one rotor when I would rev it up... Anyone who's experienced severe coolant seal problems knows this "one rotor" feeling (different than the severity of apex-seal failure). Anyways, it started bucking and popping at light cruise and I had to 'heel-toe' to prevent the car from dying as I was in stop and go traffic.

Since it didn't go away (like a severely flooded engine would after about a minute or two MAX), I got off at the next exit, where I popped off the IC to get a good look at everything... Everything was installed, so not knowing what to do--I raised the idle just to help get me back home.

As I drove out of there, the problem persisted with the popping, shuddering, inconsistent rev and bad/jerky response for nearly 10 minutes--and even with the significantly raised idle, it was still hovering just below 1000RPM's, just trying to hang on.

HOWEVER, several minutes later as I was coming to a stop, the idle only dropped to 1700 RPM's and the car began basically purring like a kitten. :frown: Seriously confused (since I was 90% sure that the engine HAD to be blown), I continued driving, only to find that yes, magically, everything that had been wrong was no longer wrong! Strong idle, smooth acceleration, no more popping... I drove the car confidently for around 20 minutes, and it's like the whole 15 minute "blown engine" fiasco had never happened!

Anyways, anyone have a clue what this could be? I'm guessing that the old 550 primaries in there might be really sticky, and actually "stuck" open for those 15 minutes of driving hell? Who knows... Then again, that's why I ask.

Suggestions anyone?

 

Count your blessings. At my shop we called them good gremlins. Then again, there are bad gremlins. If it doesn’t happen again you will never find the cause.

 

Sounds like an injector or Vac issue to me. Good luck finding it like Maven said. If it aint happenin, ya cant diagnose it.

 

Sounds like my engines when i flood the ever living **** out of them but manage to get them running on one rotor and the other rotor eventualy starts to fire again

 

Test your leading coil packs.

 

temporary sticking injector maybe?