dlbchik

OK...bought an 88 for cheap out in the country and bought an engine off EBAY. When replacing the blown engine, I notice rat nests in transmission and air filter. I finish the engine swap and end up tow starting it. Ran very crappy and smoked pretty badly. Smoke even came from under hood and through stickshift boot. Looked under car and cat was glowing.
I thought that there must be a nest in the exhaust, and with removal, will run fine...wrong. I took off the entire exhaust, and cranked up. VERY LOUD, but would not hold an idle. Would go to 3K rpms and die. Crank and hold gas...goes to about 5k, sputters, backfires, and still dies. Upon inspection of exhaust, I could not find any nest and wonder if it is blocked. It was not my answer for car running badly after all. Could it be a rotor is stuck? I bought some MMO to put into later.
Also...buzzer is going off after about 15 seconds when I turn the key to on or start the car. Buzzer stays on until I turn key back, in which 15 seconds later, rings again. Very annoying. So...symptoms sounding familiar?
Thanks

1FastT2

iTrader: (1)

Which of the buzzers is going off? Did you double and triple check all of your connections and make sure all of the vacuum hoses are in the proper location?

J-Rat

iTrader: (2)

OMFG!!! This is a nightmare.

Buzzer, probably the coolant or low oil. Look at your dash for your warning lights. Glowing cats = BAD CATS! thats not helping your situation any.

Runs then dies? Either an AFM problem or a vacuum leak. CHECK YOUR ENTIRE INTAKE SYSTEM! If your intake runner from your air-cleaner box to your TB is off, your car WILL NOT RUN!

After an engine install, I ALWAYS check the ECU codes. There are a million sensors, switches and stuff to be connected and you WILL forget one. Here is the link:

http://home.rmci.net/panther/86_88ecu.htm

It sounds like you may have mutiple problems. Oh and for the love of god, DO A COMPRESSION CHECK!!!!

Rat (I quit....)

xfeastonarsex

iTrader: (5)

I second the nomination that the cats are bad or clogged.

dlbchik

I am pretty sure all vacuum hoses are on right. A connector at bottom of radiator and one at the tranny broke when trying to disconnect them. However, before the swap, I hooked up the battery to see if everything worked, and it was making that sound then.
Any ideas on the engine?

J-Rat

iTrader: (2)

The buzzer only goes off for 3 reasons that I can think of.

Low Coolant
Low Oil
Youve hit 6500 RPM with a big grin on your face.

The connector on the bottom of the radiator doesnt control the coolant buzzer, its the one on the TOP of the radiator, dead center.

Rat

dlbchik

OK, 88 SE with a second used engine just put in, at first would crank but not hold idle, just revved to 4000 rpms and died. Flooded often. Pulled car and car cranked and drove...smoked very badly (gas and cat was clogged, cat glowed red). Removed and unplugged cat, pulled plugs for deflooding, but T1 plug broke during removal. Replaced plug but this time it didn't reenter correctly and I am afraid I stripped the spark plug hole. Now car will not crank, even after pulling. Did I ruin this engine? Would the misaligned plug cause the engine not to crank? Could it be the coils? Any advice on next steps to take?

niner

wow, sounds like you got some problems.

if the threads for the spark plug have been damaged, there is no easy way to fix. if you are unsure about the way the plug feels going in, then do not touch it. leave it out, and get someone who has more experience than you to do it. it is very critical and you do not want it to be damaged.

as far as the next steps to take... make sure everything is connected properly, check manual if unsure. check compression on engine. pull fuel pump relay and check for spark at all wires. make sure all injectors are clicking. check fuel pressure. you need a good manual and you need to go through the proper procedure to find out whats wrong, if your serious about fixing it yourself. if you are not approaching it right, you might just be wasting your time.

good luck.

hypntyz7

I second all that, and have some to add. An engine swap in a 7 is unlike a swap in any other car on the road; you can take a toyota camry and swap in a junkyard motor, and if everything is connected (and sometimes even if it isnt) the bitch will fire on the first turn of the key. Well, even though 2gens are still EFI motors, theyre vastly different, and far from a turnkey swap. Sometimes it takes even someone like myself 2-4 days to get an engine swap to fire up adn run anywhere near right.

The most common things that'll srew you: AFM connector loose or off; large vacuum/intake leak, such as intake tube, BAC tube(s), brake MC hose, etc.; non-connected wires (especially in and around the ecu area), fuel lines backwards (supply off the filter in front on the engine), or no fuel to the engine (fuel pump not running). Depending on what kind of engine swap (longblock, where all the accessories and wiring were not disturbed since it last ran, or shortblock where everything got transferred part by part) you can cause a lot of problems by jostling all that stuff around.

Bottom line, there are no les than 25 things that could be causing your problems, and probably a combination of them. This is the point in time when people on this forum, even those well experienced, wont be of much help to you because we're not standing in front of the car, able to put our hands and testing equipment on it. There are some things you just have to see/hear to figure out; you might call something a knock that I might call a click, etc. etc.

Now on this issue of sparkplugs, it sounds like you may have just screwed yourself there. In your defense I have had plugs that seemed to be fairly tight going in/out before, and they just needed some lube/antisieze. I suggest you remove the plug, use liberal amounts of wd-40 etc. on the threads on the housing, and clean the threads of the plug itself with a wire brush or the like, then apply some oil or antisieze to the threads and slowly put it back in. I have yet to see a plug crossthread in a housing; even though theyre aluminum, theyre made very well/strong and the threads dont just give up without some major torque behind them, which is hard to obtain on a rotary because of the position of the plugs (and your ratchet in the engine bay).

I have gotten engines to run before with one plug totally missing (unbeknownst to me at the time) but it just depends on it's compression on the opposing rotor; having a plug loose would certainly decrease compression on one rotor and cut the chances of it starting in half. You shouldnt *have* to pull the thing either. Usually new (or different sets of used) plugs with some oil/atf in the lower holes will do the trick if nothign else is seriously out of whack. Keep i mind plugs foul easy as hell in a rotary, especially one that has sat for a while, or flooded, etc.

dlbchik

OK, deflooded the chambers and we pulled the plugs, cleaned and oiled them, and reinserted them. Also we pulled the coils and wires from a 90 GTU and the car started right up, but after shooting to 4000 rpms for a few secs, it would die. Smoke was pouring from the intake manifold gasket and from the exhaust pipes. We are going to pull the manifold and replace the gasket...but why was smoke coming from the exhaust? We already knocked out chunks from the cat which we suspected of clogging it...should I consider another? And could the car revving but dying be related to anything other than the exhaust. The car will rev longer by gassing it, but will not stay at an idle...any advice?

sunshine

iTrader: (3)

Its normal for the car to smoke a little after de-flooding. Its burning up all the originally unbunt fuel.

Oh...and I didnt catch (or you didnt write) where the replacement engine came from, and its accessories. What I mean, particularly, is the injectors. Some models have high impedance (ohm) injectors and some have low impedance injectors. Which models have which escapes me at the moment, but I think your 88 minght have low imp. They are NOT interchangable.

dlbchik

I have an 88 SE, but the replacement engine came from an 86 GXL with 97k miles. We also have a 90 GTU that has its obvious differences, but we assumed the 88 and 86 engines are the same. We still have the 88 engine to pull the injectors from, and if they are different, perhaps while replacing the intake manifold gasket we can swap the injectors. Thanks for bringing that to our attention!

niner

a note on the injectors. the 86-88.5 (i think its 88.5)are the low impedence (resistance), the 89+ are the high impedence kind. the wire connector is different, so if it plugs in, it should be good. you could also look and see if the plastic part of the injectors are the same color.

I also have suggustions, which may or may not be useful depending on how soon you need this car to run and such. why dont you send the injectors off the old engine to RC engineering to have them cleaned/tested. that way you could eliminate injector issues. also, if you are good w/ electrical stuff, i suggest you get out the factory manual and add extra ground wires to each (4 of them) ground wire coming out of the ecu. and clean up all other major electrical connections in engine bay (battery, alternator, afm etc.) I'm not trying to steer you in the wrong direction, but every little bit helps.

hypntyz, good post.

if the engine is OK (decent compression/no water inside), has no intake leaks, working afm/cas/coils/tps/ecu, fuel sytem is good (pump, lines, filter, and injectors), is not flooded, has good plugs, and everything is hooked up properly IT SHOULD RUN.... this should be true unless something is really wack

dlbchik

The car started fine now, but it would just climb to 4000 rpms peak, and stall unless giving it gas. After a search on the forum and seing the signs of intake leaks, we realized that smoke was pouring from the ACV gasket and a little from the intake manifold, and after close inspection we found a broken hose with a green cylinder (possibly connects to actuator) under the throttle body that will be replaced also.. I ordered the gaskets and will receive them Monday. Thanks everyone for pointing us in the right direction. Hopefully this will solve our problem!

dlbchik

Whew...OK, we replaced the gaskets and put her together again. After starting, smoked really bad, would not hold idle, and all warning lights stayed on. After several searches, we eliminated 3 problems... Warning lights go off due to changing out the altenator, the smoking quit after disconnecting the OMP rod (believe it needs adjusting), and now the car will stay running due to completely gutting the cats. However, the car will still not hold an idle, and now there is the annoyingly loud afterburning. Absolutely positive ALL vaccuum hoses are connected, AFM plugged in, and the BAC is connected. About out of ideas...

dlbchik

Oh...there is a Green/Black wire with a black female connector that I cannot find a plug in for. It seperates from the wiring harness exactly between the altenator, secondary fuel rail and air pump...is it supposed to be plugged into something? Seems like it could be a ground, but I cannot find anything to attach it to....

dr0x

Sounds like the temp sensor for the aux fan.

Icemark

You will need to swap the injectors, the cut off date was early 87, your 88 ECU and wiring is expecting the newer restance not the old 86-87 resistance.

You did use the 88's engine harness right??? It is the newer design that doesn't have the resister pack.

Amur_

If you disconnected your OMP (you said you disconnected the rod) then I'd urge you to put premix in your gas tank. The rotors (and specifically the apex seals) will not be receiving adequate lubrication. That is bad.

If your tank was full, you'd want 15 oz of premix (a tad heavy, but you want to keep yourself covered.) Look at how much gas you have now and figure out what to add.

That revving to 4k. The car is supposed to rev to 3k when started. Since the TPS/air idle screw isn't set for the new motor, I'd guess that it's contributing to your start-up hitting the higher revs (just a guess here.)
If you're not liking this initial rev, try unplugging the leads from the sensor on the bottom of the rad (driver's side.) This disables the 3k start-up. It won't affect anything else.

scott tsilis

you need a solenoid resistor pack. it is normally located on the right front fender well of the car and it is a silver box. all rx-7's up until 87.5 had high different impedence injectors in them. your 88 ecu will probably run the motor but you need to plug the resistor into the large yellow plug hanging off the wiring harness. since you say your motor is an 86 or something it will have one. this resistor changes the impedence to the injectors. thus , your injectors are running f-d up right now. you could do some damage to them if you continue your efforts. i did the swap in reverse and found i didn't need the pack anymore after evtensive research. if you need one i have it still. good luck and let us know how it goes.

scott tsilis

what year is the motor? asny motor made before 87.5 model year needs a solenoid resistor pack . this resistor changes the impedence of the injectors from high to low. or is it low to high. chances are your new motor's injectors are of a different impedence unless the motor came out of a car made after 87.5. the wiring harness on the motor will have a large oval/round yellow plug coming off the same side that goes into your ecu. if that plug is going to nothing your problem is as good as solved. let me know what happens and good luck dude.

hypntyz7

First, do a compression check. As I always say, #1 rule of rotary troubleshooting.

Second, to scott tillis, will you let that injector resistor pack rest a while man? You're not correct in what you're saying here. IF you want me to write out why you're wrong, i will, but Id rather not bother. Just stop going around telling everyone the injector resistor pack is the answer to all their problems. You're spreading misinformation in the other thread as well, I just dont feel like going back and dealing with it anymore, people don't listen/read well these days.

Relisys190

iTrader: (4)

Rats nest? like real rats? Maybe you've got rat teeth instead of apex seals. hey, it's a thought

-Markus

"Check everything.. do a compression check on your current HALF RUNNING motor"

scott tsilis

sorry k.l. I just thought i was listing a possibility to an obviously frustrated man. i did not mean to frustrate anyone else.

Terrh

iTrader: (7)

if he hasn't fixed this problem by now, I don't think he ever will...