OustedFairlady

And no, not the whiz-bang go-fast type of performance. More along the lines of "does it work?" I'm an auto tech, and I'd rate myself as an 8 of 10 in terms of my skill with cars, but my experience with rotary engines is pretty limited. I'm learning, but some of the smaller oddities of our beloved 13Bs are simply beyond me just now.

Anyway, to the problem:

I recently picked up an '87 TurboII. 107xxx miles, one owner, garage kept, and generally babied by the previous owner (incidentally, she's 65 years old).

The car has exhibited signs of flooding, namely difficult/impossible to start, huge amounts of raw fuel on the plugs, etc. I've done some research and found that the AFM is likely bad, as the fuel pump turns on when the key is turned to the "Run" position.

I performed the deflooding procedure; pulled the plugs, spun the engine over for 10 seconds or so to remove excess fuel, put a bit of ATF in the rotor housings, and spun the engine over. The car started up on the second or third revolution.

Obviously, this means the engine was flooded. I performed a compression test with a standard tester when the engine was cold, before getting it running for the first time, and it showed 110psi on the front rotor, and 90psi on the rear. I'm unsure if running it has helped any (It ran for around an hour and drove around 2 miles). I haven't tested it at operating temp yet.

In any case, I've done a few minor things here and there to try to find out what problems it has. It doesn't overheat, and runs just around a third of the way up on the scale as far as temperature. The car has an odd idle, but won't die if I take my foot off the throttle. It has no issues idling for extended periods of time, just starting. It will idle for quite a while between 12-1500 RPMs, and then eventually will drop to around 800RPMs. When the idle drops, the quality of idle diminishes tremendously, and the car begins to shake. This leads me to suspect the compression on the rear rotor as being the culprit, as this is a common symptom of low compression on piston engines. If I'm wrong, tell me! I've not worked on rotaries before and this is all based on things I've read on the forums, not real world experience!

I drove the car briefly today, and put around 2 miles on it. I've noticed that the engine is slow to rev, and when the throttle is blipped, engine speed falls slowly. A classic symptom of a rich AFR, IIRC. The car exhibits a marked lack of power (3500RPM takeoff on a very light grade, otherwise it tries to stall), will not build boost, and above 20% throttle, will not climb past 3500RPM. I suspect the TPS is on the blink, although I haven't tested yet. I've read about the dreaded 3500RPM hesitation, and as I have only just gotten the car running, I haven't had a chance to correct the problem yet.

All that said, my question is thus:

Based on the information above, would it be the opinion of those more wizened than I that I need to buy apex seals, etc., and replace internal parts? Or would this set of problems point to a less drastic repair?

*EDIT*
Apologies, all. I forgot to mention:

The P.O. allowed the car to sit up for several years. I have no idea how many times the car was cranked in the period of time it sat, but I'm assuming it wasn't. Last date of inspection was 2004. The P.O. asserted that her growing arthritis pain made it too much of a bother to shift the manual transmission, and she preferred her automatic car.

Thanks again.

OustedFairlady

Nobody has anything at all?

bullet13

iTrader: (5)

I would start by replacing all vaccuum lines and make sure that mice didn't chew any wires up since it has sat for a long time. When I bought my FD it had a lot of problems and most of them was caused by vaccuum lines.

Kentetsu

Don't get too worried yet.

The flooding, hard starting, and poor performance could all be tied to dirty/leaking/clogged injectors. To test if the injectors are leaking and causing the flooding after shutdown, you can install a switch for the fuel pump. Just kill the pump and allow the engine to run itself out of fuel. See what the results are at next startup.

Also, could you please verify that you have spark on the leading (lower) spark plugs? Loss of the leading ignition kills all performance.

Good luck.

P.S. You will get much more assistance by posting in the 2nd gen tech section.


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Barry Bordes

One thing to remember is that your engine should always go through a complete heat and driving cycle, that is, a full warm up and then a decent load put on the engine to keep the plugs clean.

In what part of Mississippi are you located?

Barry

notveryhappyjack

iTrader: (4)

only comp test a warm engine, once all the internals have expanded you will have higher comp #'s.

Other things to think about are clogged fuel system (injectors to the pump) check the whole thing and replace/refurbish questionable pieces.

Engine speed falls slow, could this because it is a stock weight flywheel?

3,500rpm iirc is when the secondary injectors 'turn on' possibly a leaking or clogged injector ?

farberio

iTrader: (7)

I don't think this would be the problem, 90psi is pretty good for a rotary and its possible that it will get better after the car runs a bit and gets back up to speed.

As with everyone else, the first thing I would do would be to look at your injectors and wires. 3500RPM is a common hesitation point and with TII's that usually means injectors or bad engine grounds.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

step 1 is to check the basics, you've done the compression test, and as long as there were EVEN bounces it looks ok.

step 2 with a bad idle is to start looking for vacuum leaks. the most common is the intake duct between the AFM and the turbo, it likes to split on the turbo side, on the bottom where you can't see it. the second most common is the Air Control Valve, which is hard to find because the vacuum does not leak from outside, it leaks internally.

step 3 on a stock car, the first cat likes to clog up, its kind of a pain to pull off if its never been out, but you could also remove the o2 sensor and see if the car accelerates better.

just due to the general age, and all these cars have been F-ed with and put back together wrong, i usually start by just pulling it apart and checking everything. since you're not used to it, and you have an original car to start with, i think you could start with the simple stuff.