Just had the '89 GTUs over at a local smog check place, passed on everything except for slightly high on the HC's. Rebuilt engine about 3K miles ago, new cats ~800 miles ago with fresh plugs at about 400 miles ago and a new NGK/NTK O2 sensor.

He did a pre-test and checked the timing, and said it was "dozens of degrees retarded". He owns several RX-7's and knows how to smog them and check timing, so it wasn't a mistake.

He reset the timing to as close to stock as he could, but thinks that it may be a tooth off on the "distributor" (I forget what it is actually called).

Car runs a lot better now midrange and up top, but still has a poor idle quality.

How does timing affect rotaries with regards to power, emissions, and idling? The pre-test was done at the "bad" timing setting, before he tried to reset it. You think it might fall below the Pass mark even about 10 deg retarded?

-JW
My wife always said I was a little retarded....I guess she was right!