Alright, I just swapped the engine out of my '88 n/a with one from an '88 vert. I finally got everything hooked up only to figure out that I needed a new mass air sensor. I replaced that with a used one from a salvage dealer that had 42k miles on it and started up the engine. I let everything run for about an hour and went to drive for the first time in two months. It ran fine when I was driving legally but when I went to step on it in first, the engine made power up until 3k rpm where it just fell off as long as i kept on the throttle. When I pressed the clutch in and dropped the clutch at 20 mph in first I could take the engine all the way up to the redline but if I tried to do it normally, the car would lose power every time.

Like I said, I just replaced the mass air sensor but I got it from a salvage yard that I've had a lot of experience with and they've never sold me a bad part before. Any ideas? I was thinking that it could be something with the ECU or some part of the fuel system. I had this problem right before I had to replace the engine so I don't think that I messed anything up in the swap but I'm not the most experienced with engines so any feedback would be really appreciated. I miss my car.

 

sounds like you secondaries might not be kicking in. are you sure you grounded everything well?

 

describe this.. is it really like a brick wall, or just low power? id guess maybe your 5th and 6th ports are frozen if its B...
maybe you have acorns in your intake.. :-D

 

LOL

 

have your AFM checked out
mine went bad and whenever i went over 1/4 throttle the car would bog HARD and fall flat on it's face and nearly stall out...was barely drivable

 

Sure the cats aren't clogged?

The in-tank fuel filter clogged?

If you have check code LEDS, you'd know if it was the AFM or not. You could also put a meter on the AFM pin at the ECU, and pay attention to the voltages while driving-if the voltages fall flat or freak out, look at the AFM then...

 

i think i would check the fuel filters too.

 

yea it really does depend on what kind of power loss youre experiencing.
if you accelarate from 1krpm -6krpm.... if its secondaries, itll feel like you hit a bloody brick wall at 3800. the car will literally lurch as you lose power.
slow power loss could be many things.
do you have any problems cruising around 200rpm? any bucking around there (under load) - fuel filter
general loss of power (doesnt have the oomph you know it should have)
check 5th and 6th port actuators.

 

definitely more like a brick wall but that depends on how much throttle i give it over how little time. and it get's worse on hills. now that was around 6pm today. i drove it home about 40 mins ago and got onto the freeway and it pulled cleanly up to 95mph. i didnt want to push the engine too hard. I had been driving it really gently all night and the problem seemed to happen less often. still not sure why but it's mostly gone for right now. we'll see how long that lasts.

anyone know why this would happen? I'm not sure how long the motor had been sitting and it wasn't drained well of it's coolant and oil.

 

i'll check the fuel filters tomorrow but in case someone checks this tonight, where is the fuel filter in my car so i dont have to look it up. this is my first rx7 and i've only had it for about 6 month's and am finally going to start rebuilding the blow j-spec t2 that it came with.

 

check your fuel pressure

 

Mine did the exact same thing today. I found out that one of my injector harnesses was unhooked...thought I killed my engine when it happened.

 

bump, any other ideas. the car isnt starting now. it will start and run for a second and then it shuts off and wont stay running. i can get the engine to fire but that's it. i checked my plugs, wires, injector harnesses. yesterday when i couldnt get it started, the engine was flooding so i had to pinch the gas lines just to get it running. it ran fine until i tried to start it this morning. I have no idea what else could be wrong.

 

hmmm kinda sounds like my car. Mine stalls out at around 3500, usually dies, sometimes i can catch it with the throttle and keep it alive. Car won't idle unless i hold the gas at a specific spot. investigating what may be causing mine.

 

Just replaced the spark plugs and put in an MSD ignition. Car fired up the first time and pulled all the way up to 8 grand. I didn't check the plugs because the shop that worked on my car less than 2k miles ago told me they replaced them but when I pulled the plugs, there was residue all over them and the plugs were obviously shot. A$$holes charged me for it too.