PinkRacer

I'm calling on the infinite wisdom of the RX7 club.

Here's the backstory.

Bought someone else's project that was 75% done.

Specs:
S4 Convertible 6 port engine, with Cartech turbo kit (incl. rising rate fuel pressure regulator, turbo, water to air intercooler). AC and cold start are removed. Fuel pump is on a toggle switch. Injectors are turbo II injectors. Stock ECU. Air intake is a short ram that has the MAF in the middle of it - because of the turbo kit.

Car ran a few years ago, then they popped a seal and took out a rotor and a housing. Owner bought 2 new rotors (matched) and a new housing, new seals (Atkins), and reassembled himself. Receipts are with the car for the parts. The only potential issue I can see is a slight wobble in the main pulley.

Car was mostly reassembled when we got it. We finished what we could see was left then tried to start it. It would crank over and almost catch, but not catch. Ends up flooding. Tried a little oil in the chambers to help it build compression since it's new. Checked spark plugs, replaced with brand new ones just in case. It's definitely getting fuel. Had to deflood with plugs out several times.

Checked the CAS - replaced it with a spare we had just in case.

Took off the throttle body, upper intake manifold, etc. Had the injectors serviced, flow tested, etc.

Checked to make sure fuel is getting to the rail, checked injectors one by one using a friend's standalone.

Reassembled everything again. It still won't start. Now, pretty much every light is on in the dash. A buzzer, that sort of sounds like the low coolant buzzer is going off (even though the rad is full), and it doesn't even sound like it's going to catch now.

Everything is all hooked up except for the vacuum line that comes from the intercooler - I'm not sure where it goes and it got unhooked - I'm sure it was tee'd off from somewhere.

Starting to get a little sick of this basket-case, I must say. I'm ready to rip out the engine and put in a spare I have that I know runs, and possibly the harness as well with one out of my spare convertible - one I know isn't hacked.

Does ANYONE have any ideas before I tear it back to nothing and redo it all? At this point, I'd get a soft seal kit and disassemble/reassemble the engine too.

bumpstart

check pulley "wobble" for excess endfloat by getting a pry bar behind the flywheel and moving it forward or by jogging the engine while pumping the clutch and have another person observe the movement

if endfloat checks ok and the car is manual transmission try a tow start

satch

iTrader: (1)

What about our good friend spark?

PinkRacer

Seems like that's working fine. Checked at the coil and at the plug for each, even pulled the plugs and held them near metal to verify spark.

satch

iTrader: (1)

Check the Brown/White wire at the TPS w/key to on and it should read 5 volts. If this wire is grounded out the engine won't start.

PinkRacer

Checked that. 4.97v on the multimeter on that wire. I was hopeful that would be the issue!

lduley

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like the next step is pull starting it.

Just to be safe though, take the plugs out and listen to the rotor pulses, make sure you hear 6, what i call "thoonks" lol

If you got those, i'd dump oil in the motor then pull start it, sometimes with a tebuilt engine the battery doesn't have enough oomph to spin the engine fast enough until everything seats

PinkRacer

It definitely has 6 strong and equal pulses, that was one of the first things I checked.

satch

iTrader: (1)

If you have a large vacuum leak then the AFM won't open which should prevent the car from starting.

Did you replace the fuel in the tank. If it sat for a while w/fuel in the tank it could clog the filter on the pump.

Since you have a spare CAS you should then unplug the CAS and plug in the spare and w/key to on you can spin the CAS wheel and you should hear the sounds of clicks coming from the injectors and the coils. To isolate the sounds you could unplug the connectors at the coils which house the Black/Yellow wires as in doing so will preclude the coils from firing and the only clicks should come from both primary injectors. If you don't prevent the coils from firing you may hear loud pops from the fuel being ignited although you could pull the Circuit Opening Relay which would prevent fuel from flowing as the pump would be disengaged.