Hey Guys, I was really flustrated just a few minutes ago because my car would not hold idle and it hit me. So here is my story:


Chapter 1: The Trigger Point

So Last friday filled up the gas tank but this time I decided to use Pre-Mix. I filled full tank and put no more than 125:1 ratio. I got home late and started to notice that my tempeture gauge was climbing up. So I parked the car in my garage and open the hood. I started noticing a sort of steam comming from the rear part of my engine. A few seconds later I noticed that my car was buring coolant! I hasitly went inside my car to turn it off and as I turned the key my eyes glanced over at the temperature gauge which was a notch over the half way point. I look at the ground and it is now covered with coolant. I go to sleep thinking that the day will be a better time to work on the car.



Chapter 2: In the Morning
So I go to my car try to find out what was leaking; I checked the upper and lower radiator hose but nothing. I even checked the engine block to see if the irons were cracked. Nothing, nothing at all but then I noticed another hose sticking out of the engine, it was the heater hose. So I walked down to the local auto shop and got myself a brand new hose. I replaced it, flushed and filled the coolant and tried to start the car. The car cranked but no start. I hesitated and tried many more times and failed. Again and again i cranked the car only to find out later that my engine was flooded. So took I the measure of deflooding it and puting some oil into the intake manifold. I took out the egi injector fuse and cranked the car for 20 seconds in 4 second intervals, put the injector fuses back in, crossed my fingers and started the car. IT WORKED! but the car did sound a little funny. I danced around my 1986 Mazda RX-7 Sport and all of a sudden the engine seized to live (It turned off). In a panic to find the problem i tried to adjust all the ***** that pretain to the field of engine idling but nothing worked. I fiddle with the car for many days.




Chapter 3: As I fiddled with the car

As I was fiddling with the car, i noticed a few things. :

1. It was hard to start my car but that might have been because of the double throttle vacuum line being broken.

2. My engine did not feel stable at all. The spark plugs, which were bought new only a few days ago, were wet; at least the trailing spark plugs were.

3. I searched for vacuum leaks but none were present.

4. When i would put too much throttle, the engine would backfire as if a rifle were being shot. (Might have been due to the missing double throttle diaphram, but this was one loud backfire, with the cat on)

5. I took of the cat to see if it was clogged, it wasn;t

6. Adjusted all the idle screws, nothing helped.

7. The Cat was glowing like a sword being made by a blacksmith

8. When i pressurized the fuel system via the couplers, the fuel pump did not stop. I heard sounds from the injectors, as if they were spraying.




Chapter 4: The Logical Deduction

I once again sat down and thought about what could have went wrong with my car. This is what i got:

My injectors have already been leaking from the past, I figured this because I noticed a small fuel loss after a few days without driving. I also noticed my MPG was only 19.5 when taking 75% freeway and 25% local (I have an incredably light foot on the gas, you would not believe). So when I got gas and pre-mix on that friday, the car ran fine for about 66 miles. So when I got home and my heater hose broke, coincidentally my injectors were leaking but it may have been leaking more because the pre-mix in addition to the heat may have caused it to leak more. This would explain why my car wouldn't start before i put oil in to the intake manifold. It would also explain all the backfire, glowing cat, wet trailing spark plugs, hesitation with no load.

OR

The trailing sparks system (Including the igniters) could have gone bad. How? I would not know but i predict that it would produce the same effect as the leaking injector. Such as wet trailing spark, backfire, glowing cat (I'm not to sure on this one), hesitation.

What do you guys think? Any flaws? Anything I overlooked? Any Constructive comment is welcome Thanks!

 

Oh and by the way, the strut tower way of testing the sparks doesnt work, it drain my battery. Any other sugestions?

 

glowing cat means that its running hot after the power stroke so the fuel is still exploding when it hits the exhaust meaning that your timing is way too advanced. that would also explain the hard starting the bad idle and the over heating...

set your timing. dont forget to jump the plug by the battery.. great work on writing though. i wish i could explain my problems more clearly, like that.

 

Hmm.. But would that account for the wet trailing sparks also?

BTW, thanks for the compliment
=)

 

My first assumption is that coolant has entered the spark plug wires or other electrical connections and is causing problems. Dry the plugs, wires, coils and as much as you can by first rinsing thoroughly with clear water and then towling everything dry.

Only halfway up the gauge is no big deal...

However you now have a larger problem because you started messing with the adjustment screws. The FSM has procedures to set those back to factory specs so you will need to follow those as well.

 

If a car is way too advanced you'll hit it misfiring when you give it high throttle.

That was the problem I had with my car when I first got it running...

If you've overheated the engine (very likely if you ran out of coolant at one point... a bad heater hose is what killed my car's motor before I bought it), it's possible that coolant leaking into the engine might be causing this...

do you lose coolant without any apparently leaks?

 

Hmm... i have new plugs (after the coolant incident) yea and i did set my TPS but i couldnt set the idle adjustments because my car won't idle lol. I tried to adjust it so that it does hold idle but it seems that the idle hardly responds to any changes i make in the screws.

Mmm.. yea but i never touched the CAS...

Thanks for the reply guys!

 

sounds like you got the spark plug wires crossed in the confusion, that or your cat is deciding it doesn't want to live any longer.

 

Mmm... I donno... It seems right to me. L1 and T1 hooks on the spark plugs that are closer to the front of the car and L2 and T2 hooks on the spark plugs that are more toward the back right?

 

you got L's as the bottom plugs right?

 

This guy's thread seems to be the kind of problem I have

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ling+coil+idle

 

yeap L's are in the bottom is that correct though?

 

Mmmm... I got s'more info that my car told me.

So, I jumped my car (My batteries were dead because of that spark plug test to which involves puting the spark plug on the strut tower bolt) but before i turned it on, i decided to take off the trailing spark wires on the igniter side just to see if that would do anything to the idle. I turned the car on, at first i really didn't notice the difference but as the rpm began to drop my car became more and more erratic. Once my rpm was set at 1100 rpm (Remember, my car dies when the cold start idling mechanisms fade out) I noticed a sparking noise. It was my trailing igniters but the awkward thing was that only the T2 was sparking fast. The T1 sparked once every 3-5 seconds and it was a pretty sorry sounding spark. While the T2 was sparking numerous times per second. I put the T2 spark wire back on just to make sure the results of my test were not due to some sort of electrical arc that was between the two open plugs. I started the car and T1 did the same thing as before (fired only once every 3-5 seconds). I tested Visa-versa where I coverd T1 and opened T2, T2 did what it had done in the original test (fired multiple times per second).

Oh and i remember now, Only the T1 spark plug was wet. So that explains a lot.



So my questions are;

1.Would that cause a bad idle when warmed up? (I would think so but I can be wrong).
2.Would that cause backfire? (I would think so)
3. Would that make the cat glow? (???? Perhaps ????)
4. Would that make the trailing spark plug T1 wet? (I would think so)


Thanks!
Yay! I'm almost there!!!!!!

 

any comments?

 

Sounds like your Igniter is gone?

WOULD cause it to run rough
WOULD cause it to backfire
WOULD cause cat to glow, since your not able to burn all the fuel in the combustion chamber, and its igniting in the exhaust
WOULD definitely cause T1 to be wet.

Try another igniter. Maybe in the coolant leak some found its way into the igniter?