Sudden loss of power, sputtering
 

15 minutes ago I was driving back from a friends house, and out of nowhere my car started acting up. It will not idle, and is slow to rev. It has no power, like it it running on 1 rotor. It just started out of nowhere. It is also backfiring like crazy. You know when you start a flooded motor, how it has a different sound and doesn't want to rev? It sounds just like that when driving now I haven't done anything to it recently. I hope its not an apex seal. I don't have the cash for something like that. Please tell me it's something small. Its too dark to look at the motor right now.


I just went and tried to start it. There is a noticeable miss when starting. You know how normally its a constant "whoosh whoosh whoosh" sound? Now its like "whoosh whoosh --------, whoosh whoosh -------, whoosh whoosh --------. Apex seal?? NOOOO!!!

Hate to be the one to break it to you, but yes.

Thanks for confirming, but I guess I already suspected it. That sucks for me. Horribly.

Do a compression test, even a ghetto one, to make sure. Its possible (though unlikely) you lost a fuel injector or something.

I'll check, but is is pretty unlikely. I just the injectors rebuilt and flow tested in august. Will definitely check though.

Could be a stuck or cracked seal if you hear "Whoosh Whoosh ---------". Pull the EGI fuse, and pull the leading spark plug out of the front rotor housing. Have a friend crank the car and put your finger down by the hole, you should feel some good suction with each "whoosh". Then put that spark plug back in and do the same for the rear. If you're missing one "whoosh" out of the 3 per each cycle of the rotor then you could have a stuck seal. If thats the case, pour some ATF or Marvel Mystery Oil in the spark plug hole and let it sit for a while, it might unstick your seal. If you hear 3 pulses on the front rotor and 0 on the rear(or the opposite), you probably threw and apex seal and toasted everything in the combustion chamber.
If you're engine is shot, try getting a used one rigth now since you don't have a lot of cash. It's pretty easy to swap an engine in the FC.
Good Luck.

I know. This will be my third one.

it sounds like it has a chipped apex seal, to me, I would definitely start with a compression test.

you could post 3 videos, with the egi fuse removed so power fc does not turn on ,
remove the front leading spark plug crank it for 5 seconds.
2nd video put front plug back in and only the rear leading plug removed,
and 3rd video with both leading plugs removed.

1 plug removed should have a even chh chh chh noise, both removed should have even back and forth chh chh chh noise at double the speed, if the front and rears by them sevles produce different noise, or an uneven galloping sound compression is suspected.