calrx7: If I had the tools or the space to rebuild it myself I would have, just to be able to get the experience and learn more about my car. But the guy does know rotaries, he owns 4 FB's, 3 FC's, and has a little rotary starlet that redlines @ 14k and runs 10's in the 1/4.

I'm begging to think that these problems were afflicting the car when I bought it, and the low compression (and subsequent rebuild) were just to easiest to spot/ identify.

 

are you SURE what you were turning was the idle screw? there are two screws on the intake manifold, on has something to do with cold start or something, and the other is actual idle screw. look hard and see which connects to the throttle cable! its pretty much impossible for it to not adjust the idle.

 

The idle adjust screw probably won't work for a while... since it's still got low compression (it also won't work if you've got vacuum leaks).

What you need to do is start it, hold the throttle at 1500~ RPMs, and have someone set the throttle stop screw to where the throttle lever is on the throttle body (Not the idle adjust! The throttle stop! You might actually need to set it higher since usually those throttle stops only work on the secondary throttles, which open after about the throttle has opened about 1/5th or so).

The hard throttle stops will make it idle higher reguardless of whether the car will hold and idle on it's own at zero throttle.

 

According to Haynes and the FSM it was the idle adjust screw. If you're in the driver's seat it's on the right side of the intake manifold right on the BAC and I just checked, and I can only see one screw. Is this second screw phillips or flat head?

Also, I'm looking for this throttle adjust screw since the idle screw doesn't seem to be working; although I've been told not to mess w/ the throttle cable adjustment unless it's been changed...

 

Thanks for the heads up! Now I don't feel like as much an *** for fiddling w/ that screw for so long and getting no results. I know it has low compression, but I'm gonna have to go get some break cleaner to test for vac leaks. Also, the vaccum nipple on my FPR on the firewall side doesn't seem to be connected to anything, should I leave that alone or put a cap on it?

I'll keep lookin for that throttle screw, what side of the manifold is it on?

 

for how many hours this engine has been idling i would say it should start holding an idle on it's own by now, as i said i haven't had any issues with my rebuilds idling even a few minutes after starting the first time unless the rotor housings were severely thrashed it should run fairly strong right off.

the idle screw should be doing something or you have a leak somewhere or the BAC is completely blocked off internally somehow. if you have a camera try taking some pics of the intake piping, BAC and engine in general to help us see what is going on in there. my bet is the BAC line to the turbo-intercooler elbow is either missing, cracked or not hooked up completely causing the leak.

 

Total, this engine has probably ran for 10- 15 hours since the rebuild.

As requested, here are some pictures to aid in the diagnosis:

ACV with proper block off plate. Split air hose was MIA so there was a hole where it should connect. I rigged up a lil something to plug it.


The BAC, doesn't appear to be anyting wrong on the outside...


The EGR. When I got it, there was nothing attached to that nipple, so I capped it.
That hose w/ the blue dotted line comes from somewhere between the UIM and LIM right behind the EGR, it was capped w/ a screw (not by me)


The FPR if I'm not mistaken. Also had nothing attached to that downward pointing nipple, not sure if I should cap it or not though


Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!