ok, ive been messing with the car for the past few days and ive eliminated every problem. i converted it to side draft, i had the whole ignition set up with coils and a distributor but i used the crank angle sensor and the coil packs that came with it and it runs fine from what i can tell... i thought that was really odd, i didnt think it would work too good. the header was glowing red hot after only running a few minutes from cold, so i cut out the glass packs that someone had put on before me and put some flex pipe for now to get it running, and ive noticed all these exaust leaks and one really bad new one. but even after that it was glowing red, but it took longer. then i readjusted the timing and i let it run for awhile then took it down the street and back and no neon lights from the exaust now. it doesnt seem to have alot of power though now, (it was running like hell before, and had less power) also its smoking more too. could i just need to have it tuned up, the carb and everything that is. only thing thats not hooked up is the oil metering pump.

 

sounds like the carb is set up wrong or needs to be retuned, and that the timing is off

and I edited your title to actually have the question in it.

 

ok, first off i say get a distributor from a gsl-se or other 1st gen rx7. you have a carb, so you should just use a normal dizzy. makes life simpler. then adjust the float level on your carb. that should help a hole lot.