Hi,
I bought an FD about 18 mo ago; all stock. Never owned a rotary car before but own several other sports cars. I am wondering if there is
something wrong with my FD or if what I am experiencing is normal. I have two concerns.

1. Engine braking. I often take spirited drives on country back roads. Since the gears are so tall on my FD, I find myself at high revs quite often. When I lift up off the throttle, I get a lot of engine braking immediately upon taking my foot off the throttle. Is this normal?

2. Blipping the throttle, I find that when performing heal and toe downshift. blipping the engine is quite slow to rev and takes a lot of throttle to get it rev'ed up to the correct RPM. Making it hard to blip to the desired RPM. Is this normal?

 

I would say normally there's a regular amount of engine braking. I would say it's comparable to other manual trans cars I've driven. Don't know if you have a dragging brake caliper or something.

Blipping the throttle, you should be able to pretty smoothly get it to rev and rev match. How are your spark plugs?

Dale

 

I always considered the 7 to have a lighter engine braking than pistons I have driven. You say high rpm are you speaking 7k+? If that's the case it could be more comparable to some pistons you may have run at lower rpm? Like I definitely wouldn't say it is more than any piston. Like Dale said maybe you have a dragging pad or something?
. I am still rather new to the FD and Turboed rotary in general, but I have no issues matching the revs. Could be in need of a tune up. Or maybe you just need a little more time with it?

I do have to say it does seem my FC (normally aspirated had a little quicker throttle response though for my blippin!!)

Congrats on the FD. I hope you enjoy it.

 

Are your other sports cars newer drive by wire? Maybe the slow blip is because the FD has an old cable that might be binding up which will never feel as nice as a drive by wire throttle.

 

For engine braking any vehicle mods...like a lightened flywheel beyond the already relatively light stock FW?
It’s a light car. I guess if you were used to something heavier with a lot more compression and stroke.
Personally I’ve never had much issue with rev matching.

 

@Tom93R1 I only own analog cars. The others are Miata NA, NC. Porsche 968, 987.

 

all stock

 

I've been thinking about this some more. Maybes it is the oil? I'm using M1 15w50 for the high zinc and phosphorus additives. Anyone else using high viscosity without this kind of issue? I'd like to rule out the oil without dumping it out, if someone else can confirm its not the issue.

 

It’s not the oil. yes, I’ve used that viscosity without problems rev matching or Increased feel of engine braking.

 

Thanks. Saved me an oil change experiment. ;-)

Would a clogged cat give me this kind of problem? Don't think its the brake pads causing braking as pushing in the clutch doesn't cause any braking. Feels like issue 1 and 2 are related to me. Some kind of restriction on how easy the engine spins.

 

Yeah, that's a good point. Very possible, that would be worth looking into.

The other thing would be making 100% sure the plug wires are hooked up right. The engine will do REALLY weird crap if you get the wires mixed up.

Dale

 

wanted to follow up. replaced pre-cat with a downpipe and that seems to have helped quite a bit.
I now hear the stock turbos spooling up. Never heard them before with the pre-cat.

I can blip and no more engine braking when using only the first turbo. However, when above 4500 and the second turbo is spun up and I let off the gas, I still get some engine braking. blipping is better above 4500, but still really need to press down the accelerator quite hard to get the blip to move revs up significantly. below 4500, its quite good now.
thoughts?

btw, any estimate about how much HP/Torque has been gained by replacing pre-cat with the downpipe. Feels quite significant of a torque increase from the seat. Hearing the turbo's spool up now is a surprising bonus.

 

Have you ever driven a turbo car? My first experience was the same as yours coming from a NA rx7. Throttle response when blipping is a little slower.

 

No. All my other cars are NA. I appreciate your feedback greatly. that’s very helpful. I wasn't aware that it affected throttle response when there was NO LOAD on the engine. I guess the load IS the turbo itself as its restricting the exhaust flow. Does the sequential turbo configuration making the load twice as bad in the high rev range?? Is it this turbo back pressure load that is creating this sense of engine braking at high revs and restricting blipping ??