To Rebuild or to Sell????
03-26-17, 10:02 AM
#1
To Rebuild or to Sell????
Been piecing back together a 93 VR Touring I purchased beginning of last year. It was a solid car to start with when I purchased it and only had 83k original miles on the chassis, tons of maintenance history and paperwork, great interior, a bunch of extra aftermarket parts/wheels and roughly 20k miles on the rebuilt engine (rebuilt in 2011). The previous owner was in the process of converting the car to a single turbo but never finished, and the vehicle sat at his house for roughly a year without being started or driven. The car's engine bay had been stripped all the way to the rotor housing and the wiring harness pretty much , hence why I said I've been piecing the car back together. I am in the military and deployed all last summer , so the car sat in storage for 7 months even after I purchased it. So thats roughly two years of the car not so much as being started. When I returned earlier this year I finally finished putting a set of rebuilt non-sequential twins back on the car and most of the original parts with a few upgrades here and there (APEXI Power FC, HKS Intakes,brake pads/rotors, mid pipe, etc.)
So after all that I attempt to start the car and it runs but very rough to say the least but with quite a bit of smoke from the exhaust. I figured the majority of this was from the car sitting for so long. At that point I figured I'd keep tinkering with it to dial it in. Fast forward to last week and I received orders overseas for later this year and can't take my vehicle with me. Which then made me think should I keep tinkering with the car get it running and driving the best I can and let the car sit for another year or should I let her go and just look to pick up another (running FD) when I return.
Just seeking some opinions on this as I've continued to work with the car, changing/checking vacuum lines, looking at the tuning on the Power FC (just a base map), fuel delivery , spark plugs, injectors etc and it still runs pretty rough with a bunch of smoke. Im not sure if the reason the car is running rough is simply from sitting for so long or if it is a culmination of sitting for so long and its been roughly 7 years since the engine was actually rebuilt so who knows what shape the seals and gaskets may be in. If I were to ave the car's engine rebuilt then I would definitely end up wanting to keep it at that point but unsure if investing another $5k-$6k to send the car to be rebuilt just for it to sit again for an extended period of time is worth it . If the rest of the car wasn't in such great shape I would just let it go and look for something that is already running but with the condition of the rest of the car its hard to just let this one go.
So after all that I attempt to start the car and it runs but very rough to say the least but with quite a bit of smoke from the exhaust. I figured the majority of this was from the car sitting for so long. At that point I figured I'd keep tinkering with it to dial it in. Fast forward to last week and I received orders overseas for later this year and can't take my vehicle with me. Which then made me think should I keep tinkering with the car get it running and driving the best I can and let the car sit for another year or should I let her go and just look to pick up another (running FD) when I return.
Just seeking some opinions on this as I've continued to work with the car, changing/checking vacuum lines, looking at the tuning on the Power FC (just a base map), fuel delivery , spark plugs, injectors etc and it still runs pretty rough with a bunch of smoke. Im not sure if the reason the car is running rough is simply from sitting for so long or if it is a culmination of sitting for so long and its been roughly 7 years since the engine was actually rebuilt so who knows what shape the seals and gaskets may be in. If I were to ave the car's engine rebuilt then I would definitely end up wanting to keep it at that point but unsure if investing another $5k-$6k to send the car to be rebuilt just for it to sit again for an extended period of time is worth it . If the rest of the car wasn't in such great shape I would just let it go and look for something that is already running but with the condition of the rest of the car its hard to just let this one go.
Last edited by Qtipvenom; 03-26-17 at 10:16 AM.
03-26-17, 10:09 AM
#2
your issue many be something very minor or it could be something major.
don't believe any story a previous owner tells you, they may have blown the engine and stripped it down to pull it out but just stopped there, made up a story about going single just to sell the car easier. do a compression test to see how the engine is before doing further diagnosis. it sounds like a map sensor signal issue to me though.
you could also just take it to a shop that knows what they're doing to have them check it out. an inspection to test compression and get a general idea of what is causing the problem shouldn't be more than a few hundred dollars. if you are in my area i doubt you'd find rates any cheaper for specialty service.
don't believe any story a previous owner tells you, they may have blown the engine and stripped it down to pull it out but just stopped there, made up a story about going single just to sell the car easier. do a compression test to see how the engine is before doing further diagnosis. it sounds like a map sensor signal issue to me though.
you could also just take it to a shop that knows what they're doing to have them check it out. an inspection to test compression and get a general idea of what is causing the problem shouldn't be more than a few hundred dollars. if you are in my area i doubt you'd find rates any cheaper for specialty service.
03-26-17, 10:19 AM
#3
your issue many be something very minor or it could be something major.
don't believe any story a previous owner tells you, they may have blown the engine and stripped it down to pull it out but just stopped there, made up a story about going single just to sell the car easier. do a compression test to see how the engine is before doing further diagnosis. it sounds like a map sensor signal issue to me though.
you could also just take it to a shop that knows what they're doing to have them check it out. an inspection to test compression and get a general idea of what is causing the problem shouldn't be more than a few hundred dollars. if you are in my area i doubt you'd find rates any cheaper for specialty service.
don't believe any story a previous owner tells you, they may have blown the engine and stripped it down to pull it out but just stopped there, made up a story about going single just to sell the car easier. do a compression test to see how the engine is before doing further diagnosis. it sounds like a map sensor signal issue to me though.
you could also just take it to a shop that knows what they're doing to have them check it out. an inspection to test compression and get a general idea of what is causing the problem shouldn't be more than a few hundred dollars. if you are in my area i doubt you'd find rates any cheaper for specialty service.
Last edited by Qtipvenom; 03-26-17 at 10:23 AM.
03-26-17, 01:19 PM
#5
Eliminate the worst possibility first: Do a compression test.
If you have decent numbers, move on down the list.
To make diagnosing it easier, you need to expand on what running rough actually means. Does it idle normally? Does it idle poorly? Does it break up when you touch the gas pedal?
Did you drain the fuel tank before trying to get it running? Fuel only stays good about 6 months before it starts to die. In your time frame, if it hasn't been drained, it is no longer fuel in your tank.
Drain the tank, fresh fuel, new fuel filter, and have the injectors serviced by someone like Witch Hunter.
Then see where you are at after that. Or check to make sure you didn't make the same mistake I did. My car was in a similar state. I had the injectors reversed. Purple is primary/engine intake manifold. If they are reversed, they will be delivering almost 50% too much fuel at idle.
Hope this helps,
Vince
If you have decent numbers, move on down the list.
To make diagnosing it easier, you need to expand on what running rough actually means. Does it idle normally? Does it idle poorly? Does it break up when you touch the gas pedal?
Did you drain the fuel tank before trying to get it running? Fuel only stays good about 6 months before it starts to die. In your time frame, if it hasn't been drained, it is no longer fuel in your tank.
Drain the tank, fresh fuel, new fuel filter, and have the injectors serviced by someone like Witch Hunter.
Then see where you are at after that. Or check to make sure you didn't make the same mistake I did. My car was in a similar state. I had the injectors reversed. Purple is primary/engine intake manifold. If they are reversed, they will be delivering almost 50% too much fuel at idle.
Hope this helps,
Vince
03-27-17, 10:53 AM
#6
RX-7 Bad Ass
iTrader: (55)
I'm in Pensacola and Richard is in Panama City, we may be able to offer some assistance with this.
Dale
Dale
03-31-17, 08:46 PM
#7
Appreciate it, I've spent the last few evenings trying to dig into the car a little more with no luck. Still idling rough (below 400-500 rpm) and smoking. to keep the vehicle from cutting off I have to continue to press the accelerator. When I get a chance over the next couple of days I am going to check the injectors again and see if that helps.
