Ive looked everywhere for the common vacuum leaks and couldn't find anything, should I resort to spraying carb cleaner? Yay or nay?

 

Yay

 

Second yay.

 

That or randomly replacing lines. Yay

 

Yay. Actually...'yea'. But I would make sure to use the little plastic extender hose and do as precise of blast as possible.

 

Ok I went to go move my car this morning, white smoke on start up, and in low rpms it makes a metal grinding noise almost right under the cd player/close to the shifter.. could this have to do with the vacuum leak or a whole other problem...

 

White "smoke" or just normal condensation burn-off?
And does the sound stay in sync with the rpms, as in gets worse (or better) as you increase, or is it a constant noise?

 

Im not sure It normally has white smoke.. but I head that was normal when you had straight through exhaust..

As far as the sound goes its not consistent, but It happens at lower rpms usually once I get into the higher rpms it goes away..

 

Not on a hot engine, my friend just did that and it exploded in his face! 20B and giant turbo though. Stock your probally all right.

 

The grinding noise under the shifter is probably a whiny input shaft bearing in the tranny. Not uncommon, not a really alarming thing. Requires a partial tranny rebuild to fix, so good to do next time you're in there.

As for the vacuum leaks, what specifically are you looking for? Is it a wild idle that suggests a leak in the intake, a boost leak, or is the vacuum chamber not holding vacuum? Those are all somewhat different challenges.

Dave

 

r u still twin turbo?

 

It had never done it until I got this supposed vacuum leak, could the two be related?

Its idling bad, and pulling 10 vacuum instead of the normal 16-17.

 

Yes, non-seq.

 

a smoke machine works wonders for locating vacuum leaks. I put the smoke machine on mine, and smoke billowed out from the rats nest. not a surprise to me, knowing that last time i had the intake off, I broke at least one vacuum nipple off the EGR solenoid.

 

And you have already performed a compression test? A little background as to when the problems started may help.

 

I hate to be the one to suggest it but have you done a compression test yet? The only engine I have ever blown(knock on wood/thank god for that) in all the rx7s I have owned. I drove back from up north, around a 10hr drive with no problems. Leave the car sitting for about 2-3 days before getting it ready to sell, go outside and start it up and it starts acting really funny and pulling low vacuum around 8-10. Kept messing with it trying to figure out what was going on until I finally did a compression test and sure enough. I still have no clue what cause the engine to blow on startup or possibly right when I was shutting it down.

 

You beat me to it while I was ramblimg

 

The engine only has 3-4k miles on it... It happened after a race, but I was short shifting due to boost creep. I will kill myself If I popped it.... Im going to take it into my regular shop this week to see if they can figure out the grinding noise, Id just like to prepare myself for what it could be.

 

Actually If you listen at the end of this video you can hear the noise it was making at first, then later it was that noise + grinding.

[url=http://videos.streetfire.net/video/8e3f2f79-7035-4890-8a06-99f000220b03.htm]rx7 - 336hp Evo - 350hp

 

Just grab a cheapy piston compression tester. It will at least let you know if the engine is damaged or not. About $20 and 15-20 minutes will let you know.

Unfortunately, most blown engines start with a story like: So I was racing this car....

 

if u had boost creep, there's a good chance you cracked an apex seal. I popped mine the same way. I'm assuming you're not using the stock ECU... Was the car tuned after the new engine was installed, or are u running off of an old map? Every engine gets tuned differently.

 

I had the car street and dyno tuned(Power FC), I made sure I didn't go over 15psi... I guess ill pick up a compression test later, doesn't help im sick as a dawg

 

^ I'll help ya if you need it... not if you're sick though! GROSS!

 

With that low of vacuum and you saying you were having boost creep I would guess it is the engine. I know you were short shifting but in most cases you will see the most amount of knock right before and around peak tq. Which is probably right around were you were shifting. I know you dont want to hear it, but that is probably the case.

 

I just had the engine rebuilt, and If that is the case Is it nobodies fault but my own? My tuner told me I was good to go, but hes also not the person who built my engine.