i am working on a project car and am very close to having it running properly/ however, the only way i can get it to run is to pull start it with another car and drop the clutch and be pulled for a little bit longer, after its pulled for about 3 seconds i can rev the car up. use ebrak to stop it and have a friend disconnect the rope. after that i can drive the car fine (the oil pressure changes often, even going up to max, is this normal for a rotary?). i cannot start the car with the key or i cannot let the car idle, ie no throttle. i do know know why it is doing this but any suggestions would be awesome.

to sum it up, i can only start the car by pulling it in gear and the oil pressure goes very high once it is running.those are my two problems to solver at the moment.

 

You should take a compression test. Cars with low compression (<85 psi) are very hard to start. If the compression is good then it may be a fuel system issue, (pressure too low, to high, clogged filter etc)

The oil pressure is usually pretty high when these cars are first started, after they warm up it drops down some.

 

You might want to check the condition of your battery+connections, I had a car that had poor battery+connections and would crank good but would not start but at the very second I let go of the key(starting position) it would start and all this was from battery and connections problems.

But your problems sound more like compression problems since no idle etc. so as suggested you might want to check the compression also.

 

If you try and start it with the key does it turn over and never start or does it do nothing

 

the car will turn over and it sputters like it wants to start but it doesnot, it is getting fuel becuase i can smell the gas(dont know how much gas its getting), i do have a old fuel filter in there. i have a new one coming in on manday, maybe that will fix my problem also.

is there a faq on how to do a compression test?

 

http://www.fd3s.net/compression_test.html

 

how far off would readings be if i tested with a cold engine, its a bit of a hassle to get everything ready to pull it and then bring it back to the garage to jack it up. would the readings be lower if colder? i mainly want to check to see if i am getting the 85psi, i dont care if i know if i have 100 or 105 or whatever it may be. i just want to know if i have adequate pressure. would i beable to do this with a cold engine?

 

just try it cold the ods are that you will see 1-2 pretty flat faces. assuming nothing is wrong with the ignition system.

just do the compression test and see what u get

 

make sure its not flooded, it will not start by key if it is flooded. It will however sound like its almost about to start.

 

i will check the compression soon, however with the flooded issue, once i get the car running, i can drive it around but i cannot stop unless i push teh clutch pedal and use the ebrake to stop while revving the engine up. the car seems to not run below 1500 or 2000 rpms, it wants to die.

 

Hate to bump an old thread but I figured this advice would help anyone searching for this in the future. That sure as hell sounds like a vacuum leak to me, the brake booster draws on the vacuum system and if there's a hole somewhere it'll cause problems.

I'm not sure about the FD yet but on my Skyline there was something called a fuel damper which was connected via vacuum hose, I had a small vacuum leak and every time I'd hit the brakes the engine would bog down because the fuel damper stopped regulating fuel flow properly.

I would suggest that anyone having similar problems investigate vacuum leaks.