Hey guys. Need some trouble shooting advice here. This winter I did a few projects to my car which I finally finished up today. However, when I started it up (first time since November), it was running extremely rough, almost like it was missing, and was blowing alot of black/grey smoke (smelled rich). The idle was way down too. However, when I parked it for the winter it ran fine so I know it's got something to do with something I did.

I installed a Greddy FMIC, Greddy Airinx Intake, Greddy Pulley Kit and a Greddy Intake Elbow. Obviously my airpump is now gone. I have plugged the one pipe I saw from the airpump that is no longer being used. I also plugged the AWS pipe that went into the original intake elbow.

First thing I did was check my map sensor. I never touched that part all winter long so it's no surprise that wasn't the problem. It was still plugged in.

Anyone got any ideas? Thanks much.

Bryan

 

You might be running too rich now since you plugged the AWS pipe. Try unplugging it just to see how it runs.

 

So you removed your air pump over winter?

If so, that's probably why it was running strange. I would assume the remapped ECU is probably expecting the air pump to be there (just like the stock ECU).

You might try resetting the ECU and then driving it around. See if it can learn. Check the following thread and see if it helps:

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...threadid=49053

 

Thanks Mahjik. Going to reset the ECU right now and will let you know if it takes care of the problem.

Bryan

 

change your plugs.

 

I was thinking this, but it ran fine when I put it into storage. Could firing it up with all the changes have fouled out the plugs that fast? The fact that the first time I fired it up it was immediately like this made me think it's not plugs, but perhaps it is?

 

change them. i would.
what would it hurt? nothing. if anything it wiil take 15 minutes out of your day, and you have new plugs and probobly no running like ****. this has happened to me a few times.

 

Contact RP and find out if thier ECU has pulled out all the fuel at idle for a deleted airpump. If not you will either have to have it remapped or change ECU's to a more tunable type. I use the Power FC and you can pull out fuel via the PIM on the commander. Remapped ECU's really lack when it comes to performance. Unless your ECU is tuned for your exact motor and mods its not going to be tuned up to standard. It will tend to be overly rich because of liablity if you blow a motor using thier ECU and even more so if it wasnt tuned to run without an airpump. Really rich = safe when it comes to rotaries but it also negatively effects drivability and performance. Because every car is different the remapped ECU's will produce mixed results. At this point looking at your results i would say your ECU isnt tuned for a deleted airpump. But check to make sure as it may be a different problem i.e injector is stuck open etc.

 

Thanks ZoomZoom. I will call RP tomorrow and get the scoop. Guess it's time to shell out some money for a Power FC

 

It wasn't the plugging of the AWS that caused it. I took the cap off it and it didn't help things at all. I also reset the ECU by disconnecting the negative on the battery and holding the brake for 10 seconds. This also didn't help. Narrowed done to ECU pretty much with plugs being a possibility.

 

I went ahead and replaced the plugs with NGK 9s all the way around and after letting it run for about 10 minutes the smoke stopped and the idle calmed down some. It's back to running normal except at idle the vacuum is down a bit and it jumps some, but I attribute that to the air pump being out since it's the same thing it did when I unplugged it last year. Thanks for the tip rxrotary2_7.

Bryan

 

no problem. glad thigs are good now. dont toss thoes old plugs just yet. clean them up REAL good and see if you can still use them. i dont know the condition of them, but if the car ran fine before, you can still prob get some life out of them.

 

Yeah Bryan, you are welcome for the plug wrench, haha. You should have been out there racing those Honda's with me...next time