I've got a '94 car with about 97,000 miles and the original engine. Turbo's changed at about 60K. Bought the car with 30K and I'm the second owner. The only mods are a cat back exhaust and K+N filter, along with lots of unrelated suspension stuff. I change my oil every 1K and the spark plugs and fuel filter every 10K.

So with 97K on the odometer you figure...new engine, right? Well, maybe.

The car had good compression at 66K miles when the turbos were replaced. Damned if I remeber the numbers now, but they were within factory specs.

It draws 16-18mm of vacuum at idle and the boost cycles correctly and reaches 10-11 psi max with both the 1st and 2nd turbo's. It is just as quick as when I bought it using the 30-70mph in third gear test.

So the problem... If I leave the car sitting for more than 1 week or so it is very hard to start. It helps if I floor the throttle as it is turning over. It turns over for several seconds and sputters and stumbles and idles roughly at first. If I give the throttle a hard jab, it revs a little slowly then "catches" then everything evens out. The exhaust is smoky and very heavily perfumed with fuel. It does not smell of coolant or oil...just fuel.

After about 10-15 seconds the plum of smoke leaves and everything is fine. The car runs just as always. Fuel milage maybe a little low but that could be my imagination. It is still 20-25 mpg on the highway.

I just restarted the car after letting it sit for 2 months. It was really hard to start. I had to let it turn over for 30-60 seconds. I intermittently floored the throttle at which point it would try to catch than it would die. If I didn't floor/pump it would just evenly turn over. When I pushed the throttle it would stumble and try to start. Finally, after turning it over and over it started with a really rough idle, a plum of very fuel soaked smoke, and when I floored it, it smoothed out and drove fine and dandy.

It acts like a 2nd gen when it is flooded. I've never even had a problem with this 3rd gen flooding if I only drive it 50 feet. So why would it do it now? Leaky injector? I'm stumped.

I really hope I don't need a new engine. Really, really hope.

If I drive it every 1-3 days none of this happens. It starts right up.

I'll answer any questions to help.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Justin Wade

 

I have to agree with fuel injectors. Usually low compression shows up by not wanting to restart when the car is warmed up all the way. CJ

 

Well, seeing as you're living so close to me....the motor is blown up, transmition is slipping. So i'll give you $30, and my daily driver. You know....just to help you out.

Realy though, you should come out to rpnw meetings sometime. CJ

BTW: If you don't feel comfortable pulling the injectors, let me recomend corksport. Or if you're nice to some of the guys in the club, one of em might give you a hand.

 

Justin,

When was the last time you replaced your battery? If cranking speed get just a little too low on start up, it will flood like you described. I would not pull the injectors just yet.

Here is what I recommend doing first. The next time you start the car, pull another car up to it and jump it. Do not try to crank the rx-7 before you have the other car hooked up, or it will just flood it and the test will be invalid. (If it is in the garage and you can't the jumpers to it, push it out into the driveway first.) If it fires up without putting your foot on the throttle, go buy a new battery.

The injectors on third gens do not usually leak like the ones in second gens. However, it is pretty easy to flood a third gen if the battery is just a bit low.

Let us know what happens.

Jeff

PS--It is nice to see another Oregon guy on here!

 

Holy Moly, everyone is from Oregon!

Hey Justin,

Where do you auto-x? Portland only? You ought to come down here to Eugene and try running with us too!

Like the others said...
Battery strength, compression, etc all can be a factor in flooding. FDs don't flood as easily as FCs but they still flood.

With 97K miles on the motor I'd really suggest getting a compression test done. Have you noticed that you need to add coolant?

Anyway PM me if you need more help. I've done quite a few motor jobs on FDs, 97K miles is high for the original motor, you've done well so far.

Later,
Jeff

93 VR R1, auto-x monster.
94 White PEP, For sale
95 BB PEP, on it's way

 

First of all, cranking for 60 secs is not good for the starter, 15secs should be good enuf, 30 secs is max even when unflooding it. (I'm amazed that no one has brought this up yet)

Secondly, this does sound like a leaky injector. I would check that as well as get a compression test (Just for the hell of it, do the diy compression test first since that is the easiest and is nearly free). "It draws 16-18mm of vacuum at idle and the boost cycles correctly and reaches 10-11 psi max and it driving fine and dandy" tells me your engine is probally fine and that your troubles lie else where.

The next step to double check is the battery, What is your ghost draw at (i have written up lots of how to's for this)? Is the starter cranking as fast as normal (it should be just about 250 rpm).

Perhaps you should check your fuel system. when was the last time you changed out your fuel filter?

Gotta go to work right now but i have lots of other ideas, be back later today with more.