Ok, i'm thinking i've blown an apex seal. tell me what you think. i had just installed my blitz boost gauge. It worked fine all day, except that i was getting different amounts of boost in each gear. i was driving home last night on the freeway, and i noticed that when i floored it the boost would go all the way up to .9 bar at around 3-4Krpm. It hadn't done that before, but i hadn't checked it in 5th or 4th gear. I had just installed it, so i thought that maybe it wasn't working properly. Obviously not true. I'm cruising at about 4K rpm, when suddenly the engine just dies. NO warning lights, or anything. It just dies. So i turned it off and coasted to the side of the raod. It turns over fine, but it just won't catch. I checked the oil, and it was pretty low. I put some more oil in it and still no go. So what do you think? BLown apex seal? Please tell me not. Could i have clogged fuel lines? Or just flooded it somehow? I'm going to try starting it tomarrow, after i take out the fuel pump fuse. any other suggestions to what i can do? Remember that right now its on the side of the road. I can have it towed to my house, or to a shop. HELP ME PLEASE.

 

Did you hear a pop, that shakes the car before it went dead? If so, then its replacement time, if not, then its hopefully something else. Although I don't think its this, check it anyway. Near the firewall on the driver side is the map sensor. Map sure the hose is still attached to it at the bottom. Normally though when the hose pops off, it will still idle, but it will be lumpy (like a blown motor). Did you notice what kind of vacuum the car was pulling at idle?

Tim

 

Map sensor

 

ok thanks i'll check that. at idle the car was between 30 and 60 cmHG. closer to 30. I didn't hear any sound when it died, it just sounded like it stalled. I was driving away, when suddenly every light in the car went on, and the revs began to drop.

 

thats what can happen when MAP senso hoose comes off, you run really rich and flood the engine, strong gas smell is a dead giveaway.

 

hmm, checked the MAP sensor and it was plugged in fine. Any other thoughts?

 

fuel pump

Sounds just like your fuel pump may have died.
My Suburban did the same thing recently.....going along just fine and.....died like the switch was shut off.

 

Hey there is a good chance that your alternator died. Try to jump start the car with another running car. If the car starts then dies when you unhook the jumper cables then its the alternator.

 

ok, worth a shot! thanks a lot. you don't think its a blown engine?

 

You can check your fuel pump by parking the car in a quiet area, and with the key "on" and engine off put a glass tumbler on the fuel filler "door". Put your ear on the bottom of the glass and you should hear a faint hum.

Usually they either work, or they don't. It's pretty unusual for them to fail, but ya' never know.

Check the hose for the map sensor for splits as well.
Take it completely off, pinch one end shut and blow through it. The best way is to submerge it in - that same glass you used a minute ago, full of water - and look for bubbles.

 

It doesn't sound like a blown engine. If you broke an apex deal, it would not just die all of a sudden. It would just run like crap.

You're either missing fuel or spark. My guess is on the fuel pump.

 

ok thanks, thats very helpful! one more question, i recently did the BOV mod to vent it to the atmosphere, and i noticed that there was some air coming out of the BOV at idle. is that normal?

 

Sounds like a bad vacume leak to me. If you weren't boosting to the correct amount all day then you most likely have a loose or missing hose. Check the hoses for your turbos and your inlet duct hoses. If one of these came off your car would most definately stall like this. If you don't find any bad hoses then check for fuel and spark like these guys said. Also check your battery and altenator. If you have fuel and spark and power then check your computer, it may have taken a crap on you.

 

well i got tired of not having a car, so i took it to a shop to have them look at it. they looked it over, its getting fuel, getting spark. what its not getting is any compression!!! WTF! any thoughts? they should have more info for me soon.

 

A flooded engine will also make very little compression. But first you would have to figure out why it flooded in the first place.

I seriously doubt that you blew out all of your apex seals on both rotors at the same time.

 

More good news! The engine won't turn. Not at all. Its completely seized. So the shop is telling me i'm better off getting a new engine put in, instead of rebuilding it. Anyone else buy that? Could the eccentric shaft have gotten mis-aligned? What else can cause a rotary to completely lock up?

 

So it turned over fine for you, but after the mechanics got a hold of it, it won't turn over any more? Are these guys rotary mechanics? You didn't take it to the dealer, did you?

 

You are in Denver? Who'd you take it to???

 

i'm actually in fort collins, i took it to maztech. They know the most about rotaries that i could find. they are mazda specialists, at least. They do know a lot about rotaries, they are one of the few places that will work on the engine internals, and will do rebuilds themselves if they can. I questioned them a little, and they definitely knew their stuff. no buillsh*t answers, or avoided questions. I trust them to a certain extent. well, when i turned the key, you could hear the starter, and the revs raised a little bit, but the engine just never started. I don't know if that actually "turns over" the engine or not. The car still does that, but the mechs say that the engine's seized, locked in place. and thats why it won't start. they didn't mess anything up, its not doing anything new.

 

johnchabin: i see you have a miniature optima. which one? Is it the gen-2? (Small, yellow top) How'd you get it? Just curious cause i've got one, and thats only because i used to work there. Its a prototype and hard as hell to get, hand made, cost over 600 bucks to build. I've also got a blue top and a red top. Trying to determine if the gen-2 is enough.

 

Gen-2? I don't know... but it is small with a yellow top.

I got it from a guy who used to work there. He told me it was a prototype, so it's probably what you're talking about. I put it in the car and it started and ran fine. I have it out to build a new custom aluminum battery tray. I'm mounting it sideways to put the + pole in the right place. I'll send you a drawing of the bracket if you want.

He also gave me a red top that is marked 'blemish'.

I posted a picture a while ago. Search through my posts under 'optima'.

 

Dude, if your engine wont turn over at all it might have carbon lock. it happened to mine when it sat for a while. carbon deposits break loose and lodge between the apex seals and rotor housings. you have to drop the tranny and pull out the spark plugs then turn the motor backwards, i had rotary performance do it for $65.

 

PHerrus1: Maztech tried that. it was the first thing they did. Thats why i took my car there in the first place, because they thought they might be able to fix it without pulling the engine out. But it didn't work.

johnchabin: Yes! That is the Gen-2. congradulations, thats a very very very nice, expensive, powerful, small battery. As i said before, it COST optima over 600 bucks to make it. It was rolled by hand. Mine says "prototype" on the top, but beyond that its the same thing. It was originally designed for use in an atv. A normal red top puts out 800 cold cranking amps (i think). thats rated at 0 degrees fairenheit, below freezing. All the other manufacturer's batteries are rated at 0 celcius, which isn't as cold. So optima's are even underrating their cca's.

The Gen-2 is rated at 350 cca at 0 degrees fairenheit. At 0 degrees celcius it makes over 500. Not bad for that little thing, eh? Especially considering its mountable in any direction, and can still work after having been dropped off a building, or shot with a rifle. (I'll try to get the videos for proof!) Sorry, had to go off there for a second, can anybody tell i used to work for them? Whats your friends name? Maybe i know him.

 

His name is Loren. I used to work with him at my current job.

What's interesting is I'm now on contract with Gates Rubber, in the building that was the old home of Optima Battery.

This is what I've got:



See, the red one says 'BLEMISH'.

The yellow one had plenty of power to start the car. Besides, if it has 500 CCA at 0 degrees, it seems like it would have plenty of power at the temperature at which I'll actually use the car.

 

yeah, i figured it would be able to do the job, just curious if you had any problems with it. I'm not going to put my gen2 in until i have to. Either way though, those batteries are the sh*t. the only battery i ever got that outlasted my car.