pedalpusher

iTrader: (1)

Hey guys,

I've been smelling strong fuel fumes in my car for a bit now, and finally ran across warnings about the Fuel Pulsation Damper problems RX-7s have. So, I decided to do the job myself. I took tomorrow off from work to try and get the job done. Went to the Mazda dealer and bought a new PD. I was planning to get going early tomorrow, but I got antsy and started tonight. I've got the upper intake (extension manifold?) off and can see the rat's nest of silicone hoses, coils, and injectors sitting between me and my target. What's the best way to proceed? Take off the coils, then the rail that holds the solenoids, then...?

I've been documenting everything I've done, and hope to write a HOWTO after it's all finished. If anyone in the San Jose area is around tomorrow and wants to drink a few beers and provide a second point-of-view, let me know

--
pedalpusher

'93 RX-7 - original owner
reliability mods
cold air intake
dp, cat-back
power fc/commander

suspension upgrades coming soon!

93TTRX7

i have learned not to touch that PD with a 60 ft pole

i'm curious...with your mods in your sig...did you get the power fc because you had to or did you get it just do you don't have to worry about getting it later for future mods? and how many miles do you have on your car?

GsrSol

This should help, just disregaurd the AN fittings.

http://www.scuderiaciriani.com/rx7/FPR_install.html

GOOD LUCK!!!!

ziftar

iTrader: (1)

It's probably to hard to see what your working on when your 60 feet away at the end of the pole trying to remove the rats nest.

paw140

I changed my FPD when I was doing the vacuum hose job, so I'm not sure exactly what needs to be removed to replace just the FPD. I removed the coils and rats nest, then I had good access to the fuel rails. I removed both rails with the injectors, replaced all the o-rings and the FPD. Its really not too hard, except for the rats nest. I think it may be possible to remove the FPD without removing the fuel rails... this may save you some time. But you might also want to replace your injector o-rings while you're in there.

7-sins

Well... let me see here. The manifold it self is not that hard to get off. I have done it before because of vacuum line issues. Once that is off you can get a lot better look at your engine. At this point if you look hard enough you can see the fuel sitting on the block, or at least I could. Next thing you need off is the solenoid rack. To get this off you must pull off the alternator. Just pull out the bolts holding it in and wiggle it until it comes loose, this might sound easier than it is.

Once that is off you can see 4 screws on the side of the solenoid rack, that’s what’s holding that on. *Be careful not to strip them!!!* They strip really easy and mine at least were in there tight. There are also 3 or 4 screws on the other side as well; they are really hard to get any leverage on because the firewall is right there. My screws wouldn’t come out and were about to be striped so I used a pair of vice grips to get in there and get them started to turn. Needle nose vice grips would have been great but the pair I had were not that high quality. I used a normal pair and had to remove the ignition pack to reach better. I am sure you can get the rack out w/o pulling all that out but it might give you a little more room.

Once you get the rack loose you need to pull off the electrical connectors and some of the hoses. A lot of hoses can stay connected because they go from like a solenoid to another. I labeled a few of the hoses and nipples with some tape, just write numbers on the tape. The rack will pull out; you will get a better view of the dampener, and in my case the 3" deep bomb that was sitting there. To reach the dampener go ahead and pull of the Air Control Valve right above it. That is easy to remove, 3 nuts and a clamp, just be careful because there is a gasket in there. If it doesn't come off with the ACV then just leave it in its place. There are two screws on the dampener, I had to get the distributor that holds the Secondary injectors loose first, and then I could get a better angle on the screws. Once again vice grips came in real handy.

If you get to the dampener then you should be able to see any other fuel problem, everything is right there... When I got the dampener off it looked fine to me, no signs of a leak. I hooked up my vacuum pump to it and held my finger over the other hole. It would not hold vacuum for crap and you could hear the air leaking. So I ordered the part from mazdatrix... it was like $120.

Get a friend to help you who knows a good amount about cars.
Take your time; I expected my car to be in the garage for about 2 weeks, but that was for a number of other reasons. If you don't have a silicone hose job go get some hose from http://www.bakerprecision.com/hosetech.htm 35ft 4mm & 10ft 6mm. If you don't do the whole thing at least do the hoses under the manifold so you wont have to go through that again. Instead of putting those stripped screws back in your solenoid rack go out and buy some small bolts that are the same size. They will save you some time if you pull solenoid rack off again. You may want to even send your manifold & alternator off to get chrome polished. If I had more cash it would have been on my list. There are a lot of things you can do to your engine and you sure do learn a lot more about your motor with everything out of the car. It isn't that hard of a task it just takes time and patients. If an 18 year old can do it then I'm sure most other people can.

Good luck,
Chris

93TTRX7

i have HUGE hands and it's just impossible for me to work around and past the rat's nest

hapa

Took me about a week to do this, only because I had my injectors cleaned and blueprinted by RC. It's really not hard at all. I originally started by taking out the alternator, then I realized it would be much much easier, to take out the coils. Once you have the coils out (4 10mm bolts and 3 elec. plugs), it's 3 bolts, and the whole rats nest can be bent up. Then it's easy to get the screws out using a standard #2 phillips screwdriver without stripping the screws. I took out the entire primary fuel injector housing. I then changed the o-rings for the injectors, the insulators for the them, and of course the pulsation dampner and it's o-ring. Since you are in there do a hose job, it's simple when everything is out.

good luck,
eric

ttb

pedalpusher, sent you pm.

pedalpusher

iTrader: (1)

Well, I'm not a whole lot further than I was last night, unfortunately. I took out the coil bracket, and thought that I had the solenoid bracket nailed by taking out the three bolts below.



The bracket will wiggle around, but I can't move it, or remove it, to get to the damper. I've seen that some people advocate removing the screws on either side of the bracket. I think these are what they mean:



These things don't budge! I don't want to strip them, and it seems like the bolts I've already removed are the right way to go. This part of the job is really getting to be a drag. Especially after I ripped a couple of my silicone hoses, and broke the tip off the Pressure Regulator Control solenoid:



So, it looks like this job is going to go into the weekend

pedalpusher

pedalpusher

iTrader: (1)

Well, I'm "halfway" there. I figured out where the bolt was that I was missing for successful removal of the oil filler neck, and then the solenoid bracket . I ended up taking out the entire primary fuel rail. There was gas residue on top of the rail, so I wasn't sure if there might be a problem with the injector o-rings. Better safe than sorry.

Is there any maintenance, or performance mods, I should think about while I have the innards exposed? I'm already going to replace all of the o-rings. I have silicone hoses. Are there any guages that need to be connected in this area? I'm trying to save myself some time if there's something I'll want to do in the near future that'll require this open heart surgery procedure again.

Last thing -- the solenoid that I broke. The part that is broken is the vacuum release part with the filter on it. Do I really need to buy a new one, or can I make this one work still?

Looks like my Saturday is committed to getting this thing buttoned up. I'll probably post another update, and maybe some questions. I intend to write up a HOWTO, so others can learn from my mistakes. I've got pictures of most of the steps I've taken, so it should be pretty comprehensive.

Thanks for reading.

zoro

Pedalpusher, I'll take a copy of those procedures when you have them finished. I just purchased a 96 rx7 and have been warned that I might what to replace the PD.

Thanks

zoro

just noticed I'm about 10years off, meant 86. I just noticed your instructions are for a gen3.

Anyone have the steps for the gen2?

rotorbrain

check the 2nd gen forum