Yep, finally got the car all running and everything, bolted the exhaust up all 3" of course, downpipe, with my catco cat custom welded by a muffler shop as well as the catback and greddy muffler. All other parts installed new blow off valve, boost controller set at 7 psi, and all the nifty gauges, I needed. Compression tested and it was A okay. Mind you this was a day after I got the car flooded. Went through the unflood proceedures, successfully. I figured well lets take her for a test drive see how she running.

Well of course my stomach was just churning, because this was the first time I would even have went more than a foot in the car, and all this time the horror stories I have read about the car kept lingering in the back of my mind. I swear if there was any car I have ever been more intimidated to drive I have found her.

Well anyways I just took it down a couple blocks and of course the idle was running rough about 2500-3500, as I have read others have been having similiar experiences. Perhaps a mess up from removing the IM, or wiring issue. When I put the 7 into gear the idle would drop to about 1500, and then rise back up. My wife kind of eyeballing it from a distance just to be safe.

Well anyways it was running purty poorly this whole time. As I was returning back to the house just to be safe, my wife was screeming that it was shooting flames like a torch, and not just the fireball pop. She describe the flame as a constant one, which only dissappeared when I turned off the car, perhaps the unburnt fuel I imagine? Well as I crawl under the car the cat is glowing red? Ahh man!! I about had it with this car , but I don't give up that easy . What do you guys think call it quits??

 

probably just running rich.... and the idle running rough just go get a ground kit....

 

Don't be a quiter! Remember that your car was flooded and has a ton of fuel in the exhaust. Also you might need to replace the plugs if they are fouled.

 

Sounds like your TPS isn't plugged in properly.

Mine did that idling at around 3 rich as anything etc etc.

Pluged the TPS back in and it was mint.

Its located around the back of the engine where the inlet elbow joins to the throttle body.

Check that plug.

Also I would do a sensor check with your error codes or if you know someone with a Power FC plug it in and do a sensor check.

Saying its just been rebuilt it could be anything. but i'd start with sensors etc etc before pulling it to bits.

 

dude it sounds like you really dont know what you are doing at all

you are trying but on this car you really have to be an expert or youll be screwed. its a joke if you try to fix something by just guessing

why dont you tell us some specifics instead of my cat is glowing and the idle is high?? what did you alter from stock?

 

Yeah its true I don't really know much about the car just the basics really, actually I know 10x now than I did before. But, truly it was just kind of one of those 1nce in a life time experience things for me. I had an opportunity to get a supercar at a great deal, no one around me had ever seen one before and I didn't want to pass it up. But, being foolish, and hard headed I got lured in by the looks of the car, and heard great things about the engine. I mean come on how much trouble could a little 1.3 liter b???? And plus I had a great deal of knowledge about other cars, but didn't really know this was an entire different beast, which it is and now I'm stuck learning the hard way.

I never thought that such a little engine was gonna be such a pain . Damn little things get hot you guys weren't lying. And just as loud as v8 maybe louder.

So basically what happened was it had been sitting for a while, no exhaust, and lots of missing parts. I came here and learned as much as I could in a couple of months. And finally I was able to put it back together and diagnose a few things as to why it wasn't producing a spark. Took a few parts off like IM and few little things here in there to redo the vacuum hoses, polish the IM, and clean it up a little in the engine bay. I cranked her up with no exhaust, and it was music to my ears. I then let her sleep another couple weeks, until I could figure out the exhaust, and still learn a few more things. Searched some and got great information from experienced members, and found that a midpipe wasn't the way to go, but heard a few rotary members had used Catco converters with success, as well as the other parts mentioned.

I then put the exhaust together turned her on and began to burp the coolant. All the sudden the idle sort of just adjusted itself automatically at higher rpms and startled me so I quickly shut it off. Well of course it was still a bit cold so it got flooded. Tried a few different methods but still nothing. I then let her sit overnight, and got to her in the morning. Put the petal to the metal and cranked it over several times, nothing. So I pulled the bottom plugs out and cranked it over about 3 times 15 seconds each, let it sit for about 1/2 hour nothing. So the next time I took all 4 plugs out, same thing cranked 3 times 15 seconds each, and vwalla. It ran like **** with lots of smoke for about 5 minutes took it for a spin and then as mentioned above. After the flames and the hot cat I said forget it I wasn't going to chance it anymore, and burn the bumper off. The cat was red hot I mean litterly glowing red. I wouldn't expect the cat to burn out that quick so I assumed like others mentioned just unburnt fuel ignited from a hot exhaust. So long story, but hopefully that gives you more details, thanks for the help guys.

 

so how's it going did u restart it?

 

Whatever you do don't listen to advice like this...

 

did you ever plug in the map sensor?

its a small black box that says "boost sensor" and it has a vacum line going to it.

if you haven't yet that may be why its running so crappy.

 

whatever.... so anyways yeah it was probably flooded like you said.... but w/ the flames hmmm wierd....how long was it flaming out the exhaust for? The whole trip around the block?

 

w/ the rough idle also check to make sure the vacum line is connected on that little nipple on the intake manifold

 

Thanks for your response guys, nope even after figuring out the boost sensor was unplugged with the help of others , reset the ecu, by unplugging the battery and depressing the brake for a minute, and it did not do the trick.

It seems like after the point of unflooding it, and running the engine at idle for several minutes hopefully to clear the extra fuel out of the system, it is incredibly much harder to start now after that point. I haven't really been screwing around with the car lately, feel like I keep on digging a bigger hole for its grave. Just plain ignorance on my part may get me into trouble.

I am going through the vacuum lines again. Though I'm certain there won't be any problems there. If there is an air leak I believe it to be one of the gaskets on the intake manifold which I should have replaced to begin with, it is basically cracked due to age.

I'm really searching around right now to get the symptoms of a blown engine. What concerns me is the fact that when putting some strain on the engine by putting it into gear, it nearly wants to shut off hitting below 1k rpm, which I don't think a vacuum leak could influence that much. I am going to get a better compression test of the rotaries.

PS, this is a newbie question, but should the bov be blowing air out constantly when at idle or in gear. I thought it was only a relief valve and would blow air only once the gears or gas pedal was released.

 

Oh right... the flames were constant, apparently only on my returning, that is when the flames appeared so for about the last minute and a half from coming back from testing it. Soon as I turned the car off it dissappeared, and now having started it and testing it recently did not have the problem again. I think it was just the fuel caught in the cat, or maybe running too rich due to the fact the boost sensor wasn't plugged in.

 

Do you have a vacuum gauge? What kind of vac is your engine pulling at idle?

So your boost sensor *was* unplugged, and plugging it back in did nothing? That is very strange. Are you sure the vac line for the boost sensor is plugged into the correct nipple on the back of the throttle body?

You may have also just fouled out your spark plugs by running w/ no boost sensor for a while.

 

Thanks paw,

Yeah that's true the plugs might be fouled out. Won't hurt to put some new ones, thanks for the tip. The vacuum line for the boost sensor, plugged it into the nipple on the back of the throttle body. Perhaps, I reset the computer incorrectly . I can't remember the vacuum I was getting at idle. I'll double check it and then post thanks.

 

There is more than one nipple on the back of the throttle body. IIRC, there was a post a year or two ago where a guy plugged his map sensor into the wrong nipple, which didn't provide the correct engine vacuum, and it ran as if the map sensor hose was unplugged completely. I would just double check this if I were you, especially if you had it all torn apart.

 

okay sounds good. I'll be doing that. From what I seen on the throttle body, the square piece, inbetween the hand looking im, and the plastic intake elbow there was just one nipple. But I will double check I'm probably wrong.

 

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ght=map+sensor

 

Thanks again for your help Paw. I have pm'd and replied to that thread to get some info from the author. What puzzles me is he says that when he had it plugged on the side of the throttle body, that it wasn't supposed to be plugged on that nipple, but the diagram indicates that it does .