I bought this car as a non-runner, the previous owner told me that it was a new motor that he just couldn't get to run. I found a few small issues and the car fired up pretty easily... but once it started running really sounded like it had some issues. A fluxuating idle, lots of popping from the exhaust and not revving well at all. I checked the compression right away and was happy to find about 3 100's on both rotors. I double-checked the MAP sensor for voltages at idle and zero vacuum and they checked in, thought for sure this was the problem so I was a little disappointed. I double checked the TPS and the idle and wide open voltages checked in as well. After some tinkering, the motor suddenly started running on what sounded like one rotor, so I checked and at least one of the plugs wasn't sparking. So I installed a new set of plugs and took this video.... probably the best it's run to date. A few things to note: the Oil pressure sender is not plugged in, that's why it doesn't register... the engine came with the hole plugged and I'm awaiting a new sender. Notice the strange sounds coming from the turbo area when I rev it a touch... quite hollow sounding and bizarre... or maybe that's normal for a turbo vehicle with after market exhaust? The car stalls when I walk around back, and when I came around front a small amount smoke was coming up from the passenger's side.

I also took a picture of the throttle area... it appears the previous owner deleted the secondary throttle and something just doesn't seem right with all the linkages and such. Notice the gap between the throttle and the dashpot (?). How do I get this back to normal?

I'm generally pretty good at working with motors but quite a noobie when it comes to rotaries, I'm catching on quickly but need a little bit of help... figured if a picture is worth a thousand words a video must be worth a million. any advice is much appreciated!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-OIzgjjupQ

 

sounds like its missing.
maybe a faulty ignitor??

 

Your dashpot isn't working right, and that could possibly cause some driveability issues. The dashpot should dampen the force of the throttle closing quickly, so it must touch linkage before it closes.

Download the factory service manuals up top, they are priceless.

Oh yea, and the noise you hear is the infamous air pump "moo". It usually can be heard when you have an aftermarket intake system.

 

haha, the air pump "moo"... pretty good word to describe it i guess! i've been searching through the FSM's, that's how i've been doing most of my troubleshooting thus far... i'm definitely going to look into the ignitor now... any good threads on how to check it without the "SST" that the FSM calls for?

 

bump for any more advice!

 

check it with a timing light?

 

yeah i would check the timing that would cause a misfire

 

just took of the upper intake and ohm'd the coils they were all OK. i did notice that one of the leading boots was not seated quite right on the coil... fixed it an put it back together, started it up... same issues. i'll check the timing next, thanks for the advice.

 

The reason for the MOOOO is because you have that hosed plumbed to the intake...you need to remove it, cap it on the intake, then cap it on the airpump. However, before you cap the airpump one, drill 6 holes in the cap...like 5 of them representing the points of a star with the 6th being a hold right in the middle...small holes, nothing to big....it will suppress the mooo indefinately.

Trev

 

Thanks to all that have been helping me troubleshoot this car... I'm getting very close to a nice running motor (or so I think). the first video is of the car idling, i'm not sure exactly what i did to make it so sweet but probably a combination connecting the knock sensor along with some other things. the idle still surges a little bit b/t 1000 and 1500 rpm, but i can see that i'll need to do some adjusting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOcSyhQIhr8

the second video is what i'm concerned about. it's a video of the exhaust. notice the massive black cloud that comes out when i rev... from my readings this means i'm running REALLY rich. it's weird b/c there's almost like a "wall" at 2000 RPM.... is this where the secondaries kick in?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tukD3X-pXds

i'm thinking that i should check the following:

sticking injector
02 sensor
fuel pressure regulator
inject o-rings
etc.

i've got the upper intake off again (i'm like a pro now )... so where should i focus my attention?