Donovan

Got the pile of **** running for two days. Been working on the click click god damn problem. Last night I backed the worthless piece if garbage out onto the driveway to put the new tires on and let it run for a bit. As usual being unattended from the driver's seat to constantly give it throttle to keep it alive, it stalled. It had started to get to temp but I don't know that it got all the way up. In any case, I went back in and tried cranking and cranking and cranking, and nothing. Not even any spark. I'm thinking flooded. Well pulled the plugs today and they were pretty bad and smelled like gas to I took a wire brush to them to clean then up and they looked pretty good again. (Don't want to put new plugs in ad destroy them too until I find out what is wrong with this pile). While working on the click, click deal. I also rewired under the dash today and ran a direct wire to the starter. That actually worked like a champ. It cranks like crazy now every time. good. But no spark, it's not even sputtering. Same as before the rewire.

So now what did I break? I don't know what else it could be that would just die instantly like that and cause it not to start at all. It WAS running and starting. I've checked the fuses and they look good and tried the deflooding procedure. I just don't know anymore. I give up on this car.

qwester007

iTrader: (3)

Stick with it. The power will be rewarding in the end. Check the basics, wiring, coils, etc.

ZE Power MX6

iTrader: (157)

If you just let it run like that you might've flooded it, did you go through the de-flood procedure?

Donovan

You read the post right? I tried it.
I got some new plugs today and will try that when it cools down a bit. Can hardly wait to throw $24 more down the drain..

MazdaSpeedDan

iTrader: (4)

A little backstory on your mods will help out alot. Stock or TT? stock engine or did you do a back yard rebuild or did a place rebuild it? Was it sitting for a while? Did you just drop the motor in? I can help troubleshoot but need some back story.

p00shy

iTrader: (3)

^what do you mean stock or TT? is it an FC were talking about?

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

I know you're frustrated, but things can always be (much) worse. Try and keep the potty-mouth stuff out of the tech section. You can always go over to the Lounge if you feel the need to curse like a sailor

Donovan

LOL. I'll try to watch it. It's the car. It just does that. Always has. I got it going on a new set of plugs and 50 gallons of WD40 and cranking with the plugs out for about an hour. The plugs I put in were soaked after cleaning so I think there is another issue with fuel leakage via a stuck injector or otherwise. Stock original injectors and everything else fuel related. Supra TT fuel pump. Drove it to the gas station to fill up on liquid gold and it only stalled 5-6 times........... It's running though, just waiting on the registration.

I used your thread on the using of jumpers to bypass the relays, however in the end I wound up ripping out the rat's nest of wires that had been spliced under the dash by the alarm guys back in '94 or so and putting all the wires back together. They had actually cut and spliced 'ol black and blue stripe, for constant power, so I'm sure that helped. In the end I ran a new wire directly to the starter and it cranks every single time without question now!!!!

MazdaSpeedDan

iTrader: (4)

I meant to say Single or TT, my bad.

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

don't wire brush these spark plugs, makes things worse. dry them with ether or bead blast them dry but don't brush them. new plugs will also work.

how old is the gas in the car?

Donovan

Again, I got it started finally. Had to resort to new plugs and cranking forever with the plugs out. There was buckets of fuel in there. That's going to have to be project #1 when I get it on the road. Why am I flooding.

The car is stock TTs (original at 92K miles yikes) but has been modded with most of the bolt ons and bolt offs. No air pump etc. The motor was built by Rick at Rick's rotory in Pleasanton. It started leaking about 15 minutes after I got it home but I never took it back. 3mm Apex seals and viton water seals. It's been about 7 years now I think. I may have to just drop it off with him again as it's not only flooding and stalling, but dripping from everywhere.

I have a lightened fly wheel but I can't remember what it was that went in there. Racing Beat street I think. So that doesn't exactly help it idle. For now I'll turn the idle screw up a tad so it will quit stalling at every stop sign.

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

pick up a pan brace before you take it back to him, i can already tell he will quote you for a new pan which is about 1 fitty. the pan brace is less than that and will alleviate almost all the leak issues caused by the poor FD mount-through-pan design.

Donovan

It may be cheaper to drive it to Las Vegas.....
Do you have any ideas on the pan brace? I looked at one you suggested and I thought it was a bit pricy for what it was.

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

it may just be a piece of cut steel but a sheet of steel itself costs money plus time to cut it to shape plus $10 in fasteners, the cost is about right for what it is(in industry the more of any particular item you make the cheaper it is, for RX7s though production runs are limited and cost is higher).

problem is many FDs have had the oil pan off several times, each time it is removed it becomes distorted and more prone to leaking without being a finger paint expert with a whole tube of silicone on the bottom of the engine. other thing to consider is that there is only 2 ways to fix the oil leaks on an FD pan. 1) remove the engine from the vehicle, or 2) drop the whole subframe at least 6" down from under the car. the second, cheapest method is still about a $250 repair and not something you want to do every few years so i consider it an investment.

i would think that the SF area shops would catch on eventually that their prices are a little too steep but they still get enough work to keep plugging at it. BUT even after moving i still get plenty of people willing to drive the extra 300 miles each way, if that sais anything about their cost or my work. just had an FD from san francisco leave last week.

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

At this point it sounds like you have a tuning issue..... or possibly a slightly leaky fuel injector.

If you have the original oil pan, to have a fighting chance of it not leaking, I recommend getting the new oil pan with the brace and hardware. It adds up and isn't cheap, but due to the design the oil pans are very prone to leaking and IMO chances are good it'll continue to do so with your original pan being reused.

FWIW, Ray Crowe tells me that he sells new oil pans by the boatload to about half a dozen rotary performance shops.

Donovan

I'll check out Ray. I'm glad he is still around. I need to put a list together of little broken pieces and see what he can do and what is still available. I still have the entire fuel recall kit I got from him a bunch of years ago sitting in the garage.

There is oil and I believe power steering fluid all over the bottom of the car. Need to get it up on some ramps and pressure wash it off. I can see that the pan is leaking, but also looks like there is more leaks coming from spots that are hard to see. Kinda disappointing from an expensive rebuild.

If I do have to pull it I will go with the brace for sure even if I sell the heap.

I seems to flood only when it dies before it warms up. The lack of the air pump and the lightened fly wheel don't exactly help it idle but I wouldn't think it would be so bad. It did this before it sat though so it's not purely old gas and sitting. Leaky injector, low idle etc...I'm sure Rick will have thousands of dollars worth of fixes for me.

Donovan

Their prices have always been high. And as some of he bigger names have gone away, they can justify that price buy where else are you gonna go? There aren't a lot of smaller places like in LA and a lot of people have enough money in the Bay that I guess they just pay whatever.
If I were going to get a full rebuild again, I would take the car to the desert and fly home.
I kept trying to get the car up to Sac when you were there, but with registration issues and it not working I never could.

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

i hear ya, most of the long distance customers are in for engine rebuilds. shops in the bay start at $5k and only go up from there, at half the cost it's worth a little extra footwork.

Donovan

So the car's possession continues. The stock alarm is absolutely nuts. I honked at and flashed about 50 cars last night on the way home from wine tasting. Irritating. However the motor has recently decided that it runs really well and very smoothly... Odd. Being a FD I'm sure it's an air leak somewhere, but it's idling well and does not stall at all unless I run the AC now. I set the idle up high just to keep it alive, but now it's idling at 1500 on it's own so I'll turn it back down a bit.
I tell you these things have a mind of their own. Any thoughts on what may have happened here? All I did was stick a bottle on MMO in the tank and drive it around for a month.

whizzybang

Have you checked all air hoses ? New gaskets when put UIM and TB back on the car ? Every nut is torqued enough ?

Donovan

Ihavent messed with it really at all since the motor was done 6-7-10 years ago actually. Its just always ran like crap and died all the time. I'm tired of wrenching anymore, its going in for a pressure and seal tesst eventually.