DOHC Vobra

Wow! Nice catch!!! Thanks for pointing that out, I def would have missed that.

Justin

DOHC Vobra

Well, either I was doing something wrong with the Atkins tool, or it just doesn't fit that well (leaks at the gasket surface). I ended up giving up trying to make it work again with it's gasket last night, and instead temporarily RTV'd it in place. Tested it this morning, and it no longer leaked!

Pumped the system up to 26psi, and a half hour later it was holding steady. I've now left it pumped up for the day while I'm at work, so when I get home later I'll re-check it, but it's looking good so far!

Justin

DOHC Vobra

Wow, it's been a while!! As usual, things are going at a snails pace, but all is going well (so far!).

Since the last post, I've done a bunch of little things:
- installed a new timing chain, new oil pump, and front cover
- put the oil pan on the engine, decided to skip the gasket and just RTV the thing
- Got a set of replacement engine mounts, I had the crappy aluminum one, and it was torn on the ds, replaced with a used set of steel ones that are in great shape (after a thorough cleaning)
- cleaned the water pump and filler housing (thanks to whoever recommended using steel wool, cleaned everything up perfectly, just be thorough when cleaning up afterwords to get all of the steel bits!!
- replaced a stripped exhaust manifold stud... wow, that thing was REALLY stuck in there
- installed new OMP lines
- disassembled and removed injectors, had them cleaned at RC.
- Tore down the rats nest, and am re-wrapping the harness, the vacuum lines are DONE, and the harness is crispy. Fortunately, after removing the harness jacket, the wires inside look good, I'll re-wrap, test, and re-install it. Got new silicone lines for the rats nest too.
- Ordered up all new water and fuel hoses from Ray @ Malloy.

DOHC Vobra

Just finished re-wrapping the engine harness, it had definitely seen better days. I pulled off all of the factory loom/gunk and continuity tested all of the wires. All looked good, so I re-taped the wires using self-adhering vinyl tape, then put all new nylon split loom tubing on top of that, then wrapped the split loom in the vinyl tape (taping the loose ends with electrical tape). To finish it up, I covered the part that runs directly over the DP/Turbo with some reflective heat shield tape. Sure is nice to have a nice clean harness to re-install!

Next will be to finish up replacing the vacuum lines, then I can re-install that whole mess!

Justin

DOHC Vobra

Time for another update! Things are going slow, as usual, but I'm starting to at least put a dent in the todo list! Tackled the rats nest/harness install last week...what a nightmare getting it all back where it used to be! Had to make a few tweaks to my re-wrapped harness, connectors weren't falling in quite the same spots as they used to, and mazda left no slack at all in some of those wires!

I've also torn apart the turbo, after taking it apart, I realized that one of the turbos had quite a bit of oil in the discharge side (while the other turbo was clean as a whistle). I was able to find a stock set of twins on ebay that were in good shape, and decided to swap my secondary for the ebay secondary, and left my primary as is. I also replaced all of the studs/nuts on the exhaust/turbo, half had galled threads, and I just didn't trust using them again. Kiss goodbye to $200 for a new set of mazda studs and nuts.

Finally, I got the lower and upper intake back on and everything connected, just waiting for some bolts from Ray Crowe, and I can get the turbo mounted back up.

Justin

DOHC Vobra

Got the new pilot bearing, turbos, intake and main drive accessories installed this weekend, it's starting to actually look like a motor again! I managed to break the oil level sender when I was re-installing it (cracked the housing), not sure how that happened, but it was a $100 mistake. :-( At least Ray @ Malloy had one in stock, and I should have that this week.

Now I need to wait for my clutch alignment tool to arrive to install the clutch, then the motor can go back into the engine bay.

Justin

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

Nice work! Have been silently following your thread. You sir, are a man of patience and skill. Keep it up!

DOHC Vobra

heheh...thanks David!! Congrats on the power your car made, truly incredible numbers!!

Justin

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

^Thanks Justin. The car is back in for a Carbonetic carbon 2 way LSD install and a few other goodies. Never ending projects for sure.

DOHC Vobra

Finally got the motor dropped back in (to the engine bay, not running yet!). The transmission proved to be more than a 1 man job, so my brother came over and helped for an hour. It was definitely a challenge getting the motor to drop into place with the engine mounts attached and trying to get the trans high enough at the same time. In the end, we got it though. I'm a little concerned that the collar ring etc all seated correctly, but the pilot bearing does seem to be working as I'd expect it to. I guess I'll know really quickly if that's not right!

I'm hoping to get the rest of the accessories and plumbing re-attached this weekend, fill it with fluids, check for leaks, and MAYBE even attempt to turn this thing over...

Justin

DOHC Vobra

Well, got the rest of the bits-n-pieces reinstalled this weekend. Filled it up with coolant, fresh oil, and topped off the p/s, and put in 2 gallons of gas. Had the battery on the charger so all was prepped to go.

The good news:

- No leaks ...so far!
- Engine cranked nicely, nothing odd sounding.
- During cranking, the oil gauge jumped up near the middle, decent cranking oil pressure.

the bad news:
- It doesn't start.

I tried for about 15 min or so cranking the thing, no real progress or change.

What i've checked so far:
- Pulled the plugs and cranked the engine, sounded good, much louder/crisper compression sounds than before the rebuild, and didn't sound as though there were any missing compression cycles.
- I didn't have a helper, so I could only check peak compression. Rear rotor showed about 120psi, front was about 115
- Checked for spark - all plugs had spark
- It looks as if only the front rotor is getting fuel. Rear rotor plugs had some assembly lube on them, but no trace of fuel.
- Pulled the UIM back off (ugh), and pulled the primary injectors. Checked for continuity to the ECU from both injectors, and also checked that they had +12v on the power leads. All checked out ok.
- Checked the impedance on the injectors, both showed about 17ohms, a little higher than the FSM's spec of 13ohms

I did have the injectors cleaned a few months ago, and they've been stored since. I'm wondering if it's possible that something's happened (mechanically) to one of the injectors?

I guess this is where the real fun begins...trying to figure out WTF is wrong!

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

Justin

DOHC Vobra

Well, I'm starting to doubt that it was injectors. Gave the guys over @ RC Engineering a call (they cleaned the injectors), and they talked me through a couple of tests. One of the things they had me try was using a 9v battery to see if the injectors were 'clicking'. Sure enough, both seemed to be just fine. They offered to re-test the injectors too, but I'm really doubting that's the problem.

Some of the other tests that I've tried:
- tested the impedance on the coils and wires, all were in spec
- tested the fuel pressure on the feed line, and it was about 80psi (in spec)
- tested the secondary injectors, they had good impedance and 'clicked' when a 9v battery was connected
- verified that the fuel feed and return lines weren't swapped.

One thing that's been stuck in the back of my mind is the CAS trigger wheel. I'm wondering, is it possible that it could be installed 180deg out??? I remember there were two alignment nubs on the eshaft snub, but it did appear that it could be installed 180deg either way... seems to me that would definitely be a problem if it wasn't timed correctly.

Well, I'm off to do some more searching!

Justin

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

Nope, the wheel can only be installed one way. If the nubs are wrong then the M bolts won't go through.

You can check the space between the wheel and the magnet, should be no more than 1mm IIRC.

Also make sure the wiring looks good and the white connector is the one on the top (left).

DOHC Vobra

Thanks for the tips! Just looked at the pictures of the engine (there's one above), and the connectors appear to be in the right places (white on top).

I'll definitely check out the wiring and cas spacing. I'm wondering though, would I still get spark if there was an issue with the CAS wiring?

Justin

agent004

iTrader: (13)

Why did you check the secondary injectors with the 9V? Those are not the cranking injectors; they only come on at higher RPM~4500. The primaries are the only ones you need to be concerned with for now.

DOHC Vobra

Since I had them cleaned, I figured this would be the easiest time to double check that they are still working (while the UIM is still off). But you're correct, they're not contributing to the cranking/starting problem.

Justin

agent004

iTrader: (13)

I was in a similar situation. I put a motor in and installed a fuel system. Everyting looked good but the thing just would not start. Turns out the motor was bad and had no compression. One thing I did that you may want to check to ensure fuel delivery, was to pull the primary injectors from the LIM, with them plugged into the harness, I put each one in a ziplock bag and cranked for 5 seconds. This showed that they were infact delivering fuel to the combustion chamber and allowed me to focus on other possible issues.....like my 0 psi compression.

Best of luck....I hope you figure it out.

racerx7

iTrader: (2)

I know it is kind of ghetto but have your tried starter fluid while some is cranking the engine?

DOHC Vobra

Interesting idea, maybe I'll try cranking with the injectors out, as you said, at least it would confirm they are working. Keeping my fingers crossed that it's not compression, but I guess it's time for a real compression test too.

Thanks!
Justin

DOHC Vobra

haven't tried that yet...If i find out that compression is good, that might be a good solution to get it fired up.

Justin

DOHC Vobra

Well, ended up going back through everthing, had the injectors checked, and they checked ok. I re-checked all of the vacuum lines and electrical connectors, all looked good. Did some more reading on the forum concerning hard starts after a rebuild and found lots of valuable info. Decided that I'd just put it back together, and try some of the hard start tips.

I removed the plugs, removed the EGI fuse and cranked the motor to remove all of the fuel. After that, I put a couple of squirts of MMO in the plug holes, put the plugs back in and cranked it (EGI fuse still out). Then removed the plugs and cranked it again, and cleaned the plugs with some brake cleaner.

Turned the idle screw out 3 or 4 turns, and cranked it. To my amazement, it started right up!!! Let it run for about 10 minutes, got up to temp and I shut it down. Ran perfectly!!! Went to go get some more gas (gas light came on), came back and started it again, started right up, ran great again. I backed off on the idle screw, and let it idle at about 1000rpm for another 15 minutes. Again no issues.

I've shut it down now to check all of the fluids etc. One concern I have is that looking at the OMP lines, I don't see any obvious signs of oil... it might be a little hard to see since it's new oil, but I'm concerned that it's not working. Would the check engine light turn on if there was an issue with the OMP? How hard is it to see oil in the lines??

Thanks to everyone here for all of your advice, no way I'd have been able to do this without you guys!! Special thanks to Dale Clark for all of the input you provided!!!

Justin

DOHC Vobra

LOL... just realized that it's taken me about a year to do this rebuild...

Anyway, here's a quick vid of it running, this is the 3rd time that I started it, sorry I didn't get the initial smokeshow, I was in shock that it was actually running! :-) Also just went for a quick spin around the block, all ok so far. That'll probably be it for now till I figure out what's up with the OMP

http://youtu.be/ZwN84aYw8Rs

Just wanted to say thanks again to the people that helped and supplied the great parts:

Goopy Performance - Refinished housings, Apex Seals, and great support, even on the weekends!
Chips motorsports - Surfaced and cleaned up end plates
Atkins Rotary - All of the rest of the rebuild stuff
Dale Clark - For answering all of my newbie questions
RX7Club - For all of the great technical info

Justin

Vortes

I would recommend premixing if you dont think your omp is working. Im not sure how to check out the omp though.

DOHC Vobra

Thanks for the tip, I went ahead and premixed for now, just for my own piece of mind. Added about 4oz to a full tank. Hopefully that at least makes it safe to drive and I can see if the omp starts to work. I noticed in another thread Karack recommending running premix for the first couple of tanks of gas after replacing the omp lines.

Justin

DOHC Vobra

I was able to put about 20 miles on the car last night, ran great. During the ride, the check engine light came on, I figured the ECU might have finally figured out that the OMP wasn't working. When I got home I checked the code and it was 16 (EGR). Looks like I'll have to pull a bunch of the turbo outlet tubing to check the EGR valve now (and maybe pull the damn UIM again to check the EGR solenoid). I'm hoping putting a few more miles on the car will either get the OMP working, or confirm that it's just dead, still odd that there's no CEL for the OMP though.

I also realized that I wasn't running enough premix for a non-functional OMP (I was running about .5oz per gallon). I upped the mix to 1oz/gal till the OMP mystery is solved.

Justin