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So this project is sort of a leap of faith for me. I've always wanted a side project car but never knew where to start. I never would have thought i'd be getting into the rotary scene. The car started life as a SCCA Spec RX7 race car and was build in the early 2000's. It's been awhile since it's seen a track, but i'm hoping to bring it back to life.
I'm planning on running some track days and autocross, most likely start in CSP where i'll get destroyed by Miatas. Don't care too much, just want some seat time.
The day I got it into my new garage, tight fit but I'll manage.
After a couple of weeks, I got the garage organized and can finally begin working.
Right off the bat I've got a couple things to address. It wasn't running when I bought it, The carb is stripped because race car, so no choke. Bought it in the winter so that didn't help. However the biggest issue was the carb was flooding like crazy.
We also have to rebuild the rear brake calipers and address the all-too famous leaking oil cooler. Plus some other..... interesting techniques from the original builder.
Now this is not only my first rotary engine car, but my first experience with a carb. Needless to say I was a bit worried about tackling that as my first task.
Luckily with all the spare parts, I happen to have a spare Nikki carb. Taking that apart was pretty simple (with the help of many useful guides online.) Thankfully I don't plan on using this carb, I don't think it's ever been disassembled or cleaned!
So after messing with the spare carb, it's time to rebuild the main one. With the main goal of fixing the flooding issue, it has to be one of two issues. Either the floats are sticky/not adjusted, or the vent solenoid is faulty.
Thankfully the main carb was much cleaner than the spare. Float levels needed some adjustment but weren't that off.
Here shows the solenoid issue, plugged it into wiring harness while disassembled. The plunger should be opening and closes as I turn on the ignition. Instead it stays closed. This will cause the air to be trapped in the float bowl. When fuel enters the bowl, the trapped air will force the fuel very rapidly into the jets, causing massive flooding.
Since this is a stripped carb, most of the unnecessary emissions parts have been removed already. The Air Vent solenoid is not exactly required. In this carb, it's non removable without breaking it apart. Not wanted to do a irreversible fix, I decided to shim the air vent open.
With some washers, I used a dremel to cut them in half. I also had to grind them down to fit in the gap. The gap is around 2mm and required me to tap the shim gently into place. Nice and snug, but removable if necessary.
While doing the solenoid test, I had the fuel lines draining into a cup. I noticed some sediment in the fuel, so now we have to add another task to the list. So eventually I'm gonna have to drain and clean the gas tank.
So not wanting to remove the gas tank for an overhaul clean, I chose to drain the fuel first. This car hasn't run since I bought it, so not sure how old the fuel is. It came out dirty at first, but quickly cleared up. I discovered the main culprit was the fuel filter.
With that done, carb is now back in the car and no flooding! Still haven't started it yet, have a couple things to address. The oil reeked of fuel since it had been flooded so many times. So much so that when I jacked up the front of the car to change the oil, fuel started leaking from the header/midpipe exhaust flange. (One more thing I'll have to look at) Hopefully get it started this week, then on to the next task.
Discovered today while draining the fuel that while the previous owner told me the rear brakes needed looked at, he failed to mention one was missing!
I know how hard rear disk brake calipers are to find for the FB's. If anyone has a spare right rear caliper please let me know!
04-05-18, 09:27 PM
