Project DD
 

It seems that I have always had some sort of project car, but with the addition of kids, it has always had to be a practical 4 door that was a reliable daily driver. Up until recently, my daily driver was a 2002 Protege5. I finally convinced my wife to let me get another "project" car, but what was it going to be? I originally started out looking for a DSM Talon, but stumbled upon a 1985 RX7 with a 12A for the right price of $850, but how could I sell my wife on it? Easy, buy her an 02 Mini Cooper. The Cooper paired with our 04 Z71 Suburban meant we had two reliable cars that could haul the kiddos. I put the Protege5 up for sale and hooked up the trailer to go get my RX.

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I bought the car as a "sort of" runner. You had to spray starter fluid in the carb to get it to run, and even then it just ran a few seconds. Once I got it home, I took off the carb (a Holley 4160, list 1850-4, 600cfm) and rebuilt it with a Holley Trick kit.

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Put the carb back on, changed the fuel filter and plugs, and it still wouldn't start without starter fluid, and still would only run a few seconds. I keep poking around and realize my fuel pump is making no sound. After checking fuses, I decide to go straight to the problem and pull the assumed to be bad pump. That's when I find this.

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I quickly fix the horrible solder job with a wire nut, and give it a shot. Still nothing. Check the fuses again and find a popped "engine" fuse. Replace it and it pops as soon as the key goes to "On". Thinking its a seized pump, I disconnect the pump and try a new fuse, same results. So now I unfix my fix, new fuse, same result. Then curiosity gets me. Pour some gas in the carb and it fires right up, even with no "engine" fuse. Odd, as I believed that fuse also allowed the spark plugs to fire. Under the suggestion of a fellow member, I also tried jumpering the fuel cut off relay. Still no joy with the fuel pump. I decide to wire it to the same toggle that controls my electric fan, installed by the previous owner. Success! The fuel pump works and fills the float bowls. Overly excited, I start the car. If I hold the gas pedal down a bit, it stays running. I assume this is due to me not setting the idle screws properly. I rev it a bit before realizing a white haze developing behind me. The wind shifts and the smoke fills the cabin. I instantly recognize the smell of fuel and it burns my eyes. I shut off the car and step outside. White smoke is still billowing out of the tail pipes, and there is a large puddle of fuel at the end of the exhaust tips. Off comes the carb again.

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I readjust the floats, which were somehow incredibly off, allowing way too much fuel. Once over everything, and back it goes onto the car.

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Start it up again, still won't idle, but I didn't touch the screws, and now slightly less white smoke, and a smaller puddle of fuel. That is where I sit now. Taking suggestions on possible fixes.

That carb is way to big for a 12a. Did the previous owner ever have the car running well with it before you bought it?

^What he said. 600CFM on a stock 12a is basically double what the stock carb is, and still 150+ CFM more than the various modded Nikkis (Sterling, Yaw etc).

Might be worth your while to find a stock Nikki and give that a shot. They usually go pretty cheap and would allow you get the car up and running - and find out if the engine is even any good. Could always chase more HP later on :)

The dealer got it from a mechanic shop that went under 8 months earlier. Supposedly the car was running solid when he first got it before he let it sit for 8 months. It is definitely not a stock motor. I'm not sure what port is on it, but I don't plan to tear the motor apart just to find out. It's got a full exhaust system with long tube headers, electric radiator fan, AC delete, the Holley carb, polished intake, along with a whole bunch of non motor mods, like poly suspension bushings, after market door cards, after market radio, and other things.

Interesting looking car and project. I'd keep with what 82transam says and get a Nikki and mod it slightly instead of going with the 600cfm. But decide what you will - good luck!

Would testing the fuel going into the engine from the Carb make a difference? Like testing the pressure. Maybe that's way off. I know that carb is ridiculously large for a stock application but I would assume that you would be able to level off the amount at fuel going in

That's what I'm looking to do. Like I said though, it's possibly not a stock application. Short of tearing the motor apart, I don't know what port, if any, it has.

Does the car have a fuel regulator on the firewall usually? If not get one. If so tinker with the flow level. Id try at 3psi and work up seeing if that helps. How hot is that toggle getting? Sounds like you have a short and now you just bypassed the fuse thats keeping you from frying simething or at worst catching the car on fire.

The toggle doesn't get hot at all. I haven't seen a fuel pressure regulator, but from everything I've read, the stock fuel pump only puts out 3.5-4.5 psi. And I've also read that Holleys need 6-6.5 psi.

thats a big carb to not have supporting fuel upgrades. How are the plugs looking? Any of them a little different from not firing correctly? Is the timing good? Wheres the vacum advance for the distributor hooked into? Without seeing the car or seeing a video its hard to diagnose problems on a modded car. I find it odd that you have raw gas going all the way through the exhaust when these cars love to shoot flames.

I am now on the search for a stock carb to put on this, so I can hopefully drive this thing before i deploy.

Jusr put a wanted ad up and someone near you should have one.

So poking around the car today while I had a short amount of time, I decided to check my distributor. Here is what I found. Notice how they look scraped and gouged, and one is even bent out. Any clues as to why or how?

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Still no luck finding a stock Nikki.

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What could it be?

Oh! It's a stock Nikki!

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Was excited to work on the car today. Pulled the massive Holley carb off, and went to put this on, only to find out the intake manifold is aftermarket, and is way too wide to fit the Nikki. Now I'm in the process of figuring out what intake manifold I have, and how to fix all this.

New update! After some sleuthing on the Internet, I managed to find out from the original owner that the motor is actually a 12a with a bridge port! This would explain the lumpy idle with the Holley 600. The car is also from the coast of Texas (sea level) so also explains the jet sizes (66 and 68). The 66 was drilled to match the 68 due to not having another 68 jet. So where should I start with jet sizes for a 12a BP with full Racing Beat exhaust at 4200 feet above sea level?

Been messing with the carb some more and found that my accelerator pump was constantly squirting fuel. Properly adjusted my accelerator pump arm, so hopefully that will fix the problem with dumping fuel.

I would guess that distributor cap was just not quite put on right, bend a pin. Maybe time for a new one!

Doesn't it feel great tracking down all the little quirks from previous owner and fixing them! Each little thing makes her run better.

I agree with ioTus, the dizzy cap is easy to knock off center, and it looks exactly like that when it happens.

With the bridgeport it's gonna be a cold hearted bitch no matter what you do, probably wont idle well under 1500. Wait for it to warm up before you go adjusting the idle, then tweak it a bit if it wont stay running cold.

If you need an intake manifold for the nikki I have one, $10 plus shipping if you want it.

IMO, no idea on jet sizes.

however, the best thing to do is try a little leaner, like 62's, and then richer, like 72's and then see what it likes. the cool thing is that a bridge is pickier about the mixture than a stock port. so like the stock engine runs anywhere from 15:1 to 10:1 Air Fuel Ratio, the bridge probably won't be happy that lean or that rich.

so you try leaner, and try richer, and see what it likes...

piece of cake.

for full throttle, you want to find max power, and then go a little richer. the extra fuel give a little margin in case something bad happens, and it keeps temps down a little too, impact on power should be teeny

I feel like I'm getting closer. Does this sound like a bridge port? Or just a poorly tuned carb?

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Here it is from inside.

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The plugs all looked fine.

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What's with the O ring?
 

The plug doesn't look nasty, but it looks like there's a rubber ring to interfere with proper seating? I haven't had my plugs out. Previous owner had just changed them and swore he got the best. I still want to double check that the leading plugs go to the leading coil. I hear they'll run with poor power if connected to wrong coils... Right now I need to stop transmission leak.

Well, it's been forever since I updated thanks to a deployment. But I'm back and working on her again. First thing I did was swap my good battery out of my Protege5 into the RX7. I gave her a new dizzy cap and rotor, along with new wires. Went to give her a start, and it seems like she is wanting to but just doesn't have the heart.

Broke down today and finally bought a compression tester. Got it all hooked up and I'm showing 90-110 on all three faces of both rotors, so I know it's not a compression issue.

Since I already had two plugs out, I hooked one up to the new T2 wire, grounded it to the engine, and gave it a crank. I got a thin orange spark with the occasional bright blue. I tried this with all four wires, and both plugs just incase it was a bad plug. All four wires gave the same result of faint orange sparks with the occasional bright blue. Am I right in thinking that the next fix is the ignition coils?

clean your coil terminals and chassis grounds before you order new coils, i had that problem at first. and now i have an extra set of used coils.

Connect a meter to the - and + terminals on each coil with the ignition off and you should get 1.4 OHMs. The ignitors and ballast resistor are suspect.

I'll have to see if I can find someone with a multi meter. Is there any other way to test coils or ignitors?