So my mother in law GAVE me her 83 rx7 gsl She bought it new off the show room floor, had it all these years, her soon to be exhusband was an excellent mechanic. Around 2 years ago, she put new tires, radiator, brakes, alternator...put a bunch of money into it INCLUDING, a rebuilt "built" motor. About a month after replacing/rebuilding the motor, the car was stolen for about 8 hours. They found it, she drove it home, and that is where it sat for the next year and a half. She says she started it on occasion, never drove it, and that it had a "built" motor with less than 1,000 miles on it.

So...I get it, a detail buddy of mine and I clean the mold off the leather seats, clay bar the exterior, I filled it with Chevron Supreme and put a bottle of Chevron Techroline in it and drove it as often as I could. I have a company vehicle that I drive to work and back so the 7 doesn't get too many miles on it. I changed the oil, and signed up to this site...have been reading for hours ever since. Everything is stock, still has the Air Pump on it. I bought new spark plugs as part of my general tune up from it sitting so long. When I pulled the old ones out, they looked in good shape, maybe a tad burnt or dry looking. Then I played with the mixture and idle a bit, with the confidence of this website, I am pretty sure I did it right.
This is where the question comes in...I drove to the bar about 4 blocks away, sorta raced this Eclipse for about 10 seconds, never going over 5,500 rpms, got there, shut it off. Got in a few hours later and it sounded different, like it was missing. As soon as I put a load on it backing out of the parking spot, it died. Very embarrased in my new hot sports car that I keep getting compliments from chicks in, I started it, kept the idle up above 1,000 rpms and made it home.
I have changed the plug wires, the plugs, the cap and rotor, and then I even did the 2GCDFIS conversion on it to make sure it wasn't the leading coil. Nothing changed, it runs, not as smooth as before, at high rpms, but dies as soon as I lose the choke. One last thing, when I pulled the plugs the 2nd time, they had a black substance on them that the first ones didn't.

questions:

1. What could possibly be wrong?
2. Should I premix, and if so, what brand is considered the best?
3. What is the best intake and carb swap?

 

1. (a) check for vacuum leaks (especially by the back of the intake manifold where the exhaust may have melted dead rubber), (b) make sure both rotors are firing.

2. totally your call if your OMP is still functionng properly. personally, i premixed regardless of my OMP function (and will continue to do so), but if your OMP is fine, you don't HAVE to.

3. focus on getting the car running stock first. learn it. get used to it. then, you can go start changing things to suit.

 

Ok, I sprayed for vacuum leaks and got no response. I also did ghetto compression test and it sounds good. Any more ideas?

 

I pre-mix as well, and use KLOTZ Semi-synthetic racing 2 stroke oil. Smells like racing fuel and is great quality. You can get it at just about ant motorcycle dealership. 1oz per gallon

I wish I could help with you problem, but I dont to much about the gen1

Sounds like a sweet find, welcome to a lifelong addiction.

 

well heres the thing did you tune the idle while the car wasn't warmed up?, if you did let it warm up and re tune the idle and carbs again

 

I messed with the mixture and the idle when it was warm.

 

Finally broke down and paid a specialty shop around here to figure it out. Was a vacuum hose which helped foul a spark plug. Plus they said I had a trailing and leading plug wire switched...have a hard time believing that tho. thanks for the suggestions