I was reading an article on the web and the writer mentioned that his RX-7 (I think it was 2nd gen) was bowling along just great, done a high mileage, and was in fine condition. He attibuted this to always using the correct start up and cool down procedure.

So my question is: Is there a proper way to start and stop a rotary engine? Does it need to idle for a couple of minutes or something?

 

ive heard that for any turbo after a drive you must let the turbo cool down. you should let it sit at idle for a few minutes before shutting it off. not doing this will drastically reduce the life of your turbo. as for n/a's some people say let it sit at idle to burn out the exces gas and reduce carbon build up. so pretty much no matter what you have you should let it sit at idle for a few minutes before shutting it down. this is what ive heard im not sure if the proper procedure though.

 

On my single turbo FD, here's what I do. (I am ridiculously ****)

Starting up
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Start car and immediately go out and drive around SLOWLY (just keeping up with traffic, not speeding but not driving like a snail either) until the water temp is up to 82-83 Celcius. Keep the RPM under 4000 and only use the minimal amount of gas that you need to to keep up with traffic. This part takes around 5 minutes. Then after that, I slowly increase the max amount of boost and length of boost that I use a little at a time until the air intake temps have stabilized more or less (say... 35-40 Celcius on a hot summer day). This part takes about another 5-10 minutes of driving. After that, it's "game on!". (All temps measured on my PowerFC).

Shutting down
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Before you get close to home, make sure your water and air temps are nice and stable and not still heated up from high boosting. Drive conservatively for about the last 10-15 minutes of your trip to let everything get cooled off. When I get home, I pull into the garage, shut off the engine, pop the hood and put a large window fan on top of the engine blowing upwards. This removes a ton of heat from the turbo area and block. I also like to throw another large fan in front of the nose with air blowing into the nose. I leave those on the car for about 3 hours.


OK yeah that's crazy, but since it's a weekend only type of car, it works for me

Brian

 

on start up make sure you do not shutdown the car whilst on choke,this is bad 4 th engine as it can cause excess carbon in the engine which can lead to carbonlocking.

 

I completely agree with Wargasm's advice.

I think using the fan for 3 hours a bit over the top but I think everything else is pretty much on the money.

But, I do use a fan to blow on the engine bay for about 30 minutes.