Need Help From Indiana And Ohio Rotorheads!
Need Help From Indiana And Ohio Rotorheads!
Hi fellas,
I have recently been having a tough time with my 2 year restoration project and I am trying to locate someone in my area who has experience with 1st Gens, or is a general rotary nut. I'm located in the East Central part of Indiana, in the city of Richmond. I consider myself very knowledgeable with 1st gens, but I have gotten to the point where I can't figure out what is wrong with my 7. I'm hoping to find someone that would be willing to help me out sometime, (maybe on a weekend?) and figure out why my car isn't running properly. Here is a run down of what it is doing. I have also included a video of the car if this helps... If you would be willing to hang out and help a fellow rotorhead out sometime I would be MORE than grateful to you. Let me know if you are interested. You can send me a PM or my email is Glazedham42@aol.com. Thanks guys!
I’m very close to being done with this project car, but I am about to go crazy right now. I don’t think that the engine is running right, and it is giving me fits trying to figure out what is wrong. I am so fed up with it, that I have heavily considered selling it a couple of times recently. It is missing and sputtering quite a bit at idle, and it does so more and more as you rev it up. It misses so bad in the higher revs that I can’t even get past 6000 RPM. When you start to rev it up, it bucks and misses and spits and shakes rather violently. I know that I should expect a few blips in the throttle, but this thing isn't smooth at all. Rotaries are supposed to be smooth!! The engine shakes and quakes and rattles for no apparent reason. It isn’t burning or leaking any oil or coolant, so everything is okay in those departments. I am wondering if I have a bad apex seal, and the poor compression is causing some “blow-by” into the next rotor face. I don’t know if this is common or not. I am just trying to think of every possible situation. To me the whole thing seems like an ignition problem, almost like it is misfiring. I’m not sure what “detonation” is either, but from some other descriptions I’ve read it may be that?? I’ve cranked the car without the plugs in, and it makes nice “PFFT” noises on the entire rotor faces. So from what I can hear the compression seems to be very good. I realize that I could try to explain my problem in numerous lengthy paragraphs, but I decided to put together a small video instead so you could actually see and hear the car running. Before you see the video, let me brief you quickly on the basic setup of the car just so we know what we’re up against.
The car is a 1985 GS with a 12A & 5 sped. manual tranny. It was originally a 4 speed auto, but I hated the auto so I swapped it out for the 5 speed. The original 12A engine in the car had been overheated several times before I purchased the car. This is not a good thing as we all know. The engine smoked a lot and I figured I would be better off to get it out of the car. I put a new engine in it that I got from a local junkyard, and it has about 90k on it. I am also using a racing beat light steel flywheel, with my old counterweight off of the automatic.
As far as fuel goes, I have pretty much replaced the whole fuel system. I cleaned and lined the inside of my fuel tank, replaced all my fuel hoses, and filter. I trashed the stock fuel pump, and I am using a Carter 5 lb. fuel pump instead. It works great and supplies plenty of fuel pressure at all times. I cleaned out the fuel supply line leading to the carb with compressed air. It has no blockages. I am running a Holley fuel regulator, to my Nikki carb. I regulate the fuel pressure at 2 psi to 2.5 psi. The Nikki was recently rebuilt by our resident carb. master Sterling. He removed all the emissions equipment for me, and I believe he also put in bigger jets. I am ignorant when it comes to the guts of the carb though. I am trusting his work on the carburetor because it worked great on the old engine. I have also capped off all the nipples on the carb spacer, and taken the butterfly out of the intake. I have new cork gaskets everywhere on the intake and carburetor that I installed with plenty of Hylomar gasket coating. I have replaced every inch of hose on the car, and have new clamps on all the hoses. I think it is highly unlikely for me to have a vacuum leak, but it could happen.
For air delivery I am using a chopped up stock air cleaner box, and a K&N filter. Nothing fancy, but it should be getting all the air it needs. Finally comes the ignition which I believe may be causing the problem more than anything. When the junkyard engine was delivered to me the timing marks on the front pulley were completely gone. The pulley was also pretty rusty, so you couldn’t really even see the indentations where the paint marks were supposed to go. After cleaning it up quite a bit I made some comparisons between the pulleys of my old engine and the new one. I noted the configuration of the front bolt pattern on the pulleys and matched them up as close as I could. Through this method I believe I was able to find the timing marks on the new engine, by comparing to the old one. I am 98% sure that the marks on my pulley are correct. I hate to rule anything out though. I replaced the stock spark plug wires with a nice set of Accel wires. They are the ones that you have to cut to the correct length and then attach the ends yourself. I’m wondering if there is a chance that I screwed it up somewhere and the wires are causing a misfire. This is the first time I’ve made my own plug wires, but I followed the directions on the box. I don’t believe this is likely, but I’m not ruling it out either. I’ve got four brand new NGK BR8EQ14 spark plugs in the engine. I guess I could wire brush them off a little bit, but I don’t think they are the problem. I have replaced the old coils with two brand new MSD Blaster 2 coils.
The dizzy has a brand new cap and rotor. I have noticed however, that there are significant grooves on some of the pickups inside the dizzy cap, while others show no wear at all. Also, I have left the vacuum pots on the dizzy uncapped. I don’t know if this is correct or not but it is what I have done. Also, I have the little black bullet plug by the dizzy unplugged. Is this the vacuum advance?? I still don’t know anything about vacuum advance, so I may be making some mistakes as far as that is concerned. I installed the dizzy into the engine exactly like the Haynes says to. I aligned the leading timing mark on the pulley with the indicator pin. Then I lined up the indentation on the dizzy shaft with the indicator notch. After doing this I dropped it straight into the engine. Checked the timing and both my leading and trailing marks were right on. The car was still running like crap though. At first I thought that I may have screwed up the dizzy installation. I wondered if I was off by a tooth one way or the other. But since then I have re-installed it probably ten times just like the Haynes says, and I get the same results every time. The car sputters and misses every time I start it. I’ve wondered if I have a bad igniter, which I’m guessing is a distinct possibility, but all four of the spark plugs are still firing. I put my timing light on any one of the four plug wires as a method to check for spark, and the timing light will flash on all four of them. I’m assuming that this means they are all getting spark. Is it possible for an igniter to work intermittently? I have also heard about the timing being 180 degrees off. I would’ve thought that out of the ten times I installed the dizzy, I would’ve gotten it right at least once. Or does it not work like this??
I’m also getting a lot of smoke while it is running, but like I said, it doesn’t burn ANY oil or coolant. I think the smoke is just coming from my unacceptably rich premix that is in the tank. I think I need to add about 5 gallons of straight gas to thin out the premix mixture. Also, the car doesn’t like to idle below 1000 RPM. Is this because I have the Racing Beat steel flywheel? I don’t think this is the case, but the engine hates being below 1000 RPM. It starts shaking and missing like there is no tomorrow. The rebuilt carb always allowed my old engine to idle smoothly all the way down to 500 RPMs. I really think it all goes back to the ignition.
Now that you have learned all about the car and my setup HERE IS THE VIDEO!!!! I have uploaded it in quicktime format. Hopefully you guys will be able to view it. If not, you can download quicktime for free from Apple’s website. Listen very carefully to the way the car sputters at the very beginning of the video. This is what I am talking about. You will hear it miss and sputter through the exhaust better than any other time in the video. When the car is revved up it makes a constant "buh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh" through the exhaust. This is not natural, and it makes the engine shake when this happens. Watch how the engine shakes and misses when it is revved up....
RIGHT CLICK HERE, "SAVE TARGET AS" TO WATCH THE MOVIE!!!
This whole thing just has me angry and confused right now. I know that this is the best place to get help with a problem, so here I am. Please watch the video if you are able. I know some people still have dialup like I do, so I understand if it is too much to download. The video is 16MB, and is about 1 minute long. It’s not monstrous, but it is rather large. If you have any suggestions or questions at all PLEASE FIRE AWAY! I’m ready and willing to answer.
IF ANY OF YOU ARE LOCAL TO ME AND WOULD BE WILLING TO COME TO MY HOUSE AND HELP WITH THE CAR SOME WEEKEND YOU ARE MORE THAN WELCOME!!! I WOULD APPRECIATE SOMEONE TO HELP ME TROUBLESHOOT THE CAR, AND FIND OUT WHAT IS WRONG!
I have recently been having a tough time with my 2 year restoration project and I am trying to locate someone in my area who has experience with 1st Gens, or is a general rotary nut. I'm located in the East Central part of Indiana, in the city of Richmond. I consider myself very knowledgeable with 1st gens, but I have gotten to the point where I can't figure out what is wrong with my 7. I'm hoping to find someone that would be willing to help me out sometime, (maybe on a weekend?) and figure out why my car isn't running properly. Here is a run down of what it is doing. I have also included a video of the car if this helps... If you would be willing to hang out and help a fellow rotorhead out sometime I would be MORE than grateful to you. Let me know if you are interested. You can send me a PM or my email is Glazedham42@aol.com. Thanks guys!
I’m very close to being done with this project car, but I am about to go crazy right now. I don’t think that the engine is running right, and it is giving me fits trying to figure out what is wrong. I am so fed up with it, that I have heavily considered selling it a couple of times recently. It is missing and sputtering quite a bit at idle, and it does so more and more as you rev it up. It misses so bad in the higher revs that I can’t even get past 6000 RPM. When you start to rev it up, it bucks and misses and spits and shakes rather violently. I know that I should expect a few blips in the throttle, but this thing isn't smooth at all. Rotaries are supposed to be smooth!! The engine shakes and quakes and rattles for no apparent reason. It isn’t burning or leaking any oil or coolant, so everything is okay in those departments. I am wondering if I have a bad apex seal, and the poor compression is causing some “blow-by” into the next rotor face. I don’t know if this is common or not. I am just trying to think of every possible situation. To me the whole thing seems like an ignition problem, almost like it is misfiring. I’m not sure what “detonation” is either, but from some other descriptions I’ve read it may be that?? I’ve cranked the car without the plugs in, and it makes nice “PFFT” noises on the entire rotor faces. So from what I can hear the compression seems to be very good. I realize that I could try to explain my problem in numerous lengthy paragraphs, but I decided to put together a small video instead so you could actually see and hear the car running. Before you see the video, let me brief you quickly on the basic setup of the car just so we know what we’re up against.
The car is a 1985 GS with a 12A & 5 sped. manual tranny. It was originally a 4 speed auto, but I hated the auto so I swapped it out for the 5 speed. The original 12A engine in the car had been overheated several times before I purchased the car. This is not a good thing as we all know. The engine smoked a lot and I figured I would be better off to get it out of the car. I put a new engine in it that I got from a local junkyard, and it has about 90k on it. I am also using a racing beat light steel flywheel, with my old counterweight off of the automatic.
As far as fuel goes, I have pretty much replaced the whole fuel system. I cleaned and lined the inside of my fuel tank, replaced all my fuel hoses, and filter. I trashed the stock fuel pump, and I am using a Carter 5 lb. fuel pump instead. It works great and supplies plenty of fuel pressure at all times. I cleaned out the fuel supply line leading to the carb with compressed air. It has no blockages. I am running a Holley fuel regulator, to my Nikki carb. I regulate the fuel pressure at 2 psi to 2.5 psi. The Nikki was recently rebuilt by our resident carb. master Sterling. He removed all the emissions equipment for me, and I believe he also put in bigger jets. I am ignorant when it comes to the guts of the carb though. I am trusting his work on the carburetor because it worked great on the old engine. I have also capped off all the nipples on the carb spacer, and taken the butterfly out of the intake. I have new cork gaskets everywhere on the intake and carburetor that I installed with plenty of Hylomar gasket coating. I have replaced every inch of hose on the car, and have new clamps on all the hoses. I think it is highly unlikely for me to have a vacuum leak, but it could happen.
For air delivery I am using a chopped up stock air cleaner box, and a K&N filter. Nothing fancy, but it should be getting all the air it needs. Finally comes the ignition which I believe may be causing the problem more than anything. When the junkyard engine was delivered to me the timing marks on the front pulley were completely gone. The pulley was also pretty rusty, so you couldn’t really even see the indentations where the paint marks were supposed to go. After cleaning it up quite a bit I made some comparisons between the pulleys of my old engine and the new one. I noted the configuration of the front bolt pattern on the pulleys and matched them up as close as I could. Through this method I believe I was able to find the timing marks on the new engine, by comparing to the old one. I am 98% sure that the marks on my pulley are correct. I hate to rule anything out though. I replaced the stock spark plug wires with a nice set of Accel wires. They are the ones that you have to cut to the correct length and then attach the ends yourself. I’m wondering if there is a chance that I screwed it up somewhere and the wires are causing a misfire. This is the first time I’ve made my own plug wires, but I followed the directions on the box. I don’t believe this is likely, but I’m not ruling it out either. I’ve got four brand new NGK BR8EQ14 spark plugs in the engine. I guess I could wire brush them off a little bit, but I don’t think they are the problem. I have replaced the old coils with two brand new MSD Blaster 2 coils.
The dizzy has a brand new cap and rotor. I have noticed however, that there are significant grooves on some of the pickups inside the dizzy cap, while others show no wear at all. Also, I have left the vacuum pots on the dizzy uncapped. I don’t know if this is correct or not but it is what I have done. Also, I have the little black bullet plug by the dizzy unplugged. Is this the vacuum advance?? I still don’t know anything about vacuum advance, so I may be making some mistakes as far as that is concerned. I installed the dizzy into the engine exactly like the Haynes says to. I aligned the leading timing mark on the pulley with the indicator pin. Then I lined up the indentation on the dizzy shaft with the indicator notch. After doing this I dropped it straight into the engine. Checked the timing and both my leading and trailing marks were right on. The car was still running like crap though. At first I thought that I may have screwed up the dizzy installation. I wondered if I was off by a tooth one way or the other. But since then I have re-installed it probably ten times just like the Haynes says, and I get the same results every time. The car sputters and misses every time I start it. I’ve wondered if I have a bad igniter, which I’m guessing is a distinct possibility, but all four of the spark plugs are still firing. I put my timing light on any one of the four plug wires as a method to check for spark, and the timing light will flash on all four of them. I’m assuming that this means they are all getting spark. Is it possible for an igniter to work intermittently? I have also heard about the timing being 180 degrees off. I would’ve thought that out of the ten times I installed the dizzy, I would’ve gotten it right at least once. Or does it not work like this??
I’m also getting a lot of smoke while it is running, but like I said, it doesn’t burn ANY oil or coolant. I think the smoke is just coming from my unacceptably rich premix that is in the tank. I think I need to add about 5 gallons of straight gas to thin out the premix mixture. Also, the car doesn’t like to idle below 1000 RPM. Is this because I have the Racing Beat steel flywheel? I don’t think this is the case, but the engine hates being below 1000 RPM. It starts shaking and missing like there is no tomorrow. The rebuilt carb always allowed my old engine to idle smoothly all the way down to 500 RPMs. I really think it all goes back to the ignition.
Now that you have learned all about the car and my setup HERE IS THE VIDEO!!!! I have uploaded it in quicktime format. Hopefully you guys will be able to view it. If not, you can download quicktime for free from Apple’s website. Listen very carefully to the way the car sputters at the very beginning of the video. This is what I am talking about. You will hear it miss and sputter through the exhaust better than any other time in the video. When the car is revved up it makes a constant "buh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh" through the exhaust. This is not natural, and it makes the engine shake when this happens. Watch how the engine shakes and misses when it is revved up....
RIGHT CLICK HERE, "SAVE TARGET AS" TO WATCH THE MOVIE!!!
This whole thing just has me angry and confused right now. I know that this is the best place to get help with a problem, so here I am. Please watch the video if you are able. I know some people still have dialup like I do, so I understand if it is too much to download. The video is 16MB, and is about 1 minute long. It’s not monstrous, but it is rather large. If you have any suggestions or questions at all PLEASE FIRE AWAY! I’m ready and willing to answer.
IF ANY OF YOU ARE LOCAL TO ME AND WOULD BE WILLING TO COME TO MY HOUSE AND HELP WITH THE CAR SOME WEEKEND YOU ARE MORE THAN WELCOME!!! I WOULD APPRECIATE SOMEONE TO HELP ME TROUBLESHOOT THE CAR, AND FIND OUT WHAT IS WRONG!
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