darkviper7777

ok so i JUST bought this car last night (traded) the original motor that was in it looks like the owner tried to take out the oil injection and run fuel/oil mix through gas tank. not sure if thats the case or not but the guy i bought the car from dropped a japanease engine in it and it smoked like a house fire when warmed up. exhaust was FILLED (2 quarts) with oil and etc from previous engine and he had the leading plugs in top holes and trailing plugs in bottom holes. first question is would the spark plugs make 1 leading plug fire and 1 trailing plug fire? i boguht 4 new plugs and installed them at his house. drove it home pulled out plugs and 1 lead was clean and 1 trail was clean other 2 were both starting to get dirty. if i switched the plugs would the engne run correctly then?

Rx7_Nut13B

iTrader: (1)

it sounds like a oil control ring failure, that would explain the oil in the exhaust, smoking, and the oily plugs.

the only fix is a rebuild for that problem.

RotaryRocket88

iTrader: (7)

Did the car feel like it had no power what-so-ever when you drove it home? In other words, do you think it was only firing on one rotor? Switching plugs around isn't going to make the car run any differently if there's no current coming from the coils. Look for wet plugs not whether they're dirty.

Get a timing light on each plug wire while the car is at idle; if any of them fail to power the light, you know the coil is not delivering current. If that's the case, test the coils and replace them both if necessary.

Rx7_Nut13B

iTrader: (1)

^ True, but he said both plugs where wet and the other two where fine, so the Leading coil pack has to be firing, it could be a wire grounded out, but that doesnt explain the trailing plug wet

darkviper7777

if you guys could tell me how to time the car that would be nice. was rootin around and noticed the that bolt was out completly letting the timing thing just move freely. besides that i changed position of spark plugs and moved the timer to were it looked like it should be and its running a little better dont have time to check the plugs again now. and as far as i know when i drove the car home it had absolutely no power had to slip the clutch like crazy to get moving. will post back with plug conitions when i get back

RotaryRocket88

iTrader: (7)

Yeah, I was thinking more like half of a coil not firing (if that's even possible).

Darkviper, if the CAS was free to spin on it's own, it's no wonder the car has no power. The timing is going to be all over the place. You can find info on setting the timing in the FSM or a haynes manual. Here's a link to the 2nd gen FAQ:
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...18#post5131218

Basically, the car needs to be idling under 1100 RPM, with a timing light hooked to either a leading or trailing plug wire. There are 2 marks painted onto the main pulley. With the timing light flashing, the CAS should be rotated until the appropriate mark lines up with the pin on the front cover. One mark is for leading and other other is for trailing. Bolt the CAS in place once the marks line up.

darkviper7777

ok i got the timing pretty much close to what it is supposed to be. but the cas isnt in the right position. we set it to the marks but we cant bolt it down because it is turned way to far past the hole. after that i realized after some reasearch that the moron had the coil plug wires wrong. it had L1 coil to the T2 spark plug and T2 coil to L1 spark plug and etc so we got all that straight and now it runs a little better but still no power couldnt make it up slight incline in driveway

darkviper7777

and we used a timing light both coils work like they are supposed to

RotaryRocket88

iTrader: (7)

If the CAS is that far off, you'll need to restab it, and adjust timing again from there. Was the timing adjusted (but CAS still not bolted down?) when you tried to go up the driveway? I think you ought to test compression on the motor as well, so you know the condition of the seals. Hopefully it's fine, but major power loss is often due to low compression.

darkviper7777

yes the CAS was adjusted and not bolted down when i tried to go up the driveway. im not really sure how to do a compression test or if i can even do 1. dont know what tools i need and etc. gonna go buy a haynes manual for it tomorow and see what it says. i read online if the exhaust is clogged that there would be no power also. so if the previous engine blew and shoved oil into all 3 cat. converters then that might be causeing my problem. but like i said its definatly starting to run better little by little. between the plugs plug wires and timing is doin good for it. we got a short pipe with the first cat. converter on it and we were gonna take apart the oily converters and put the short pipe on there so the converter with the most oil will be switched with 1 that is mostly clean. ill see what happens and post back

darkviper7777

under the car again today. for some reason i love working on this car. hooked up a disconnected 02 sensor took off the first 2 cats and put on a shot pipe with 1 cat. no real noticeable change there but with the o2 sensor it seems to run a little better. still tries to die at idl at normal temps. also still lacking power to start from a stop accelerate hard or go up hill, normally i gotta go into 1st or second to get up a hill. it is loud as hell without a muffler lol. just something i thought u guys should know, when im decelerateing it changes tone. i noticed that today when i put on short pipe it goes from a smooth loud to a rough loud sound. when i put pedal to the floor it takes a long long time to get to high R.P.Ms

RotaryRocket88

iTrader: (7)

If you're running it without the mufflers, you might as well try it with the whole exhaust system disconnected. Rule out any of the cats being plugged. Rotaries are loud as hell without cats/mufflers, but you've already found that out.

Compression testing requires a pressure gauge that screws into a spark plug hole. Lots of threads on it here, and you can find videos on youtube too. If the cats/timing are not the problem, then you're definitely talking about fuel delivery problems or low compression.

darkviper7777

ok so i did a compression test today. did it as the manual said. first rotor bounced of of 90 evenly. every time it hit 90. second rotor bounced off 60 each time no change just 60 every bounce. so im not sure what that means. when i pulled out the spark plugs to do the test i noticed that the trailing 1 plug still had no carbon on it but it had like a dark brown liquid on it. we used a timing light to make sure all the coils were working and they are so its not like the packs are bad. idk wtf to do now im stumped

darkviper7777

still doesnt have much power but with all the things we have fixed so far it got a little better and at least runs somewhat smooth still difficult going up driveway or hills

darkviper7777

ok so today i put a whole bottle of prestone fuel system cleaner in with a half a tank of gas. all i could afford at this point. drove it down the street and back and got home opened it up to 3 1/2 4k r.p.ms for a few seconds then shut it off. it started fine when i started it the first time but i tried to start it right back up and it would not start. idk if thats helpfull or not

darkviper7777

just got it started again. had to use ether and it started right up so now im suspecting fuel delivery problems. also, after i got it started again i was running it at about 3500 rpms and it blew off a rubber hose and was leaking brown stuff. looked to dirty to be oil compared to oil on dipstick and oil in engine wasnt low. not sure what it is but help is appreciated

RotaryRocket88

iTrader: (7)

90 psi on a rotor is decent compression, but 60 psi is very low. Whichever rotor showed that compression has a damaged seal. If I were you, I'd go back to the guy you got the car from and let him know the engine is in need of a rebuild. If your car was in good running shape, you got screwed on the trade.

darkviper7777

ya the truck ran good but had a bad clutch. how hard is it to replace the seal? is that whats causeing the no power? how expensive is the seals to buy?