C33LaurelRacer

So, I live in Japan and a friend of mine bought a 94 FD last year. When he bought it, it had some problems that the shop said they would fix, one of them being that new Apex seals would be installed on the rotor tips.

Since then, he has moved from the Tokyo Metro area to Nagano, and has started having some problems with his car.

Hard starting: It seems to be difficult to start when the engine is cold, but more difficult after the engine is up to operating temperature. He says that it takes about 10 minutes of idleing time on a cold engine before it's driveable. He also isn't sure if the plugs are any good; could this be part of the cause?

Black smoke from exhaust: When he is trying to start it, black smoke comes from the exhaust. I don't know about rotary engines (I own a Nissan), and I can't remember if black smoke is caused by oil or too much fuel being burned off.

He says, that once he gets it running, it seems to run fine. My question is, would this be the cause of Apex seals?

He is currently stuck at a Parking Area on the highway on his way here. We were going to swap out his stock twins for a set of lower milage one (primary turbo has bad oil leak) and put in new spark plugs. But, he can't get his car to start, so I am hoping someone sees this and can help out quickly.



Thanks for any help I may recieve.

dgeesaman

iTrader: (7)

First, he should do an unflooding procedure to get it started. This is different from piston engines - you have to do things to get the excess fuel out of the combustion chamber. (flooded piston engines resolve themselves if you just wait a while). http://www.fd3s.net/starting_flooded.html

Definitely change the plugs, but don't expect a complete fix.

There are a few possibilities, but the black smoke unfortunately suggests the engine rebuild has a problem. He start with a compression test to see how sound the engine is.

Dave

C33LaurelRacer

Dave,

Thank you very much for your reply. I just got back from the parking area, and we couldn't get it to start. We had to leave it there, but will hopefully be going back on my Tuesday with a flatbed (in case we can't get it to start) to bring it back to my place to eventually get the engine overhauled by a rotary tech a Japanese friend of mine knows.

To fill you in on what I found tonight.

The engine it elf looks to be in pretty good condition externally. From the vaccum lines and other connections I could see, it seems pretty clean. There is the oil leak on secondary turbo (not the primary as I had thought) and another small leak from the back of the engine, but that one isn't that bad. Oil level in the engine is at normal. Oil doesn't have any whiteness to it, so it eliminates a possible coolant leak into the internal oil passages.

When attempting to start the engine, I got a strong smell of fuel while cranking the engine, but after reading what you said, it's probably just flooded. What I was told to be black smoke was not to be seen. There was some white smoke with the fuel smell during the times I was there trying to start it.

I have printed out the directions to the site that you linked me to and will be taking those, along with new plugs, to the PA Tuesday. I do have one other question though.

I know that the rotary has two different heat level plugs, one being a 7 and the other been a 9. My question is, how are they installed. Is it 7/9 Top/bottom respectively or vice versa, or 7s in the front rotor and 9s in the back. If you could clear that up for me, I would be very appreciative.


Again, thanks so far for all your help on the matter. I will keep you all updated as things progress.

fd3spr0

the part number on the plugs should now have a t or a b in the part number.

C33LaurelRacer

Thanks for the info. I'll know more tomorrow when I go to look at the car.

C33LaurelRacer

So, today I picked up the plugs, and I now have the information on which plugs go where.

9s are stamped with a T
7s are stamped with an L

T is the tops, L is the lowers.


Wish us luck tomorrow.

BOOSTscoop

gl

C33LaurelRacer

Ok, sorry to take so long in updating the thread. Here's what went down on the 23rd.


Got a flatbed lined up as stated before. Went to a bigger parking area on the way to the one the FD was sitting at to meet the truck.

Headed to the FD to diagnos what may be wrong. Tried to start it once just to see if it would "maybe" fire. Nothing.

Started to do the procedure for starting a flooded rotary. Pulled the rear top plug and found out what another friend suspected may be wrong. Broken internal oil seal.

There was oil, along with fuel, all over the plug tip and even crammed inside between the electrode and the caps. Not a pretty sight. Pulled the other three plugs, same thing.

Wasn't much we could do at that point but put it on the flat bed and haul it back to Nagano.

It's unfortunate for my friend as now he has to save up money to either;
1. Swap the engine with a newer, low milage one.
2. Have the engine overhauled (about $2500 by a guy a friend of mine knows).
3. Sell the car on Yahoo! Japan auctions and try to get whatever he can out of it.

I think he is planning on going option number 3, and then picking up a Toyota Trueno BZ-R.


And in closing, I leave you all with this funny little clip from that day...enjoy!!!
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=url4OSNxzbw

dgeesaman

iTrader: (7)

It's normal to see some oil with the fuel when pulling the plugs. But mostly fuel. Just how much oil was it? Did you do a compression test?

I recommend that he get the car checked out by a good rotary shop before spending 10x that for the 3 options you listed.

Dave

C33LaurelRacer

No, we didn't get a compression check done as none of us had the items needed to do that.

As for how much oil there was, I can't say honestly. I am used to piston engines, and oil on a piston engine is never a good sign. I had no idea that the plugs normaly had oil on them.

As for getting it checked out by a rotary shop. Over here, that's almost as expensive as getting the work done, especially if it's a rotary shop. Plus the guy lives in Nagano, which is hella far from Tokyo. It cost $500 just to flatbed the car back to there, and we were only about 150KM away.

dgeesaman

iTrader: (7)

A compression tester can be modified to check a rotary for quite cheap. You can DIY just as easily as changing the plugs.

The FD has oil injectors that keep the combustion chamber lubed. If the engine were flooded severely you may also have noticeable oil in with the fuel. I say may because I haven't seen/diagnosed a bad oil control ring before.

I can't comment on the economics of getting a car worked on in Japan, but I would spend some time trying to get it running with new plugs and a thorough unflooding before resigning to a whole new engine. By the sound of it, owning an FD as a daily driver and having problems might be more inconvenient in Japan than it is here in the US.

Dave