Hey guys, to tell the long story.
I bought my fd 9 months ago, all pretty and shiny from the outside, fully stock exterior, front mount, hks bov, Rps exhaust with no cat converter and 89,000km's on the clock. A week later it got stolen and here I am.
Police recovered it 2 weeks ago and gave it back so I'm trying to get it back to road legal. Thing is though, the exterior looks crap now, they sprayed over it with matt white (was metallic-original white), luxury sports bodykit, mazdaspeed rear spoiler and a rear diffuser.

Nevertheless they did some exterior work on it but a crappy job on it. and my interior is not clean. I'm new to rotary's but not cars.

The problem I'm having is, at cold start, it sounds like it's mis-firing a little. After it's fully warmed up, it drives fine but at idle still sounds like it's mis firing. Almost sounds like it's ported, and I don't believe it is. And on the way back last night from a guard rolling place I noticed the boost gauge only reading about 5-7 psi both the primary and secondary turbo. I might have read somewhere (correct me if I'm wrong) that the stock boost pressure is about 10 psi? I do feel it's down on power. And when i took it out of my garage yesterday there was some oil on the ground.

I'd love some help because I fear if I try fix this without any outside help, I might do some major wrong.
I'll try post a video and some photos in the next few coming days.

Thanks

 

they might have blown the turbos up on it. take the intercooler hose off the turbo and check to see if it has oil in the lines if turbo is blown or been cranked on cold the seals will go and kill it. and they might have tryed to advance the timing and dont have the mazda timing tool for rotorys that are like 2grand

 

Okay will that a go tomorrow, thanks.

 

Anyone know what I should be reading on the boost gauge of my 98' rx7 if it was all good?

 

I recently got my fd, it has original stock twins but with a non sequential mod. I'm not exactly sure of the difference it makes, but the car has minimal modifications, and I'm only pushing 7psi fully boosting. Although I don't feel like it is low on power. I don't know the validity of stock 10psi.

 

unless have a after market boost gauge wont really know how much pushing, stock ones aint htat accurate and if wanta push more make a manual boost controler or buy one.

How to make a Manual Boost Controller....that works. - DSM Forums

 

As I mentioned earlier (hopefully), it's got a mechanical boost gauge that I measured roughly 5psi with in 1st and second gear (both turbo's). I wanna know what it should be reading. :S

 

should be maxing out the stock gauge. but there not acurat do you hae a aftermrket boost gauge? think was 10-12 stock my mx6 ran around 10 stock too

 

the co_ksuckers probably popped one of the hoses that see boost in their joyriding frenzy. there is a thread about it in the Gen III FAQ thread. take a look.

 

****Additional information*****

Today I went for a drive in the car after it was properly warmed up and everything, tried to push the boost in second gear. First turbo sounds like it's spooling nice but gauge only reads about 3 psi now and I'm not feeling anything. I 'think' I saw it go upto about 4 and then drop back down. So I'm guessing a vacuum leak or something. Any thoughts?

 

****UPDATE****
So today I (and a friend) finally pulled off the intercooler and all the pipings and noticed there was a lot of oil in there. a fairly big puddle in the intercooler as well. Cleaned it all off, re-connected and went back for a drive after warming it up again (without the front bumper).

I saw it reading 7 psi on the boost gauge again in first and second gear (not a long enough runway around my place for third gear primary turbo boost).

Mucked around away from the car for a bit, put the front bumper back on, and the boost gauge read 5 psi again. Which is fuc*ing pissing me off because I read somewhere the boost pattern should be 10-8-10. I don't know how that works (is it 1st-2nd-3rd gear?). But I'm assuming from all the oil that the turbo seals are going?
Any ideas on what I should do next? Somebody must know what to do!

 

Gonna bump for some help!!

 

**** Update ****

Got a service done on it. Turns out it had the same spark plugs all around (leading and trailing). Seems to idle much much better however the rotary specialist suggested that the turbo ('s) seem to be on the way out and there was a somewhat less apparent leak from the exhaust manifold. Will try get this fixed and let you guys know.

If anyone still has any advice, please do let me know!

 

Bumping the thread.

 

ok having the same leading / trailing plugs is not a bad thing , it probably had 9's and its idling better because it probably has new plugs .

9's burn colder thus have less knock chance . which are normally the trailing plugs ,

7's which are normally the leading plugs burn hotter , give better emissions , but have higher chance for knock .


as for the turbos it should be 10 PSI from about 2-4.5k RPMS , then 8 PSI for a second then back to 10 PSI from 4.5k rpm's to redline .

It does indeed seems like those guys killed your turbo . I hope the insurance company can compensate you for it .

BUT the good news is the FD turbos are pretty cheap and easy to come by. Swaping them on the other hand .. can be a pain .

 

If your running stock boost levels, put the stock heat range plugs back in. 9's may be colder but they all foul quicker too. You don't need them.
Why does the shop say your turbos are bad? Oil in the intake track/IC doesn't automatically mean that. And "cheap" is a relative term. Good sequential twins aren't all that easy to find nor inexpensive IMO. At least not here in the U.S. And rebuilding them is a crap-shoot.
And you should either learn to search or get a copy of the Factory Service Manual (FSM) as this ^ is among the first things you should have learned about the car. Like asking what color red Ferraris are usually painted.

 

Reason for the 10-8-10... is because of the sequential operation of the twins.

 

Hey yeah i have a set of spare fd turbos from when i bought the car. Dont know what condition they are in though. Unfortunately I only had thr car for about a week so before i could insure it, it was gone. The turbo's make a rather large spooling noise when they start spooling. I think it could be from that "leak" or the turbos. If you have any idea please let me know.
Thanks!

 

There was A LOT of oil that i cleaned up overall. And there is this huge spooling noise everytime the turbo's start spooling. It shouldnt be that loud. The guys suggested it could either be a leak or the turbos itself. Any thoughts on this?
And yeah ive been looking for a factory service manual but all i can find is the usdm version of up to 1994. Mine's a 1998 jdm version. I havent been able to find the right one. If you however know a link then that'll also be appreciated.
Thanks!

 

For the 98 RHD car you might try here (Aussie FD site): FD-RX7 Enthusiasts Forum
and see if they have a downloadable version in English.
Oil in the intake track can mean the turbos are going south, but some oil is typically present regardless and it can accumulate over time if not cleaned. If it's more of a 'whooshing' sound it may just be a boost leak, which would also explain why you're only seeing 5-7 psi.

 

Hi there,

a 1998 service manual is hard to track down - and to be honest - the basic system is not that different from that shown in the earlier manual.

Your boost pattern could be because the pressure chamber is not 'holding' or recieving boost. This is a common problem. There is a one way valve in the line from the 'y' pipe to this black pastic box that sits in from of the upper intake manifold. The guys on here replace these value with viton one way valves. I just got 4 3 weeks ago off ebay.

Also check out this link on turbo trouble shooting. You need to approach this issue in a systematic manner.

Troubleshooting

Cheers, Jeremy