Hello,
Thanks for checking this out. I am new to the forum, new to RX-7's but not new to being a shadetree mechanic. I just got my first RX7 last weekend for a song, but I hope the song stays cheery and doesn't turn sad. I am only in town on weekends, and am balancing between working on the car and family stuff, so I am looking for a little guidance as I get the car running to where I feel safe driving it around w/o getting stranded anywhere.

Car:
1990 GLX Non-turbo, manual transmisson, 188k miles Stock except air intake.

Problems:

1. REALLY hard to start either hot or cold.
2. When driving, check engine light will come on if I get around 3500-4000RPM then it goes into what I htink is limp mode (no power past 3k rpm). If I flip the key off and back on while driving, check engine goes back off, and car is good again, until I hit 3500-4000 rpm again.

What I've done so far:

• Changed Oil (it was nasty)
• Flushed Coolant (it was ok (no sludge/oil) but had flecks of copper in it)
• pulled spark plugs and checked them. Pretty good shape. noticed that all four of them were the same time, I expected it to have 2 "T" plugs and 2 "L" plugs. I'll write down the exact type of plugs this comming weekend.
• Switched battery with battery from my jeep, still hard to start. Notice that the negative wire is starting to pull out of the battery terminal connector. Going to replace these terminals this weekend.
• Looked around the engine bay and I think somoene has pulled some parts off. Hopefully it was emissions stuff. I'll get some pics of where things appear to be missing (I have hoses and vacum tubes hanging around un-connected).

What to do:

• Check engine diag codes.
• Check spark plugs types and replace if needed
• Replace battery terminals.

Is there anything else you all would suggest??
The previous owner says he didn't know much about Rotaries, and just took the car on a trade for some other car he had with the intention to resale it. He suggested the previous owner had mentioned the rough start / check engine issue may be because of clogged cats. I was tihnking of pulling off everything exhaust wise, but wasn't sure if the car would run ok like this ( yeah, the neighbors dogs keep me up at night, so I don't mind if its loud) for just a short time of course.

THanks for your advice and guidance!