Well they didn't have "good cats" back then. I think the RX8 still has the air pump though, but it meets stricter standards.

 

I understand they went from Pellet type (stock for the 82) to Monolith, later like the RX8 but I was thinking was there something specifically that changed between the 81 vs 82?


So in celebration of passing emissions I decided to find out wtf is wrong with my Oil pressure, Fuel and Temp gauges. Oil is easy, it's mechanical gauge now. But Temp is a new sender and a repaired wire, and it still broke, and no clue on fuel!

So I broke out the trusty FSM and it looks like that gauges all get power from a Green wire with a yellow stripe, that has a 10 amp fuse. I pulled my fuse panel and yes, the green with yellow stripe wire has power. It looks like a voltage regulator is involved somehow, but I'm kinda lost as to its actual location. Interestingly the speedo cable was really easy to remove, but I'm having trouble pulling the cluster. The idea was to pull the cluster and check on the panel itself for power at the gauges. It's kinda stuck atm.

I dug around some more and found a whole rats nest of a car alarm! I wondered what those relays were doing.




I suppose car theft attempts would explain the bent UP corners on my hood...

I got all that wiring removed, and the damaged/stripped sections replaced or properly taped over now.

 

On the 83 the voltage regulator for the temp and fuel gauges is the box located on the back of the instrument panels' PCB. According to the FSM for the 83, the output from the VR is 7V

 

Thanks Toruki! I think you've found the problem, but I'm having a bear of a time getting the cluster out, so I've abandoned that pursuit. If I have a spare cluster on hand, I'll try again, but this plastic is so old/brittle I don't want to push it too far.

Instead I put in a mechanical Temp gauge, and moved my AFR tot he little up thing in the center console. I'm still waiting for the M16x1.5 to 3/8 NPT adapter to show up so I can put the probe where the Choke temp sensor was.


As it sits now. Kinda ugly, but practical.

 

First drive! Well of any consequence that is. So far I like the car, plenty of torque down low, but I find myself shifting at around 4000 to get any real acceleration out of it. It handles great, I'm really surprised, that it's this good even with the unknown shocks and cracked bushings. I noticed that my secondaries are NOT opening, despite the pedal being at the limit of travel. So I'd assume the car will be faster if that was operating correctly.

It's loud! But not unpleasant. I kinda find myself wanting to rev it back up to 4k as often as reasonable. I'm staying under that as a safety precaution as the motor only has 60 miles so far. Oh and it got 5 mpg...so far. That should improve with time and less gasoline spillage lmao.

I got the mechanical gauge installed, and it's not moving? I noticed even after driving it around, I can still put my hand on the housings and irons...so I know it's not getting very hot. I was able to open the Rad with no overflow/steam after 10 minutes after parking it. The thermostat is opening at the correct time, it's not stuck as far as I can tell, but the car isn't really getting hot I think.

I'd like it to make some more power, but is this all I can expect from a 12a under 4k? It doesn't feel at all faster than my D15 civic hatch! Sounds a lot better though!

Oh one last thing, the engine is sitting around 3500 rpm in 5th at 55 or so, I think I have a really low gearset. I'll jack the car up and count tire rotation vs pinion tomorrow.

 

Stock 20mm primary venturis are gutless.

 

Gears should be 3.9 I think they all were except the GSL-SE which was closer. 3500 at 55 sounds about right.

You're not gonna see much of anything spectacular out of any rotary at less than 4k.

 

Well the primaries are cut to 24mm if memory serves. I can swap in some bigger fuel jets but I'm sitting I the mid 12s to low 14s under acceleration so I think that's doing ok.

I do know the scondaries aren't coming on. I did test the diaphragm off the car with vac tool and it moves fine. Thinking a mechanical linkage mod would solve this problem.

Guess I'll have to be slow until the break in period is done. 400 miles or so?

 

24mm? If so, cool. Hopefully they were cut well. And a quick way to do mech secs is to just do a wire tie around the linkage. Study how it moves and it become obvious how to do it. It is easy to do and reversible. The wire tie can wear/loosen over time so I like to weld (tack) the ones I do, and it withstands boost this way too.

 

I do 1000, but that's just me. I've heard keep it under 4 k till 1000 and change the oil. Then keep it under 6 or 7k till 2000 miles.

Thing about your power band is; you've opened up your exhaust (no more cast manifold yada) and you've opened up the air flow through the carb. You're going to see lots of improvements in the upper end as it should be with a rotary.

 

My oil's already looking dirty, So I think I'll change it at 150 or so. I'm at around 120 miles now. There was a lot of gasoline getting into the oil, due to me messing with the carb ect.

I found part of the reason it was so slow, the primaries weren't opening more than 2/3rds! The little tab that the rams-horn shaped things push against to turn the throttle shaft, was bent, preventing proper movement. Now that I straightened it, it's better, and accelerates nicely. I still have no secondaries, so that's a problem for another day.

Managed to find a significant oil leak from my mechanical sender at the block, re-tefloned everything and that's now fixed. Also determined my fusible link blew/dies for the headlights, so that's on the agenda for tomorrow as well.

The car makes a 'thud' when initially going into gear, U-joints maybe? Also some rumbling noise if left in gear on decelleration.

I did drain the diff oil today, and noticed very little if any metallic, except some grime stuck on the magnetic plug. Replaced oil with MT 90 weight Redline brand.

It's been a busy Sunday.

 

Despite having good continuity, my headlight fusible link was bad. I jumped the prongs with some 18 gauge for safety, and I got headlights again! I went ahead and replaced all the fusible links with PAL fusible links. Two 20's and a 50. May step down to a 40, but I think the 1.25 sq rating is in between the two.


I also noticed that the light for the ash tray and the cigarette lighter are constantly on, even with the keys out and the lights off. I don't think that's supposed to be that way! I pulled the ground for both and now they're off and my battery is saved. I'd like to rewire that system, but I'm not sure what's wrong. My guess is I plugged the lighting circuit for those two into the battery source for the cassette player, which I removed. Will investigate tomorrow.

 

There is also a plug under the shifter surround used for the auto trans that people think needs to be plugged in for manual trans. It can cause funny things in a manual trans car.

 

Oh yeah I was going to ask what that plug was for, and I vaguely remembered to NOT plug that in. thanks for clarifying. What is the other switch on the console for, the one with the light in it, anyway? I push it and nothing seems to happen.

OK since I'm used to my transmissions being in the engine bay (Honda), how much noise should I be hearing from my trans? It shifts easily, without grinding or hardly any real force, but there's a constant grumbling noise from it. I only have a thin rubber insulator thing and a faux leather shift boot from an SA insulating my ears from the trans too, so I suppose I may be over reacting. If I shift to neutral the noise stops. Car is quite a bit quieter. No difference in noise clutch in vs out.

Oh almost forgot, did my first rational fill-up, got just over 17 mpg, not bad eh?

 

There shouldn't be too much noise from the trans. What did you fill it with? Mix in some ATF if you haven't.

17 is kinda bad for a 12A with a Nikki N/A. But you have new seals so give it some time to improve throughout break in.

 

Pretty sure it's 75-90 GL-4 Valvoline. Filled until dripped out of the fill plug hole. Everything inside of it looked good, but I obviously couldn't check the bearings without load. I'm betting it's the input shaft bearing, but I'm no expert.

Well I've been shifting at around 4k...so that might explain the bad mileage, and it's all city and me messing around getting used to the car.

 

Cutting the primary venturis larger reduces the vacuum signal they produce, so your secondary diaphragm likely doesn't see enough vacuum to overpower the stock spring in it anymore.

If you want to keep vacuum secondaries, you'll want to find a weaker spring to install in the diaphragm.

 

The spring in the diaphram is more for making sure the actuator returns. There is a much stronger spring on the throttle shaft you would have to cut down to get them to open with less vacuum.

 

Make secondaries mechanical.... problem solved, no spring calculations needed.

 

Agreed.

 

Ah I see you've all ganged up on me! I basically came to the same conclusion that somehow the diaphragm wasn't seeing enough signal. I didn't realize it was due to the larger venturis, so thanks. I did try cutting the spring down, then stretching it back out to make it weaker, but no dice.

It's time to take the carb back off, plug the vac port for the diaphragm and rig up mechanical secondaries. I've yet to see a really good picture of this setup though, could someone snap a pic/link to a good thread? I want more power!

The new mechanical temp gauge is installed, and I'm reading 160 F max, idling in traffic. When I'm moving it's closer to 180. I think that my fan clutch isn't clutching, so I'm getting way too much cooling. The thermostat seems to be operating correctly,in that I can see the coolant motionless in the radiator when the car's running, and them move later as it warms up.

Lastly, I noticed that rubbing noise I mentioned earlier,it goes away/dissipates when the car's fully warmed up. And it's definitely related to clutch pedal position. Looked around under the car yesterday for loose heat shields, or something rubbing on the drive shaft, and there was nada.

 

Mechanical secondaries kill low end torque. Anyone that says otherwise has not spent enough time on a dyno or simply doesn't care about what their power curve looks like below 4000 RPM. They'll tell you "just don't give it full throttle until you are up to speed". Meanwhile manufacturers have spent decades perfecting their versions of the vacuum secondary to improve both performance and fuel mileage.

You want narrow high velocity runners at low RPM and the secondaries opening at higher RPM. To achieve this with your setup, you just need to modify the spring below until you can get secondaries to fully open at 3,500-4,000 RPM.

 

It's contrary to what most people assume, but cutting a spring actually increases the spring rate. Cutting it and stretching it means it will require more vacuum to open than it did originally.

If you cut it and not stretch it, it may open with less signal (since the spring isn't compressed as far), but will open slower due to the higher spring rate.

 

Normally I'd agree, but when you get to a certain point far from factory sometimes its better to throw in the towel and make something work. On a stock carb or an aftermarket new carb sure can't beat it.

 

Bigger primary venturis make better low end torque. It might seem conterintuitive, but it's true. Bigger is better up to a point.

As far as the runners, that remains to be seen, but I believe narrower runners do provide crisper bottom end but run out of breath sooner than larger ones would. Just compare an old school intake manifold from the 70s to a 79 to 85 type. The 79 will be crisper but run out of flow sooner. Then it depends on your driving style and what you wish to achieve.