Frostout

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking here ever since I bought an '82 GS three years ago, and for the entire time she's been rock-solid aside from the work I put into her when I first bought her. Because of her long-time reliability, and because I've always been sure to perform all the necessary preventative maintenance on her ahead of when it's needed, I decided that taking her to college with me would be the best way to keep her running, as I know that leaving a car out can have unfortunate consequences.

I may have been wrong.

It was a 14 hour drive over a number of fairly substantial passes (From Seattle to Salt Lake City), with what I would guess to be around 150 pounds of baggage in addition to myself.

So here's my problem(s)

1. Overall sluggishness. The fan clutch seems to be pretty much stuck in the "on" position, regardless of speed and oil temperature. It may have failed, which is annoying, but it isn't really what worries me. What worries me is:

2. Hard starting with blue smoke. I know that it's fairly common for a first-gen to produce a cloud of blue smoke at startup, however my car never has--until now. Along with this sudden addition of blue smoke, it now takes several turns of the key in order to get the engine to turn over, which also is new, as I've never had trouble starting, even in cold weather, except for with alternator/battery troubles. The blue smoke does stop after the engine finally turns over properly, but given its sudden appearance, I'm somewhat concerned, particularly given its appearance at the end of a very long drive.

Some other potentially useful information:
During the drive, it did become _extremely_ hot out.

However, I paid religious attention to my oil temp gauge, as I know how sensitive a rotary is to overheating, and the needle never even reached the middle point.

At the recommendation of my father, I treated my first tank of gas before I left with 4 oz. or so of MMO.

In the weeks prior to my leaving, I had my oil changed and my tranny/diff serviced, I also changed my sparks and air filter.

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I must confess that I'm posting this without having spent much time diagnosing the problem myself. Being a college student, I don't have immediate access to a garage, or even a space that I am permitted to pop my hood and poke around a bit, and my limited expertise does not extend to engine internals at all so even if I _did_ have the space I likely would be unable to determine the cause of the problem.



I've done some searching on the forums regarding blue smoke, and while the fact that the blue smoke my car produces at start disappears almost immediately does sound hopeful, I can't help but be concerned at its sudden appearance, and the hard starting accompanying it.

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Tomorrow morning before it gets hot out, I plan on heading out and starting her up, seeing if she smokes and whether or not the fan clutch is still stuck. I know the chances of that happening are low, however, which is why I'm posting here: I will likely need information, advice, or just plain help. This car is my baby, and I've done the best I can to try to keep her running at her best, but this is outside of my understanding, and I just don't have much money to have a dealership diagnose and repair the problem.

Many thanks for any help I might receive.

-Frostout

trochoid

iTrader: (6)

Before you start the car up, see if the fan will spin easily by hand. If not, the fan clutch needs replaced. The stock temp gauge is for coolant, not oil. Pull your plugs and check their condition, report findings.

You didn't say how many miles are on the engine, but it may be getting tired. How often do you change your oil and what weight do you use? I would stay far far away from the dealers, very few of them still have mechanics that are familiar with the older rotaries. You might have better luck posting for a members help in your regional sub-forum.

I doubt that the trip, luggage, passes etc., had a detrimental affect on the engine. When was the last time it had a full tune up? If the smoking continues after warmup, you might try a can of Lucas Oil Stabilizer along with a fresh oil change.

If you haven't downloaded the FSM, carb manual, et., the link is in my sig line.
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Frostout

Alright, here are my findings:

Firstly, my car has stopped producing smoke at startup, and starts and runs just as well as it did back home, so that has me thinking positive thoughts .

As for the fan, it does spin a little, but stops fairly soon after letting go. When it gets hot, though, it doesn't spin at all. This isn't terribly surprising to me, as I've known the fan clutch was going bad for a while. Between the fan and the altitude I have noticed a dip in overall power, but so long as I don't drive in the heat of the day I should be alright until I can negotiate a fix for the fan.

Unfortunately, I can't pull my plugs because I left the appropriate adapter back at home. Foolish of me, I know, but not a lot I can really do about it at the moment. I did just replace my plugs with the appropriate NGKs about a month ago, so unless there's been some serious fouling, they should still be in good condition. Since my engine revs as healthily as ever now, I don't think that's the case.

My odometer is running at about 180,000, but the previous owner mentioned that _another_ previous owner had replaced the engine at about 100k miles. While I'm hesitant to accept such anecdotal information, the lack of trouble I've had with the car until now have led me to believe there may be some truth to the tale.

As for maintenance, I ran down the whole gamut of things to check and replace when I first bought the car, including plugs, wires, dizzy, tranny/diff fluid, oil change, fuel filter change, air filter, etc. Since then, I've changed my oil around every 2,000 miles. As I've been coming up on 15,000 miles, I've been going back and performing the more occasional maintenance as well. In this regard, the car has been pretty well maintained for as long as it's been under my care.

Right now, with my car behaving more as expected, I'm willing to avoid freaking any further out and just keep a close eye on how it runs for a while. The trouble I was experiencing may have been a peculiar fluke.

If you have any advice to the contrary, however, I'm definitely all ears. I don't have much money at the moment, but I want to do right by my car.

Thanks for the help!

trochoid

iTrader: (6)

From your description, the fan clutch is performing as it should. Rest of the info sounds good. If you haven't changed your fuel filter for 15k, it might be time again.