Keaponlaffen

Heh, any idea why I would have oil coming out of my engine? I have black, sludgy oil leaking out of the rear (#2) exhaust port, and it looks really gross Umm, also, at the same time, the car won't start. It's wierd, It started Tuesday, and ran, etc, but now (Thursday) I went to start it and it just wouldn't. It would puff smoke and pop every once in a while, but she would not start! Hmmmm.... I'm gonna do a compression test, then if that's OK, I'm gunna kick the crap outta my car... heh :angry:

Jeff

Keaponlaffen

C'mon guys, there must be someone out there who knows what's up with my car... It sucks having people say "I told you so" and not being able to reply with some witty remark. But it also sucks that I can't start it up to see what my fixed exhaust system sounds like... (I welded up all the holes I had)

HELP!

Jeff

treceb

I told you so.
Lets see, sludge out of the exhaust ports, is that with or without the exhaust on the car. How long did the car sit for, could it have gotten flooded. is the battery fully charged. Those are some of the reasons why the car wouldnt start.
I hope this helps. But, let us know what you have tried already and what exactly is going on. Maybe then a more precise diagnosis can be given.

jimmyv13

Have you tried to push start it? Do you have spark, fuel to the carb? Let us know what you have gone through.

Keaponlaffen

K, I started it on tuesday, it ran fine, started with little or no effort, and ran it for probably about 10 mins to work on timing it. After that it sat for 2 days while we welded up the exhaust, including the two ports that were leaking. Now, this is the interesting part...

We stuffed a small chunk of damp rag into the main exhaust ports to prevent sparks from the welder from getting into the cylinders and blowing us up. I'm pretty sure I got all the rag out, as I couldn't feel any more in the ports (unless it got pushed right in). Hopefully that's not it, otherwise it's gonna be complete tear-down and rebuild, right?

I've tried starting it with the starter for about the equivilent of 10 mins in off and on spurts of about 5-7 seconds with the battery hooked up to a charger on full boost. I would try to push start it, but the parking lot is too icy for my near-bald summer tires to grip enough.

My guess is that the oily sludge is gas and carbon and oil mixed because the car is probably flooded, but it's gonna sit wide open with no exhaust at all on it all weekend, with the rotor half way in between intake and exhaust strokes.

It must be getting spark, becuase it's backfiring every once in a while, but it may not be getting spark in both cylinders...

There's definitly fuel, because it's visible when I step on the gas.

My only wishful thinking is that because it's smoking as I'm cranking it, it's burning something and heating it up good enough to smoke. If it is rag, won't it burn up and out? Or will it cause too much compression loss and prevent it from firing?

HELP!

Jeff

REVHED

It might just be badly flooded. Have you removed the spark plugs to check if they're fouled? If they're fouled clean them with a wire brush and blow em dry with compressed air or put em in the oven for a while. Or you could just put new plugs in. And yeah, when you try starting it after cleaning/changing the plugs, make sure you hold the throttle wide open so you don't foul the plugs again.

vic'srx-7

Are you tring this outside what is the weather in Kamloops like.
I think it would be a good idea to check to make sure that there
is nothing (rag) blocking the exsaust.( you can't get anything in without getting anything out.
It could just be that the car is flooded, these cars hate short runs.

Vic

Keaponlaffen

The weather isn't too bad here, it's above -5 celcius. And all the snow melted today, so I'm gonna try to push stat it today. Hopefully that'll work, otherwise I'm gonna kill someone or something. I don't think anything is blocking the exhaust, but I've got a wonderful way to fix that; NO EXHAUST! Heh, Everyone's gonna hate me today Yeah, anyways, thanks for all the help.

If it is rag though, am I going to have to tear down the block, get it out and rebuild it? Hopefully not.... oh well, you get what you pay for. ($200 cdn) hehehe...

Jeff

P.O.S. Racing

Before you go pushing the car around for kicks, you may want to take a peek at the following.

http://www.rx7.com/tech/unflood-sa-carb.html

Keaponlaffen

Update:

Well, I've de-flooded the car three times (it does burn the ATF, but doesn't start) but she still won't start I'm getting really disappointed, 'cause I wanted to have her ready for driving in the spring.

Looks like I'm gonna have to pull the engine and overhaul, as I have a piece of rag about 1x2" inside the rear housing and I believe it's letting compression leak by, making the car back-fire when trying to crank it over, and I mean back-FIRE (really scares the friends when it shoots flames out the manifold). Hopefully I can get this done in 4 or so months with about 1 hour of work every two days... Hmmm... I do have a spare rotor, apex seals, corner seals, all the springs and side seals if that's the problem though

Hopefully it will go good. One more question; will any auto parts supplier be able to get ahold of all the seals and gaskets I'll need, or can I make my own, or do I have to order them from some place online?

Before I do all this, is there something else you guys can recommend I try? (besides driving it off a cliff) I want to drive her!!

Jeff

RXcetera

And you're sure the distributor is on properly right?

Pele

iTrader: (28)

Would a rag that small really mess things up? Cant you run on one rotor till you tear it up and toast the rag?

P.O.S. Racing

The back-fire make one wonder if :
1. Do you have all your spark plug wires routed correctly?
2. Distributor timing

Have you checked compression on the engine? Be a quick way to see if the rag ate a seal.

Keaponlaffen

Te plug wires are routed correctly; Leading coil rear, trailing front, rotor 1 front, 2 rear, and trailing on top, leading on the bottom.... but I haven't pulled the distributor apart to see if maybe something's up, like rotor or something. I just don't see how that's a problem all of a sudden; it ran fine like 12 hours before I welded up the ports, and I don't see how anything could've just happened.

Could welding it have done anything to the electronics??

I would do a compression test, but the tester I have doesn't seem to like working on the rotary. It doesn't find ANY compression in EITHER of the housings?! WTF?! It does however work on a single-piston small engine (shows upwards of 30 psi on a B&S 4HP)

Any suggestions on what else I should check?

thanks,
Jeff