Rotary_Junkie

I hate asking for help. Normally I can find it searching. Nothing found this time.

Let's get started. Rebuilt street ported S4 na. No mods done to ecu.
I daily drive my car. I parked it five days ago and the weather has just started to
Drop into the teens. So it was it was cold and my car battery died before it
Would start in the morning no biggy. I have a cheap battery that doesn't have much
Cold cranks. So took the woman's car becuz o didmt have time to dick
With it. It started snowing. I have a vented hood and its spaced so naturlly snow got in the
Engine bay. Pretty much got all wet. ****. Wouldnt start being jumped.

When I cranked it soundedd different. It would turn over fine but seemed as if it was
Not getting fuel or spark. Checked it out, and i do have both. Ran out of time and had to go to work.

Today i tried again to jump it. It was raining and the engine bay got wet again. I tried to dry it as well as i cld in the rain. No garage. I held the key over and cranked her over for prolly two minutes and it finally started and ideled. But seems as if its running on one rotor. A better way to explain is a 4 cylinder running only on three.

I had this happen 2 years ago with the original motor on a rainy day and i hit a huge puddle. My car is 3 inches to the ground so i scoop all that water up. I parked the car and the next day when weather was clear it ran fine.

I am a expericed rotary mechanic but this just gets my brain hurting. Ive been rotary owner for 10 years and this is second time this has happened. I tried to give the best details.

My question is it just becuz its wet and just needs time for all of it to dry. I cant possibly get everyting perfectly dry with a rag. Ungfortully my shop is 30 mins away and i have a full time, therefore i have to be able to get it running outside in a lot.

REAmemiya_fan

My question is why do you have a vented hood on an NA? It doesnt really do anything, except for maybe draw some hot air out of the bay. But even then, probably not much. I have never really seen a problem with a wet engine not running, but then again, how often does an engine become wet?

I hope you can figure it out, maybe it is just a fluke, who knows.

FirstRotaryExp

iTrader: (3)

Check to make sure your air filter(s) are not soaked in water first of all.

Secondly check that all your fuses are in good uncorroded condition (same goes for your grounds).

If you get worried about the weather, I suggest throwing a tarp over the hood and to remove those rediculous spacers. Its an NA, there's no real reason to have any 'extra' hood mods to 'aid' in cooling other than making the radiator work harder if you have no undertrays to direct air into the engine bay (as you are creating multiple new points of pressure differentiation with both the vented hood AND using spacers to prop the windshield end of the hood up).

Take care of the reasons WHY the engine is constantly taking on water, get a GOOD battery with clean grounds in place, and if you think youve blown it, do a compression check.

Rotary_Junkie

I dont think that it is blown. Im drifter, wooooo! So yes keeping my **** cool is my intentions. With my electric fan on it blows all the heat out while i sit in line for my next run. We all know heat kills the rotary. And yes the air filter was removed, I wasn't driving when this happened. And not all of the engine bay Is wet.from the hood vent water gets on the front of my alternator. Normal I put a peaice of cardboard to cover that hole but i was unaware it wld be snowing that night. When it was raining my coil by the battery did get wet. Is it possible that from the cold my apex seals cld of stuck and when I cranked it I pretty much ruined them? So weird. I'll post if I have any break throughs. Thanks for ur input. Buy I guess I shld of just no posted i

FirstRotaryExp

iTrader: (3)

I highly doubt an apex seal is going to crack from the cold. Dry all your electrical components and seal the hood back up to prevent further 'oops my engine got snowed on".

REAmemiya_fan

Get n aluminum NA hood. You will be much happier.

Rotary_Junkie

It is a aluminum hood lol. Any way, dried all up. Borrowed some tools. I did get it started real easy but steal running horrible. Not driveable. So I pulled my coils to do a over haul while at and charging the battery. Also pulled my plugs. All soaked in gas and fouled up. New plugs going In tommorrow. Also notice one of my plug wires was caroted so cleaning It up ad well. Agreed that I'm a dumbasses so hoof spaces removed.

Rotary_Junkie

Back to my original question, how cld my engine blow sitting still, or did it blow when I started it? Is that possible. It only has maybe 80k at the max on it. Oil level stayed right only on long trips wld I see any lose. Which wld be no more than half a quart. My temp never goes past c. Cold. If it begins to climb just hair i kick on the fan and it drops. And havent drifted her that hard, except i did ripp my drivesgaft in half lol. but no issues before this ever. Was proud of this build.

FirstRotaryExp

iTrader: (3)

Did you confirm that the engine is blown? As in at the very least pulled a plug from each housing and listened for even pulses of air while cranking over? Or even just screwed in a cheapy piston compression tester to see if it bounces evenly at least (80-120+psi on each face is ok, anything less and its weak).

Also, by running horrible, can you be more descriptive, or even post a video? Double check any vac lines/caps to see if one is leaky.

Rotary_Junkie

Sorry for wasting ur alls time. I knew I wld figure it out. I rarely ask for help but I was stumped this time.

I have a code reader and I just watched the lights and looked it up.

1 short on one light and the second light did two short. Which is cas and trailing coils. Meaning out of time making it run as if it was blown. Took my coils off and removed my.plugs. took them to work and cleaned all of the corrosion and cleaned real good. Put it back on and started right away. Wooo! So it was dirty?

Nope. As it sat and idled I was tightening the coils down and the car began to run like **** and died. Wtf?! So I took the nuts back off and it started right back up easy and ran perfect. Then I took my hand and shook the trailing coils, and the car ran like crap then died. So I found the source of my problem. While at work my friend is running out to my shop to grab my spare coils.

Thanks for the lil help and sorry again. This just proves to try everything before making a waste of a thread.

Rotary_Junkie

Also this means my old engine is not blown. Lol im going to do a compression test tommorrow on it. I gave up to easy on the old one. Just figured cuz it was over 250k on it lol

Rotary_Junkie

The issue is my trailing coils. When i start the car they work. Car runs perfect. But when i touch It with my hand it isntanly stops working. Duh check wireing. No bare wires, all correct. Is my coiks shot?

FirstRotaryExp

iTrader: (3)

If you replace the coils and the car runs better then I would say the old coils are shot. Its quite likely that when they got snowed on, the coils took on water which possibly refroze inside the coilpack and cracked the internals. This 'would' explain why the coils work cold, but then if the car warms up, or you apply pressure to the coil, or shake it, or in any other way disturb the coil, that it starts to act up.

Rotary_Junkie

I changed my original ones out with an old set from the shop and it wldnt work at all. So the original only works only if I don't move it with my hand or bump from the road.

Is it just the coil or Is the ignitor or both?

While waiting to find a set to buy ill tinker with it.

WTB: trailing coil pack!