Devdude

I took the car to the body shop to get some damage repaired. When I went to pick the car up it was hardly running. I looked around for loose wires and stuff and noticed that my main fuse had been swapped out. My fuses were fine going into shop, now the main fuse was missing the plastic top cover.

Replaced the fuse and it helped, at least the car was idling but still no power under load. It almost sounds as if the timing is way off. Although I have experience working on old cylinder engines I have not attempted to do any serious work on my RX.....yet. Can anyone clue me in on how to check and set the timing?

I have a 91 convertible, no turbo without any modifications (that I know of). It is fuel injected though. Any help would be appreciated

biorotary

your best bet is to do a search...

Devdude

Hehe, tried a search on timing. Not a good choice of words in a forum somewhat dedicated to drag racing. I am wondering if disconnecting the battery could be an issue. It is standard procedure to disconnect the battery when doing any body work on a car.

Thoughts?

biorotary

well, if you elaborate more on the issue i'm sure there would be more responses...

anyway, this is just a thought, did you notice a discripency in the # of miles you have going into the shop and coming out of the shop? reason being...someone may have driven it and blew an apex seal or two or three...cause it's kinda sounding like it to me...but again, elaborate on the "not idling right" issue and we'll go from there...

Devdude

Unfortunately I didn't record mileage going in. So obviously that was my first mistake. I will try to be more descriptive so that I hopefully don't make more mistakes.

When the car is first started and at idle, the engine sounds as if it is running smoothly but has a real low tone to it. If it had cylinders I would descibe it as missing on one cylinder. When I press on the gas without load the engine revs up but considerably slower than normal. At higher rpm (5000) the engine will hold idle but I get what I think is the occasional miss on the spark.

Once I start driving the vehicle there is no power. I have to floor the gas pedal and slowly bring in the clutch to get it moving without killing the engine. Higher gears are a little easier to get into. When I come to a stop and depress the clutch the engine will die. I had to use the hand brake and keep the engine idling at 3000+ to keep it going. Also under load the engine appears to be missing a lot.

This all may point to something other than the timing. Like I said my experience is more with cylinder engines and the timing is the first thing I would think of in this situation.

Any ideas or thoughts are appreciated

Mobius

Maybe your AfM is jacked up? Or perhaps your alternator is going bad which would affect the AFM.....What does your volt meter read? is it dropping or doing things erradically?


That's air fuel meter.

You know, as I side note I think I'll start asking questions just to **** off all those people who say "search" for it. I like the idea that they don't even have to read or respond to the question, but they will waste their time bitching about the question and saying something stupid like "Search for it".

Screw you guys.

Devdude

I replaced the alternator about 6 months ago. The voltage looked to be steady at least according to the voltmeter in the dash.

biorotary

still sounds to me like a blown engine...
but check the spark plug wires to make sure they are not crossed...

(T)railing front rotor ----------- (T)railing rear rotor

(L)eading front rotor ---------- (L)eading rear rotor

the trailing plugs are on top and the leading plugs are on the bottom...

and um...while you're at it, pull the front trailing plug and the cas electrical connector (the connector on the "distributer" like contraption below the alt) and then have someone crank the engine a few times and listen for 3 equal pumps of air...if you don't hear 3 pulses of air coming out of the plug hole, blown rotor...if you do, great! rotor is still ok...
now put the plug back in, and pull the rear trailing plug and have someone crank the engin, again listening to the 3 pulses of air...if you get 3 pulses of air great, if not, blown rotor...put the plug and the cas connector back in...
if you don't get 3 pulses of air from either of the rotors, it's rebuild time...

Devdude

Well I checked the plug wires. Assuming that L1 and T1 are towards the front of the car and L2 and T2 towards the back the wires are properly attached. I dont have anyone to help me with the blown rotor checks. Will have to try that later.

Mobius

Well, you could also buy a compression tester. I don't think they're that bad in price.

Devdude

Thats a possibility. Although the compression tester would tell me max compression but not how many times it compressed.

Unfortunately I am in another state from my tools and I really don't want to buy more

So you guys don't think it has anything to do with timing?

biorotary

yeah, definitely check that...
oh and while i'm on here, here's a few timing threads for you to read...pay attention to the responses by "hailers".

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/search...g&pagenumber=1

ok, so there's alot, but they'll help you with some of the questions regarding timing that you may have...
enjoy

Devdude

Some good information, thanks. Unfortunately though I may have to cough up the dough and take it to the shop. Was hoping that there would be some little thing that I could fix without the need for too many tools or too much time.

Thanks for the input. I will keep checking the thread if anyone comes up with any other ideas.