Ill try and make this short and give as much info as i can possibly think of.... My car is 88 gxl 5 speed swap. I wont mention any mods except what pertain to this problem... in the last week or two i began pulling my emissions an blocking off items such as EGR, BAC and ACV.. removed the thermal way, dash pot ect.... ( according to kevin landers emissions removal page) Also, i installed my FD alternator/ double pully, in the first round of work, i did the ACV, BAC and EGR, removed the rats nest and did the alternator a few days later. While removing the UIM, i decided to get a little deeper and removed the LIM.... where i found a really disgusting gasket, which i decided to replace several days later, once i picked one up at atkins... IN between these chunks of work the car started and ran totally fine... Then last night i started in on replacing teh crappy gasket and at that time i also removed the thermal wax and all associated VAC lines, capping what was left bare, and running vac lines from the dashpot and the mysterious vac line on the underside of the dynamic chamber, to vac nipples on the UIM. I put it all back together and the car wouldnt start. I did all the de-flooding procedures, (pulled the Spark plugs and EGI fuse, I dumped the codes and everything else i could think of... almost killing my battery in the process ( from cranking) After that i pulled it all off again.... double checked all conections, fuel injectors, vac lines ect... then i decided to finish emission process and removed the dashpot, cold idle cam and did the TB mod ( removing the first set of double butterfly flaps... and filled the holes temporarily with bolts and RTV.) thinking that would solve teh problem ( perhaps it was creating a vac discrepancy...) Still no start.... de- flooded again ect.... Nothing.... finally i yanked the whole UIM and LIM again, and found a whole mess of brown sludge dripping from teh intake ports, and also oil dripping from the end of a disconnected OMP vac line.... which i though was bizarre... vac lines should run air... not oil.. LOL.... anyway, cleaned it up, double checked it all, even removed the lower plugs with the LIM off and cranked it to get any more crap out.... and still no start. So im pretty much stumped.... Im not by any means an expert on this, so i may be missing something totally obvious.... but i really need help, on this one.... arg.

photos show brown sludge dripping from housings, and LIM, # shows oil dripping from a detached VAC line from an oil injector, and #4 shown the mysterious avc line on the underside of the Throttle body... Don't know where it should go so i capped it

 

If you are still using the OMP, make sure the hoses that attach to the top of each oil injector do NOT connect to a vacuum source. These are vent hoses only, and should be connected to the intake duct to the air filter, and not anywhere on the intake manifold. I have seen some people misroute those vent lines, only to have oil sucked into the UIM as a result.

 

I always thought the vacuum spider went to the oil injetors then to the TB vac lines?

 

I just checked the FSM for the spider routing.....at least on an s4, it connects to a vacuum port right on the UIM. Sorry for the confusion.

 

Yeah, it should be the larger vacuum hose on the front side of the UIM... teh top one... S4 anyways....

 

Well. game over.... dont know what the real reason was for this non-starting trouble, but i finally dumped a chunk of ATF in the block and when that didnt work i sprayed starter fluid into the intake.... started up pretty quickly after that! oh well....

 

I bet your neighbors also appreciated the impromptu rock n roll theatrics you filled your neighborhood with

I once had the fire station called on me for all the smoke...

 

If starter fluid started the engine, then you aren't getting fuel. This could be caused by several things, first check if the fuel pump is running (have a friend turn the key while you feel the leftmost fuel line at the tank.) If the line doesn't quiver, you are either out of gas, have wiring issue, or need to replace the fuel pump.

 

Well.... i had a full tank, and i assume it wasn't the pump.... unless it decided to quit working precisely when i was doing the aforementioned mods ect... Andi dont know if you can hear the pump when i turn the key to "on" for a second or two... but i think i can.... AND when i kept removing the fuel lines to remove the LIM liek 3 times, gas sprayed hardcore.... so im sure its pressurized.... But anyway, after all the smoke and fuss... it ended up running fine... and so far has started fine ever since... weirdness. BUT heres the stuff i did at the time when it started NOT starting.... removed thermal wax and all vac lines... Throttle body mod...and scraped the LIM and UIM gaskets and replaced with new ones.... i also messed with the injectors and oil injectors, did alot of tiding up and cleaning and sprayed alot of carb cleaner near teh open intake ports.... HMmmm.. could that have made my engine act up? say i sprayed some carb cleaner and or wd-40... seems that stuff would only make it start better... i dunno.

 

You may have accidentally flooded it with the carb cleaner, it isn't nearly as flamable or as volatile as gasoline so it may flood the engine. The ether is more volatile, so may ignite even in a slightly flooded engine.

The reason that piston engines don't have as much flooding trouble is that the excess gasoline leaks past the compression rings and into the crankcase, allowing the engine to start after a little wait. A rotary engine does not have any way to leak gasoline into the crankcase, so instead the gasoline just leaks into the next rotor chamber, the flood never clears (I have tried letting my car sit for 2 days and it is still just as flooded.)

Also the gasoline washes the oil film off the rotor housing, losing some of the seal and causing poor compression. I have seen several people flood their engine, do a compression check, find it low on both rotors and throw it away. A lot of times all the engines needs is a pull start and some running time to re-lubricate themselves.

I am glad that you got it running again.

Happy rotoring.

 

That's why most ppl just pull the egi fuse, unplug the cas, remove a plug on each rotor and give it a few cranks...

Also floods do "auto-clear", you just need to stop the injectors from firing. the fuel just gets pushed into the exhaust where you get 1 of 2 things, a puff of blue smoke or you pop off a nice flame.

 

So.. a little more help... yes the car is running, and running fine.... when it starts, but now im having a coldstart issue.... when the car gets cold (overnight) its still a beast to start.... a little starter fluid does the trick, but then it wont idle till it gets warmed up.... this seems like a textbook problem... but searching the archive has turned up no results.... Once the car is warm it runs totally normal.... i have adjusted the TPS, idle, dumped codes, and double checked the coolant temp sensor was plugged in.... Back to compression.... perhaps theres not enough oil to make good compression?

ALSO... hearing a sound ive never heard before.... with the key turned to "ON" .. listening in the engine bay, i hear a obvious pumping or whirring sound... like a fuel pump, but louder and coming from the engine.... ???????

 

SCRIP7 had it right. The SPIDER for the oil injectors DOES NOT GO TO A SOURCE OF VACUUM. It goes to a nipple on the throttle body that is fed from a place BEFORE the throttle plates. In other words it is NOT a vaccum source.

Only a couple of nipples on the throttle body are sources of vacuum. The others are sources of air prior to the throttle body.

If the spider is/was connected to a vacuum source, then that is most likely part of the problem. The part where oil is dripping out the intake.

 

The hard to start when cold MIGHT be the water thermo sensor not being connected up. The START cycle of the RX is dependent on this sensor. If disconnected the ECU will not inject enough fuel during START. And only during START i.e. under 500 rpm and the ECU seeing a Start signal. See the free online RX training manuals that were supplied by NZCONVERTIBLE several years ago for a description of the START CYCLE.

 

I did the throttle body mod simply for the cleaner look and less clutter... I had problems with it starting and staying started til it was warm... This is because you basically removed the equivelant to a choke... I put my regular TB back on... The modded one is on my work bench... Thats where it will stay till I sell it... Starting it and keeping it running with the modded TB was too much trouble...

The oil leaking from your vac lines may be from the PCV... If you removed this in the process of removing everything else, you will need to put an oil catch can in... To find the PCV just go from the large vac line on your oil filler neck to the plastic disk like valve that has a total of 3 lines connected to it... 1 large (to the filler neck) and 2 small...

Being that I am no expert, I am only telling you from my previous experience... Good luck..

**edit
Also... If you changed the location or orientation of you MAF sensor, you need to level it... If it is unlevel it will give you starting problems...

 

The vacuum spider was and has bben connected to its rightful owner.... the highest fattest nipple on the front of the TB

 

Im almost certain that this is my problem. The green female end to that sensor is all jacked up and although it is plugged in... may not be making the proper conections.... anyone selling a S4 engine harness? or just the pigtail... haha.... but really, im looking for a decent condition harness.. and the one in my car was the wrong one ( i didnt know what i was buying at the time, so currently i am running a resistor pack)