oregano

iTrader: (1)

ok. so i got my car running again. dont ask what was wrong cuz its stupid and embarrasing and i wont tell you.

i also bought a block heater for my car cuz its damn cold in canada. the car was running great on saturday, and it was actually a nice warm sunny day. then, sunday morning, it was cold so i decided to use my block heater. now, this is a dumb heater that bolts a resister coil to the block and heats the block this way.

i decided to unplug my #1 rotor plug wires cuz it looked like the heater was gonna melt them. one hour later i unplug my heater and start the car up. it sounds kinda funny and it wont idle but ive only seen an fc run like 3 times so what do i know. then i remember, i forgot to plug the spark plug wires back in! so i go and plug them in, but alas, no good. the engine is still running off the #2 rotor only.

So i take out the spark plugs, clean them, dry them, unflood the engine, and i try again. after some afterburning, the engine is now ok. i let it warm up, and then i go for a slow cruise around my street (i have no brakes right now). i gunned it once and i was like, "wow, i love this engine". but then i get home, leave the car idling, and it starts to hesitate, and then it shakes alot and dies. so i check the plug wires, the plugs again, and test the coil rsistance. everything is FINE! i try switching the plugs and wires but im still running off of only the #2 rotor.

so i force the car to start and rev it slowly to 1500 rpm. after a while, the #1 rotor starts to catch, and the engine starts reving, bit by bit, to 2500rpm without me increasing the throttle. then i let it sit and idle. after a few minutes, it starts to hesitate again and dies.

so, im thinking that maybe the alternator is bad. but when i get the car to idle again, i check the voltage across the battery and it is 13.65 volts. now im lost.

Rpeck

Hmm, check your sub zero start assist system, it might be screwing things up. read up on it in the FSM.

If you have a timing light also check to make sure each plug is really firing... somtimes if they get really fuel fouled the are fugged up beyond working right. Just testing at the coil does not mean it is firing at the plug itself. And tripple check all the vacuum lines to make sure you didnt jar somthing loose while screwing around with all the other stuff.

-Robert

Rpeck

Also, any chance of condensation or water in your fuel? check both fuel filters out also. Kinda sounds like it is strugling for good gas.

zinx

iTrader: (3)

Or for good spark, i'd replace the plugs and maybe the plug wires.

Cory Simpson

It sounds like you just fouled out the plugs. So just go out and buy a full set of plugs/wires (good for a turn up) And then tell us what happens. Because just wipeing/cleaning spark plugs won't unfoul (probably not a word) them.


And it's not your alternator, because if it was, one you wouldn't be able to start the car, without some kind of a jump start. And two your car would die all together once it drained the battery, which would happen fairly fast.

oregano

iTrader: (1)

yeah, i will definately buy some spark plugs and wires this weekend. its really weird though cuz my neighbor gave me brand new leading plugs the day before. i guess i coulda fucked them up though when i ran the car on #2 rotor only.

thanks for the suggestion.

stevensimon

iTrader: (11)

also its really bad to have the car sparking into thin air. the coils might be good still but the ignitor might be fried. i have had nothing but bad luck with ignitors like they have glass jaws. but hopefully it is just the plugs.

oregano

iTrader: (1)

actually... it cant be the plugs. i checked by swithing the rear ones into the front rotor, and cranking the engine on with only the front plugs connected. nothing happended here whereas when i cranked the engine with only the rear plugs connected, it would try to start. i doubt its the plug wires cuz i switched them from my friends fc. i will find out for sure when i buy new ones. guess i will have to buy an igniter.

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (8)

Sounds like either a problem with plugs (likely), coils (unlikely), or water getting into one of the chambers, either via a coolant seal leak (unlikely from your description) or the subzero starting assist malfunctioning (you should remove it).

When water gets into one chamber, it floods it temporarily and takes several rotations before the water gets pushed out and the plug will start firing proerly. You see this a lot with coolant seal motors. A real bad stutter for about 20 seconds until the water gets cleared from one rotor, then it picks up and runs fine.

Block off the water hose from your coolant start assist bottle and see wht happens.

oregano

iTrader: (1)

"Block off the water hose from your coolant start assist bottle and see wht happens."

now that sounds like it could be my problem. what u describe makes sense, and if its not my igniter, then this is probably my problem. i was gonna remove this anyway so i will be glad to try it. im gonna buy the block off plate kit that my friend got for his fc. i just hope it is not my housing seal, although this is unlikely since my engine only has 165k km (90k miles) on it. thanks for the tip. cant wait to try it this weekend. cheers.

oregano

iTrader: (1)

ok. i was gonna block off the coolant hose for the warrmup asssist but it looks like this has already been done? there are no hoses running from the reservoir.

so i started up my car (with my sexy new exhaust) and drove around on one rotor for a bit. after a few minutes it staretd to run off 2 rotors again.

it seems that as long as i dont leave it idling for more than a couple minutes, it is fine. i know that my fuel lines are slightly leaking under the car. could this be a cause of my problem? i am replacing them in two weeks so i will see if this fixes my problem, but for now i would like to know if it is possible that my fuel lines are causing this.

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (8)

The next thing to suspect is plugs and wires...a fouled plug will do this all the time, and is impossible to trace down.

INjector problems/fuel problems are rarely present at idle or low end, and are usually not inconsistent like this.

I highly doubt a problem with the coils, though it isnt unheard of.

After the plugs/wires, I would suspect a compression problem or water seal problem.

oregano

iTrader: (1)

do u think i may have fouled the plugs by running the engine with only 1 pair of plug wires hooked up? the plugs were new the day before, and they still look new.