mikesh_21

I recently purchased a 1986 RX-7.
Here https://www.rx7club.com/introduce-yourself-254/hi-im-michael-860356/

Anyways we are having problems getting it started. It is not firing at all. The front coil was a little weak so that was replaced, the fuel supply was clamped off (who knows why) so that was taken off, the air intake monitor was unplugged now fixed. We are trying to think of the next thing we can try.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

HAILERS

The picture of the engine bay shows it's pretty much original and has not been messed with, which is a plus.


The fuel line was clamped off because somebody thought the car was flooding on start up, so he clamped the fuel off so it couldn't flood...........I suppose. Never done that myself.

RX don't use the afm for the initial starting of the motor. Only after five hundered rpm does the afm play a part.

You indicate your getting spark because you said the lead was *weak*, so that eliminates a lot of things.

I'd buy me a can or two of starter fluid and get the battery fully charged. Then spray for no more than two to three seconds into the snorkel or air filter, and then try to start the engine. I'd want to kill the fuel pump when doing this, so I'd go to the rear left strut tower and find the plug for the fuel pump under that carpet and located on the rear side of the left rear strut tower, and unplug it. THEN spray the starter fluid for two..three seconds into the snorkel and then try to start the engine.

The other way to unflood a RX is to pull either EGI fuse in the engine bay.............spin the engine for fifteen seconds to try to remove any fuel in the chambers..........reinstall the EGI fuse and try to start the car again. Pulling either EGI fuse kills the power to the ECU or kills the power to the coils/injectors, which in turn prevents the fuel injectors from spraying more fuel in the chambers when you spin the engine with the starter.

Things to look for with a meter, at the ECU plugs, would be with key ON, see if you have batt voltage at the pin 3B when the key is HELD to start, and go to pin 2I to see if the voltage is in the 2-3vdc range when the engine is cold (ain't a gonna get hot if the engine won't start). The electrical plugs have to be left connected to the ECU and you have to backprobe the wires in the plug to do this.

No batt voltage at 3B means the water thermo sensor is disconnected which makes for difficult starts when the engine is cold and if pin 2I shows 4.5 to 5 volts instead of 2-3, that also results in difficult cold starts.

IF you replace sparkplugs, just do the LEAD plugs. Trails would be a waste of money for what your doing.

You might take a jpg of the CAS and the positon of the hold down fastener in the slot of the CAS so we can take a guess as to whether or not it's been messed with.

NEar the right front strut tower and near the boost/pressure sensor, there is a yellow, two socket connector floating around not connected to anything. It's the fuel pump check connector and if someone puts a jumper wire b/t the two sockets, and puts the key to ON, engine off, the fuel pump should be heard running thru the rails and splashing fuel in the fuel tank. Open the fuel cap and listen.

Or if you can't find that connector, then pull the air filter out and put the key ON and push the vane in the afm aft at least a 1/4 inch. Fuel pump should be heard running continuously.

Old gasoline makes for difficult starts imho. Old as in a year or so old.

mikesh_21

We already tried using some starter fluid but no luck. I had a fuel pump go our on my blazer a while back and with starter fluid it would at least fire and run until it burned off all of the starter fluid.

The gas was over a year old (as far as I knew) but we already dumped a couple gallons of new gas in (not that any of the new gas has made it to the engine yet).

I will try to get some more pictures soon but I have class tonight so it will be tomorrow before I can post anything.

mikesh_21

So we have recently checked the compression to find a big fat whopping 0...

As long as the compression tester is right this means that I will have to snag the S5 rotary from my brother in law or the LT1, in which case my main threads move to another site...

Hope to have it running by next summer...soooooooo long away

Boost or Bust

iTrader: (1)

Don't give up on the rotary just yet. Even blow engines show more than 0 compression. Something was probably not done properly. I would try playing with the AFM(the metal arm inside) and possibly another ECU. I have had starting problems due to the AFM. Something else that might be worth checking is the timing. Who knows if it was tampered with.