85rotarypower

Here are a few pics I took of the 79 today. I'm loving how the car feels. I still haven't figured out the high RPM stumble, but to be honest, I haven't bothered too much with it. It drives fine for the moment in the lower RPM's, but I will be rebuilding the carb this week sometime, so maybe that will help things a bit.









And my favorite

DaoNhatHai

iTrader: (38)

Car looks good, it would sit well a little lower imo.

orion84gsl

iTrader: (5)

It does seem just a tad high, but still looks fantastic. Very nice!

85rotarypower

Thanks guys.

I'm looking to keep the car mostly stock at this point and no suspension mods in the near future, which means it stays at that ride height. That and I personally don't like the look of stock wheels on a 7 when its lowered, and again I have no plans of changing the wheels. Just doesn't look right IMO. On top of that, I'm a tall guy and as it is the car is a bit low for me to get into.

Looking forward to getting out to some meets to show the car off a bit. It really is in great shape and actually is the original paint as far as I can tell.

orion84gsl

iTrader: (5)

Everyone likes a modded car, but there's a lot to be said for a bone stock classic in good shape. Good choice.

85rotarypower

I want to enjoy the car for what it was like when it was new. This is why i don't want to modify much on the car. So far it has been worth it, the car is an abolute joy to drive. It just feels "right" the way it is right now.

greyseason

I love reading stuff like this, keep it up! and keep posting!

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

Just don't ever look at Dan S Young's car then!..haha!
he Modded the living Be-Jeepers out of it!..about 35k worth.
Good to have ya back Levi!

85rotarypower

Its good to be back Dave. I have nothing against those that wish to modify their cars. Its all in what the person likes. Myself, I'm sure if I could manage to come across the parts to modify my car just the way I would want it for cheap, I probably would. It has always been my dream to have a widebodied 1st gen with classic mesh wheels, but to get any widebody kit is just simply too expensive for me right now and the matching mesh wheels are near impossible to find. If I can do it just this way, I won't do it at all, hence why the car stays stock.

Cosmo77

I'm glad to see the car went to someone who is enjoying it. I too was never a big fan of the wheels on it, but never wanted to move away from the stock look. I feel like a took for every getting rid of the original seats though.

btw. I can remember if I told you.....I found that '81 distributor I have with both ignighters on it still!

85rotarypower

I actually do like the original wheels, on the original body. Put any kind of aftermarket bumper or side skirts on it (or a widebody for that matter) and the original wheels loose their appeal.

Cosmo77, you had emailed me about that. You should sell it though, I have an 82 distributor here in perfect working order (worked fine when I removed it from my old 82 lol) and I even found my stash of extra working ignitors.

85rotarypower

Well, as I have posted before in this thread, I had some high RPM stumbling issues with this car. After doing some work, I still haven't tracked down the problem. So far I have:

-Rebuilt the carb with a good carb kit
-Converted to electronic dizzy instead of points using brand new internal resistor 12V coils
-Checked function of all emission components and anything I can think of affecting A/F ratios at high RPM
-Double checked ignition timing and proper function of vacuum advance (now more stable with electronic ignition, points wouldn't hold a good steady timing, especially on the trailing)

Beyond this, the only things I can think of that I haven't checked/replaced are the spark plugs and wires. For some reason, I never thought to check resistance on the plug wires, so I will do that today. Besides that, I think I'll just go ahead and change the good looking plugs in suspicion that they are arcing out at high RPM, something I have seen happen in a piston engine under high load causing.

To recap the problem, the engine stumbles under any throttle condition at 5500RPM and above, progressively getting worse as the RPM's climb. Its so bad by 6800rpm that the engine almost doesn't make it to 7000. This stumbling is accompanied by a blast of blue/white smoke out the rear (could be black, hard to tell in the rearview mirror with general lighting conditions) when I do finally shift after stumbling to 6000rpm or above. The engine runs flawlessly besides this problem, some slight stumbling while on choke, but I've never come across a car that doesn't stumble on choke. It has tons of power up to the stumbling point, actually still surprises me how much power it has for an otherwise stock 12A.

orion84gsl

iTrader: (5)

I assume you already changed the fuel filter. If not that may be the culprit. Hell even if you did it might have gotten clogged again depending on the amount of junk floating around in the tank. They do clog quite easily.

That smoke sounds like the oil control rings are on their way out. Not a huge deal, you'll just burn a little extra oil and blind anyone that's driving behind you. My car was doing that for about 10-15K km. Then I blew it up.

85rotarypower

Yeah I know the oil control rings are not great. If I let the car sit for a couple days it will blow blue smoke for a few seconds on startup.

As for the fuel filter, it was replaced soon after I got the car. I got a clear one so I can see if it clogs up, but it looks fine so far. I don't suspect a problem with fuel flow since the stumbling shows up even under part throttle.

A little update. I replaced the spark plugs with a set I found from my old 82. They are BR8EQ's all around. I have a partial set of proper BUR7EQ's and BUR9EQ's with one of the 7's missing unfortunately. They are decent but useless with the missing 7EQ. The problem still exists. Checked spark plug wires, showing no more than 4.5K ohms on all wires, less on the shorter ones. Wires look great overall. I also did a compression test, showing between 100 and 110 on all faces. I have to be honest here, I'm getting a bit PO'd about this very elusive problem.

Just for fun, I also checked float bowl levels, halfway on the sight glass on both, so thats good. Double checked cap and rotor, both look like new. Spark plugs showed brown when removed and even between all plugs. As far as I know, this is good. I cannot for the life of me think of what is causing this stumbling issue. On top of that, the problem seems to have gotten a bit worse, stumbling now starts at 5000rpm. I now welcome myself back to the "fun" of owning an RX-7.