sweet!

 

I'm gonna move some stuff out of the way so I can get the car out of the garage.

 

Let us know how it runs.Those stock manifolds are junk.I never regret getting my blingin RB header.Night and day on the NA's

 

It ran horribly, but I think I figured out all the weirdnesses. I can't wait to perform the fixes and fire it back up.



Long story short, I cranked it a bit friday evening to build some oil pressure. Then I installed the plugs and it fire up within a couple seconds of cranking. It blew lots of healthy smoke. Then it suddenly started to die and I couldn't keep it running with the gas pedal. I tried to restart it but no luck. Cleaned the plugs, cranked, sputtered, cleaned again, cranked without plugs in to blow the excess fuel out, sputtered again etc. I hooked a test ligh to each - (negative) side of the coils and found one to not be flashing during cranking. Either a leading coil or ignitor was dead. Only one leading plug was sparking when I tested them outside of the engine. I just reverted to standard FB ignition through the cap because DLIDFIS allows you to do that. It still didn't want to start though. Then I remembered about the oil-down-the-carb trick. I tried it and it fired right back up again. It ran very poorly though. It didn't want to idle and I suspected a vacuum leak. The oil temperature also got up to 220F due to the beehive. I barely got it back into the garage under its own power.



The next day I swapped ignitors with my one and only spare. I also plugged the PCV valve because I suspected it was malfunctioning and causing a big vacuum leak. The engine started after cranking for a while. It was running funny but at least it sort of held an idle (2k RPM). I used a timing light only to discover the same coil or ignitor was not sparking. What the? Low and behold, the spare ignitor was also bad. What are the odds? I double checked all the wiring and it was all fine on the continuity tester, so I pulled one of the ignitors off a different engine and it fired up more quickly. It still ran badly and didn't want to idle low, but it was enough to check with the timing light again. Finally both leading ignitors were working. I still can't check timing at idle or past 4k RPM because the engine only had a couple minutes of runtime at that point.



Well, I decided to take it for a test drive. It seemed to drive quite nicely. It feels like it has shorter gears than the REPU, but I bet it's because of the smaller tires and lighter weight. Should I really put a 20B in it? Anyway, I showed it off to a fellow REPU owner and let it cool off. 215ºF oil temp in the pan still seems a bit hot to me. At least the water temp never went above 190ºF. I think my water cooling system will be ok. We talked for a while and anfter the engine had a chance to cool down a bit, it didn't want to restart. I sat there cranking forever and then it finally started running again. I took it back to my house and it barely made it up a hill nearby. I then parked it and decided to give the 20B idea some more though. I'm still not sure what I'll do engine-wise, but the 13B seems like a good engine for this car, if I can get it running right.



A little later I decided to move it back in the garage and it simply would not start. It seems the relay for the ignition may be crapping out on me so I'll get another soon. Anyway, I eliminated that and both leading ignitors were still working as I could see on the two BUR7EQs I temporarily hooked up to the plug wires. It's more convenient that removing the plugs in the engine to check for spark. First I tried some WD40 down the carb. No go. Then some oil. No go. Hmm, this is getting really anoying. Leading plugs weren't fouled too badly, just a little damp. Ignition works. No super major vacuum leaks had opened in the last few minutes. I was considering pulling the known good running engine out of my white REPU for this car... or just pulling the intake manifold off of this engine to examine it closly and make a new ACV blockoff plate and put new vacuum caps on the unused nipples etc. Either/or heh. I went ahead and drained the water so I could pull the manifold (or the engine hehe) and then, as a last ditch effort, decided to swap from the BR8EQ-14s in the engine to the two old BUR7EQs I had been using to test for spark. It fired right up within 3 or 4 seconds of cranking. Holy crap!

 

Thats the shortened version of your story? Drop the three rotor in it and scare that crap out of yourself.Nuff said.

 

cool! drive it around for a little while with the 13b

 

Lol, yeah, that was the short version. I really liked how well the car felt as I was driving it around the block. That REPU (heavy) 13B and battery up front should match pretty closely in weight to a stripped NA 20B (I hope). Man, if the car drives that nicely with the 20B in it, I will be very happy. Even the steering felt light enough to crank it fairly quickly for some spirited driving. Much easier than my REPU with the small wheel.



I'm gonna replace that faulty relay and probably replace the trailing plugs since they came in a set with the two bad leading plugs. Might as well. I'm also going to pull the manifold and double check and/or replace all the vacuum caps and redo the ACV blockoff plate. That should eliminate vacuum leaks. I also am slightly suspecting the phenolic spacer since I had to replace one of the gaskets. Don't worry, 13B ones are replaceable. I've read here and there that 12A Nikki ones aren't. You just lay a new gasket over the old one(s). I still have to try the propane/WD40 trick too.

 

Cool.At least you could drive it if need be.Still need to fix the one repu and MG tho.

 

Hehe yep. The MG is sharing a gutted ignitor and a carb right now. Both are on the GLC to get it running. I'm eventually going to either need to get another 13B carb, or somehow hook up my Edelbrock carb to a stock manifold. I also have atwo dead ignitors sitting here waiting to be gutted.



I drove the car a little more yesterday. The right front brake drags on the caliper. Do you know of any fixes for that? It also gets up past 220 just sitting there and still won't idle, but it's getting better. It now will almost idle since I advanced the timing several degrees and richened the air and fuel screws. An oddity is that when it's driven, the oil temp goes down to around 215. I can live with that. But when it sits there trying to idle, it progressively runs worse and worse until I have to keep reving it. I think the fuel lines are too close to the exhaust, so the incoming fuel is getting heated. I'll need to pick up a heat shield for the manifold and build a heat shield for the idler arm and extend it around the fuel lines.



Oh, I also removed the carb and manifold but didn't see any evidence of vacuum leaks so I reinstalled everything. I tried the propane trick and the engine would run much worse while sucking propane. Is that normal? Anyway, it seemed to display the same symptom when the propane was sprayed down near the PCV valve area. There were a couple nylon caps that looked like they weren't working too well so I replaced them with rubber caps. Then it was too late to keep working on the car so when I fired it back up, it sounded like a healthy engine... for once! I had to drive it into the garage and shut it off quickly (nice smell!). It actually cranked really quickly like a typical good running engine. Perhaps the nylon caps were causing the vacuum leaks? I didn't replace any of the rubber caps because they still looked good. I'll have to get some heat shield stuff before I can do more testing, and it's supposed to rain today, so anyway.



You know what? It's quieter than my white REPU. I've still got to make it quieter though. Maybe I can fab more of the exhaust today? It's only got the manifold to one 26" glasspack which ends right behind the front seats. Those RE glasspacks are

 

you might have a sticky slider on the caliper, or maybe a stuck piston.



if it runs hot while sitting there but cools down if you start moving you need a larger radiator fan, also the beehive keeps the oil temps the same as the water temps, so if the coolant starts getting hot the oil will too