i was driving back home from a friends house today, and my car was having trouble getting uphill. when i let the clutch out to go up like i usually do, to engine stalled. In started it up again and it died again, so the next time i started it i held the gas down. As i was driving it felt like i had 1/2 the horsepower it usually does. like at 6000 rpm in 1st i was only doing 20mph. Sometimes it jerked and i felt power come back but it went away again. felt like it had half the exhaust pulses at idle too.



my motor was overheating (it was a tiny bit more than halfway) today, would that have been a cause? I checked the coolant and filled it up to the fill line and let the motor cool off prior to driving from my friends house.



is this the feeling of running on one rotor?

 

Sounds likely, do a compression test to confirm.

 

A compression test will give you the answer. You may also want to try the steam trick. Start the motor, and if you need to, rev it up to keep it running. Pull off a vacuum line and stick it in a bottle of water and let the motor suck some of it in. If carbon build up is causing your problem, this trick should help to work a lot of the carbon out.



- Hand



:edit: when the motor starts to suck the water in, it will try to die. So you will have to rev it a little bit to keep it going. Don't be alarmed if it dies. Just put the vacuum line back on, restart the car, let it run for a minute to get everything out. If it still doesn't sound good, let it suck some more water in.

 

[quote name='G2G' date='May 14 2005, 05:03 PM']A compression test will give you the answer. You may also want to try the steam trick. Start the motor, and if you need to, rev it up to keep it running. Pull off a vacuum line and stick it in a bottle of water and let the motor suck some of it in. If carbon build up is causing your problem, this trick should help to work a lot of the carbon out.



- Hand



:edit: when the motor starts to suck the water in, it will try to die. So you will have to rev it a little bit to keep it going. Don't be alarmed if it dies. Just put the vacuum line back on, restart the car, let it run for a minute to get everything out. If it still doesn't sound good, let it suck some more water in.


[/quote]







Is this something you might recommend to an otherwise relatively healthy engine to try to clean some of the carbon deposits?



If so, what vacuum line?





'='

 

Yes this can be done to a healthy engine, to reduce carbon build up. It is much safer than the ATF trick. As for a vacuum hose, I've always used lines that were originally for emitions that are connected to the intake plenum. But I also had all of that crap removed. If you are unsure of which line to pull off, pull off a single line from the intake plenum and if the car does not stutter or die, go ahead and hook up a longer vacuum line to the nipple that you pulled it off of, and do the trick. Good luck.



- Hand

 

you heard of people doing this on FDs too ? if so how much water

 

ive heard using a gallon jug of water.



kevin.

 

You can do this to any rotary. I wouldn't recomend it with a piston engine. I usually only use about 32 oz. Just use enough until you can tell a difference, and make sure to to let the car idle or run for five to ten minutes after you have sucked all the water in, to make sure everything gets sucked up and taken out.



- Hand

 

pics, which vacuum line?

 

Like I said, just pull one off the UIM and as long as the car can idle fine use it.



- Hand