Okay, I bought my 88 SE a month and a half ago. When I got it, it smoked a little and had flooding problems. It used a lot of coolant and oil. It ran pretty dang good...it was fast. A week ago I started it after work and it idled fine. As soon as I left the parking lot I knew something was wrong. It had about half the power as usual and wouldn't get over 65 MPH. Also, it was smoking significantly more and started to embarass me. It doesn't sound no where near as loud as it did before. It feels like the filter is clogged or the exhaust is clogged. I checked the filter and it was good. I also noticed that it will not run with the intake tubing disconnected from the TB. Why is this? Some tests require U 2 do this and I can't. There was a hose that runs underneath he TB and connects 2 both sides that has a connector/sensor type thing in the middle. It was broken into so I taped it together...nothing changed. Can anyone here help me diagnose my problem? I have no test equipment and definitely no rotary knowledge. I dont even know N E 1 that will work on them. I have a 5.0 getting built in the shop that was intended 4 my truck. If I don't do something fast, the rotary is history and the 8 is goin' in. I wanna have something different, so can anyone help me?

Could be either clogged cats, or a blown apex seal. Do you know how to do a compression test? Just remove the shroeder(sp?) valve and stick it in one of the spark plug holes and crank her over, then watch for 3 even bounces on each rotor. Or you can just listen for 3 even "swooshes" to varify that it has not blown a seal. Thats cats will glow red when clogged. You could just remove them to check that out, straight pipe style.

Loosing coolant and smoking could also mean that the water jacket is shot.

consumption of coolant that is definately internal (no puddles or steam) will mean rebuild is in your near future...



as for the disconnecting of the intake from the throttle body, the engine management for these cars utilizes an air flow meter (AFM), when you

disconnect the intake tube you're introducing an enormous vacuum leak, trying to run the motor off entirely unmetered air. The ecu won't know

what to do and it won't run, welcome to the world of EFI... most cars use some sort of flow meter which are fuel injected, unless they use speed/density, which uses a manifold absolute pressure sensor, rpm, and some temperature sensors as inputs to choose the correct fuel needs, these would most likely still run fine with the throttle body open to the atmosphere.



if you put a v8 in the car a large number of members will likely hunt you down and shoot you https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...#>/biggrin.png just kidding, but it seems that way sometimes.

Thanks for the help guys. I didn't know about that way of doing a compression test. When checking, I only need to pull one plug on each rotor...correct? I'll check into things. U ain't kiddin' about the "shoot you down" part. I think I've offended some people in another forum because of this. I'm glad they can't find me! LOL! If it wasn't the cheapest way 2 go, I wouldn't do it...that's if I can't get things fixed. Thanks.

Okay, I bored the cat out and that was the problem. Man, I didn't know this car would be that quick! 1 problem left. Still smokes really bad and uses some coolant. RX7 Roadster, is it hard to replace the water jacket? Some info on it would really help me. How much will it cost? Where can I get the parts needed? Thanks to all!! I think I'll get killed in this car!





Oh yeah, going for the apex seals is last resort. Is there N E way U can replace them w/out pulling the engine? That's very time consuming, plus I don't have the facilities. Also, where could I get a good deal on everything that would be needed. I don't yet know what the problem is, but I hope it's the ater jacket thingy!

The whole water jacket problem = complete rebuild

Okay.



The whole water jacket problem=Small Block



The whole apex seal problem=Small Block



I know this may offend many of U, but that''s what I'll probably be doin'. The rebuild kits I've seen are like $900 and to me, that's definitely not worth it when I can easily drop my already built small block in.

umm it is not easy to just drop in a different engine. it is not cheaper either. for $2k you can get a reman and you are done. have fun making everything work if you go the V8 route. you not only decrease the value of the car but you make it damn near impossible to sell if you ever wanted to.... just a heads up

I dunno but somethin is tellin me your whole N/A driveline will have to be replaced cuz quite frankly it isnt going to be able to handle a 5.0's power...nor just bolt right in either. Rebuild would probably be much easier. IMO