winger

well, its normal for a new rebuilt engine not to idle on its own for a while...suggestions are



1. push it, then drive it for some times....until it idles by itself

2. push it, then drive it back home, and use a piece of wood to let it run....move it so that it runs around 1.5krpm to 2.5krpm...





the smoke comes from the oil burning, which is normal

Powerpack

Yeah, that's great

But after it got started, did you let off the gas at once? Because you have to slowly release it while the engine is flushing the extra stuff. It might take about 30 seconds before you can let off the gas completely, but help it with the gas as long as it doesn't seem cleared off. And keep an eye on oil pressure, it should not be down too long, a few seconds at most. You may have to work on timing to help it idle. ???

Powerpack

Sorry winger, my message got there after yours. I started writing it before you sent yours. When I sent mine, your message was there. I'm too slow! :shakehead:

rx7love

Thanks for the help so far guys. Well, i've let it run with a peice of wood in my driveway for about 20 mins so far. If i try to bring the idle below 1300 rpms it dies. And it still won't start on its own. To get the correct timing i should use an adjustable timing advance light...right??? the factory specs say that the lead plug is 5 degrees btdc at idle (750rpm)? ***why doens't it work ***

Powerpack

No, it doesn't need to be adjustable. The shaft key should be corresponding with the yellow dot on the pulley, so according to the manual, the yellow dot should be lined up with the mark on the cover for the leading plugs at 750 RPM and represents 5 deg. The red dot is at 20 deg so 15 deg to the left of the yellow dot. But is it running rather smooth at higher RPM?



If I'm wrong somebody tell me because my car is running with these settings for 12 years!

Powerpack

Don't forget that if it can't idle slow enough you'll get faulty timing reading due to electronic advance. Just play with it to get the best you can for now. Check for vacuum leaks.

Powerpack

I must clarify my comments, you DO need an adjustable timing light if your pulley has no dots and no mark at all. Then in this case you must find a way to mark the edge of pulley for TDC. In this way you set 5 deg adv (leading) and 20 deg adv (trailing) on the timing light with the same mark (TDC). My comments were for helping you finds the dots but the yellow dot is not really lined up with the key but you can hardly notice it.



I don't pretend to be 100% sure of anything, but nobody has never told me I was wrong on that. Just trying to help.

So if I am please just say it guys, I want to learn! ???

Powerpack

Maybe I just found a way to mark the exact location of the TDC on your pulley. It goes a little like what you tried at the beginning but more precisely and goes like this:

- Turn the engine until you see an apex seal in the leading plug hole of the rear housing.

- Align it exactly with the center of the hole and mark the pulley with a marker pen.

- Turn slowly to align the same apex with the trailing plug and mark the pulley again.

- Now you just have to measure the distance betweet the 2 marks and at half way, you get the exact front rotor TDC.

- Measure the circumference of the pulley or Circ.= diameter*pi (measure precisely if you use the second method).

- Distance of the yellow dot to TDC = Circ./360*5

- Distance of the red dot to TDC = Circ./360*20

- Mark with a punch and paint the yellow and red dots measuring counter-clockwise from the TDC.

Now you have the yellow an red dots like on the stock pulley.



What do you think of this idea? :sigh: Maybe you have something wrong with the timing after all. ???

rx7love

Slow progress I think. I've got her to running sorta on her own. Today I had to push start her let her warm up for a while. She still dies off when she goes below 1000 rpms, but this time she almost turns over by herself. So I use an external engine started to give her an extra kick and she got going with her warmed up engine. As far as for timing goes I just put her in the place that she original marked by the old owner and she does perfect. Right now I have her running and I’ll tell her go for about a half an hour. It seems that the more I run her and let her sit the easier it is to start. My only question is that she ideals about 1300-1400 on her own right now. Is this normal or should I play around with the ideal screw until. It seems to me that the more I run her and let her sit the ideal rpms just naturally get lower.

Powerpack

It'd be a good thing to check your timing anyway. Just to clear this possibility. Yesterday night I found a web site that proves my method to find the TDC. Finding TDC

The engine should be running smoother as it sits but try to set idle speed lower if it keeps running and then you'll be able to use the timing light. It must idle under 950 rpm for timing.