STOLEN: My 1993 Mazda RX-7

[speedjunkie]

Check the video in my previous post, if you haven't already. Gives a pretty good idea of what the turbos are doing. I think the wastegate is getting locked open. But yeah, I don't think they know what they're talking about, either. I do have a boost gauge but it's not hooked up; can't really see where the line goes. Currently the car is parked in my garage and can stay in there indefinitely. I may be able to park it at my friend's shop too. I'm probably going to start taking apart the upper part of the engine this weekend so as to get a better view of wtf is going on in there. Coolant level sensor came in today so I'll at least be replacing that. Let me know when you think you'll be able to come up here.

Yeah, I saw Mike's car there when I went to pick up the wiring harness. I'm curious what exactly they are doing to it. It was off in a corner, didn't look like it was being worked on. And it has been there for months...

I'm actually not sure I'm going to sell the 4runner, I'm having second thoughts about having four cars Plus I really like it, despite my groaning about not wanting to drive a truck. But I definitely would like something bigger; the 4runner is just not that great at towing. I lose speed on the hilly parts of C470. It is 4WD, yeah. It's a 1999, SR5, 5-speed manual and electronic rear locker. Pretty rare combination actually. It's super clean too...so I'd probably looking for NADA value, which is around $7500.

I haven't checked the video, but from your description that sounds really strange. More on that in a minute.

The situation with Mike's car sounds alot like mine, especially when I first got back haha. So did you get the wiring harness and most of the engine back?

I'd probably pass on the 4Runner anyway. I would love to have one but I just don't have the money available for it right now. I could probably sell the Civic and get a loan but I don't have the time for all that right now anyway.

Alright, so after hooking my boost gauge back up I've got a better idea of what's going on. As long as I don't get into the secondary turbo, the primary pulls hard and it feels great. But once I rev it up past that 4500 RPM mark with any decent amount of throttle, it kills the primary turbo. Let me describe what it's like doing an onramp pull...

2nd Gear, full throttle: Primary boosts to 8 PSI. Pulls hard, feels normal. Secondary comes on at 4500 RPM, switches over just fine, stays at 10 PSI. This is how it should be.
3rd Gear, full throttle: RPMs drop back down. I can feel and see that it's not boosting as high as before. It's almost like I can feel it slowly slipping into less and less boost.
4th Gear, full throttle: With both turbos on, only 5 PSI of boost, car struggles to go anywhere. Feels terrible.

And every time after that, I get NO boost at all from the primary turbo. You just hear this massive whoosh noise in place of the turbo whine. If I let it wind out to the point where the secondary comes on, it's the same as the last run, it boosts to 5 PSI (or less, sometimes it only boosts to 3 PSI) and feels terrible. I have no clue where to even start diagnosing this. I made the decision tonight to start saving for a single turbo kit.

Oh, I also figured out that there's nothing wrong with my coolant overflow tank, so no need to bring that. The ghetto rigged tank is gone haha. I don't know why I thought it was leaking before. And unfortunately the cat you gave me won't bolt up...for one thing it's 2.25" and my exhaust is 3". Not a big deal, but the main reason is that the Racing Beat exhaust is a straight-up turbo back exhaust, it's in three long pieces, and there are no holes for where the cats used to be. I'd have to have an exhaust shop cut it for me, and even that would be difficult, because there's not much room to place the cat close to the engine. It'd have to be placed really far back and wouldn't do much good. I'd probably need another just like it haha. Nick at MAC auto (who also has an FD) thinks I can pass emissions if I have factory cats on, even though my air pump and emissions controls have been removed. I'm going to see if anyone local has a factory exhaust with factory cats that I can borrow. Do you know anyone who might have that stuff?

Speaking of coolant though. There is something majorly wrong with my cooling system. Not that I didn't know that already...but now I don't think it's related to my oil cooler or intercooler placement. There is way more air in the system than is normal, even with a functioning AST, and even after burping it. I took it to my friend's shop and he put one of those air-tight funnels over the filler neck by the water pump. Then we filled the funnel with coolant. Every single time we rev the car, a huge air bubble rises up in the coolant. WTF man? That would probably explain why the buzzer is still going off even after replacing the coolant level sensor. Something IS broken and causing air to get into the system. I think you're right, I really can't catch a break with this car...

That is REALLY strange. Well, we could try swap-tronics. We can swap the switching solenoid, but considering you lose boost more between gears rather than between turbos, I'm not betting that's what it is. If you hear a WHOOSH sound, that's a boost leak. I have something I made to test the boost/vacuum system with compressed air, I'll bring it with me when I come up. The boost pattern should be 10-8-10 though, not 8-8-10 or any other variation. 10 for the first turbo, drops to 8 during transition, then back up to 10 on the second turbo. I MIGHT have had this problem a few years ago, but I don't remember my symptoms exactly. I did have the whoosh sound though. Check all your IC couplings. Especially check the one between your y-pipe and IC piping that goes over the coolant filler neck. That's where mine blew out, those things blow easily.

No big deal on the CAT, sorry it wouldn't work. I'm not even sure why I thought it would in the first place since that piping is rather small haha. I wouldn't cut up a RB exhaust, that's for sure, even if I could find a place for it to fit.

For the coolant, have someone do a pressure test on the system. Hopefully the coolant seals are still good, but that might be where you're getting air from. If the car isn't spilling white smoke, it should be fine though. Still something you should check, as a precaution. I can't really think of any other reason you'd be getting air in the system either.

BTW, Eric, whenever you come up here to look at my car, I'll coordinate it with my friends so we can use their shop. They're both ASE certified mechanics too and one owns an FC, so they should be a big help.

Yeah that would be great.

[Ranger]

I got the wiring harness back, but not the engine. They said they threw those parts out when they moved shops No worries about the 4runner. I'm going to put an ad up on CL soon probably.

I think I may have worded my description wrong...the boost problem doesn't happen between gears. It's just that once I get it up to the point where the secondary turbo kicks in, the primary stops working. So it's not that I'm losing boost between turbos...it's that I'm getting NO boost from the primary turbo. But ONLY after I wind it out to the point where the secondary kicks in. Otherwise, the primary boosts fine. Thus I believe it to be a turbo control issue and not a boost leak. I did check the IC piping too...it all looks good. Oh and both the y-pipe and the crossover pipe are aftermarket. Both are metal anyway. The y-pipe is (probably) an Efini pipe, the crossover pipe is (I'm guessing) Greddy, since the IC is Greddy. I don't understand how it could be that the primary turbo just stops working like that, when it works flawlessly and consistently so long as I don't let the secondary come online.

As much as I don't want to, I think I'm just going to cut my exhaust anyway. I love the RB exhaust and I don't ever plan on swapping / selling it, so I'm just going to suck it up and put a cat on it (or more likely two cats haha). It's a far easier solution in the long run...that way whenever I have to get emissions done again, I won't need to go through the process of buying or borrowing a factory exhaust again. But I do need to get 3" cats...bah, that's going to be expensive. Maybe it's not worth it to cut it, after all.

[speedjunkie]

That's a bunch of BS. They should have never kept the engine in the first place. That really pisses me off.

Oh yeah, I forgot you had an aftermarket IC. Maybe you could swap manifolds and see if that helps. We'd have to remove the turbos first though. Not an extremely hard job, but it will take a weekend probably to do the whole job. And that's not guaranteeing it will fix it, but it's a shot. The reason I say is because it sounds like the WG or actuators or something is just bleeding it off. I need to check a couple things on there.

Dude, I have a stock exhaust just laying in my storage unit...not the DP too, but from the cat back. It's not hard to swap the exhaust *WINK WINK* haha. How often are the tests?

[Ranger]

Every two years, I believe. No matter if you have the DP or not...I was planning on borrowing / renting stock cats from the guys at MAC, until I realized that the RB exhaust doesn't have holes for the stock cats, haha. I'm sure they still wouldn't mind letting me borrow them...if I had it tuned there. Currently though I think the plan is to go ahead and cut it, put this cat on that you gave me (using clamps), have it tested and let it fail, then go get it tuned so that it'll actually pass.

One thing I just remembered. One of the studs on the primary compressor housing broke off while the turbos were being rebuilt. Think that could cause the problem? I doubt it but you never know. Anyway yeah I agree, wastegate or something else is just bleeding all the air off. The wastegate isn't stuck, I know that because I checked it before the turbos were put on. I don't fully understand how the wastegate is controlled but I'm under the impression that it's both mechanically and electronically controlled. So it's more likely to be a bad solenoid or something...could any of that stuff related to turbo controls have failed due to heat?

[speedjunkie]

Every two years, I believe. No matter if you have the DP or not...I was planning on borrowing / renting stock cats from the guys at MAC, until I realized that the RB exhaust doesn't have holes for the stock cats, haha. I'm sure they still wouldn't mind letting me borrow them...if I had it tuned there. Currently though I think the plan is to go ahead and cut it, put this cat on that you gave me (using clamps), have it tested and let it fail, then go get it tuned so that it'll actually pass.

One thing I just remembered. One of the studs on the primary compressor housing broke off while the turbos were being rebuilt. Think that could cause the problem? I doubt it but you never know. Anyway yeah I agree, wastegate or something else is just bleeding all the air off. The wastegate isn't stuck, I know that because I checked it before the turbos were put on. I don't fully understand how the wastegate is controlled but I'm under the impression that it's both mechanically and electronically controlled. So it's more likely to be a bad solenoid or something...could any of that stuff related to turbo controls have failed due to heat?

Well it's up to you, you can use my exhaust if you want.

I'm trying to think of where you're talking about, like which stud broke off. It depends on where that is. If it's one of the exhaust studs, it probably wouldn't be too bad if all the other studs are tightened down, but you'd hear an exhaust leak and shouldn't really lose too much boost, if any. Actually it might be one of your restrictor pills too. There are two hoses...screw that, I posted the pic haha. The two red hoses, there should be a pill in each one to restrict the air going to the actuators. If those morons replaced those hoses and didn't know about the pills (just like I did a few years ago when I did my vacuum lines haha), that could be a problem. If you're getting proper boost on the primary turbo though, that would mean they only replaced one of the hoses. The pills are usually in the middle of the hoses, where I put the blue dots. I did hear recently that some models had the pills/restriction built into the actuators themselves, but I'm not sure how true that is. If those hoses don't have pills, don't fret. You can use Holley jets, I think sizes .59 and .64, but I'll have to check again. Actually I still have those hoses with those jets on my twins I think, so I could just grab them off mine if you need them. Check that out and let me know.

[Ranger]

Yeah, I think I will wait and use your exhaust. Or Obie's, but I'd hate to borrow his since I'm pretty sure he daily drives his car. Cutting up an RB exhaust would just be a shame, especially since a 2.25" cat would be too restrictive for any performance applications. I'll start taking the car apart this weekend and see if I can look at those hoses on the turbos.

[speedjunkie]

You can reach those hoses with it all together. You couldn't if your engine bay was stock like Obie's, but you can with yours the way it is now. Just look down at the two actuators, they're right there at the bottom left of the primary turbo (if you're standing in front of the car looking at it). Just squeeze the hose in different places until you feel the bump in there. If you don't feel a bump anywhere, you either don't have any in there or maybe it's true that they affixed them to the actuators.

Alright I'll dig my exhaust out soon then.

[Ranger]

Sweet. If you could bring it to the rotary meet next weekend that would be awesome! Hell I'll come pick it up actually, come to think of it fitting it inside an FD would be a pretty futile effort hahah.

[Obie2kenobe]

Yeah I do daily drive mine but I can carpool with my woman for a week or so if that is what we need to do. I am willing to take one for the team. Just try to give me a few days notice as to when you are going to steal it off. Let me know on what you decide.

[speedjunkie]

Sweet. If you could bring it to the rotary meet next weekend that would be awesome! Hell I'll come pick it up actually, come to think of it fitting it inside an FD would be a pretty futile effort hahah.

Yeah I'm pretty sure you're gonna have to pick it up, haha. I found those hoses last night too. Turns out I had taken them off the turbos, but I found them in my vacuum line bag last night when Zico and I were helping Corey with his. Did you check those hoses yet?

Yeah I do daily drive mine but I can carpool with my woman for a week or so if that is what we need to do. I am willing to take one for the team. Just try to give me a few days notice as to when you are going to steal it off. Let me know on what you decide.

You don't need to do that man, he can just hang onto mine and swap it out when needed, that way you're not out any. Thanks for being willing to do that though haha. Of course this is all up to Dillon though, I can't really decide for him, LOL.

[GTConversion]

This thread is about to hit page 17, Ranger.. its about time you started talking about how awesome it is to have your car all back together and running perfectly..

[speedjunkie]

^I'm sure he would if that was truly the case haha.

[Ranger]

^ Yeah no doubt LOL...hopefully I will have it running right and registered before the summer is over I didn't check the turbos yet, no. It's on my list of things to do this weekend. I'll keep you updated. And yeah, Obie, don't worry about it, I'll just wait to pick up Eric's exhaust, I wouldn't deprive anyone from their FD, just for my sake, even for only a week

[RX-7 Chris]

Hey Ranger, wanna race pinks lol

[Ranger]

Hahaha...with the way my car is boosting (or rather not boosting), you'd surely win