Today while I was driving in freeway at 70mph in 6th gear, I down shifted to 4th gear with revolution match as usual to exit freeway. Right after I did the heel-toe, I heard 2 loud "pop" from 1st under the car & then the back exhaust. Then I stepped on the gas to see the engine response and found out the engine would rev but felt like there was no boost/power, and then 2-3 seconds after that the engine died with all warning lights up and could not start again. It cranks but could not start. The car was at 6-7 psi on boost, boost controller was not connected and the Innovate wide band showed 10.8-11.2 all the time when on boost. Did I blow my engine? Any opinions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks and regards,

Sammy

 

Boostspike?

 

Did you blow a hose or connector on the IC or exaust piping on the turbo???

A big leak = no start???

 

i had a boost spike, got a pop, pop, pop and then blueish black smoke, car went into limp mode turned it off, drove home fine and the rest is history under the for those who blew an engine thread, mine cranks but does not idle good,

think we may be in the same boat kinda!

 

Are you sure the boost controller was off? All values 0's?
Also, on the boost controller solenoid... is the 3rd port open? Did you remove the clear plastic cap from that port, should have no lines connected to it.

 

who did the install?????

beers

 

The boost controller is not connected to the solenoid yet, only the boost guage function is connected.

My friend's shop did the install. They have plenty of experiences dealing with turbo cars like the Evo, the STI, turbo 350Z, etc, but this is the 1st turbo RX8 for them.

Tonight, we tried to start the engine but no luck. The engine cranked, but in a much slower speed compared to usual (maybe the battery was no good), we smell gas, heard the compression, but the engine just did not fire up. They suspected the engine/spark plugs might be flooded. The lights on the interceptor was normal, no red light up. Tomorrow, they are going to pull the spark plugs (the RX7 plugs recommended from Mazsports) and see what happen, may be put the original plugs back to see if it can fire up.

Still have no idea of what happened and why it happened today in the freeway!!!

 

Boost Controller not connected :O You were asking for trouble with that .. If you are lucky it might just be as simple as hose or line loose. May be even a flooded engine. If you are unlucky, it might be time for you to bite the bullet.

 

I don't get it. I just connect the vacuum hose to the back of the boost controller display to read the boost level, the solenoid of the boost controller is not connected to any host. So what kind of trouble was I asking for?

 

Have you done compression tests on both rotors yet?

 

Did you make sure the vacuum hose on the interceptor is not pinched. Scott heavily warned about that. Check that out, and also take the front passenger wheel off, and verify all your connections are tight. I could be wrong, but even if you did blow one of the rotors, you should still be able to start her up. Unless you blew both?

 

If you blew an apex seal you wouldn't have good compression when cranking, so I would expect it would sound funny. Really check for any burst hose couplings, that could definitely cause those symptoms. Also pull a plug, apply a ground to the outer metal on the plug, and check for spark while your cranking. Or buy one of those spark testers from an auto store.

 

well if you are smelling gas the first thing to do it take alll the plugs out, give the battery a good charge or jump, disconnect the eccentric shaft sensor (on front of engine near plugs and pulleys on driver's side green connector i think), crank the engine three or four times for about 4 to 5 seconds each time to get rid of the extra gas and oil, clean the plugs, re gapp them and put them back in, connect the sensor back and she should crank up with either the pedal to the floor or no pressure on the pedal, will smoke like crzy but it should cranked unless there is other damage.

Not sure why you would have flooded it though cause of a boost spike, may be damaged and it just happened to flood because it did not crank

 

i am very interested in seeing how yours runs, like i said, we may have similar problems

 

I've read in the TSB to disconnect the eccentric shaft position sensor, but what is the point of that. Why does it need to be disconnected?

 

Not history,yet. I haven't seen any resolution for your reading a 17 afr.

 

Pulled the plugs, they were all flooded. Disconnected the fuel injector fuse, with gas pedal floored and cranked several times to get gid of fuel & oil inside the engine. Then put back the stock plugs and cranked again, the engine started, but could not hold idle. Pulled the rear rotor plugs again, they are all wet. CEL code misfire, system too rich. It looks like the rear rotor does not fire. Still don't know what to do!! Check all vacuum hoses and they are fine.

 

Do you have spark in the rear rotor?

 

yes it does have spark

 

Compression?.......
Vac check?

Injector stuck open? ( kinda unlikely )`

 

one of the several ways to kill the fuel so it does not flood more. I don't think ecu realizes its actually turning unless the sensor is connected, not sure about that though.

 

i did a poor man's compression check on mine, took the leading plug on one rotor out, unhooked the ecentric shaft sensor, turned the engine over by cranking and listened for three strong puffs. If not three then there is real problems.

You and I both probably should take ours for a real compression check, i think i will be doing that tomorrow just to rule out that problem for once and all.

how did your idle? at what rpm? how long did it hold?

 

you will need to perform a compression test, the compression reading should be around 110 psig to 130 psig. in both rotors. compressiong differences between rotors are 20 psig.

 

When you say there is a spark, I'm not sure if you have actually pulled the plug and visually verified a spark or not, but sounds like faulty ignition coil(s). The same thing happened to myne a little while ago and I had those exact symptoms including the car starting on stock ecu but not on Interceptor. You can visually see if they're melted, there's pics posted on this forum of what to look for, just do a search. It will look like a melted spot right around the electrical harness. Of course if you have visually verified spark on at least the leading coil for the rear rotor, then never mind all of the above.

 

when we pulled out the 4 plugs and used the a remote switch to crank the engine (no fuel injection), we could feel the front rotor got more airflow from the spark plug holes compare to the airflow to the rear spark plug holes. i guess there are compression problem in the rear rotor, did not have a chance to check the compression yet. the engine starts right after disconnecting the interceptor and use the stock ecu. it idles stable with stock ecu but looks like the rear rotor is still not firing (cel code stated misfire on cyclinder 2, idle rmp lower than expected).