86 Mazda in cold Weather
#1
12-30-2010, 11:23 AM
86 Mazda in cold Weather
MY friend in Oregon is willing to give me his 86 RX7 Mazda. However - there is one catch (aside from the fact that I live in Pennsylvania) - when temperature dips below freezing, the car will not start unless pushed down a hill. From what I've skimmed of the net so far, it looks like RX7s are notorious for having trouble starting in cold weather.
Does anyone know if there is something that can be done to remedy the situation (repairs, a way to pre-warm the engine, etc)?
Thanks!
Does anyone know if there is something that can be done to remedy the situation (repairs, a way to pre-warm the engine, etc)?
Thanks!
#2
02-24-2011, 11:41 AM
the only issue i know of has to do with flooding, I had two GSL-SE's and never had an issue starting in the cold (any more than other cars, ie slow cranking).
One big cause of flooding is leaking injectors, you can buy bleedoff kits that is basically a pinhole back to the fuel tank to releave pressure from the injectors when the fuel pump turns off - but the real fix is new injectors.
Occasionally you can find some bad gaskets or the injector o-rings that can shrink and allow an air leak that screws up the fuel mix when it's cold.
Make sure that the IAC valve functions, and that when it's cold the throttle is opening automatically and to the proper distance. That system is a wax motor to push a cam and open the butterfly a little when it's below 70F, i've seen those misadjusted so the engine revs way too much when cold, or possibly not at all. It's a fairly simple system, but needs to be adjusted properly to work well. Though I kind of doubt this would cause an issue only around the freezing mark.
There are a few cold start assist items, one that injects coolant into the combustion chamber to improve compression when below freezing.
The other is a low temp thermostat that is in the radiator, but that trips at like 40F or something.
Both were disabled on my vehicles, not sure if that helped or not... but if flooding is your issue, you can disable the fuel pump to unflood it, just make sure that it still has spark when cranking. It can be difficult to find the right circuit since a few are tied together.
The GSL-SE has only two spark coils, removing the drive to the trailing one allowed it to unflood. I've tried that on one 2nd gen with no luck, though that car was flooded on a lot, so I have no idea if it would have run anyway.
Good luck.
One big cause of flooding is leaking injectors, you can buy bleedoff kits that is basically a pinhole back to the fuel tank to releave pressure from the injectors when the fuel pump turns off - but the real fix is new injectors.
Occasionally you can find some bad gaskets or the injector o-rings that can shrink and allow an air leak that screws up the fuel mix when it's cold.
Make sure that the IAC valve functions, and that when it's cold the throttle is opening automatically and to the proper distance. That system is a wax motor to push a cam and open the butterfly a little when it's below 70F, i've seen those misadjusted so the engine revs way too much when cold, or possibly not at all. It's a fairly simple system, but needs to be adjusted properly to work well. Though I kind of doubt this would cause an issue only around the freezing mark.
There are a few cold start assist items, one that injects coolant into the combustion chamber to improve compression when below freezing.
The other is a low temp thermostat that is in the radiator, but that trips at like 40F or something.
Both were disabled on my vehicles, not sure if that helped or not... but if flooding is your issue, you can disable the fuel pump to unflood it, just make sure that it still has spark when cranking. It can be difficult to find the right circuit since a few are tied together.
The GSL-SE has only two spark coils, removing the drive to the trailing one allowed it to unflood. I've tried that on one 2nd gen with no luck, though that car was flooded on a lot, so I have no idea if it would have run anyway.
Good luck.
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