Mark Maras

Kathy and I will be there too.

I had to deal with Chinese steel products for around two decades. We normally bought steel wire from Tree Island Steel in Richmond, Canada and the quality was always excellent. Then about once a year the current knot head in corporate purchasing would buy a few hundred tons of Chinese wire at a discount and distribute the wire to the manufacturing branches with no prior notice. Surprise! Production plummeted when we tried to use the Chinese wire. The inconsistency was beyond belief. I was not popular with Corporate when I sent it back year after year. Might explain why everyone was smiling (including me) when I retired.

Attempting to coax our 12A rotary 81 RX7 thru another DEQ check we bought a Bosch cap and rotor for it. The previous cap and rotor were "some aftermarket brand" too. The DEQ exhaust readings were substantially cleaner after those two Bosch parts went in. If you do change the cap and rotor, move #4 plug to another hole or put in a good clean plug from your ever growing stash of plugs..

When the door card is removed, feel around the bottom of the door on the inside to see if there are any stray fasteners that have come loose and migrated there. It was a common problem on my 71.

@jalexquijano Valve stems and valves? I don't recall anyone talking about them. All I'm asking is remove #4 spark plug wire and use #3 or #5 in it's place. Use #4 wire on #3 or #5, whichever one will reach. I would also swap #4 plug with #1 or #6 plug to remove the dirty plug from the test area. No money and only a few minutes to do it. Oh yeah, and I'd still like to know what brand your dist. cap and rotor are. NGK wires are a good choice.

@jalexquijano Rotor and cap being new doesn't tell me what brand they are. Many new parts are a P.O.S. I do agree guessing won't solve the problem. Swap the #4 plug wire with another one or measure the resistance in all of the wires using a volt-ohm meter so we can eliminate that possibility.

Others have reported that the old standard tan color is not attainable with the fuel formulas currently in use. I can only assume that a much lighter tan color is what we're shooting for.

If the compression is good in #4 (as I recall, it is) and it's getting a decent quantity of fuel, (it is) the gremlin in #4 has to lie in the dist. cap, rotor, plug wire or plug. Multiple plugs have fouled so it has to be in the cap, rotor or plug wire. @jalexquijano What brand cap and rotor are you running? We changed my son's RX7 cheap replacement cap and rotor (the old ones still looked? good) to Bosch parts. Instant improvement in performance and it helped the original 12A thru another DEQ inspection in Oregon. The one thing I did notice when installing the rotor was the precision fit as compared to the old one. Not one degree of sloppy fit. Something to consider.

@jalexquijano Try some different weight oils in the carbs. It would be an easy, fun experiment. (until one drops a piston or dome, VOE, be careful) I ran Marvel Mystery Oil in mine for a few years and then switched to ATF. Both worked fine with no noticeable difference in performance. Try a light weight oil as well as a heavy weight and tell us what you find. Jalex deserves the credit. He tried to solve this problem for quite a while (possibly from day one) and never threw in the towel. My small part in this was to keep Jalex FOCUSED on what WE theorized was a float level problem. I don't think any of us are totally convinced that Jalex's floats are absolutely correct but they must be close. Jalex asked a question earlier and knows these carbs well enough now ☺️ that he and I are curious what effect raising the floats 1 mm and raising the nozzles 1 turn (1 mm, 2 1/2 turns down) would have. I don't know for sure. I believe the nozzles are around 3 1/2 turns down at this time. Opinions and theories are welcome from all.

After running it through the gears at WOT and the engine won't rev to high RPMs under a load, will it rev to 6 grand in neutral? I'd let the engine idle, shut it off and pull the domes and pistons. Then pull the choke lever back and determine the fuel level in the nozzles. You should be able to see the fuel level with the nozzles pulled down. After determining the fuel levels, reassemble the carbs and run it hard until it cuts out. Shut it off immediately and pull the domes and pistons again. Pull the choke lever back to drop the nozzles and see if the fuel level is substantially lower than before. That should prove or disprove that fuel starvation is the problem.

You want it to run best under normal driving conditions which, I'm assuming, is a daily driver. It sounds to me like it's running pretty darned good. No need to go out and run the engine hard just to check the plugs. You can, however, go out and run it hard to have fun. As long as you share your fun with us. Pics are nice, videos are better. I'd like to hear it run.

They don't look too bad although #4 is still the odd one. I think I'd try swapping #4 plug wire with another wire to see if the problem moves with the wire. What is your over all impression of the way it's running? Any problems idling for long periods of time? If I was running your engine build, I would expect to have to blip the throttle now and then to clear the plugs at idle. Backfiring in the intake or exhaust? Misfiring at any RPM?

A little more info would help. Is the problem ongoing? I'd start with a complete tune-up. Did you fill your tank at the same gas station after the previous successful fuel treatment. They could have water in the bottom of their tanks. My Dad would never stop at a gas station that had a tanker sitting in the lot. He said filling the underground tanks would stir up the water sitting in the bottom of the tanks and allow it to be pumped into a vehicles tank.

@jalexquijano Is there much difference in spark plug color when you compare #s 1-3 vs 4-6? Let's try to figure out if one carb is running richer than the other.

Unless one owns a multi task CO2 extinguisher that will also chill beer.

Ditto. Float needles. Either a worn tip or crud holding the valve open.

@jalexquijano I agree with Patcon. Put some miles on it. At this point in time, don't go looking for problems. Should small problems arise, we'll deal with them at that time. Sounds to me like the carbs are finally close to optimum setting. Congratulations. You not only got it running good but you've learned a lot about SU's too. I like WIN - WIN situations. Now go drive it and tell us how much fun it is.

@jalexquijano The plugs still don't have much color but that could be caused from the gasoline in Panama. "They" tell me that the gas formula now is not the same as "the good old days". How well does the engine run when cold, warming up and at speed? Any complaints?

Thinking about this, I keep going back to a new(ish) battery that drops to 4 volts and THEN takes three days to charge. I'd have thought it would have failed the load test. I'd try another battery known to be good or jumper cables from another battery to see if the relay is still necessary. What did you mean when you said "When the car does turn over the starter is still turning over for a couple of seconds"? Do you mean the starter keeps running for a couple of seconds after the engine starts?

There was a change in the choke cable routing in the early years. I don't remember if the early routing was on the right or left side of the firewall. As I recall there was also a slight difference in the cable length too. There should be a hole there either on the left or right side.

@jalexquijano That's what we're trying to discover. Four turns down would be wrong for a stock engine. We're trying to get a little more color (tan) on the plugs. Drop the nozzles another 1/2 - 1 turn (your choice) and take another pic of the plugs after you've warmed it up and taken it for a test run.

Unsafe at any speed. A definite contender for WORST OF SHOW.

Glad to hear it's running better. Can you confirm that it was driven for a while with the choke off after it warmed up. I agree with Philip. Leave the floats alone and drop the nozzles 1 turn. More pics of the plugs after you readjust.

At least the windshield will prevent him from high siding over the handle bars. Stupid design. He'd have been better off leaving the front end alone and driving it with a single rear wheel. Wait, what am I saying. It's a terrible thing to do to a Z. Off to the pillory with him.

Thanks. Jai will have to decide. I'm not sure what the early 76 bumper looked like.