Hey man,
I dicked around a bit last night in DI mode and I couldn't come up with a situation where the fx loop wouldn't work. I had a couple where it worked *badly*, because the line level from the rec pre is awfully high for pedals intended for an instrument.
do you know that your pedals work?
the only thing I have ever seen with the rec pre involving the fx loop was, as I warned you when you were buying it used, the knob sticks out the back and is susceptible to being bashed-- I saw one in a local chain music store that had this exact problem. The knob "works," right? Like, it stops at 5:30 and 6:30, there's a little bit of resistance when you turn it, etc...?
try it on both channels in all modes, that way you can be sure that it's either your rec pre's fx loop, or the gear you're trying to plug in.
