carter44813

Ok so here's the deal... This is what was told to me...



When the car gets warm it leaks water... Me, I'm not sure where.... Because I haven't got to go look at the car. I'm driving an hour and some change to go check it out and hopefully its a good find and not much to fix. The history of the car that was told to me, is that it doesn't leak oil, the apex seals where replaced a couple years back, 1-5k has been put on the motor... Basically he said that everything was replaced but the coolant seals. He took it to a mechanic and the mechanic said that it was the coolant seals...



But I'm thinkin that the mechanic just wanted money... but it could be true...



I know that alot of people don't know how to work the on the rotary motors... so i'm hoping that, thats just one of the cases...



So if anybody could give me a list of what to look for, or search around for.... id be very thankful



Carter, J.

1988RedT2

Really hard to say, but I'd go into it figuring it needed a complete teardown and rebuild. To think otherwise would be wishful thinking.

ColinRX7

Who rebuilds a rotary engine and doesn't change the coolant seals? So the motor starts leaking coolant, and he decides to tell people the motor was just rebuilt but not the coolant seals, and now the coolant seals need to be replaced. Very slick. 1 - 5 k ago is a pretty broad range. I'd think the guy knew at what mileage the motor was done at, or otherwise I'm going to assume he never keeps track of when it's time to do an oil change.



I think you're getting bullshitted, but that's just my impression. You're not finished yet though, don't worry.







A warm leak indicates a leak when the system is pressurized. Do you know anyone with a cooling system pressure tester? Working on a hot motor to find a leak is hard, because if it's small enough it'll just kind of sizzle away on the block if applicable and not pool up anywhere. Plus, you just burn yourself trying to find it. And it stinks.



I'd start off by seeing if you can buy/rent a tester from an auto store. All your looking for is a hand pump attached to a rad cap.





Pressurize the system while the car is cold, and break out your flashlight and start looking at everything in that engine bay for drips or pools of the green stuff. Unlesss the guy used straight water in the car, then you'll have to do this in a very dry environment.



It's probably a bad hose or a bad radiator or something, people always freak out about a coolant leak. This guy wants to sell his car over it! That's kind of why I'm suspicious. I've found in most cases it's a heater hose behind the intake manifold or, the water pump pooched and it's leaking out the weephole. Most common type of stuff, typically it's 20 year old parts that have never been changed. Hoses deteriorate as the pH balance of the coolant/water changes. You'll know it's going to get expensive if you notice a leak coming off the block in between plates (side iron and housings), then yeah, you've got a bad coolant seal in the motor. Also check the dipstick for signs of contamination. Milky colour usually indicates coolant contaminated oil. If the car has been sitting, the coolant will be at the bottom and the oil will be above it, so pay close attention to the TIP of the dipstick. In rare cases the outer seal leading to the oil pan can leak.



If you drive it and it consumes coolant without a trace of a leak, it's typically a leak inside the motor that's being burned up under combustion.



Either way, the pressure test will not only assist you in finding the leak, it can also tell you how bad it really is without finding it. After you build up pressure with the hand pump, notice how quickly the pressure bleeds off. If it bleeds off quickly then it's a major leak and should be very noticeable. The longer it takes the pressure to bleed off, the harder you should be looking. Don't get discouraged if you can't find it, it could potentially be in the motor. After repairs are made, pressure test again to verify that the system will hold pressure, so that you know there isn't more than one leak.



Let us know how you make out, there's tons of us around here to chip in insight for you if you need some input from more experienced members.



Welcome to Nopistons!

teknics

before making the trip you might want to get the owner to say whether or not it smokes out the exhaust and how easily it starts, both can help in deciding if it is internal coolant seal failure.



Big puffs of white smoke out the exhaust = blown coolant seal

sometimes hard starting after turning the car off after driving it for a while can be a sign of coolant leaking into the engine, especially if when it does restart it puffs out smoke.



kevin.

carter44813

The owner said that it has good compression... So idk... I'ma call him before I go down there and ask him if he could start it up and see if it shoots out a puff of white smoke...



All that fun stuff... Can count how many times it turns over before it starts.... Cuz if i remember right, it should start on the 3rd or 4th turn of the engine...



Carter, J.



Oh and my uncles a mechanic... so idk... i'm thinkin that he'll know what to look for, because he's worked on fcs and fd's, even the rx8...



So yea