Okay let me start this off with

"I just bought another Turbo 2 RX-7" (Huge grin)

Yeah okay, and now the bad news. The man who

sold it to me Jeff, told me that it would spit up coolant

out of the radiator resevoir bottle if I rode it to hard,

well I didn't. Anyway, on the way home the car died

twice (once a officer even had to push me to pop the clutch).

The resevoir bottle lid blew off shortly after that and I had to

make my third stop, yeah by now my wife was wondering

just a little why I bought such a horrible car, even though

I kept reassuring her that they are one of the best in the

business. Anywho, I remember that the seller told me

pretty faintly that it had something to do with compression,

he had taken it to the shop twice, only to have them barely

figure it out the second time. Well needless to say he hadn't

a clue what his mechanic was talking about and shortly forgot

anything important except the brief interlude to "compression".



My point in full is, has anybody heard of a problem similar to this?

The car drastically overheated on me today, and we all know how

friendly high heat is to rotors (yeah, um, not). Any suggestions would

help, all the mechanical work I can easily (or not so easily) do myself

if it comes to that. Thank you all for your time.

Maybe just a defective radiator cap, let's hope the damage isn't done!



Have you inspected and tested the cap?

Yeah, caps holding pressure, it's the fact that it's holding ALL the pressure

and it pushes it all back into my resevoir tank, which in turn gets entirely to

much pressure and either blows off (as it did about an hour ago) or it

spews out all the fluid that's in my radiator at the time. What could it be?



I know it's something simple, or atleast I hope it is....

this sounds very bad. i hope you didn't pay alot.........

I payed enough for it to hurt me financially....

Coolant seal.

Okay that sounds about right, but why would my

engine heat sky rocket so fast? rotors burn hot,

but god knows not THAT hot unless there was

something influencing it.

Hey by the way welcome aboard.. I didn't notice you were another washington member!

Oh! Well thank you! Yeah one of my friends from Atkin's Rotory (not sure if you heard of it, it's up in Puyallup near Jeff's Racing Rotory blah) suggested me here.



Side Question, do you think that this might end up being more trouble

than it's worth?

No definetely not more trouble then it's worth. What kind of shape is the car in? Glad to hear they recommended you, we think very highly of atkins as well. isamu bought his rebuild kit and had his porting don there.



I wouldn't think unless the car is a total wreck that it is more trouble than it's worth. you may be inline for a rebuild, but hey then you have an excuse to get some porting done and have some fun.



isamu has done the rebuild and used the atkins video, that is a slightly less expnesive alternative.

Yeah, I think highly of them also, but they also helped me with my last three rotaries. I didn't think it was that serious, but possibly a rebuild is in order, the engine though, has only 145k miles origional. But, no, the care is meticulous! there is a small dent on the driver side front fender, and a VERY small tear in the driver seat shoulder support (that my wife could sow easily) The origional paint is even still glossy, and this isn't a 2002 fresh from the dealer.

Of course I wouldn't be all that shy to having a porting done and possibly slapping on some MazdaSpeed 2mm ceramic Apex!

I would definetely say that is worth putting some money into then, don't even sweat it, just one of those things.

Great! I was going to do it anyway, but I just was kinda itching for the confimation, yah know, male bonding thing.... haha



What would you suggest for me to find out the problem? Cheapest helps, because that car sitting out there in the cold is my only car now, sold my other to buy this... Figures, doesn't it?

Yea it always goes that way. A compression check might indicate low compression... that is where I would start, I am sure you will get a hundred better suggestions tomorrow when everyone gets on.



Sorry I wasn't of more help.

No worries, you helped a lot more than you think, hell atleast I'm not taking it to the junkyard tomorrow!



Nite!

LOL yea that would not be a happy thing! https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...#>/biggrin.png

Anyone else have some ideas? Or even had this happen to their cars (I hope it hasn't, but...)

i have had this happen to two of my cars. just needs a rebuild and hope nothing else is out of spec. its normal unfortunately

Did you see Greg's motor? It looked like somebody took a cut-off wheel to the water seal groove.

Did you see Greg's motor? It looked like somebody took a cut-off wheel to the water seal groove.[/quote]

i think he showed me. he told me it was all F'd up........



i warned him. told him mine was bad and that HE DOESN"T HAVE BETTER LUCK THAN ME https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/boink.gif

Did you see Greg's motor? It looked like somebody took a cut-off wheel to the water seal groove.[/quote]

i think he showed me. he told me it was all F'd up........



i warned him. told him mine was bad and that HE DOESN"T HAVE BETTER LUCK THAN ME https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/boink.gif[/quote]

Yeah, you two haven't had much luck. We need to start a save vosko and greg fund. https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...#>/biggrin.png

How much do you think it will cost for a rebuild? Then possibly porting it on top of that? very curious, since I don't think I have the money to do it and I don't want to be out a car.

Vosko you said it happened to two of your cars? what exactly was the problem? What parts were affected and how did you fix it? I heard that Isamu did a rebuild by himself do you know how much it ended up costing him, or even how long it took? Sorry about getting on your ass with all the questions, but this is already affecting my work schedule.

isamu did street port and a few other little things, don't quote me cause I don't remember exactly, but I think he paid around $1,000.

That's pretty cheap compared to the quote I got from Atkin's (1800? or around there)



Anyway, update on the car:

I drove it today (brave soul) and noticed

a few odd things, when the car was evily overheated the radiator was still cool to the touch, well right there I calculated that it might be a clogged line possibly? Anyway, I keep remembering that compression was mentioned, so could it be that there is something that is supposed to suck/blow the coolant through the radiator? Not sure... It could be a vital problem right there. Another thing I noticed is that my engine would turn over but not start, well now the engine won't turn, but I can still pop the clutch. The last one, my wife just brought to my attention was, that my car keep sending me the "Coolant low" msg, along with that god forsaken buzzing, well I keep filling the coolant and it still won't cut off the msg? I think that is kind of weird and a little annoying.... Thoughts, suggestions?

step 1: Don't drive the car anymore, don't even run it. If it's alreayd been significantly overheated (temp gauge over half way up) you probably already have alot of parts to replace in the motor... as in, not really useful as a core even, might be better off getting a jspec and rebuilding it.



step 2: Try and recall if the car ever smoked when you were driving it, if it did, was it white smoke?



step 3: Do a coolant pressure test, either buy the tools to do it, borrow them, or bring it somewhere (tow!) to have it done



step 4: Do a engine compression test, again don't drive it somewhere to get it done.



step 5: Depending on the results of the tests, you either have to find a coolant leak somewhere in the system that is not internal (hopefully) and repair it, hoping you have not seriously damaged your motor from the overheating. Or you need to rebuild the engine and replace the coolant O rings which seal between the housings, if it is not an external leak or other external failure in the cooling system (indicated by smoke and poor compression results in the engine compression test) this is the likely problem.



Good luck, you may want to consider ordering the 13B overhaul video by bruce turrentine, it documents much of this and can provide much insight into what is involved with these things.

How much would a jspec 13b turbo cost though? Yeah it smoked, but not the engine, it was coming out of my coolant overfill hose, not sure exactly what that means. That's why it was losing coolant also I figured, was that it was pushing all the coolant from the radiator out into the overfill res, then squirting it out of the resevoir breather tube. What would white smoke imply?



I figured out WHY it was overheating though, or atleast partly so, the guy who owned the car before me had his coolant fan sensor set ENTIRELY to low, matter of fact, it was at full temp, and the fan STILL never came on. On the way home after I fixed the fan though, I noticed that the engine no longer turns over, so I think you're right, it probably is damaged severly, and not even good as a core....



-sigh-

thats really scummy, A jspec usually goes for around a $1000.

stuck thermostat take it out and then try it ..or maybe waterpump..BUT this may of lead to other problems

Would a stuck thermo cause the engine to not start though?

I'm starting to think that the engines siezed, I mean it it won't

even turn over now, even though I can still pop the clutch.



I guess this is just the horrible end to a bad beginning.....

Sounds like a stuck thermostat was the origional problem, would ATF be worth a try?

change the thermostat, no water in the block, the rad is boiling...

Now its seized?



I was reading when you said the car radiator was cold and the car was hot..





**** You have alor of problems...



You need to really take it to a Rotary shop in your area..

So these guessing games will stop..and take it to someone who knows about them ..not Joe Blows gas station..

I got rotarychainsaw mixed with the guy who posted this

Let us know what happens when you change the thermostat. I would buy an OE one from the dealer. I would also drain whatever fluid is left out of the block and start over. Don't forget to remove the air bleeder plug on the side of the radiator. I am not sure how much a water pump will run ya, but you could change that also and see what happens. If you're coolant system is still puking then I guess a new engine might not be a bad idea. If you decide to build on your own you can borrow the video tape, it was very helpful to me. Two good places to get rebuilt engines are Atkinsrotary and Pineappleracing, which happen to be fairly close by. Good luck.

thanks isamu, actually the water pump is BRAND new, that's what I narrowed it down to is the thermo, and I'll be removing that today. Just to tell you, the reason my car won't turn over anymore, it's not a siezed engine its a dead battery..... haha I was so intent on figuring out mechanical problems that I didn't even notice that none of my gauge or dome lights would turn on. figures. I deffinetly will keep everyone posted though!!

Take a whiff of your coolant. Does it smell like exhaust?

I would pull the plugs and see if it will crank over. Might be hydrolocked (Water in the combustion chamber). Make SURE you pull the EFI fuse or fuel could squirt out and start your car on fire (been there and done that... not fun (It wasn't a Mazda but a Porsche I had with mechincal injection).



I agree, do not drive it!

Definitly the thermostat, you can take it completly out to test it, but you will want to put a new one in.. There is a small water bypass located behind the thermostat that allows water to bypass the radiator when the stat is closed. when it opens it also closes this bypass forcing the water to go threw the radiator... Anyway your fix shouldn't cost you more than $15 unless you've driven it alot overheated, then you may have bearing problems and scored rotor houshing...

Well I took out my thermo, and tried, then I put a new thermo in and tried, and it doesn't start any better, the only thing I noticed was that it is running a whole lot cooler than it origionally was. So back to square one, anyone have any ideas? Comments? Questions?



Dragon, is there a good way to check for the other things you mentioned like scored rotor housings, etc? What do you think the cause for it to have such a trouble starting is? It seems to start immediatly when I leave it over night, or if I try to start it immediatly after I shut it down. If I leave it sitting after running it though I usually have to compression start it. Ideas? If I take out my FI breaker and let the rotor spin a couple times, then pop it back in and full throttle it at start it will start about 50/50 to 30/70 percent of the time. (thinking about other telltale syndromes) The coolant low warning light comes on just about every 5 minutes, but after I took out my thermo it stopped for almost 15 minutes, but then started coming on every minute to thirty seconds. I really can't think of anything else that immediatly comes to mind. Do you have any questions, I'm positive I can answer them! Thanks everbody for the continuing help, it really is much appreciated!