Jed_only_red_RX7

I was really diapointed whne i know yesterday that my coolant seal are gone in my FD.

Actually i was having those symptoms (Bubles in water, water disaperaing..etc), but when i send it to the workshop 4 further check, we found water on the Spark Plugs !!

What do u guys think i should do:

- Go for a rebuilt kit?
- Buy a ready rebuilt engine(malloy or something)?
- Or Swap it with an LS1 or 2JZ?

I will appreciate the advice....

Mahjik

iTrader: (1)

That really depends on what you want out of your car (and how much time/money you want to spend).

fastcarfreak

cheapest bet is to have it rebuilt or get a reman...

turBRO240

iTrader: (1)

No.

heres your fix...

http://www.rotaryresurrection.com/3r..._seal_fix.html

CantGoStraight

This deffinately not a fix. It is at best a patch and it can how ever buy you some time depending on two factors.

1.) how far gone the seals are.
2.) Where the seals have failed.

Results may be good or non existant depending on these. I was fortunate as I got 14months of time to line up funds and parts for the engine swap. I picked up a low milage motor and did the Removal and replacement myself so hat left me the funds to take care of reliability mods and some performance stuff as well.

turBRO240

iTrader: (1)

i suggested that as a temporary fix for driveablity untill he can get it replaced


deffinatly not a permenant fix......... but it works :]

Silverstone

How about Steel Seal? Has anyone tried that one yet? I actually was given a bottle of this by the company to try. As it turned out my coolant seal is not real bad and I don't have any coolant leaking into the engine so I never tried it. It's still sitting on a shelf in my garage. It does not use copper granules but some other suspended particles of some kind of polymer I think. I believe the procedure for using it is almost identical.

If anyone wants my bottle I'll give it to you for free if you pay the shipping. I'm just curious to see how it works.

BlueTII

Any of those "block sealers" Will clog your radiator and heater core to the point where they will need to be replaced. If you have had coolant seal retaining wall failure it will not work at all.

Jed_only_red_RX7

The Cheapest and easiest.

Let me know..

Mahjik

iTrader: (1)

Cheapest and easiest is going to be getting a reman shipped to you (I know that's not going to be cheap for the shipping). You'll just swap over your components and go.

However, if you lost a coolant seal on your current motor; you may want to find out 'why' it happened and do some changes to make sure it doesn't happen again.

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

Exactly. The 'block weld trick' is a hack job which in my opinion has no place when it comes to a high performance, temperamental machine like an FD.

If you can't afford to rebuild it, park the car until you can.

If this forum followed this motto, the FD owning experience would be a much more positive one for those who have problems:

Do it once, do it right.

Silverstone

The Steel Seal people say that any blockages with their product can be unblocked using regular white vinegar. But yeah unless you are poor and will never have a chance of getting any money, best just to go for the reman or rebuilt engine. How much are the remanufactured engines from Mazda? Just curious since I may be in the market for one also eventually.

dantherx7man

Go LS1! My 13B went out on me with only 44k and while i will always have a respect for rotaries, there is something to be said about having a RELIABLE stock engine that produces 350hp and more torque then you can dream about without any additional mods. Not only that, but a LS1 passes emissions like a dream and gets way better mileage then a similarly tuned rotary. just my .02. The only thing i miss from the 13B was the BOV!

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

Keep your bullshit propaganda to yourself, or go hang out over at torquecentral......I've been making 420+ rwhp for over 4 years now, works for me .

Silverstone

If I had someone who could do the job for me locally and it was the same cost or less as the standard rebuild or reman install, I might consider it. But then again as rule number 7.2.1 states in the FD bible:
Turning the ignition and hearing a V8 sound come from an FD is like blowing on a trumpet and hearing a drum solo.

dantherx7man

hahaha yeah, yeah yeah. I figured i would get grief for my blastphemy! I also remember some friends of mine singing similar tunes like goodfellafd3s when they found out what i was planning on doing lol. As for price, after you sell the rotary stuff, an LS1 swap is not that much more expensive than doing a reman, plus you get a new 6sp tranny in the process... even if it is a bit unothedox

Silverstone

Glad you were amused. So what does BOV stand for anyway? Hey, I'm with ya on some of that stuff and thought about it for awhile when I first found out about my o-ring problem. A few things stopped me:

1. You really have to have someone do one of those swaps who has done a few before and I have a hard enough time finding mechanics in my area to do my rotary stuff. Besides, I'm just starting to get the hang of how to keep these things going and most importantly what NOT to do. Most of my problems were the result of previous owners, including this o-ring thing.

2. If you are going to have any chance of owning a car that goes classic and have increased value over time, you had better keep it as stock as possible. Swapping engines is about as non-stock as you can go.

3. If you want to drive a V8 there are easier ways to accomplish it. I'd be more tempted to buy one of those Cobra replicas or something.

4. Seemed like a real red-tape hassle to get the car registered and all after the swap.

5. I'm afraid of getting jumped by a gang of hoodlum rotary fanatics

Jed_only_red_RX7

How much a reman would cost? with core or without?

Beside i guess the coolant seal went due to heat !!

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

Email Ray Crowe over at Malloy Mazda. He runs a Mazda parts department and he will ship you an reman engine internationally. His email address is hmkparts@aol.com.

What you can do is have him ship you a reman, then have someone here in the US ship a core engine to Ray in your name so that you're not getting killed on shipping. That's something I might be able to do, PM me if you end up needing it done

Mahjik

iTrader: (1)

To an extent, I agree with you. I helped a friend to his conversion and the total cost was around $9k (non-turbo LS1). After selling off his stuff, he probably ended up paying about $3-4k for the swap.

However, my friend is located here in the USA. It was easy for him to find buyers and ship parts. Jed is not in the USA and that complicates things for him. It's not really going to be cost effective for him to start shipping large parts all over the world to complete a V8 swap especially since money is a concern of his.

Remans are running about $2500 USD and that is with a core. The core fee is $1000 so you can add that to the price if you don't plan on sending back your core.

If you lost a coolant seal to heat (or overheating), then that is something you should address before running your next engine. If not, you may end up killing the next motor you put in.

Jed_only_red_RX7

Thanks a lot for the help....will let u know

Jed_only_red_RX7

I guess its all due to experince...i learned a very Big leasson from a small mistake i made which is underestemating HEAT !!

Anyhow, Thanks for the info and will work on my budget to see what is best for me.

Cheers...