What Now?
 

Hello All,

My 13B overheated. I was out test driving the car when I noticed it was running hot. Turns out my fans got disconnected. The car overheated for less than 10 minutes.
I hosed down the radiator with water and connected the fans since I was near my home until the car shut off on its own.

The next day, I was getting water out from the tail pipe and white smoke ; while trying to start it. Per my understanding I blow out a water gasket.


I wanted to check the health of the 13B so I drained all the fluid\water out of the radiator and pulled all the spark plugs and turned the engine over a few times to flush it out. I put the spark plugs back in and was able to get the car started. I ran the engine like this for a minute or two but the car would not idle on its own and shut off.

It sounded OK while it was on. My question is could I get away with just replacing the water gasket? Or will I need a complete rebuild?

If it's just the water gasket; what's the average cost and what shop would be recommended near Fontana CA?

I was also thinking of using AMASeal (I think that's what its called) do you think this would work?

Thank you All.

JM

Oh Man - that sucks, sorry for your troubles. Our rotaries are pretty thin-skinned about overheating so it looks like at least a damaged water gasket. My understanding is either the heat damages the actual gasket and/or some warping of the aluminum rotor housing. Either way even the gasket change-out is essentially a rebuild, since you have to pull the engine apart to replace the gaskets.

You can't really know how extensive the damage is till you open 'er up. Then you can check the housings for warpage. "Just" replacing the seals then buttoning up the engine is labor (yours or a pro's) plus about $150 for the gasket set.

Best of luck-

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

That sucks...

Thanks for the reply.

before you let it sit, just fill the engine with oil. the rotors are iron, and the seals are iron, so if you add water you get rusty paper weights. put oil in it though, and it'll be just fine.

may was well keep the coolant drained too.

You could try the almuseal so see if it fixes the leak but you are likely needing to tear it down
to fix it right.