I get a large plume of white smoke for about 30 seconds when I first start my car up. Then it seems to go away completly. Only happens if the car has been sitting for a long time and is completly cold. I assume this means I have a small coolant leak and its leaking into the combustion chambers as it sits. I was going to try some stop leak but I head some brands are not good for rotarys? Is there a danger useing any kind of quick sealer in our cooant systems?

Im not sure what to do here, car drives great doesn't over heat and doesn't use a noticable amount of coolant. Should I try and fix the problem hoping it's a pin hole r just leave it so I don't risk damage to the cooling system passages?

 

I wouldn't worry about it. It may be just the o-rings in the intake manifold. You may want to go ahead and replace them just in case. Just need to pull the intake mani, put on 2 new o-rings and replace the intake gasket.

 

Wanted to take it off to bead blast anyway.... I'll try that. This is an 85 carbed gs. Coolant runs through those manifolds as well? I was under the impression that was only on the FI cars? And is there really any benefit to this? Can I just block it off?

 

Yes, the carbed cars have it. Actually, just the 12A and the turbo 13Bs have it on the 7s. The NA 13Bs don't. The FI cars have another coolant hose going to the TB for the thermowax system.

You can just block the passages if you want. You can get freeze plugs that will fit. Some people just JB Weld a quarter over each hole. The passages are to heat the manifold with the coolant. Just an emissions thing, I think. Search around for blocking the coolant passages to find what size freeze plugs to use.

 

Those sealing products screw up your radiator, where do you think all that crap goes when it hardens, the remanufacturing places wont touch a rad that has that crap in it, if addicts advice doesn't fix it find the problem and do it right, you wont regret it.

 

The only way to do it right is to rebuild right? If this motor dies, my rx-7's rotary days are over. Not that I don't like them, just personal preference. I had planned on useing this as my daiy for at least a few years before the V8 went in. Thats why I bought the low mileage car.

I'll just cross my fingers and hope it's the intake. I'll probably take it apart this weekend to check it out. Should local auto parts stores have the intake gaskets I'll need to put it back on? Or do I need to special order those?

Also would porting the intake mani. really do me any good on the factory carb and exh manifold setup? Or should I just not waste my time. This motor will never be opened up or ported etc.... I plan to sell the motor and trans as a bundle when I do my swap.

Thanks...

 

I wouldn't bother porting the intake. The o-rings (if you replace them) and the intake gasket will probably have to be purchased at mazdatrix, dealer, or VB. It is highly unlikely that you would find one in stock, even at the dealer. It is something you will have to order. I know there are several threads on doing this job. Get the archive and the FAQ. If you can't find them, I'll search around a bit too. I have a GSL-SE, so I never had to worry about this problem (no intake o-rings).

 

Best is to replace the manifold Orings. Next best is to use colloidally suspended copper, which is available in a clear bottle at autostores, and must be applied in a specific manner to close the bad holes and not impair the good holes. Basically, this consists of properly cleaning the system internals with a grease-cutter, flushing, then filling with fresh water and the colloidal copper and running the engine at idle only until thoroughly warmed, then flushing remnants out. If properly done this will seal the small leaks without clogging larger through passages.

Club members have done this many times and we've improved on the manufacturers instructions. Paul Yaw created a good set of instructions and has disassembled engines so treated and found them trouble-free. The instructions are somewhere on the website, but more importantly on my Palm Pilot since I have 4 rotaries running, and running well.

Any rotary can suffer this problem even if only overheated once for a short time. Part of the problem is the lightweight of the engine which causes temp to rise disproportionately for a given heat input.

To assure longlife with a rotary you must assiduously avoid overheat (replace that !#@$#$% heater hose that runs under the beehive and rots and dumps the coolant on the pavement every 50k!) and add premix to every tank of gas. A case of Idemitsu premix for $77 delivered will last almost a year: buy it!.

 

What do you mean there is no intake O-rings. There is no coolant port in the housing.

 

That's what I mean. The GSL-SE doesn't pass coolant through the intake like the 12A does. Because of this, I have never had to worry about replacing o-rings on the intake manifold (there isn't any).

 

http://www.rotaryresurrection.com/

they have a write up on how to do it in their tech section. My coolant seal blew bad about a year and 20,000 miles ago. I did it as thesite above states and I haven't had a problem since.

 

you dont need to buy the O rings from mazdatrix, just go to lowes, or homedepot, and they will have the size your looking for, and its way cheaper.