French RX7

I have searched this many times, and have gotten a bunch of different answers. Sorry to post a new thread for this but I need enlightenment(?).

My car (gsl-se) is completely stock including the emissions crap (I plan on keeping it this way). Since the first week I bought it I have always thought that the engine must be rebuilt/replaced because it burns coolant. I used to start the car every week or so, and it would let off a big cloud of white smoke for about 3 minutes. After those 3 minutes, no smoke at all. The car has never overheated since I've got it, even when driving it hard. To make sure I didn't have a radiator problem, I replaced the thermostat, rad cap, rad to overflow tube, and had my radiator rebuilt. I don't have any leaks anywhere. In some posts I read that if it does burn coolant it will continously smoke white. In others I read that there would be oily deposits inside the overflow bottle (doesn't seem to be any, hard to tell since I flushed the whole cooling system 3 months ago). I also read in yet another post about white deposits on the spark plugs (mine are brand new NGK, no deposits at all).

Is it possible that enough condensation builds up inside the exhaust components to cause this white smoke on startup? Or is the leak so small that over a week water fills up one (or both) rotor housing/s.

One more thing. The radiator does seem to build up a lot of pressure after the car has shut off and cooled off, which I know is a bad sign. I also read about bubbles inside the radiator once the thermostat has opened (coolant just flows out of my rad when I do this!).

Also read about some manifold O-rings that could also cause coolant to enter the engine, but the posts were not very clear on this.

I'm currently rebuilding the engine that was in my parts car right now, just had that 54mm flywheel nut taken off at mazda this week. I just want to make sure that the engine I have in it now is indeed burning coolant and needs a rebuild.

One last thing, I have no muffler and also have a leak at the manifold to downpipe gasket. Don't know if this makes a difference, but I thought I'd let you know.

Sorry for the long post, and please be patient with me here, I'm relatively new at this stuff but I definately enjoy it. Thanks for the help.

Felix Wankel

if it's building pressure in the radiator like that, then the coolant O rings on the housings are probably leaking. the ones on the intake won't pressurize the radiator.

French RX7

By irons do you mean the iron plate between the rotor housings?

Felix Wankel

yeah but I was thinking of the newer motors, the old ones have the o rings on the rotor housings.

French RX7

And what is dowel pin leaks? Someone on a post mentionned that they are caused by warped rotor housings and can cause the coolant to enter the housing. In yet another post, someone mentionned that it has nothing to do with coolant, but has something to do with burning oil? Thanks for the help.

Jesus 9200 posts!!

Felix Wankel

the dowel pins are on the outside of the coolant passages, all you get from them is an oil leak.

bizarro

iTrader: (1)

my car smokes until its warmed up...i've checked the rad with the cap off and no bubbles so i'm not worried about it.