Coolant puking out of the bellhousing
 

Hi All,

I just got a 13K mile 1983 GS running tonight after it has been sitting for 25 years. Upon driving it, seemed to run fine. As I was pulling in my driveway I noticed a plume of smoke. Lo and behold there was a trail of coolant behind me. Not very familiar with these motors, but with the way it is dumping coolant (like an epic amount) it seems like a freeze plug might have gave way. Are there any plugs behind the bellhousing that could be the culprit? If not, it seems like something quite serious. However the motor seems to run fine upon restarting and there is no coolant in the oil, so not sure. Someone help!

Update, If I pour coolant into the rad, and equal amount pours out of the bellhousing. It has to be a freeze plug.

Could be, theres 4 of em back there. Drop the tranny and change the pilot and clutch while you are at it.

Plan to, just bought $350 worth of hoses and preventative maintenance stuff to do do while the tranny is off including all heater and coolant hoses. Might as well!

Before going crazy doing other items, inspect that freeze plug and insure you don't also have a cracked rear iron also.

If I have a cracked iron, I'm selling the car. I kind of doubt that would be the case...this car only has 13k miles on it. Seems much more likely to me that a thin freeze plug would rust from sitting for 25 years and fail than the block.

UPDATE!

Pulled the trans last night, and although I didn't get the flywheel off yet I used a borescope to look at the freeze plug. Lo and behold one of them is super rusty and looks like the culprit.

What I did not like, is that it looks like there is a small leak from one of the tension bolts. Is it possible to loosen one and reseal without screwing up the motor?

yep, you should get a new seal washer, 0839-10-455, and then just remove and replace.

Thanks! Should I pull each individually and retorque to spec before moving to the next? Or really just do the one that is leaking because it could affect the integrity of the motor by doing all.

i would just do the one(s) that are leaking.

Much appreciated. I get the socket for the flywheel tomorrow and all the parts from Mazdatrix just came today. I hope to have everything buttoned up by the end of Memorial Day.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...5cc2110a82.jpg
as suspected, freeze plug go boom. Can I pull the rear main seal cover to replace the seal or will that screw anything up?

Nice find. And maybe you don't need to retorque the tension bolt...it looks like the coolant leaked from the plug onto the bolt head, not from under the bolt head.

Yes you can just pull out the orange rear main seal and replace it. Eccentric shaft rear main seal is Mazda part 1668-10-556A, https://www.atkinsrotary.com/store/6...8-10-556a.html