hello all!

On Sunday i made the mistake of simply moving my GSL-SE a couple of feet in the driveway. Monday the car is completely flooded ( big suprise). I tried several times to get it started, i gave up and figured i would sleep on it. So last night i got it started. I used a little MMO and it fired right up..thank goodness.

However there is a huge cloud of white smoke pouring out of the tailpipe. I figured i would take it for a drive to run everything through. Five minutes later the car temp was thru the roof. Not completely overheated, but there was lots of steam coming from the spark plug holes.

Couple questions:
1. Am i screwed and now in need of a serious rebuild?
2. Should i replace the anti- freeze for starters and see what happens?
3. I will be needing a new radiator soon? Should i be patient and simply leave the car sitting until i replace the water pump, radiator, and thermostat?

I dont have many posts, but i have been hanging out around the forum since last summer. I always appreciate the help you guys give.

and the radiator was almost completely dry.

 

I assume you have checked the oil and it's free of water. I would not change the radiator, and waterpump right now. Sounds like the car overheated due to low coolant. Where is the coolant going? I would fill the radiator back up and see what she does. Sounds like your coolant 0 rings have gone, and you will need a rebuild soon. As I'm sure you know, it's somewhat normal for a rotary to smoke on startup, but blowing white smoke is no good.
White smoke = coolant/water
blueish smoke = oil
sooty greyish smoke = fuel

Good luck.

 

thanks for the reply.

this would be the first time that the car has spewed white smoke. Like you said maybe i should replace the coolant and see what happens. I will keep my fingers crossed and hope that the motor was just mad at me for being a jackass.

 

You know, since the motor was extremely flooded, I bet the exhaust system was really full of raw gas. I know when I flood mine real good it will smoke for quite a long time. Sometimes as much as 15-20 minutes. Temperature shooting up could be a small leak and it just happened then. Or, possibly blew a coolant line somehwere and havent found it yet. I know that my oil cooler antifreeze line went (yours is different) and I couldnt tell where it was coming from. Good luck.

 

You might want to pull the spark plugs and turn the engine over. See if coolant comes out of the spark plug holes. This will help narrow it down a bit...

 

The silly car was running smoother than it has in a long time. Until it began to shoot steam out of the plugs. New coolant and another cleaning of the motor and maybe it will all be good.

Keep the info coming guys!!!


Because some day i'm going to be asking about porting and if i can do a TII swap.

 

Very good point. Many times coolant leaks are undetectable until the car finally overheats one day. I would hope the low coolant light would come on before that event. These cars are so old now they don't always warn us as they should.

 

Update:

I was refilling the radiator and looking around the engine bay. Lo and behold the coolant hose behind rotor 2 was dumping all the water onto the ground as quickly as i was putting it in. The friggin' hose was torn and i just gave it a tug and it fell apart in my hand. Now if i can find this hose somewhere i think i will be good to go. Anybody know where to find this hose ( i went to advance and autozone"- it runs from the motor up to the firewall and attaches behind the throttle cable.


Edit: i went to mazdatrix and the hose had this italicized warning stating how this hose was prone to failure due to its proximity to the oil filter. Problem solve and soon i will again be singing ZZZZOOOMMM ZZZZZOOOOMMM ZZZZOOOMMMMM