Captain Lou

So i changed my oil in my new (to me) 1982 GX (GSL)

new plugs , cap rotor etc. i take it around the block and there is some power that wasnt there but still seems a little sluggish.

Anyway i parked
10 mins later i start it up and the temp gauge, which hadn't gotten above 50c is suddenly pushing redline.

I shurt off and check my coolant level, and Voila! the Rad's bone dry.

so i limp the car 2 blocks and fill the rad
just as i am about to add my 2nd litre the 1st had filtered to the engine and proceeded to vent into the engine compartment and boil off.

the location of the leak is under the oil filter,
either it is this T joint where one hose goes from the engine into the heater, and the other half of the T has a hose cap on it (not a technical term, but its a piece of hose that is sealed off and its clamped on like a hose)

so my questions are :

1.) is this a common problem that there is an obvious thing to look for and fix?

2.) is this more likely a unseated hose, or something worse and potenitally fatal to the rotary?


any help would be good. I have looked at my Haynes book and a couple online shop manuals and i cant get a good picture or diagram of that side of the motor, or get a decent idea how coolant flows through tthe engine.

it seems to be holding oil, but it is leaking. It looks like the previous owner siliconed along the seem on each side of the housing withthe oil filler cap.

any ideas or suggestions as to what or where i should be looking for the problem?

Project84

This is the 2nd gen section. A 1982 GX is a 1st generation RX-7. You should post there.

Captain Lou

whoops

cdrad51

cdrad51

1. Don't even think of starting the engine until the coolant problem is resolved. You'll ruin your engine in minutes if overheated.

2. Turn to page 252 of the Haynes manual. There's the picture of what you're dealing with.

NZConvertible

It's been moved.

cdrad51

indeed

Captain Lou

thanks but i actually did mispost and he moved it over here

now theres two threads on teh same coolant prob

oh well


thanks fopr the heads up
problem is mine is a 1982 and i dont have that oil cooler below teh oil filter..., my oil cooler is slung below the rad.


dont worry as soon as i saw i was at 0 coolant
i shut the engine off

and then when cold drove ti the block home.

cdrad51

oh, i thought that was what you were refering to... even though it did seem strange as that oil cooler was incorporated after 1982... oh well, i saw you have another thread going on on this. good luck.

Captain Lou

i htink this is the thread now

as i t was meant to be

so teh oilcoller under the rad is the older version and was replaced by the one mated to the oil filter?

or do you mean the other way around?

cdrad51

yes the oil cooler under the filter replaced the cooler under the rad.

specRX7_22

Mazda didn't take many backwards steps, but it seems that they did in the case of the oil cooler. Oil helps ALOT in the cooling of a rotary, and from what i've heard from fellow racers, the larger oil cooler under the rad is the better design.

cdrad51

that seems to be the general consensus

Captain Lou

so i found the problem that was makign the engine blow coolant all over

it was a 2 dollar rubber cap.

as i said this cap is on a pip that leads from teh engine to a T section. one half of the pipe has a hose that leads up around back of the motor to teh ehater. THe other side, is this 2 dollar cap.

very weird as i haven't ofund a picture of it , nor while at the wreckers did i see a somparable setup

Mind you, the wreckers ones had the oilcooler under teh filter and not as a seperate piece inder the rad.

While I had it all apart, i changed the thermostat. I mentioened before that the engine at running temp hovers just above teh 40 celcius line, which is at teh very bottom of teh gauge (foryou american imperial types that may not know what the fahrenheit is)

Now, i know the temp guage works since when it blew coolant out the temp gauge raced all the way up to teh redline.

So, why is my engine running so cool?

I am tempted to flush the cooling system, the only reasons i didnt were i had no way of getting a stream of fresh water in the near freezinfg temp in back of my apartment, and the frear that cleaning it will lodge something thats failing loose and thus have a bigger problem im not yet ready to tackle

silly i know but its one of the two ways of working on a car:


1) Automotive School System: When something breaks try to bring every thing in the associated system as close to original spec as possible.

or

2) EcoSystem: Only repair what breaks and do as little as possible being careful not to disturb the delicate balance your vintage automobile is in.

I chose the ecosystem method in this case