Today I decided to find out what thermostat I had in the car, and replace it with a new one. I was hoping this would resolve my temperature fluctuation problem.

Well, what I found is NO THERMOSTAT. So I put in the one I got from Autozone or Discount Auto, forget which. Topped off the coolant, started the car, and it started seeping from the housing connection. Naturally, I hadn't replaced the seal.
Waited over an hour or so, took it back out, scraped the old gasket off, put the new one on with some gasket sealer. Struggled a bit getting it back on straight, but finally got it.

Started it up, idled good, got inside and looked and the temp was 1/2 way on the gauge! Turned it off, pondered, turned it back on. Seemed ok, headed off to a dinner with coworkers (nice place, hard to pass up).

About 15 miles or so down the road, car is running fine, shift into 3rd at about 40mph, and there was a kind of...I dunno, a clunk or something. Felt like when the choke goes off suddenly. Bam. Loss of power. Immediately I think of apex seals, loose exhausts, etc.

I had checked my spark plugs earlier. Leading plugs were white - means its running hot, correct? Traling plugs are coated black with oily gunk, expected because I believe the coil is bad, they haven't been firing that I know of since I got the car. Pretty much the same as the last plugs I took out of the car. These were new, about 2 months in the car.

I guess I'll be trying a compression test tomorrow, I only have a regular tester for piston engines...but I figure I can get an idea what is going on still.

The worst part is, of course, I got this car as a 2nd car for the 2 of us. Now the other car has hit a curb, and I'm not looking forward to that repair bill. I have another in the garage almost put back together, but I'm struggling with it. I'm not a mechanic by any stretch.

I have no power in 1st gear, if I floor it, it'll go, but at nowhere near full power. I can wind out the other gears if I keep on it...takes a lot longer though. 5th gear can hardly accelerate, but it does in 4th still. Idles horribly...I had just upped the idle recently due to stalling. Sounds like a lawnmower, did before, but now it's worse. Shakes like mad...like it's out of balance ):

At worst I suppose I may have to find another motor. If I can get the other one together, I can garage this one I guess.

 

the white on the plugs means the engine is running lean. the black oily plugs are plugs that arent firing. sounds like you lost compression. it happens that fast, i had it happen to me on my second 7. went to take off from a light and bam, the engine stalled and when it started, it had no power.

 

Sounds like it, and I think I've about confirmed it.

My rear leading plug that used to be white, was black just now went out to check them. Pulled front leading plug, car stalled. Could see the spark arcing to the plug. Pulled rear leading plug wire, and could see the spark arcing to the plug as well. But when I pulled the wire away, the car didn't stall, no real change in how it was running.

So I'm on 1 rotor now. Had I paid more attention to the plug color earlier, I possibly could have richened the fuel mixture. When you have no money...this kind of thing really burns.

 

Sounds like you lost an ignitor. Check those before you think you lost an engine.

 

My trailing ignitor/coil/wiring is bad. I can try the leading ignitor, but it should affect both rotors, not only the rear rotor, correct?

 

do the sound test.....take 1 spark plug out of the front rotor, take all the spark plug wires off...and crank the engin over.....you should hear 3 even swshs..."the sound it makes" your apex seals are still good...on the other hand if you only here 1 higher swshs folowed by two little ones ...you have a blown apex seal...Do the same to the rear.....

 

I think that's my next thing to try. Kinda hard cranking the car from inside and listening anywhere near the engine though.

For some reason my car is starting without the clutch pedal down. I coulda swore I needed to have it down before to start the car. Just turn the key now, and it starts. Maybe something to do with when I rebuilt the clutch master cylinder, wiggling stuff around? man...that seems like so long ago, I had almost forgot it ever had that problem (: Ah...to have clutch sticking problems again as my biggest worry!

 

you should be able to here it inside your car....you should definatly be abe to here the compresions..

 

Whoa whoa whoa whoa, This could be just a case of fouled plugs here. i had this problem where only the chamber #1 was firing, (notice i said chamber #1 not leading or trailing) and for the life of me could'nt figure out why chamber #2 wasn't firing. At first I thought I had a mixture problem like you said but it turned out to be a fouled plug(s) situation. Replaced all four spark plugs with ngk's and it started on the first try with a battery that hadn't seen a charge in years. I'm talking a battery that had just enough juice to turn it over maybe 2 or three times and it fired right up. So before you go writing off your engine like that give your ignition system a thorough going through, It doesn't take much for something to go a foul and give you false indications that your motor is blown. I've pulled motors from the junkyard that were supposedly toasted only to find out that the p.o. didn't check any of a number of things only to find out that it was a set of bad plugs or a bad ignitor or worn out plug/coil wires.

 

Right. Check for fuel compression and spark.

That's my generic response for this kind of problem.

So how was the restaurant? Or did you turn back?

Any updates?

 

Bonefish Grill- Had swordfish, which I have of course never had. 4 glasses of pink lemonade, due to ME overheating.

I put the old plugs in that were in the car when I got it, and same result. I'm gonna get new wires I guess...but it sure doesn't sound good ):

 

I just went out to the car to do that sound check.

"whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh" front rotor.
"Whoosh, puh, puh, whoosh" rear rotor.

I think it's pretty clear what's happened.

 

Ate an apex seal... has nothing to do with overheating... Kinda odd though... I wouldn't expect em to go without a cause, especially on a N/A engine... How many miles on it?

Perhaps the spring is stuck inwards... MMO/Power Foam trick might work...

See if you can get a look in at the seals... Best way would be to remove the exhaust manifold and look in through the exhaust ports... (Disconnect battery and use a socket or just pull on the belts to turn the engine...

You should see the 3 apex seals move past... See if you can find the broken one...

 

nope, it should have always been like that, I think they had the "clutch must be depressed to start" feature in 1987 and up (maybe 1986)

I know that doesn't help too much with your current situation, but I guess it's one less thing for you to worry about

 

how many miles? 228,500 or so. Why, is that a lot

BTW, I'm moving along quickly getting the MX-6 put back together. Gotta find some replacement bolts, find an intake manifold bolt, put on the radiator, air filter and some more piping...find and connect all the wiring I disconnected, etc. Shouldn't be much more than a few days if I keep at it. I work slowly, someone that knows what they're doing could probably have this done by dinner time easily. ):

 

And BTW, I had to drive it some...kinda wondering if the spring is stuck, would that make things worse ):

 

damn, I'd have to say that is one of the highest mileage -7's I've seen with a stock motor. the highest ever for me was 270,000... still, quite amazing for ANY motor to last that long. Write it off... get a new motor.

 

I don't know the exact mileage on the engine. It could be original, it could have been replaced last year. Which is why I worry about rebuilding/replacing the motor. The body surely has the full mileage on it.

 

I've gone back at my MX-6 with renewed vigor. Just the belts and radiator, and some wires left.

Oh, and I got the Tempo looked at. Frame damage. The right front axle is rubbing against the frame, it's that bent. Hopefully I can get it towed to a body shop school, that's my only hope due to the price of the work.

 

so if the plugs are whitish brown it means im runnign lean, but i fireball like there is no tomorrow, wat do i do?

 

If that's bad, then maybe it'd be a good idea to replace it? heh

 

easier said than done, I'm afraid. I know the leading ignitor is good. Replaced the trailing ignitor, no change.

That's no longer my main problem though, now is it?

 

Damn. Sounds like you need a 13BT.

 

haha 13bT for me in 2 weeks!@# bye bye bridgeport fuel eater, noise poluter, smelly poo.

 

I had lost leading ignition once, swapped ignitors, no dice... Got replacement ignitors, again, no effect... Turns out the hall effect sensor (magnetic pickup) in the dizzy had gone... Swapped mine out and leading was back, trailing was dead... But you can run on leading only with minimal problems...

To test the hall effects, I simply swiped a magnetized flat blade screwdriver by it... A working one will trigger the ignitor which'll trigger the coil and give you a spark.