Is ethylene glycol required? I have propylene glycol currently, but have read that the range is better with ethylene glycol. Seems propylene glycol has a narrower range, but I would hope I don't see the upper end of either.

When I got the car, the temperature only got into the middle of the gauge one time- mid 80's temp minimally, with not much driving over 40mph, in a bit of traffic. I drove the car for about 2 hours, eventually decided to turn the heat on to get extra cooling for the engine.

The radiator had a 15 lb cap on it. I figured that can't be good for the cooling system, so I got a 13 lb cap. Now it creeps past 1/2 way occasionally. Has never gone over that next line, but it has come close to it, and I turn the heat on again.

Seems if I tone down my driving and turn on the heat, it cools down below 1/2 way. But not much further down than that.

As far as I know, the car is still completely stock, 1984 12A GSL.

Any thoughts on how to get this cooled down before our 90+ degree summer coming up? I've drained and filled the radiator, haven't done a complete flush though. I suppose that's next?

 

Change out your thermostat while you are at it, and search on how to test your fan clutch.

An electric fan will help, and probably save you from turning your heat on all the time.

 

First of all, get a 180ºF/82ºC thermostat with the little spring-loaded cap at the bottom. In other words, make sure it's for a rotary application. Also check that your clutch fan is allowing the correct amount of slippage. Testing this is one of those things that you pick up over time, like driving a manual transmission car smoothly and stuff. What's the procedure for testing the fan again? lol

 

I'm getting a Proxy Error when I search for "test fan clutch" here ):

I just went out and with the car idling, tried stopping the fan. Didn't stop.

Now when I popped the radiator cap, I didn't see it flowing. Maybe I didn't let it warm up enough?

However on a good note, I added some r134 to the A/C system, and it actually seems to be blowing cold now. Didn't add much even...so maybe it's just my imagination.

Ugh, any advice on checking the fan clutch? I'll be driving the car just about every day for a while, 45-60 miles+ every day, want to get it running cooler so I don't have to use the heat so much!

 

kestrel5325 said:
First, the fan clutch is definitely suspect. Warm the engine up, pop your hood and have someone shut off the engine while you watch the fan. It should stop in 1/2 to 1 1/2 rotations. Anything else is bad.

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...hreadid=287240

 

Ok, fan clutch is suspect again. I tried stopping it at idle with my finger. I was able to stop it. It then sat for a moment before starting spinning again, and took a little bit to get back up to speed.

 

and that was when the engine was already warm? if so, yeah, fan clutch gone.