...are the frost plugs on a 13B? I'm about to install an engine block heater for winter. My car is from the Wet Coast where such things aren't required, but on the Prairies it reaches -40 which can freeze the coolant in an engine making for hard starting. Yet I'm looking @ the side housings and don't see any frost plugs. Where are they?

 

I don't think there are any

The frost plugs (core plugs - UK terms) are usually there to block the drillings for the waterways in the block, seeing how the rotary is a layered engine I presume it doesn't need them

 

The 'freeze' plugs are in the front and rear irons. You can see them with the front cover and flywheel removed. There's like eight total (four in each).

A block heater sounds like a cool, er, hot mod!

 

Doesn't it use the engine coolant? If so wouldn't you just tap the coolant line?

Maybe you guys are talking about something totally different from what I'm thinking of.

-Error402

 

I just counted five plugs in my '74 rear housing. I don't have a front housing handy to look at.

 

What about using an inline water heater?

 

Yeah, I live on the prairie, so to speak. (Flat lands of South @#$% Dakota gets -40) An in line water heater is just as effective, and easy to install. I had one on my Mazda MX-3. Cost about $60 at Mazda dealer. Probably cheaper at other places, but it was under warranty so I got it.

 

yeah ... the inline heater is probably the simplest solution. i had one on my '81 way back in the day ...

 

Okay diabolical, can you give some more details? I asked mostly because I need to install one myself before winter.

Does it just splice into your heater hose?

Anything one should know in order not to mess up? Cooling system = kind of important . . .

Thanks

J

 

Inline heaters heat the small amount of coolant in the hose, not the greater volume of coolant in the block, and tend to lead to leaks around the hose fittings both where the inline heater is spliced in and where the semi-warmed hose fits to cold engine block. In the summer they're just one more place in the coolant hose to give way and bleed the car to death - which is what killed my previous ReX. They're intended as a solution for people who don't want to drain the coolant from their block to install a block heater. They also let the coolant in the engine get near freezing, which makes for cold starting - in the case of the prairies, ultracold starting.

A block heater, on the other hand, keeps the metal of the engine lukewarm at rest for faster warmup times.

In short, I prefer to install a block heater over an inline heater.

In this climate I also need a battery blanket, a sort of electric blanket that keeps the electrolyte from freezing. The funny thing is I go my California address with a Canadian winterized car, two plugs hanging out the front, and people can't understand why my 'electric' car has an exhaust note...

 

Manntis, excuse my blunt words, but what in the hell do you think you're doing driving your car in the winter?

DON'T!! If are lucky enough to have one of the rare nice, original RX-7's, do not **** it up. Keep it nice, or I just lost respect for you. I'm not kidding.

Buy a less mint one if you really must drive an RX-7 in the winter.

You need to respect the needs of your mint car, even if that means not driving it. Know where my car is right now? 6 hours away stored in my parent's garage, under the eye of my dad (probably the only person I trust with the car) because I'm sick of parking it outside, and I don't have time during school to spend the time keeping it perfect. I'd love to be driving it now, but I want my car to stay nice for a long, long time to come.

BTW, I just got my car appraised as well, and was very pleased with the result

 

I've no garage to store it in, so unless I keep it heated and start it daily it'll deteriorate. :Þ

 

That's no excuse at all! Around here, you can store a car in a heated warehouse for $50/month; I find it very hard to believe there aren't similar options in Saskatoon. That's exactly what I did last winter (this year my sis moved out and my parents have a spot), even though I'm a student and can barely afford that kind of thing.

Loss of respect!

 

Here warehouses charge $200 plus per month.

 

Have you actually called all the places around to see for sure, or is that just the most expensive one for the guys with their Z3's that want them hand polished every 2 weeks lol? There's places like that around here too, but that's not what I'm talking about.

Another option, is to find a someone with a large garage on their property. There's people around that rent out their 6-8 car garages for the winter; usually one person foots the bill and 'sublets' the other spots. These guys don't advertise in the yellow pages, but a little browsing the classifieds and asking around will turn things up.

What about finding a friend or collegue with a spot in their garage?

Anyways, you get my point... there are a plethora of options if you're willing to actually go look. "It is not an option" is not a very convincing argument in this case.

 

I had a conversation about "freeze" plugs with my auto body instructor a while back. He said that they are actually there for something in the design process (sandblasting the inside of the block maybe? Been awhile since I talked to him) and the "freeze" plug term came about because they happen to pop out sometimes. But, point being, they are not there for that purpose and do not always pop out when the coolant freezes. Can someone confirm/deny this?

 

This is Saskatchewan. It's a culture of farmers who lost their money in the 30's and still act as though it's in recession, with a socialist gov't, not a land of lawyers and businessmen as Toronto is.

Give me some credit, and save your judgement about what I do and do not do to protect my car.

 

hey as long as it's undercoated, it's all good.

my car has seen about 16 Washington winters (we like the salt when there's even a hint of freeze), and there ain't a speck of rust on her.

 

Manntis: Why don't you look for the elusive "Spark Plug" Heater. Then you would have another plug in to deal with. I think they only came on the GSL-SE (but not sure). That way you could have double the heating power.

 

spark plug heater?

 

Some Rx-7 actually came with them. It was a metal peice with two holes (where the spark plugs are on the front rotor) and a plug came out of one end of it. It used to bolt up aorund the spark plugs on the front rotor.
IIRC: it fit around both the leading and trailing on the front rotor housing.

 

Sorry, I'm partially joking around, especially with the loss of respect thing. I'm just a bit of a fanatic with these cars, and I have strong ideas about how they should be taken care of (mostly relating to the quite rare Canadian ones that are still in excellent shape)

I'm actually surprised you didn't snap on me a little more; I was more than asking for it lol.

Anyways, peace!

 

Just wanted to chime in.

Recently purchase an 85 GSL-SE in great shape. Apparently never winter driver. I'm in Montreal and I bought it from a lady in Kanata who had it for the past 12 years.

I was planning on putting it away for the winter. The garage I have access to is not heated and has a concrete floor. I heard a heated garage is bad because there is more humidity in them.

I was just wondering if you guys have a good link or suggestions on what to do to winterize the car.

I was planning on doing the following:
1. Putting a plastic down under the car to avoid any humidity from rising through the car from the concrete floor
2. Cotton car cover to protect the paint and keep it clean
3. Put the little beast up on jack stands
4. Squirt a few drops of oil into the rotors and turn it by hand to lube everything up
5. Remove the battery and put it in my nice warm house
6. Remove the wheels and keep them in the heated house as well, maybe rotating them around every so often just not to create flat spots

That's basically it. Anything I'm missing?

Come spring, I'll put the straight pipe in to replace the cats, maybe Racing beat Power pulse muffler, put a K&N filter in, change the shocks all around and maybe get four Yokahama ES100s. Install the battery, change the oil, coolant, start her up and have fun!

Thanks.

Greg Bowie

 

That's where my parents live! LOL. I went to high school there.

I think I might know the car you're talking about... there was a lady who used to always come into this coffee place we hung around in high school... she had a nice SE. I think I remember it being some kind of a brown color (memory is bad around that period of my life hahaha) .... not sure about it. Is that the one?

As for humidity in your garage, installing a ventilation fan will take care of that. It doesn't even necessarily have to have a motor, believe it or not. I'm not too sure of the details.... probably easy to find out though.

Very, very good idea. I picked up a cover at Canadian Tire; not the greatest in the world, but it has worked perfect for me.

Obviously wash your car thoroughly right before putting it away.

Don't worry about it, if it's only being stored over the winter. Pump the tires up to 35 psi or so and you'll be fine. I've done that 7 years in a row and never had a problem. No one else I know bothers to take their wheels off to store.

Better yet is to fog the motor with fogging oil (engine storage spray) you can buy at Canadian Tire.

This is a must! If you don't, you'll be replacing your battery every spring. Took me a few years to figure that out lol.

That's way overkill; like I said, don't worry about it. The only reason I'd do that is if I wanted to refinish them over the winter. Of maybe if I had extremely expensive wheels I was very **** about...

Sometimes, if the motor has stopped in the fall with one of the apex seal springs compressed (I think that makes sense lol... this is advice from a friend who is a real expert), this can damage them after sitting that way all winter. It's a good idea to rotate the motor a little bit by hand (ie. turn the pulley with your hand, or use a socket) every few weeks or so, just to avoid any potential problem. Often it seems like motors blow right after they are taken out of storage. This isn't absolutely necessary, but it's a good precaution to take if it isn't too much trouble.

Also, some people recommend stuffing something into your muffler tips to prevent moisture (and small animals lol) from getting in.

When you start it up in the spring, that's when you use the motor oil. With my carbed motor, what I used to do is put a teaspoon of engine oil into each primary barrel of the carburator. I suppose whatever means you have of getting some oil in there would be fine. It lubes up the seals and allows the motor to generate compression much more easily. It's the difference between firing up right away, and cranking for a few mins.

 

This is a reply for Mantis

I don't know if you have seen the existing coolant/block heaters for RX-7's but in case you haven't here they are.

The heating element that goes around the spark plug, this is supposed to be effective as the coolant runs right around the spark plug hole. The actual element sits on the outside and obviously cannot be too effecient but what can I say.

The second type is a heating element which threads into the front end plate. On the 2nd gen 13B's there is a threaded hole in the bottom of the front end plate where the heater screws in. I imagine this one is more effective as it actually has contact with the coolant. I don't know if the 1st gen 13B's have this threaded hole.

In summary, putting in a block heater is probably the most effecient way to transfer heat to the coolant but how much do you want to tear apart the engine to get at these frost plugs.

Let me know if you need the heaters I listed, I have both and am not using them. Cheers.