alright...

a buddy of mine recently came across a good deal on a 1987 turbo II rx7. ($1500) and he went ahead and picked it up

the car is in fairly decent condition, has about 110k on it and had been sitting for about 4 years.

upon discovery, we hooked up a new battery and to our suprise it fired right up after about 10 seconds of cranking... blew a nice cloud of smoke out until it warmed up, and hasn't let out a puff since.

he got it trailered home (no tags) and parked it... when he finally got tags for it he drove it a bit and that's when the problems started. When it is driven (regardless of how) the Temp gauge gets hotter and hotter and hotter... until you get scared and go ahead and shut it down and let it cool off. (its never buried the gauge)

we replaced the thermostat, coolant level sensor, and coolant temp sensor and flushed the **** out of it several times and filled it back up with water, drove it about 40~ miles and it popped its cork once we got into traffic in town... the engine driven fan never came on and niether did the electric one.

sooo... i rigged the e-fan to run constantly when the car's on... and to no avail

the clutch fan runs for about 10 seconds when you start the car and you never hear it again after that.... we ripped out all the A/C **** to hopefully improve airflow and that helped some, but not enough. it has the stock 13lb radiator cap on it and it gets warm and hits the overflow tank blowing steam...

the car runs like a dream other than a slightly rough idle... turbo makes good boost (6-8lbs) and the car has zero exhaust other than the pre-cat.


sooo... i'm hoping i can get some help here... been going in circles on another forum to no avail... thanks in advance!!!

 

Water pump failure? Also check to see if your belt is slipping on the water pump.

Worst case scenario is that the inner coolant seals in the engine are deteriorating, but unless you can smell burning coolant from the exhaust then that's unlikely.

 

alright, the belt thing has totally slipped my mind... def. gonna give that a check tomorrow.... and no burning coolant from exhaust....

 

$1500 on a car that sat for 4 years?
Dude, that's not a deal...

$20 says the engine is no good.


-Ted

 

it was parked because the owner lost the title (i believe)

it runs great... i wouldn't lie. just need to get the cooling situation straightened out

 

Since the car was sitting for so long I would definitely replace water pump, belts, and radiator cap (if seal is bad on rad cap system will not pressurize properly). also, make sure you bleed the air from the system. good luck.

 

im kinda thinking that the coolant passages in the motor are all gummed up with crap from sitting for so long. But im not sure how to check that

 

i had similar problem and hte pump was messed up