so my water temp was up around 245 degrees for about 5-10 mins, but everything stil seems fine... what do you guys think? and what exactly happens at that heat?

 

245 is incredibly high, 200 is the MAX you want to be running at. At that temperature you usually wipe out a coolant seal or crack your center Iron. I would be going through your cooling system to find out what isn't functioning. Are you running the stock fan with a shroud? If so i would be checking that first to make sure your clutch is engaging.

 

200 is fine, 210 is pushin it.. 245 is extreme,.. no one knows what happened to yours, you just gotta get all your fluids and coolant in check.. and just drive it normal and hope that nothing happened. Only time will tell.

 

Holy ****. I would check your gauge.

 

make sure your rad cap isn't fubar'd, this could lead it to loose pressure/coolant and rise the temps.

 

It all depends whether or not the coolant boiled. Aluminum doesn't get fubared until about 300 or so, and other materials go even higher. But coolant boils at a much lower temp, and then certain parts get no cooling, and then they reach a much higher temp. Rapid temperature rise past 200 might also damage things.

Yeah, 245 is crazy high. I think that's right at the boiling point. Did you lose a ton of coolant to boiling? If not you may be okay. If so your engine might be fubared. www.aaroncake.net has a guide to diagnose the cooling system. Check for blown coolant seals. And next time give it at most 30-60 seconds if you think there's a serious problem, that's all you've got. Not 5-10 minutes. Pull over man.

If this was a sudden problem, the most common causes are thermostat, thermostat and fan clutch. Replace thermostat with OEM (Mazda dealer) every 12-18 months at the same time as a coolant change, or if your temp keeps spiking. Even new non-OEM thermostats might cause problems. You should feel some resistance from the fan when you turn it by hand. Symptoms of a bad fan clutch would be high temps at low speeds or stops but no problems on the freeway. If you just plain overloaded the system and need minor cooling performance boosts, try these: remove any debris, feel radiator for cold spots (clean or replace if so), lisle funnel to remove air (google it), make sure you have your plastic undertray and foam around radiator so air goes through not around the radiator, replace radiator pressure cap(s).

 

Short answer: If you aren't seeing a loss of coolant, you probably dodged the bullet. If you are, the housings warped, and coolant is getting around the seals into the combustion chamber.

 

ya it was mid race i noticed and i just put it in neutral and coasted down from 120 and it cooled down pretty fast, i thought that was better than pulling over,

as for the gauge im not sure its obviously after market and i didn't install it.
i didn't hear any boiling.. and i do have a couple leaks but as far as i know there just little things up top.

thanks for all your input and ill keep you updated while i get little things checked out and fixed