psycho2

A little over a year ago, I purchased an 88 SE RX-7 in decent condition (body OK, drove OK, ran good). I repaired some suspension problems, then ran into some more. I had to let the car sit due to lack of money, shop and materials to fix my suspension problems. About 8 months later, I was able to repair my RX and get her back on the road again. During the first 4 months of sitting, I would go out and start it up every week, keeping fluids flowing and the battery charged. Then I slacked off for about 2 weeks, then about 3 weeks, then it would not start - dead battery. Charged battery, started up just fine, but battery would not hold charge. The car sat for about a month, then I got a new battery and thought all was good.

Then about a month later I parked it on a slight incline, and was diagonal (left front tire lowest on the incline). Next morning I went to start it and it fired, sputtered and died. Cranked again, and it would not start - flooded. I had read that if you did not let the engine warm up completely, flooding was a potential, so had read some on how to un flood it. That evening I pulled the plugs, cleaned them up, cranked it over. Plugs back in, and it fired up no problem.

About 2 weeks later, after sitting over a weekend, it flooded on me again. After that the flooding got more frequent. I put in new plugs, and that did not help much. I ran some heavy duty FI cleaner (not 44K) thru the fuel tank, and it didn't flood for about a week after that.

The flooding got frequent enough that I tried the fuel pump switch trick, and even that did not help - lasted about a week, then flooded even when using the switch. After my last unflooding situation, I have had another problem show itself.

On a recent routine check of things (just before I tried to start the car and had it flood), I noticed my radiator cap was weak, so I changed it. Topped off the coolant system, and thought everything should be OK. After I unflooded the car, I let it warm for a little. Then I drove it hard for about 20 minutes. No signs of overheating, or any leakage. This was Sunday. I drove her around a little on Monday, and when I got home and turned off the car, I got some steam come out from under the hood. Popped the hood, and the passenger side of the engine bay was wet. I could not see anywhere there was a leak - hoses, caps, block. I thought maybe the gooseneck filler cap was weak, but it seems OK. Drove it Tuesday morning, and got an occasional 'coolant low' warning. It would happen after about 30 seconds of being stopped and idling, and would go away after about 10 seconds of driving at 2k-3k RPM. Let it cool all the way down, and the coolant system was about a quart low. Filled it up, and drove around Tuesday evening. Everything was fine, except after I parked the car, I could smell antifreeze. Antifreeze does not evaporate, so that which was on the engine and exhaust would have be burned off, so I thought the smell was just that. Wednesday same, but thursday, I got the same coolant low warning at low RPM. Checked tonight, and was again a quart low on coolant.

I am not seeing any leaks anywhere. I do still smell antifreeze occasionally. Bottom line question: Can the cranking at low pressure to unflood the engine cause internal damage to the engine? Damage that could possibly be to the water jackets? Backfiring damage to intake? Excess exhaust and burning fuel that could damage exhaust header or cat?

Please help. I like my little Mazda beast, and would like to keep it.

vaughnc

bumpity

When was the last full tuneup/60K mile service?