sorry that i had to punk Aaron Cake's picture, but its exactly what my symptoms are

my car ran a little hot in ottawa, where the temp gauge is in the pic is as high as mine hit, it would stay there for a few minutes or more.. then drop to the centre and climb back up.. only during city driving.. highway it was a bit lower and more stable..

after the trip i realized i hadnt much monitored the cooling system liquid except for the level, so upon inspection i realized it was 80% water and 20% coolant.. (this weekend im also installing an e-fan, hopefully that will help..) i assume 50/50 coolant mix would help too, but will it help enough? or should i be paying attention to something else?

ALSO, notice the oil pressure.. the highest my oil pressure will reach is 60psi.. i think its a faulty gauge, but my oil bypass pellet is in the mail.. idle is above the 30psi, but when its pedal to the floor high rpms, im at 60 or just a tad above (62).. oh and also, at times during stop and go traffic, the oil pressure would drop to just above 0.. the gauge was "skipping" on the way down to.. 8-10 psi-ish? symptom of faulty gauge?

how safe am i to drive with this 'low' pressure? or isnt there much to worry about, considering the pellet is in the mail?

ALSO.. would the lower pressure in oil generate more heat at the e-shaft, and thus increasing the overall coolant temperature which contributed to my "hot" running at the ottawa meet?

i know ive asked some of these questions before, but hopefully looking at a pic of what my gauges usually read can help you get a better idea of what im talking about..

 

check your ecu codes. You might have a faulty water thermo sensor!!

evan

 

Your hot running could be attributed to many different things. The e-fan may clear up a lot of it because your clutch fan may be going out on you like mine was(Make sure that you have a fan that can flow enough air though). Have you replaced your thermostat recently? I got the stock mazda thermostat and it brought my temps down a whole lot. Try and get that 50/50 mixture and maybe invest in some water wetter...I got mine at Pep Boys. If, after all that has been done and you aren't consistently hitting a 1/4 on your temp guage then your water pump may be going out on you.

As for the oil problem....please tell me that you are premixing your gasoline. 1 oz of TCW-3 rated 2 stroke oil per gallon of gasoline when you fuel up will keep your engine and seals nice and lubbed. I premix and have an operating OMP and I feel overly safe. My guage sits about where yours is in your picture upon WOT. When your guage reads zero at idle you may just have a bad connection to your oil pressure sending unit....this requires a rag to clean off the connection on the driver side of the engine below your oil filter. Sorry I don't have a picture of it but you can easily find it in the Factory service manual.

Hope that helps a bit,
Lee

 

80/20 is perfect for our canadian summers.
I doubt more anti-freeze will bring your temps down.

Get some Water Wetter, for sure. I remember Ted saying that the best was 70/30 + WW.

 

No! no! no! no! bad! bad! bad! bad!

65/35 (w/af) is the least amount you want to use. There are way too many aluminum parts in our engines to use any less than 35% Anti-freeze.

The A-F is to prevent corrosion in our motors as well as to increase boil level and lower freeze level.

Running with 80/20 won't help cool any more than 60/40, but will have insufficent protection against corrosion, electrolitic action and boil over.

BTW: Mazda recommends using 55/45 (w/AF) in temps above 0F.

 

That's debatable.

I know that in my FSM, there is a chart showing 80/20 between a certain temp range.

I only drive my car in the summer, and flush the system once a year.

 

How many motors have you popped open that are full of rust???

One that I have did the owner used 70/30, and the motor failed because coolant passenges rotting out.

Looks like this:

 

I have open 2 rotaries with rust in them. I dont know what their mixture was though.

 

i was just gonna run 50/50, i didnt realize too much water made corrosion

the old owner said he had enough a/f to prevent corrosion.. upon my basic assumtion by looking at the mixture, i would guess at 80/20..

ill get some water wetter for sure..

 

what if you use all coolant? i fillup up my radiator then i just poured a couple glasses of water in my overflow reservoir so i dont have very much water mixed in.

 

it won't cool for crap with straight AF

 

thanks you guys..

but also:

 

bump

 

umm.. i run all antifreeze. and about quarter gallon of water.

I've never had a problem with cooling.. she runs 180-185 deg

I also have an e-fan and water wetter. But year after year when i flush the rad i put all AF in.. never a problem. you guys have problems?

 

i should be ok now.. (flushing the system this weekend and installing a crazy high flow e-fan) im not too worried about the cooling anymore.. thats why i quoted myself about how safe the 60psi oil pressure for daily driving is until i can get that pellet..

comments on that pressure reading anyone?

 

BTW if you are lazy they sell coolant already mixed with water 50-50 so you don't have to measure or anything.

 

yeah i know.. its cheaper by like a buck or two than the straight coolant.. i aint paying for water though

get that for free..

 

your oil pressure is perfect, clean the connection on the sending unit.

 

where are the connections? i checked the FSM "Body-Electrical" but sifting though it i couldnt find anything ..

 

The sender is on the engine.:



The FSM says minimum 64psi @ 3000rpm, so it is lower than it should be, however the stock gauge is pretty untrustworthy. I'd check the oil pressure with a mechanical gauge as per the FSM, or just buy an aftermartket oil pressure gauge.

 

i run all AF and have no heating problems, aways stays at the center on gauge when warmed up give or take a few!!

 

yeah, the only disadvantage of straight coolant is that it costs more.

 

woah.. i dont think there's anyway i can THANK YOU enough! that was VERY informative! thanks!

 

Antifreeze can't cool as well as water. Running 100% antifreeze means you have lowered your cooling system's capacity, as well as wasted your money. 35-50% is what is recommended by Mazda (and most other manufacturers) with good reason.

 

If youre saying you use tap water then your on your way to crapping out your cooling system - you should always use distilled water. Tap water has tons of crap in it.

Henrik
87TII