I bought my second Rx7 and I love her. Its a 1986 GXL, but she is overheating within 1 mile of driving. I picked her up from the dealer and drove her home, about 20 miles, and she was fine. But as I got 5 minutes from home the add coolant light came on and the temp gauge shot through the roof. I finally got her home and let her cool down and filled the coolant back up. 30 minutes later I went to drive her again and right off the bat the coolant light came on and I didn't even get out of my nieghborhood before she overheated again. Some things im thinking it could be, is a clogged radiator, bad seals, or the worst a cracked plate. Any help would be awesome. I need her to be running asap.

 

Start with the easy stuff- thermostat, radiator cap, WP belt- and progress up the "Awfulness Scale".

 

I check them all, I even tried running it without the thermostat in and she still overheated in less than 2 minutes. Up the Awfulness Scale we go

 

let the car cool off. pull the 2 fuses closest to the engine (driver side strut fuse box), crank engine over for 10-15 seconds. see if the upper radiator hose is hard. (or open the radiator cap slowly and listen for it to hiss)

 

First, don’t ever run you RX-7 without the T-stat. If you do, you car will over heat just as described. The water needs to be under pressure to allow “heat-transfer” from your engine over to the water. Hot water gets carried away and cooled at the radiator.
Things to check:
1. Let you car cool off and remove radiator cap. Fill with water if needed, start car. Get back out and look at the water at the fill port and look for any signs of bubbles. If you do have them, you got a leak in the cooling system.
2. Test or replace your radiator cap/s.
3. Pressure test your radiator, if you can drive to a shop they can test if for you or you can pull it out and have if tested for $25-$35.
4. Is your pump leaking from the weep hole?
5. Hose under intake manifold usually crack and leak?
Hope I could be of help.

 

or a wicked bad coolant seal

 

Boosted414....... what does taking off those two fuses do? and if the cap is hissing when i open it does that mean i have a leak?

thanks for all the help, im getting up early tomorrow and spending all day on her. Ill have some feed back at around 12. Hopefully it will be good news

 

I hate to say it but it looks like it is a coolant seal. When the radiator cap is off and the car is running, bubbles are slowly but suring rising to the top. I don't have the money or the time to fix it either so Im going tomorrow to give it back to the dealer.

Quick question though, what is the cheapest rebuild kit that yall have found?