Is This A Big Problem?
 

OK. My friends 86 gxl has been a hunk of shit since he bought it less that 30 days ago. it has had small overheating problems since day 1, dont start worth shit and blows white smoke after first taking off in the morning. the other day for some reason the oil pressure gauge went to 0 and stayed there it ran ok. Today he was driving it ant the temp almost went to the H so he pulled over and shut her down. coolant sprayed all over the place untill it cooled down.

an hour later we drove it again and saw the the antifreez was shooting out of a hose coming out of the block. The hose is right by the spark plugs and under the temp sensor. it goes from the block into the firewall.
the shit was just spraying out. I dont know what the hose is but i have a feeling its a heater hose and it should not have collant coming from it.

IS this a bad thing? and what can or cant be done to fix it?

that is the heater hose. very common to blow up.

needs to be replaced

don't think it will fix the other problems though... asuming it wasn't leaking alot before it blew.

the oil pressure sensor is in the same area.. take alook while you're in there. maybe the coolant blew the conection off or something.

but should there be coolant in the heater hose? and does this mean that his motor aint messed?

also what would cause very low oil pressure? because the gauge moves a lil bit but not much. so that tells me that it might not be a conection.
and why would the heater hose just all of a sudden blow up? we put a generic shitty thermostat in there. would that cause the higher pressure in the system?

ya about that thermostat. the car always gets really hot than right about when it hits the H it drops very low. to normall temp. would this be the thermostat doing that and in turn cause alot of other problems?

thanks for all the tips!

well if it hasn't goten too hot then hopfully it's still ok.. (asuming it was ok to start with)

yes the hoses have coolant in them. where do you think the heater gets heat from? :P and yes they just blow up. that's why you should check and replace they every so often.

I would but a mazda thermostat in. you're have to drain the coolant to fix the hose anyways. get a new thermostat and put new coolant back in.

You may also find that you have some water getting in your engine if you have white smoke, which you really want to get fixed, however it could just be condensation.

I'd start doing a pre mix, just incase your oil sensor is not shot!

from the sounds of everything I wouldn't be surprized if the coolant seals in the engine are shot. meaning the engine is basicly toast...

but I would replace the thermostat, hose, and coolant first to make sure. then you can try the rad cap test.

which is to get the car compleatly cold. take the rad cap off. now start the car. if the seals are gone. the water will "spray" up out the rad cap hole. this means you need a new engine.

You never want to put any thermostat in your FC other than one you get from Mazda! That's like a cardinal rule, lol. As far as coolant coming out of that hose that blew up (firewall, near spark plugs), yes, it is supposed to have coolant inside of it. That hose is particulary prone to blowing since it's near the oil filter and gets oil dripped onto it from oil changes and such. That should be considered part of your "regular" maintenance checks.

that woudn't help anything.... chances are it's the gauge though otherwise the engine would already screwed.

ok im kinda new at this stuff. i have my own rx-7 but it has never really broken down yet.( knock on wood)

and my friends keeps fakin up. so i need to learn this really fast. how would u fix the white smoke or water gettin into the engin?
also what is a pre mix? adn what does it have to do with the low oil pressure?

the only way to fix the water getting in is either a new engine or compleaty take yours apart and rebuilt it... so hope it's only a minor problem right now..

don't worry about pre mix.

first step is to replace the hose / thermostat / coolant.

while you are in there. try to find the oil pressure sensor. it's under the oil filter. with one wire going to it. maybe it came off. find it. clean the contacts, and put it back on.

start the car with new coolant and with the gauge hooked back up. if you still don't get oil presure. I'd shut the car off untill you can get ahold of an aftermarker mech. gauge to test with.

k ill tell him to do that. the low pressure thing is still weird tho.

hey how much are MAZDA thermostats CND? and where can i get the hose from?

both from mazda. probably around $30 each

k sweet.


ya know what man now that i think of it. there are 2 lil sensores this with a black hoses. they are kinda under the intake man. the other day the hose part broke off for some weird reason and that when his pressure droped. it looked like a small amout of oil was coming out of it.
i wish i had a pic of it for u but i dont. it almost looks like a solonoid of some sort.

hummm...

RX racer, I'm up in Williams Lake but I'm comming to Kamloops for Saturday for the car showoff. We could meet up if you'd like and I could take a look at the car...

Do you have MSN messenger?

yes i do

jwallone@hotmail.com

heh...that damned hose gave me problems like 2 months after I got the car....took me another month to find the damn thing :mad: and my oil pressure guage has never worked....just keep running it and praying....except now it's got a hole in the lines for the oil cooler, so it sits in my friend's yard :rolleyes: DAMN MONEY ISSUES!!! :cursing:

all I can tell you is good luck with the car

Joel

I'll be taking a look at it on Saturday so it should be all ok unless the engine's blown a coolant oring...

I've owned my car for a few years, im 19 btw, if it makes a difference. I learned everything by experience. Tranny has gone out, replaced it, myself. Its going out again though, replacing with the manual driveline this time. I do all maintnance on it myself.

My car smokes like hell on startup for about 4 minutes on a cold start. I like to get my car a bit off the cold side before I go romp on it. I'd just let the AWS (advanced warmup system) and a few minutes of idle clear out that white smoke when you startup. If it goes away, than its been doing the same thing my car has been for about 16 months :) No problems here-- though compression is kinda low.

If coolant is leaking into your engine (which I don't think mine is doing) than you'll probably want to start saving up. A rebuild kit is about 800, a new rebuilt engine runs around 1200-1500 for an n/a and closer to 1500-2000 for a TII.

EDIT: You may only want the AWS to burn out that smoke if you have either no, or very tollerant neighbors. I don't have any out where I live for about a half mile. I figure they would be a bit upset if I did though...

EDIT2: Also, My oil pressure guage hasn't worked since the tranny swap. I've tried numerous times to track it down with the help of the Gurus here, but it seems near impossible without ripping apart the intake manifold which i don't care to do for awhile.

Also my heater core hose leaked like a siv for about 2 months before I realised thats what it was. Was constantly adding coolant. Replaced the hose and clamp and haven't had a problem.