vrooom305

The car is a 86 GXL. Is there any way for the engine to start up with broken water jacket seals?

Templeswain

I think the engine would start and run like total crap. But I don't think you would want to do that at all.

If you know they're broken, then its possible that some of the debri is still in the rotor housing. If that's the case then it could get snagged by an apex seal or whatever and scrape the hell out of the housing.

I wouldn't start her up. Its engine rebuild time.

Project84

I used stop leak and it kept the coolant from getting into the rotor because I didn't have time for a rebuild. It would start and run fine, the only thing was that the rotor compression would pressurize the coolant system causing the overflow to fill up and each day I had to dump it. If you try this and something happens to your car, I'm not liable. I'm just telling you what worked for me.

AlmostRice

Project do this procedure to fix the problem Fix coolant seal leak

I did this Jan 2003 and the repair has held out so far. I dont get the annoying LOW Coolant Buzz anymore.

Goodluck

vrooom305

BTW, where are the water seals located? Is it between the rotor housings? If I do a rebuild can I just replace those seals (with the exception of other miscellaneous ones) if everything is working fine?

Templeswain

Yes and no.

If the water seal that goes around the entire housing is broken then yes you could replace them. They would come standard with any rebuild kit. If you get in there your obviously going to need a lot more seals and gaskets for the rebuild.

If the Water jacket itself is cracked or broken, which sometimes they are. Then no, you would have to get a new side housing for it.

Project84

That is where I got the idea for what I did. I rebuilt the motor already though. The seals are between the rotor housings and the iron plates. You can replace just those, but to get to them, you have to tear down the whole motor so you may as well replace the rubber oil seals on the rotor, and the apex seal springs and the springs on the other seals on the rotor. Also, you should get a gasket kit so you have all the seals and gaskets like the oil pan gasket, from cover gasket, water pump and intake gasket, etc. You should check out www.atkinsrotary.com or www.mazdatrix.com or some other sites that have kits. Atkins Rotary has a video on how to rebuild rotaries that you might want to watch before you try it.