I think I have a blown/bad "coolant seal". I put it in quotes cuz I might not know what I'm talking about.

3 days ago: Coolant buzzer going off... Refill.

2 days ago: buzzer, refill, problem?

yesterday: buzzer, refill, tight rad hoses, research, problem.

Today: coolant over flowing from over fill when warm...
And it has the caps it came with, problem has progressed. (Not caps)

 

I might not know what I'm talking about either but have you checked the thermostat to make sure it is functioning properly?

 

That's on the plans for tmrw, also with new caps and hoses. Cheap fixes first...

 

But when I did a coolant "burp", I started to see these little brown "chips" floating in the water. If its not the seals, I think the previous owner thought it was a rad leak and put Stopleak in it. Either way...

 

I'm a pessimist...
And my car hates me...

 

Possibly a bad clutch fan. I'd replace it if you haven't ruled it out, if its bad it'll cause overheating.

Rotary >Pistons

 

^this guy did you even read the... nevermind.

Na, no overheating. Just constant refill buzzer...

 

Get a radiator pressure tester. Can rent from auto zone. Definitive answer real quick.

 

What am I looking for, as in readings? (Where I was getting t-stat from)

 

Well if coolant is boiling coming out your overflow that means its overheating, my old na had that happen everytime I shut it off and I thought it was from air in the system and later found out it was from a bad clutch fan.

Much much later I had a problem like yours and my coolant needed refilled often so I topped it off pretty often.

After about 25,000 miles on the rebuild since the bad clutch fan the coolant seals went to the point where all my coolant leaked and emptied out into the combustion chamber, when I started it up it sputtered badly until the coolant completely burned out and you'd see tons of white smoke.

If you have a coolant leak due to a blown coolant seal it could be the size of a pinhole, but it'll eventually get worse.

If it isn't smoking a bunch white smoke and/or sputtering in startup then clearing up, it probably isn't that bad--yet.


Rotary >Pistons

 

" If it isn't smoking a bunch white smoke and/or sputtering in startup then clearing up, it probably isn't that bad--yet."

Its doing exactly that.

 

Damn sorry to hear that, then you probably need to get the engine replaced or rebuilt, if its just coolant seals and an iron it won't be super expensive.

A good replacement engine will run around 250-500 or so.

I imagine there are some temporary fixes that can bandaid the problem but it certainly wont fix it.

If you were in my area I'd help you take the engine out if you haven't done it before, I'm guessing you aren't though...DC is almost 3 hours away.

Taking out the engine isn't that bad if you haven't done it before it'll help you become more familiar with everything

Rotary >Pistons

 

now that im not on my phone, i can elaborate.

the tester goes right on your fill port. you pump it up and watch the gauge to see if it holds pressure. i usually try to hold about 15psi. our stock radiator caps are rated for 1.1 bar which is just under 16psi.

i do this every time someone brings me a car saying their coolant seals are toast. 3 out of 4 times now, it was something else, something simple and every single guy was ready to tear the engine down and spend thousands on rebuilds.

this will show you where you are loosing pressure and if its external then you saved a ton of cash. renting the tool also makes it free besides your time.

make sure you test at both radiator caps since one could be bad and you wouldnt know it. i like to use a blank cap(no spring, only works if you dont have overflow nipple at that caps port) at the rad and a safety release cap at the water neck.

 

Stock read cap is 1.1??? I bought one from mazdatrix and its 0.9

I just looked up the stock and its 0.9. So you're wrong.

Rotary >Pistons

 

Anytime you have consistent loss of coolant with no external leak to explain it, you have to seriously wonder about the coolant seals. A coolant system pressure test tool setup is a great way to find external leaks, and if you have no external leak but the pressure drops significantly over a short period of time during testing with the tool then you know you have an internal leak (coolant seal). But, since most people don't have access to such a tool, they have to troubleshoot it a bit more blindly to figure out what the issue is.

In reality, water pumps almost never fail and when they do, it is an external leak from the weep hole behind the pulley. So if you have no leak there, you can pretty much rule out the water pump as the cause of your coolant issues.

Rad caps are about 7 dollars, so go ahead and buy a brand new 16psi and throw it on there to see if it helps. Sometimes a weak cap can cause coolant to bypass out to the overflow unnecessarily, but generally there should never be more than 13psi in a healthy cooling system to begin with.

Unless there is a hole/leak in it, or it is internally clogged, a radiator won't be the cause of the issue. In general a radiator won't suddenly clog up one day after working perfectly the day before. Since it's a free test, it may be worth draining the coolant, removing the rad, and backflushing the rad upside down with a water hose to see what comes out of the top end and whether water flows freely through it.

Thermostats rarely fail and they are easy to test by putting them in a pot of hot water on the stove and watching to see that it opens gradually before the boiling point. You can use a candy thermometer in conjunction with this method, and if you have more than one you can compare them to see which one opens soonest or farthest open. So generally I would test them before replacing them; often in my experience an original in good condition opens sooner and faster to fully open than the aftermarket units that you could buy today.

So that pretty much leaves the fan and the engine as the main culprits of coolant loss or overheating issues. Remember, as temps climb so does system pressure (even in a healthy system) and pressure is what causes coolant loss via the overflow. So if you have a weak fan that is not pulling enough air, it can cause the average temps to be higher and thus the system pressure to be higher.

If you are building high system pressure and bypassing the coolant cap/losing coolant at relatively low temperatures it is almost certainly a coolant seal issue.

There is a reason that most knowledgeable rotary people immediately worry about coolant seals when you begin to have sudden coolant loss and/or overheating issues on an older original engine....because very few times is it actually an external accessory causing the problem.