I started pulling the car apart to find a coolant leak.. needless to say it was the water 'o' rings in the lower manifold.. waited on parts.. like OEM.. HKS intake 3" Thunderfab downpipe.. Still waiting on the silicon hoses to ship..I'm thinking ordering them a week in advance isn't long enough for hoses Any ways.. I put it back together tonight.. I had a hell of a time starting it. It didn't seem like a happy car at first no spark. cranked on it more and it finally came around... it smoked like a **** though when it started for a good 5 minutes. not sure if I had coolant that splashed in... maybe all the carb cleaner.. Maybe new downpipe? well either way it's not smoking now and it needs fuel upgrade.. very bad.. All the parts were worth it. It's like I uncorked the beast.. damn and I was starting to doubt the fact I sold my reliable car for a Rx-7.... .. I just remembered why about 20 minutes ago



all the new parts to go i. Yes i painted my dp with high temp paint.



that's shortly before I pulled the lower manifold and started going to town...

Thanks rx7club for helping me figure out what was wrong with the machine.. as I went deeper into the motor I kinda figured that's where it was coming from.

btw.. that was my first adventure into the rotary motor.. damn did I learn alot..

 

glad u had fun. IFyou can do that job, you can do just about anything related to this car with the right tools and time.

 

Told ya it was those coolant O-rings

 

Couple of things -

First, I keep forgetting how nice that Thunder Fabrications downpipe is - that's just sharp.

Painting the downpipe with high temp paint was a futile effort - nothing short of ceramic coating will hold up to the heat, and that barely does. You'll be smelling burning paint for a while .

If the lower intake manifold coolant O-rings were the culprit, you'll be the first. I've never seen 'em go bad. I hope the best for you, though!

Dale

 

give me some time and i'll shoot you a couple of pictures of my 'o' rings. They were split and shredded when I pulled the LM. The way it looked they leaked before and the smart ex owner used some sticky gunk to fix the problem. It's flushed filled new thermastat and radiator cap now all Mazda and running cooler.

I now think I know a little more about where everything is at on the passenger side of the motor.. atleast there isn't much on the drivers side to still figure out

thanks again.