its and 89 gxl and i went and drove about 10-15 miles the car thursday and it ran fine it was a warm day about 70 degrees out and i ran it kinda hard just to make sure it ran fine. i went to pick it up yesterday and it was a cooler day about 55 and it was raining. i didnt make it a mile or 2 and i looked at the temperature gauge and it was on hot. i got out and poped the hood and the radiator and antifreeze were luke warm and the motor itself was barely warm too. when i took the radiator cap off it sparyed all over the motor not sure if it has anything to do with the problem or not. it started back up fine and i got down the road about a mile more and it was hot again so i didnt want to chance it and i could see a gas station ahead so i cut the car off to coast. it started losing speed cause it was slightly uphill and i wasn't going to make it so i dropped the clutch and when it started back up it had about half the power and sounded like it was missing or running on one rotor. it was also backfiring and popping flames a lot and wouldn't idol. i don't know what to do i checked the plugs and changed them all but it didnt help. if anyone knows what would fix it or could be wrong please help because i am clueless to this problem.

 

Well,One thing is you should have checked Everything out before Driving the **** out of it.The Thermostat Sounded like it WAS Stuck,.But After That,you Could have Blown a coolant Seal,because you Drove it,when it was already Scalding HOT..you will now be Looking into doing a Compression Check on it,and Maybe a Rebuild.

 

i had looked at the car a week before and checked everything then i came back to drive it and it never overheated the first time and i didn't drvie the **** out of it jsut through frist and second to about 6000 rpms and in 1 mile it should have gotten hot enough to overheat if it hadn't been run in a few hours

 

anyone else have any ideas

 

well first of all never take out the radiator cap just after driving. the coolant is still pressurized hence the spraying all over. it does sound like you have a stuck thermo so that you need to replace. second, the popping flames, loss of power and poor idle sounds like you lost a rotor. check your compression and let us know
sometimes you just never know when the **** is gonna hit the fan. these things can happen

 

if its getting hot but the radiator water is warm, the thermostat is definately stuck! its cake to replace. do not drive it overheating or you will damage the engine!!

 

but i hadn't really drove the car far enough for it to get warm yet and when the radiator cap came off it fell on the scratch plate right below the fan and i reached for it and the block wasn't that warm either and it probably hadn't been 2 minutes since i turned the car off. i let it sit a few more minutes and then started it back up and it ran jsut fine, i was trinyg to make it to a gas station at least and i got about another mile down the road and it was showing hot again so i cut it off to coast but there was an uphill slope but i left the key on, could it have flooded and i started losing speed so i dropped the clutch and thats when it started running weird. it will crank and run but it won't idol on its own and it has barely any power at all and it runs rough and backfires a lot and it blows cold air with the heat on. and while i was at the gas station we cranked it and let it run a few minutes to see if it would get better but it didn't but the car never overheated again either and we had it running for 10 or 15 minutes. the guy also said he gutted the cats on the car could that have something to do with it? i jsut don't understand how it ran fine the day before and then overheats without getting far enough to get warm when i go to take it home and ran fine then but in a matter of 1 minute messed up that bad. could it be compression? and i was wondering can these cars jump timing?

 

cats wouldn't have anything to do with it i have no idea bro

 

i didnt think the cats would do anything either thanks though man i jsut cant see it losing compression all at once like that if it did the only thing i can think of is maybe its out of time thats all the makes since

 

i really need some help with this if anyone has ever heard anything like it or has experienced it please help at this point i'm willing to try anything to get it to run

 

these cars can't jump timing. they don't have timing belts.

Do a compression test before you do anything.

 

Sounds like bad news. Time for the dreaded Compression test....

Spec.

 

is anything coming out the overflow?? i had an 86 that would overheat in 5 mins of driving....then it would spurt antifreeze out the overflow. the problem ended up being a seal.

if it isnt leaking out the overflow.....sounds like a thermostat to me.
do a compression test 1st tho....

 

nothings coming out of the overflow
i hope it turns out ok if the compression is good what else could it be

 

change the god damn thermostat with an OE Mazda one, don't buy any other brand thermostat.

if your not going to do that at least run no thermostat

try bleeding your coolant also

 

its the compression the back rotor is gone
thanks for the help though

 

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