TII '87

I have a 87 TII with a mazda reman engine with around 40k km on it, great compression and everything

I pulled the engine and tranny out of the car, cause it's going to paint shop this spring and I decided to strip the engine off to change a couple of external gaskets and seals, powdercoat and buffing all the way.

when i removed my LIM, I had quite a bad surprise, there are 1 coolant hole per housing that plug into the LIM and the one on the front housing is litteraly clogged with kinda mud with some rust in it.

the coolant hole of the rear housing is perfectly clear and clean

I dont understand how this **** got there and how to remove it safely and completely

I know the guy before didn't change his coolant as often as he should have done, but is this reason enough to build deposit like that just in the front housing?

How do I get this **** outta there with my engine sitting on my garage's table?

Do I have to fear engine damage?

facts : - my car doesn't drink coolant
- 105 psi front, 95 psi rear
- smoke grey''ish'' until hot
- no gasses going out of the cooling system when started with open cooling cap


any clue on this one?

Icemark

what coolant and mix are you using??? sounds like not enough coolant to water and that the alum in your engine is corroding.

and your compression is pretty low... are you sure you tested correctly... at 95 psi on the rear, I would be looking at rebuilding soon.

TII '87

I tested the compression at a mazda dealer with their special rotary compression tester, so I guess it's pretty accurate!

well, I'm planning on rebuilding the engine next fall... I'll run this summer with it in this condition. Even if rear has 95 PSI, engine still ran strong and pulled hard.

anyway, I thought that it was below 85 psi that the engine needed rebuild...

well, I dunno about the coolant mix the previous owner had, it looked bright green, with no oil or stuff when I flushed it

Do you think that simply remove this clogged **** with compressed water and then fill everything up with a corrrect coolant mix would be allright?

is it possible that my housing have corroded to a dangerous point? anyway, dont you find it bizarre that it's only the front housing that is clogged and the other is just perfect?

Icemark

I pretty much (as well as Mazda repair manuals) consider anything under 90 psi of needing a rebuild. If you are at 95 psi I would be saving the money now.

Green is probably Prestone coolant, but the level of coolant (mix) is the important thing. For some unknown reason many people want to use less than a 50/50 mix of coolant to water in a rotary. This is just plain stupied in my book and just asking for the break down of the metals in the engine as you have found in yours.

No oil in the coolant is a good thing. Any oil in the coolant would mean instead of 3-6 months from now needing a rebuild, that next week you would be rebuilding.

The Spyder

iTrader: (8)

I had the SAME thing, my last owner had NO idea what antifreeze was .
I had to remove the coolant lines from the TB due to how bad it was. I already flushed the system with air/water. Alot cooler now .

TII '87

thanks a lot Mark!

got any idea on how to get this **** outta there and solve this little problem?

'cause I dont think that normal '' engine in car '' flushing procedure would be efficient, and engine is sitting in my garage for the winter...

what do you think of this? would this solve my problem?

''Due to the controversial nature of this modified flushing procedure, we must include the follow disclaimer - proceed at your own risk; FC3S Pro is not responsible for any damages.


-Drain entire cooling system (of coolant) - on the 13B, use the radiator drain (plastic plug) on the bottom of the radiator and the engine block drain (14mm hex plug) located in the driver's side engine mount bracket.
-Close drains and fill with your favorite flushing additive. We recommend using Prestone Superflush™.
-After pouring in bottle of Prestone Superflush, top off with water as per instructions on the Prestone Superfluch bottle. The cooling system should now be filled with the Prestone Superflush and water mix.
-Start the car and run till the cooling system boils over. Yes, you heard that right - till you see steam coming out of the overflow bottle. You might need to drive the car around the block a few times to get it to steam; it might not steam just idling in your driveway. Try not to drive very far away from home when doing this. Stay calm and do not get alarmed when the temperature gauge hits "H" and the low coolant light/buzzer goes off. As soon as you gauge hits "H", calmly drive back home and kill the engine.
-Shut the engine down and let it cool down.
-Drain everything out of the cooling system - it should look milky white!
-Flush the cooling system with as much running water until everything comes out clear. -Don't forget to flush and clean out your overflow bottle also!
-Drain and fill with your favorite coolant and (distilled) water to the appropriate ratio depending on your climate. Again, don't forget to fill the overflow bottle also. ''

took this on www.fc3spro.com

TII '87

Yeah! my coolant line from the rear iron to the TB is just horrible too!

that's the reason why I'll simply drill/tap the rear iron and water pump to remove this shitty cooling line!

P.S. before flaming me, yes, I'll do the full TB mod

Icemark

Yeah, Ted is usually right on on his recommendations, but I can not endorse anything that suggests that you let the engine get that hot. Email or PM him if you want to go that route.

RETed

It sounds like the previous owner did not do maintenance on the cooling system.
If my modified cooling flush scares you (it does most people), I'd recommend double flushing the system with Prestone Super Flush or equivalent.

Follow the directions, but do back-to-back flushing of the cooling system.
This should get rid of the majority of the aluminum oxide (what you call "mud") in the passages.


-Ted