86rxNa

My rx7 is an 86 na gxl. Due to cold weather my other car has crapped out on me. Now I must drive my gxl every day and I need to get a few things done like replace the Rear Housing to Throttle Body coolant hose which has been leaking and I believe may be causing my intermittent heater problems. So I'm ordering the manifold to engine gasket. Then I saw water jacket o rings right below on the same page at mazdatrix. Do I need these too? This will be my first time removing a LIM so anything I should know or any tips to make this easier is greatly appreciated. Also my stock temp gauge reads all over the place and my aftermarket one is hooked up in the tb coolant lines which is probably not giving an accurate reading either. The stock guage goes to 3/4 sometimes and my aftermarket one usually sits at 175-180. Sometimes it looks like my t stat is getting stuck and the aftermarket guage reads like 150 or lower. My heat does work when I first start the car then after like 20 mins I get no heat. So this is driving me nuts lol.

GrossPolluter

iTrader: (1)

I'm not very familiar with the na model, but I would almost replace everything gasket and rubber I can get my hands on. Check fuel hose, injector o rings, replacing fuel pulsation dampener, vacuum lines

clokker

iTrader: (2)

First of all, you don't need to remove the lower intake manifold (or ANY manifold, for that matter) to replace the TB water hoses. Just remove the throttle body and everything is right there.
No gaskets or o-rings necessary.
(Actually, after thinking about it, I'm not sure you can get to the return from the throttle body to the block without removing the EXT (middle) manifold but you sure don't need to pull the lower manifold.)

You need to straighten out your gauge situation.
Pull the aftermarket sensor from the TB hose (cause that's a stupid place for it and you're replacing the hose anyway) and install it where the stock sensor goes.
Yes, I'm aware the threads are slightly different (assuming your sensor is standard 1/8 NPT) but it works fine.

Replace your thermostat.

Molotovman

iTrader: (49)

is your air mix motor working?

86rxNa

Most of the time I do hear it moving if I go to cold n back to hot. Thing is when its already on hot and I know I didn't move it I still get the cold air. Yesterday I fixed a leak at the thermostat neck fill spot. Today heat was good. Its so many little things to fix.

86rxNa

That would be nice if I can just hook my aftermarket guage in the stock spot. I assumed it would not work. The Lim gasket is $40 bucks so if I can do it without that's another bonus. I still need to order the 2 hoses so it will be a few days maybe a week before I can install it. Thanks for the help guys.

86rxNa

Is everyone still against the banjo bolt in place of the pd? I bought one since it was so much cheaper option. Any new info from ppl when the pd delete I'd love to hear from you.

Driftology

I have had my pd off for a little while. No issues so far.

86rxNa

Hey Clokker where is that stock sensor located at, is it behind the water pump? I checked the fsm, they probably use different terms. And I went out and changed the fluid. Still no change on temp. The stock sits at half then rises a lil but not past 3/4. the other on is about 180. Also my t stat (mazda oem) is practically brand new. Any way it could be faulty already? I also felt the hoses both were hot, top of rad was hot, heat was hot too but it is 50 degrees today so idk.

86rxNa

I'm almost ready to just buy a new radiator, im starting to think its the problem. It is almost 30 years old...

clokker

iTrader: (2)

The sensor on the wp housing is for the ECU.
The gauge sensor is right by the oil pressure sensor, below the oil filter.

Not sure why you've suddenly decided the rad is the problem, if you have flow through both hoses and the core feels uniformly hot, it's working. A new radiator won't hurt though, so go for it.

Yes, a new thermostat could be bad...it happened to me once.

Really, the FIRST thing you must do is get a reliable gauge in place.
You're getting such widely varying readings it's hard not to suspect the gauge is weird, the engine is fine.
Either way though, data you can (probably) believe in will point the way forward.

Random temp spikes are usually air or thermostat, in my experience.
You shouldn't have air unless you recently breached the system, the recovery tank should purge the loop.

You haven't mentioned what your fan set up is.

86rxNa

Ok I'll see if I can't get that guage switched to the right spot, it should reach to that spot. I have the stock fan and have checked it by giving it a few spins. There was resistance so I figured its ok. I still have air getting in thru the leaks at rear iron to coolant hose so maybe this is giving me weird temp readings. Still learning but its all coming together I feel like I'm on the right track now with everyone's support. I need this fixed anyway since autox starts next month. I can't wait!!!

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Oy vey, I envy you not.
AC and PS...really clutters things up.

86rxNa

lol i know right, I opened the hood of my other 86 today and it has no ps no ac, I was thinking man I forgot how much room there was in there. I want to get back to that car so bad, this one sucks compared to it. I hate pw too. And it has a leaky sunroof...

86rxNa

Still no change on temps with new fluids, just dawned on me the meter fuse is blown and keeps blowing. I read it controls the fan at operating temp. Is this true and what's my way around this? Should I just do the Taurus fan swap? Obviously my next step is getting the other temp guage into the stock spot, I was just thinking ahead because I'm not sure I can figure out why this fuse is blowing. The PO really created me a mess when the rebuilt her.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

You have a mechanical fan...there's no electrical for the fuse to meter.

86rxNa

Ok ty for the info.

satch

iTrader: (1)

Meter fuse powers the auxillary electric fan found on turbos and autos.

86rxNa

Ok so I had to get another guage, its 1/8 npt i think. So problem now is getting the stock sensor off, its not in a great place. the oil sensor kinda blocks it and it seems stuck on there. So I havn't got much further. Did manage to find a hose from the charcol canister going to the oil fill was disconnected. Maybe it was why my oil been looking funny.

86rxNa

So I finally got both the oil and then water senders off. My water sender is the old style w/crush washer and different from my new guage sender which should be 1/8. I did clean both up pretty good and put back in. Then realized the wires to both sensors are jacked up, one cut and the other screwed up at connector. So I'll try to fix them or find a suitable replacement. And that hose from the charcoal cannister goes somewhere in my rats nest in my other s4. The gxl has no rats nest, the oil pedestal didnt have anything hooked up and the charcoal line was just sitting there not hooked up. What hooks to the oil ped with rats nest removed? And what should the left line on the cannister goto now?

86rxNa

So I read more and more and it seems I can leave the oil pedestal open to vent to atmosphere. Still not sure about the cannister lines and where they should go.

DaBrkddy

If you let the oil system vent to atmosphere, you'll likely end up with a mess. I tried a breather filter and the blow-by goes everywhere. If you force it into the charcoal canister, it will fill up with blow-by and begin to vent right next to the exhaust. There is a valve on the rats nest that takes care of this... It's the only part of the rats nest I kept on my car. Basically all the valve does is take the oil system blow-by and vents it into the intake (like a PCV)

86rxNa

This is what comes of my other s4 pedestal is this the part your talking about? And where did you attach it to the intake. Hopefully nothing is there already. And the left side line to the charcoal canister is venting to the atmosphere. Is there somewhere else it should go?

86rxNa

So i took the purge valve hooked the big line to the top port on the oil pedestal. Then took the other 2 lines from the purge valve to the dynamic chamber. And the charcoal cannister port is now to the port on the iron for the oil pedestal or just below it. Does this sound right? I had the slimy stuff in my oil which hopefully will now be gone. Im gonna need to do an oil change again soon to hopefully clean up this mess the PO created. Also I still have no clue what my water temp is which sucks.

86rxNa

The car ran fine with my new vac routing except the high temp on the gauge. If my dam coolant hoses would ever get here I'm going to change them and delete my gauge in the top tb line. I think I'm going to add my new gauge to the hose behind the water pump to bac. Seems like next best spot besides the stock spot or tapping the wp. Once the coolant line on the rear iron is fixed I should see improvement in cooling and my fast idle or aws might work again. Then I should have full pressure with no leaks and can further diagnose from there.