i know guys all i realy do is ask questions but im leraning very quickly so it shouldnt be to many more coming from me im just relativly new at this whole rotary thing ...... so neways the question is ... what is normal operating temp ... im asking for a numbver of reasons ...... one being my car has shown me to different operating temps .... one of course being higher than the other .. althoe my temp gauge has never reached half yet ,,, witch i think is a good thing .... however i prefer to see it running much colder when i first bought the car i drove it home and it ran at about 1/4 on the temp gauge but some nights when i dirve it inner city its running much closer to half on the gauge ... and im wondering y this is .... or if that sort of variance is normal?.... can somone pls help me .... oh .. and im also thinking of converting to an electric fan .... so ... i kinda need to know normal op temp to set the thermostat relay ... big expensive fan lol ... gunna run me like 400 cdn neways any help would be greatly appreciated thnx

 

why worry about it if its under half? that should be about normal temperature about 1/4 is mine n it never goes up only 1 time on a big radiator leak when my water pump didnt work..went to 3/4ths n was boiling the radiator fluid for 2 hours straight when i let it cool off

 

that seems normal. Though the stock fan pulls enough air through BOTH the a/c condenser THEN the radiator to keep you cool. If you want a cheaper alternative to the e-fan, pull the a/c and its condenser, ive seen nothing but 1/4 of the guage since i did the pull.

 

thnx spiffyd and u ask y i worry.... well to be honest with u .... im a 19 year old kid with a low paying job and a high priced car kinda silly i know but its actualy been a dream car of mine ...... and well i want it to stay running as well as possible .. and well i dunno im broke and cat afford a new engine so i dont want to fry the apex seals on this one ya know?..... do u know of any way to keep it running as cold as possible?... perhapd removing the thermostat?.... or putting a lower temp one?... or would that damage it?

 

yeah first rotary exp i have pulled the ac compressor ... i recently replaced the upper rad hose and i havnt seen it over 1/4 untill i had a crack in the upper hose but when i replaced it it ran cooler but then started heating up again .... i dont get it ... crazy rotary engines

 

Have you pulled the condenser. It sits in front of the radiator....you have to pull your radiator out to get to it. Be sure to clean your radiator good while its out too. I had a tone of garbage between the condenser and teh radiator. If i was wanting to get any colder id put the e-fan on it too...but only if you wanted to run uber cold.

 

dont worry im 16 researching on rotarys doing reports my dram cars a FD with a 20b swap from racingbeat.com boosting at 35 PSI put some slicks on go to the track... either that or a turbo charged highabusa... lol but ya you seriously dont gotta worry about overheating problems iwth it unless you make relaly big modifications then i would probably suggest to get a E-fan and a bigger radiator just incase.. but you cant really help blowing a apex seal unless you dont force it or floor it right? dont worry about things take it easy save money for the turbo upgrade

 

Um...

If it stays below half, that's perfectly fine. Normal highway running on a S4 is 1/4th, half is OK in city stuff, and if it gets up to 3/4ths, crank the heater and back off (or find out what the problem is).

If you want to throw money at what isn't a problem, replace the thermostat. It should be fine - the NAs have more than enough cooling to stay fine.

Too cold is actually just as bad (if not worse) for an engine than a bit warm. If the engine is never allowed to warm up, the ECU will stay in cold start mode, and flood the engine with gas, killing fuel economy and leaving a lot of excess gas roaming around to wash the oil away from the apex seals.

It's not broke. Don't fix it.

-=Russ=-

 

See my previous post. You want it running at a normal temperature. Too cold will cause problems, including increased carbon buildup (which can lead to a blown apex seal).

Removing the thermostat on a '7 can cause overheating problems. There are some people who do it, but it messes with the coolant flow and is generally a bad idea. If you want to remove the thermostat, just pull the old one, cut the core out, and put the flange back in. However, it's a bad idea. Replace it with a Mazda OEM thermostat if you're concerned.

-=Russ=-

 

or dont do anything to it

 

if it runs well now and you're not having any problems, drive only as hard as your wallet can fix it, turn down the stereo once a day and listen to your car, keep track of gas mileage (this can tell you ALOT), and check the oil everytime you fill up(MOST IMPORTANT), change oil every 2,500-3,000(Duh) sit back, relax, and stop worrying about your car.

 

thnx a bunch guys ur input is so much helpful i guess im a little to nervous it being my baby and all i come from a very broken type home and well ive had to work very hard to get where i am and it would be a total shame if ya know i couldnt drive my car ..... just cuz it over heated lol .. sorry for the sob story but hey ... it helps some times when somone else knows where ur coming from ... so thnx again everyone and happy motoring to all

 

I would suggest paying some attention to the cooling system. The most common cause of overheating is coolant loss.

The coolant line running from the firewall to the driver's side under the oil filter is a common line to go bad. If it has more than 100k miles on it, it's going to fail, probably soon.

I would suggest replacing all the coolant lines on the car. Mazdatrix has the more obscure ones (like that molded one mentioned above), or you can get creative with stock 90 degree bent pipes & couplers.

Once you've replaced the hoses thermostat, and flushed the coolant (side effect of doing the hoses), the cooling system should be in pretty good shape for several years.

-=Russ=-