I am new to this rotary thing but have been trying use the forum to help me. I am the new proud owner of an 87 turbo II. The car looks mint and only has 79k on it. Tonight durning some reckless opt. I looked down at the temp guage and saw it was about half way up, so i parked it right away.(read that it should only be 1/4 and that over heating is death to rotary)Waited a couple of mins till it cooled down a bit and then tried to drive away and it started getting hotter(about a little less than 75% up the gauge) I then turned off the car and checked the fluid it was pretty low and had lot of air in the system. I then filled it up,let the car cool down all the way and drove back home. theway backthe car didnt over heat and there were no leaks just the over flow spit some out. Now I know there pretty stricked about over heating and this is the first time its done this. It has never been overheated before I bought the car off the original owner. It doesnt leak a drop of anything. From getting that hott (it didnt shut down or any thing) do you think it messed anything up. After I drove it home it wasnt leaking anything eather. Now I really didnt check the fluid when I first bought it just drove it around and I never did this before.Do you think I just need to flush the radiator and fill it again? Thanks

P.S. car is bone stock what is every thing I would need to keep it safe and push 10psi or around there whatever the car will take with stock motor and turbo

 

check ur fan

 

ok as far as the over heating is conserned I don't think you should be because on the 86 to 88 series 4 rx7's the gauge was pretty good, it was on the s5's where it was a three stage gauge witch basically means if it was above 1/2 way up the gauge your engine was toast. I would probably change my thermostat and get a new radiator cap as well as flush the system really well. As far as the boost is conserned you will need an fcd (fuel cut defender) to guard against your ecu cutting off gas past I believe its 8.6psi. you would also need a fuel pump (walbro 255 on ebay for 88 bucks plus shipping) also a way to tune the fuel like an safc. Once you have these you should be able to boost just fine after tuning. To get you to 10psi you would more than likely need to upgrade your exhaust system and tid but not sure about that maybe just a boost controller would do it for you.

 

i think there should be a thread archived for overheating

 

yeah I agree

 

I've driven the car for hours on the track during the day (1/2-1 hour sessions) and had it at 90% of the way up because the stock cooling system can't handle those situations. While that's probably a stupid thing to do, it proves that a simple overheat like you did probably won't roast the engine.

 

THis is a good thread as a warning to anybody just purchasing a new used car. At the LEAST check all fluids and top off as necessay once you get your new baby home.

But more ideally grind the seller a little harder during purchase (even just 50 or so buck) and do a full tune up, flush and fill, oil and coolant, and some new plugs.

There is no sadder feeling having a car for a week or so and blowing it up for just low oil or coolant cooking the engine. You will not get your money back from anyone in a private sale, especially when it was just as much your fault once you take possesion of the vehicle it becomes your responsibility.

And it does'nt sound like you did any damage to your car since it only went to half way on the not so accurate(but pretty reliable) guage. Just keep an ewye on things for a while and for peace of mind I would like I said do a liquids replacement/tune up if it was me.

 

I have the same car ('cept for an additional 110,000 miles) and had cooling problems - had to replace the radiator to keep it from getting to the top of the gauge. Nothing special, just one which wasn't clogged.

Also, you *really* need to have the splash guard under the engine compartment in place. It is *crucial* to directing the airflow correctly and keeping things cooled properly.

I have driven under varied conditions since the new rad and the temp gauge nearly always reads @ the halfway mark. Rarely below, never above.

That said, my experience (3 RXs and 300,000 miles) is that if you don't go above the top mark on the temp gauge you won't blow the engine.

I had an '88 NA which ruptured the radiator on the highway in July. Temp
skyrocketed too fast to react and the result was no compression on the front rotor.

Previous to that, I had an '87 NA - purchased new - which got to the top mark several times in it's lifetime. It was still running strong at 180,000 miles when it was totaled out by a moron who can't read traffic lights (otherwise, I'd probably still be driving it).

If you've been driving with temp at halfway to 3/4 up the gauge, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

- k -

 

I just put a motor in my S5. The thermostat is a new OEM unit and it doesn't open till the gauge gets 1/2 way! You saying I'm killing my motor?