*n00b alert*

Alright, I'm going to try to make a long story short so bear with me here.....
I have an 87 non-turbo that had a cracked water pump housing. Since it was a bit of a suprise to find out that it was broken it, took me a couple of weeks or so to track down a new part. So, after the car sat apart for awhile my housing arrived, I put everything back together and now it dosen't run worth a ****. (at least my coolant leak is gone) I have to tow the car and bump start it to get it running and it has no power once it does. Also, there is a strange 'tick' coming from the exaust manifold area at idle. I had my mechanic do a compression check and he said it indicated a bad side seal in one of the rotors. My question is: How does a engine that ran beautifully before suddenly grenade itself after a water pump replacement? I've been wracking my brain over that question for some time now and have failed to come up with any good answer. Please Help!

-Evan

 

Perhaps something got 'stuck', or locked up when the motor sat?

I don't know man, that sucks...

Try putting some ATF in the spark-plug holes and turning the motor over/cranking to see if you can 'loosen' the seal (if it is stuck?)... This is a stretch, but maybe you had some carbon build-up, and with the car not running, it got locked in place...?

Just throwing a random, n00b guess in the air...

 

Hmm, haven't tried that yet,
I'll give it a go in the morning.

Thanks

 

where did you go for the compression check? most mechanics dont know their leading from trailing so make sure you at least take it to the mazda dealer or something. my guess is coolant seal, with a cracked pump you were not making any pressure. with the new one you have a lot of pressure so now it could be pumping coolant into the engine. are you loosing coolant or smoking? or bubbles in the coolant?

 

I went to my local mechanic to have the car checked out, I doubt they're experts with rotarys...
The engine runs really rough, almost like its 'camming' out at idle. That said, the engine doesn't smoke nor does it appear to be losing coolant.
I noticed the engine starts to run slightly better when it gets really hot. I'm hoping this is because of the bad seal expanding with heat. But if that is the case it would probably smoke excessively. Right?

 

My motor destroyed itself sitting in a parking lot, Hecubus. I still don't know exactly how it happened, but it ran well when I went into a bar one night. When I came out, it had trouble starting, and ended up starting on only one rotor. Somehow I blew an apex seal (if not all 3 of them) with the engine sitting still. Don't ask me how it happened, but the compression numbers don't lie. Go figure. A coolant seal would probably make you're exhaust smoke with coolant... so I'm going with the freak blown apex seal. Lemme know if you figure it out.