Hi guys, its been about 2 weeks since i got my 86 n/a GXL after i had a previous accident with my FB.

before i bought the car everything checked out fine. compression was 110 across the board that was confirmed by a few friends who know more about rotary than i. and after getting the car i gave it a once over and found a small circular sticker on the front cover that i could faintly read that said "Mazda Remanufactured" so apparently it has a reman engine but its unknown of its mileage as the guy i bought it from had no clue..... on the odo it read 192,xxx miles

in my attempt to get the car up to shape for daily driving duties i first flushed the coolant and put in a new 50/50 mix. i was planning on getting a new tstat and changing the oil, oil filter and spark plugs, but funds were very low and only had enough cash to pay insurance, gas for 2 weeks, and tax, and registration

i was planning on getting everything else once i got paid again which is next week.

what happened today was i just fixed my drivers side headlight from being stuck due to a bad motor.


i then just relaxed and went to the movies with my cousin and brother leaving my car at home.


once i got home i went to grab some chinese in the GXL and i could smell a faint burning. i didnt pay any mind to it. about 1/4 -1/2 mile later my add coolant light came on very briefly and then went away.... i thought to myself..... "**** i smelled something burning too" i hurried up to the parking lot which was 1/4 mile away with the heater on blast with thankfully no traffic. i looked at the temp gauge and it read normal.

during this time driving the car felt very low on power and i normally stay in 4th on the road i drive with plenty of pep. but today it felt wayy low on power in 4th.

as soon as i entered the parking lot i coasted into a spot and as soon as i slowed down i say steam and smelled something burning almost like a wire was cooking.


immediately as i smelled the bad burnt smell i shut the car off. and popped the hood. not the brightest idea but if the car was on fire i wouldve been SOL anyway cause there wasnt any extinguisher nearby nor would the fire dept be fast enough.


anyway as i popped the hood i got a rush of steam and some kind of burning smell.
after it cleared i saw that coolant was sprayed everywhere and the apparent burning smell was the coolant that got onto the exhaust manifold.
i kept checking for various signs of a blown hose and immediately after looking closer to the exhaust mani i felt something lose.... when i looked at where i put my hand i kinda had a rush of fear cause i saw that the cap on the tstat housing was very loose....

my only reasoning behind this loose cap was that i somehow inadvertently unscrewed the cap when making sure everything was good on the motor as i had also fixed a split power steering line a few days earlier and i was checking for any new leaks.



i called my mom to bring my 2 gallons of distilled water that was in the garage and while i was waiting for her i kept looking at the engine hearing for anything else.

well once my mom came i put in a little over 1/2 gallon of water in and started the car with the heater back on full blast. i poured the rest of the gallon in and put the cap back on. and with the other gallon i poured it over the engine getting rid of the coolant that sat in some places.

i went to get the food and went home as fast as i could.

all the while the car felt very low on power.

i got home ate and after about an hour after that episode i went to the car to start it. starts up fine but idles very, very low almost like its going to stall. i give it some gas and sounds and feels like it has a bad hesitation.


while going home i stared at the temp gauge and it stayed normal as well but a lil bit lower as i still had the heater on.

the car came with a cheap-o autozone filter.
could i have cracked an iron or blown a coolant seal? is it possible that some of the overflowing coolant went into the motor fouling the plugs?

i'd really hate to have this happen to me right now as im trying to save cash to start school in the fall and i dont make much cash working for the city as it is.


any thoughts?

im going to get new plugs, and refill with coolant tomorrow after work. i'll let you know what the morning startup results are.


BTW, any one selling a good condition S4 N/A block in case i need a rebuild. i cant afford a rebuild cost wise and time wise so if i need a rebuild i'd rather get another block and keep downtime to a minimum



any feedback is very much appreciated

 

well this morning was fairly uneventful(literally)

warm-up didnt reach 3k rpm, more like 2.5 and when the a/c was turned on, there was no change in idle.
so i carefully drove the car to work and when at a stop sign when the a/c engaged the idle went very low and was lopey from 300-800rpm. i was only 3 blocks away from work so i quickly got there.

once i got into a parking space, with the car idling, i smelled a faint burning and sounded like air blowing out somewhere in bursts. i popped the hood and saw smoke coming from out of the passenger side corner of the engine. i'm thinkin its the exht. manifold is cracked or something. it smells like exhaust, kinda makes my eyes water and the smoke is too faint to tell the color.

the idle would raise and then i would hear the air "whoosh" after that for about a second.


while driving the car it does feel really low on power, instead of giving 1/4 throttle to get moving i have to use 1/2 to 3/4 throtlle just to not **** off the people behind me cause im moving too slow. i was constantly checking my temp and oil pressure gauges and nothing was out of the ordinary; everything was normal.


could it be that the stock exhaust maniflold cracked and the reason for the low power is lack of backpressure?

im going to get a compession test this afternoon.

 

Clogged cats?

 

hmm.... that might be a possibility. the day i got the car i revved it just a few times and since it has an ebay/muffler shop special the exhaust popped and right after i saw flakes coming in that looked like the matrix material.

i really have no way of gutting it cause its welded from the back of the stock manifold, to what appears is the stock cat, into a pipe and then $20 muffler.

but i'd also hate to spend cash getting the exhaust cut up and rewelded with flanges put on only to find out it didnt help. whats a good way to better determine that my cat is clogged?

the car does sound a bit raspy now after the incident

 

ok, i took a lunch break and i popped the hood with the car idling to look for the "whoosh" sound.

it sounded like it was coming from the AFM so i took off the cheap autozone cone filter and sure enough i saw the door opening and closing. i think when the coolant overflowed out some actually got in the AFM and somehow messed it up.

how can i fix it?

i do have an AFM from my wrecked GSL-SE that i can temporarily put on. is that ok to do?

 

once i got home today i popped the hood again and i saw the same smoke from before, except i can clearly see its coming from the exhaust manifold.

also when i turn on the a/c the idle doesnt go up, it stays the same

i had to keep giving the car throttle at stop lights to keep it steady at 1k rpm or it would stall or jsut have a very low and lopey idle
while driving i have to rev it to 4-5k to get up to speed and when i shift the car backfires

im convinced my cat is clogged but iono.... i revved it while looking at the 6 port actuators and they move freely and work fine......


it might be something far worse or not.

i really need some help here, i've been having nothing but bad luck here. and after today im not going to be driving the car to risk anymore potential and catastrophic damage to the engine


mazda quoted me $2,621 for a reman without core. with my core i would get $1k back so essentially $1,621 and i checked for this on a worse case scenario.

if it is clogged cats which i might be sure about, i called RB for a full exhaust and it comes out to $1,021