Sorry I'm new to this site, might have put in wrong section..



I have a 91 FC (mostly stock, but lowering springs and rims and aftermarket exhaust), I'm totally new to rotary, have owned in the past.. I've owned this for 2 years, bought it and sat for those 2 years. I turned it on a week ago to see if it starts, I used Aaron Cakes write up on "removing from storage" it turned on fine, ran until operating temperature, sat steady mid marker on temp gauge, every other gauge looked good, ran pretty rough but stayed on, turned it on every other day after that, I checked fluids, oil was brown gunky stuff so decided to change oil and give coolant flush to get fresh fluids running through system. I changed the oil, no problem. I open all drains for the coolant flush, including the 14 mm block drain under the spark plugs, ran water through all hoses to clean up the brown stuff, I go to change the thermostat and there was no thermostat, just a clear O ring gasket, which I found strange, so I put in a Atkins thermostat and gasket with some RTV sealant, put everything back together, filled with Zerex Asian coolant. Go to start the car and starts pretty rough with white smoke, stalls about 10 seconds later, I restart more white smoke but runs a little longer, I decide not to continue just in case I did something wrong by putting in a thermostat when it didn't have one originally. So questions I have should I start it again? See if smoke clears? Should I take thermostat back off, see if it runs as before? Should there be a little gap on thermostat gasket and block? Coolant seals blown? Why was there brown gunky stuff in oil? Recommend rebuild? I was planning on rebuilding prior to trying to start it, but wanted to see if I can enjoy it before I send it, also can someone recommend a good rotary shop for a rebuild near Chicago?

 

Based on this photo, it looks like coolant is mixing with the oil.

I'd guess that you either have an outer coolant seal compromised on the bottom of the engine, so it is draining into the oil pan, or one of the freeze plugs under the front cover is rusted through causing it to drain into the front cover and then down into the pan. The latter seems more likely. Definitely do not start it again until this is resolved. If someone else knows how coolant and oil can mix in our engines they will probably chime in, but offhand I'm not sure of any other place in the engine where the two fluids will mix.

If you're handy, you can remove the front cover to try and access the freeze plugs, but before you put the cover back on you need to ensure the torrington bearings in the front stack are in place and keep them that way until you torque the front hub bolt back on. Keeping the front-end of the car jacked up higher than the back will help. I recommend grabbing the factory service manual (check the FAQ section) if you decide to do this so you can see the diagram of that section.

 

Thank you for the reply. I'll look more into that.