What exactly is overheated?
 

A few weeks ago for some reason my car was running better than normal, accellerating faster than normal, so I was kinda hard on her and blew a hose (The one above the engine that goes into the fire wall) so it was no biggie to replace. When it happened I was at a red light about 3 blocks from home, by the time I got home the temp needle was about a ¼ inch from the H line. Never had it that hot before. Is this overheating, or will the car just die when it overheats, because three weeks later, the car feels gutless. Are these two problems just a coincidence, or did the first cause the latter?

?

well...
 

If the hose blew and you continued to drive it home then it is a possiblity that you may have overheated and warped a seal or housing a bit...

If the hose was blown you can't trust your temp gauge, air going by it etc. can throw it off (not to mention coolant temps skyrocket once you get air in there).

You might be ok, if it runs you are probably safe, if you are really skeptical you could always get a compression test done and know for sure...

Take off the radiator cap and start her up
 

If you get bubbles, lots of bubbles, or the water practically explodes out of the cooling system, then you have blown your water seals, and its time for a rebuild.

If the water displays no bubbles, or nothing that you can readily recognise as a stream of obvious bubbles, then you are probably OK, for now - count yourself as very lucky.

Overheating a rotary is never, ever a good thing and it is likely you will have problems in the near future. Overheating causes housings to warp, and coolant seal failure is almost inevitable over time.

I would immediately inspect and/or replace your temperature sensors, since a bad (previous owner had simply not bothered to connect it) temp sensor led me to blow my engine with very similar symptoms to what you describe.

I was driving it along, then i felt a slight change in the throttle response - I didn't think about it at the time, but about 50kms of highway driving later, the temp gauge just went straight up and pinned itself at 'H', this was after all the water had been ejected from the cooling system. I guess there must be some other secondary temp sensor which only works under 'extreme' conditions.

Pulled her over into a gas station, tried to refill the cooling system, but the water was simply being blown out faster than it could be poured in.

Engine was toast, water all through it. pronounced DOA on delivery to mechanic, new engine dropped in.

Let me tell you that sucked worse than anything i've felt short of waking up to find someone had stolen my 7.

This is not what you want to hear, but it is the sad truth. If you have blown your engine, I feel your pain, and hope you get your car back on the road ASAP.

same thing happened to me ...currently changing the engine.....take his advice and do the water thing!!

well on my old 87 TII i have an oily looking substance in my rad....could my coolant seals be blown or is this just some crud from a 16 year old radiator...it seems to come back after i half ass flush the coolant(opening water pump cap and radiator cap and shoving a hose on fullblast into the waterpump hole) what could this stuff be?

it looks sorta like cappachino

yum

yeah the motor is screwed anyways so im parting it out...i got an 88 TII now anyways

all this overheating talk make me want to go get a new oem thermosat.

how much is an oem thermostat? where is a good pleace to get one? how hard is it to install?

Its hard to tell with the stock gauge.

You are more or less fine as long as the coolant does not boil. When its not boiling, it can still transfer the heat from the housings....

I can see temperatures as high as 225F while lapping on a road course, and my car is just fine. So, it does take quite high coolant temperatures to overheat the car...

what should the idoit gauge normally read...its usually about halfway for me...and creeps up at a stop or low speeds...is this normal....i have a 91...n/a

Over 240 degrees for more than a couple of minutes, and bye bye engine. Housings can warp... seals can seperate and burn up (specifically coolant).... since the coolant is now boiling, it can no longer transfer heat, and just builds up pressure... so it goes up exponentially from there...

I just got my FC should i change the Temp sensor??
 

I just got my FC should i change the Temp sensor?? I am going to change all my themostat and radiator caps but did i need to change my temp sensor?? I think the sensor is working good right now. By the way is there a way to drain the block of the old coolet?? The is my last question. HOw many hose are there for the radiator + heater hose?? Thank you in advance :cool:

okay...240 degrees is bad, but i have the stock gauge...it doesn't read numbers...what should it be at normally