I just got a 1986 GXL 2+2 that had been sitting with minor body damage (Bumper skin, driver's fender, driver's door) and hadn't run in a few years...

Towed it home two days ago and last night, topped up the oil and coolant, shot a bit of MMO in the leading plug holes per each rotor face, turned it over with the power steering belt a few times... Then popped in a fresh battery and fired that puppy up on the first few cranks.

Temp comes up nice and it holds a good 800 RPM idle, freerevs smoothly, and the shift bushings seem tight... All the preliminaries are good. Damn 6 ports are stuck though.


Anywho, there are some weirdnesses about this car that I haven't seen on any other car...


Coolant reservoir is near the battery, between the leading coil pack and the fuse block... And it's supposed to be there, it has lines molded into it to hold the plug wires and everything... There's black plastic up in front of the radiator support where I'm used to seeing these...

Also, the power steering pump looks way different than any other FC pump I've seen.


Manufacture date is October 1985.

Why were these changes made and what other weirdness will I find in the car?

 

is this car possibly from Canada or some other country? that would make sense to me..they do weird stuff to Canadian spec cars to meet regulations..

 

Nope, single owner car. He bought it in the area new in fall of 1985 and dealer maintained since.

(It's so refreshing to see the underside... Not a single dent in the frame rails or pinch weld.)

 

The early 86 cars did have the coolant reservoir by the coil packs. I have seen an 86 model car like that. I thought I remember Icemark (RIP) posting about how there were some reported coil problems with the coolant reservoir there or something, so mazda moved it.