I just finished putting in my power fc and got back to my garage after a test drive. As I was sitting in the garage I revved the car up to feel the differences in the car. After revving it up a few times I started to see smoke. Then I opened the hood and smoke from burning coolant was everywhere. I looked on the floor and saw all of my coolant spilling out into a big puddle on the floor. I am scared to try and start up the car. I am pretty sure that I don't have any more coolant in the car casue there was so much spilling out of the car onto the garage floor. I know that the pfc is not the problem cause the car was running fine before I brought it back home. I have been experiencing minor overheating problems for the last few months. Nothing major, just over average temperature readings. After seeing the smoke, my temperature gauge read just under the top hash mark. I have heard about stock AST's blowing, but I looked at mine and it doesn't seem like its leaking. What do I do now??????? Please help.....

 

sounds like your radiator hose burst. You probably overheated your engine and need a rebuild...tow it to a rotary shop at the very least

 

Fill it up and pressure test it, the coolant will come out wherever it is leaking.

 

When you say above average readings is that on the stock temp gauge or an aftermarket one? Its worse if its the stock gauge cause that doesn't move until its fairly hot. If you damaged the engine from that the coolant should have been coming out of the overflow bottle. Do you have a stock AST? That could have broken also.When it cools try filling up. Maybe it'll leak then and you can trace the leak maybe. Otherwise you'll need to buy a pressure tester ($70) or have it towed to a shop and use theirs.

If the leak is just a hose or something simple like that, have it fixed and do a pressure test again and if it doesn't drop you may still have a good motor. In the future, keep an eye on the coolant level and overflow bottle level. If they start dropping a lot and you don't see a leak then you may have a warped housing causing a coolant leak.

 

I will go and check all of the hoses and see if their is a leak. I have the stock ast on the car. A few days ago I tried to check the level of the coolant with the dipstick in the overflow tank. It was a little low, so I poured some coolant in. However, the coolant leaked out under the car. Is it possible that I have a leak in the overflow tank or in a hose coming from the overflow tank? The leak comes from the passenger side right below the overflow tank.

I think my motor may be gone. I was taking my temp readings off of the stock gauge. I know that it is not as precise as an aftermarket one, so my car must have been pretty hot. I hope I don't need a new motor. Thanks. for all of your help. If anyone has anything to add to this, please help me out. I am going to check to see what and where the coolant is leaking from and I'll post what I find. Thanks again.

 

One of the nipples on the AST was broken, but I'm not sure if this is the only problem. I thought the AST usually explodes if it fails. Please correct me if I am wrong. Any more information that would help my situation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

After inspecting all the hoses, you may want
to test your thermostat. How old is it?

 

I dont know how old the thermostat is, but I might as well change it along with all of the hoses. It looks pretty old and I don't thin the previous owner changed it recently. Does anyone know how many hoses there are in the coolant system? What else should I check besides the radiator, hoses, AST, and thermostat? How would I check where the leak is? Should i just poor water through the system and see where it is leaking out of? Thanks, I'm kinda mechanically challenged so please forgive me.

 

well the same thing just about happend to me except i was driving. the hoes that usually breaks is the upper radiator hose. it is right below the stock airbox. another way is to follow the bottom of the filler neck down, my split wasnt visable that way though. i would really make sure you get coolant to hold in the system before you start your engine up again... and maybe... you were luck enough not to damage anything.

 

Was your motor okay? That is my main concern right now. I hope that the engine is not damaged. I have not been able to start the car up because I do not have any coolant in the system right now. I'm just hoping right now that its just a minor hose problem.

 

I hate to say this, but from your descriptions,
it appears you had a bad thermostat which caused
the engine to overheat. On top of that, your
plastic tank has a hole in it.

If you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself,
find a rotary mechanic you can trust to replace
the 'stat and hoses and pressure test.

Since you have overheated, keep a very close
eye on the coolant at the filler neck when the
engine is cold and monitor your coolant usage.
If you're consistently losing coolant, it's
bye-bye engine, hello rebuild.

 

i had almost a similar situation i was drv and my add coolant light
lit up dropped all of my coolant replaced my water pump.before that when i got home i tried adding coolant in the overflow tank.
but it would always drop from the passangers side front (under the tank).my mechanic told me that the overfolw tank should never be full.thats why it is spitting it out.now i know and aint having anymore problems
p.s also had bad thermostat

 

i had almost a similar situation i was drv and my add coolant light
lit up dropped all of my coolant replaced my water pump.before that when i got home i tried adding coolant in the overflow tank.
but it would always drop from the passangers side front (under the tank).my mechanic told me that the overfolw tank should never be full.thats why it is spitting it out.now i know and aint having anymore problems
p.s also had bad thermostat

 

efini,

yeah my motor was fine... i was almost for sure i damaged something after i got it all back together and started it up it had the roughest idle ive ever hurd. it was putting, smoking, lumpy, backfiring but it all cleared up in like 5 minutes when the coolant ran through the system and I havent had a problem since *knock on wood*

 

oh forgot to add... if you get the coolant system fixed its going to need to be "burped." Basicly fill the coolant up, run your car untill the coolant light comes on, turn it off, fill the coolant up, repeat (I didn't think it would guzzle that much coolant but it did, just so you dont think there is a problem). After that hopefully there isnt any coolant pouring out. If it all seems to be fine just bring some coolant with you when you drive and the next three times your motor is cold refill it before you drive

I am pretty sure its relatively the same problem I had. I remember I had a boost problem that I partialy fixed so my mazda reman didn't see those higher RPMs till after that. Sure enough the hose was old and maybe had a pinhole in it. Coudln't stand up to the higher pressure, like your situation. I was just driving in traffic and the buzzer went off then I saw my temp gauge rising. I pulled off asap, turned off the engine, and let the fans run. When I put any coolant in the neck it all poured out a second later right by the passenger side.

heres a pic of the hose, you can see how close it is to the overflow tank.

 

I hope that I am as lucky as you were. Thanks for all of your help. I just hope that my car turns out ok.

 

I had a similar situation over at the Tustin Market Place, when my AST split. I did the AST bypass, then filled with redline and distilled water, slowly, to burp the system. My light and buzzer came on and everything but my engine has been fine. Don't sweat it too much, until you fix the leak, dosen't sound like you got it too hot, if the light/buzzer didn't go off. If you don't relly feel comfortable call up Nick at Rotary Reliability and racing. He's in Santa Ana off Harbor. IMHO he is one of the best specialty mechanics I have ever had work on any of my cars. If you need his phone # or any help let me know.
mike@ucsbalum.com

 

i think the light and buzzer goes off when the coolant level is low, regardless of the water temp. his probably lit up and buzzed like a ************, if the coolant so low because it was flowing down onto the ground.

 

efinirx7- There are 14 coolant hoses, if you are going to replace them all. Seems I paid about $180 total for them thru Mazdatrix. You were remarking that you thought that when the AST would go, it would burst. Yours is just as dead, if one of the hose nipples broke off. The AST is under pressure, so any leak will shoot the coolant all over the engine. The other posts describe basically what you need to do. Replace the AST with an aluminum one from Pettit or one of the other aftermarket vendors first. If you are going to replace the coolant hoses, that is not a bad idea, but it sounds like your main problem was the AST. Probably good to also change the thermostat. You may want to remove the black plastic inner fender liner on the passenger side to inspect your coolant overflow tank. It also is easier to replace the hose to the overflow tank with the fender liner removed. Make sure the inner siphon tube goes to the bottom of the tank and fits tightly. If it is loose, it will allow the coolant to go into the overflow tank, but will suck air and not draw the coolant back into the engine when you turn the car off and it cools down. You won't know if the engine coolant o-rings are bad until you get your external leaks fixed, so you can do a pressure hold test (this should be done with the engine both when it is hot and when it is cold) and the exhaust-gas-in-coolant test. You may be fortunate that they are still intact. Hope they are. I went thru this about a year ago and while you can nurse the motor along for a while, sooner or later you will have to have it rebuilt.

 

U might wanta check out the evans cooling sys. stuff. AFTER U GET IT FIXED. There is a post on it somewhere. just dont have the link. But it allows u to run a 0psi sys. so you dont have to worry bout things exploding. Just my .02 worth