I have gotten to the place in my build that I have to make a pretty big/expensive decision. When I bought my car I noticed maybe every 3-4 times I start the car when its hot I will get a puff of white smoke but it never smokes any other time.

I do also notice that the coolant level does slowly go down over time but nothing huge. The engine is a rebuild with about 1k miles on it. The prior owner had it replaced but I have no invoices, just the tag on the block:



Now for the question, can I buy just a seal kit? And which seals would need to be replaced if I break the engine apart? I dont think I need the apex or corner seals. With that said I think as long as I have it apart I might as well replace the oil control rings... but I dont know if I need it. Any advice would help.

Thanks!

 

If you are losing coolant and there are no external leaks, you are burning it. Most likely the motor was overheated or the coolant seals were not correctly installed during the rebuild, or you have a warped rotor housing. Before you do anything I would pressure test the cooling system and see where the coolant is going. A proper rebuild replaces ALL the seals, springs, gaskets, and orings. If all of these were replaced 1000 miles ago, you can get away with a close up kit (coolant seals, dowel pin orings,, tension bolt orings, etc) providing nothing is damaged. Some people chose to reuse stuff and the motor will never make as much compression, be down on power, and won't least nearly as long as a proper build.

 

Tag look like it has a date stamp of 3/03? Maybe I'm mistaken though?

Anyways, if you happen to have your manifold removed look inside the housings with a flashlight to see if any coolant is there. A buddy has the same problem, but found once he had removed the manifold and looked inside the housings there was coolant sitting in the rear housing.

 

How sure are you that the engine is only 1 year old? The re-manufacture tag has 3/03 stamped on it. You could call Mazda's customer service number 1 (800) 222-5500. Give the nice lady the serial number she may be able to look it up.

 

I know sometimes it is hard to spend money but money spent on a quality rebuild now will be money saved in the future. I would imagine that the price of engine rebuilds and related parts will only go up especially as parts become discontinued.

Also there is a pretty good amount of information that shows the quality of the new and reman engines from Mazda. If you havent seen it I think you'll be surprised. There are some threads on here about it and I think there are some pictures and info on IRPs website as well.

 

I'm guessing that motor was a reman at one point then was rebuilt. Looks too dirty to have 1000 miles on it. New remans are iffy but its still the best way to get all the hard parts to do a solid build. New housings alone make it worth it. I like to open them up, check everything, and put them back together. This is a perfect time to port the motor, upgrade the apex seals, or add reliability mods like coolant and oil passage modifications.

 

Bad coolant seals are the most commonly misdiagnosed issues on the FD. If the coolant level is the same every time than it is probably just the expansion / contraction of hot / cold liquids and parts.

Could also be a leak from a tired coolant hose or clamp. Try doing a cooling system pressure test to find any leaks. It's not easy to find leaks but the pressure test helps. The local auto parts store should have a radiator / cooling system pressure tester you can rent.

 

^ Could not agree more. YouTube videos have a lot to do with this.

We have a car in the shop right now with an original 30K miles, that the owner brought to us for a rebuild due to a self diagnosed bad coolant seal. After a few minutes of inspecting the car, we determined there was no coolant seal issue, but there was a bad fan motor and one of the fans had broken off and was laying on the radiator, causing the car to run hot.

If the car is not expelling coolant into the overflow tank when it is shut down(then onto the ground), not over heating after going into boost and not running on one rotor at start up when cold, then chances are the coolant seals are fine.

Bad coolant seals are more typically collapsed retaining walls, that allow the seal to pop into the coolant channel, allowing coolant into the engine when off and exhaust into the coolant system when running.



There is also the extremely overheated engine that literally melts the coolant seals in the channels. This will exhibit the same symptoms as the failed coolant seal retaining wall.

 

What is the proper way to diagnose a coolant seal failure? Besides the youtube video

Some that I've always looked/heard:
Champagne bubbles on engine rev with a properly burped system.
Loss of coolant
hydrocarbon test in coolant
Pressure test

 

Wow,

Thank you everyone for all of the information, sorry it took so long for me to get back on here to follow up.

The prior owner stated that he bought the car in 2007 with a "new fresh reman" in the time he had the car I can confirm with CarFax and title docs that he put just under 700 miles on it from 07-June 14 when I bought it. With that being said, he did not know much at all about the car and you could tell he was just telling me what he was told. I assume this engine really has quite a few more miles than he let on.

I am going to tear it down and decide what to do from there. He also told me it was street ported but I am starting to question that. The only thing I can verify it that it was tuned in 2012 on E85 at 505RWHP.

Again thank you all for your help!

 

Get a coolant system pressure tester like this. Doesn't have to be SnapOn but this is the one I use in the shop. There are other situations where coolant will be pushed into the overflow and not drawn back such as a leak somewhere. The system relies on a vacuum to be drawn as the car cools to draw coolant from the overflow back into the motor. If there is a pinhole leak somewhere the coolant won't be recovered and the system will eventually run low. Make sure there are no leaks. Fix any if there are. Test the coolant caps. Make sure the fans work.

 

^ I would do something like that but the engine is already out of the car for other work I have been doing.

 

imo, since its out, you may as well pull the engine apart and inspect everything, and minimum you replace the water seals/o rings/etc.

the Mazda remans were not known for quality.... they spray paint over oil