So I have come to the conclusion that my mazda reman has an o-ring leak
the reman engine has less than 40,000 miles on it - though to be fair it is 7+ years old

I keep the car garaged and it is only driven on the weekends and it is a pampered car
I'm not sure if I should be mad, embarrassed, or mad.

anyway, here are the symptoms, let me know what you think

on a very hot day, 100+ degree, I was driving on the tollway, exited and stopped at a book store

-coming out of the store after 15mins, I noticed a little radiator fluid under the overflow tank
I figured the car had just overheated some and boiled over

-drove 5mins down the road to get some BBQ to go and went inside to order 10mins or so
after getting back in the car and getting to the stop light, coolant buzzer suddenly goes off and
stock temp gauge begins to rise. I immediately pull over and shut the car down and open the hood.

after the car cooled down, an hour or so I filled it up and drove home.
at this time, I am hoping the radiator cap or overflow tank lines are bad.
replaced cap, pulled vacuum on line. everything seemed kosher.

parking the car in the driveway, which is on a small incline, I let the car rest a few days
starting the car up, it was very rough, like an earthquake - at this time I assumed the AWS or something else might be messing up - but looking back, I am quite sure it was a leak inside the combustion chamber


____ episode 2 _____

for the next week or two, the coolant in the car is always a cup low
when starting the car sometimes the coolant buzzer goes off, sometimes not
- at first I assumed there was still air in the system, as I was parking in a slanted parking garage
so I started parking on flat ground and began watching the overflow tank

-all week I kept driving short distances and could not figure out where the cup of water was going. then I began to notice the overflow tank was getting a little higher and higher.

-so I decided to let the car sit a week.
started the car up, and it was thunder mountain all over again.
the car was shaking violently, so I got out and watched the rear muffler
little white chips began shooting out, and then the horror, a small stream of white smoke
so that was the nail in the coffin - if you are missing coolant let your car sit a few days then start it up.


___ conclusion ___

anyway, so does this sound like it is just an o-ring or something much worse?
I plan to do the lightning O-ring fix

but I wanted to do something different
I plan to use the blue devil sealer
and I plan to remove the thermostat first (it is recommended on the blue devil box)

if I have to put a 3rd engine in this car I may consider sending it off to a farm and letting in rot in a field, lol
but let's hope the o-ring fix works. like I said I just cruise around I dont race or anything.
I plan to work on the fix this weekend.

 

The block weld is a hack fix and will cause you more problems than it's worth IMO. You'll never be able to get all that garbage out of your cooling system.

 

yep, it coats the radiator, internal passages, everything! and you can't really get the coating off of everything once it is in there. this reduces cooling system efficiency so... bad idea.

i would prep the engine for storage until you get around to rebuilding it or having it rebuilt. this involves draining the car COMPLETELY of coolant focusing on the block drain at the driver side of the engine, bottom of the middle iron.

remove the EGI fuse and crank the engine over for about a minute or so to evacuate any coolant from the chambers.

remove the spark plugs and crank it again for about 30 seconds. add about a teaspoon of 2 stroke oil to each leading/bottom spark plug hole, reinstall the plugs and turn the engine over for about 3 seconds.

done.

 

well, other than the engine - which is already bad - is there anything worth protecting?

I don't think this will have any effect on the turbos and I am not worried about a radiator
maybe I can bypass the heater core on the engine firewall side?

I dont mind pulling the engine, but is it worth tearing down to fix a single water seal?
it just doesn't seem worthwhile.
in a few years I would just throw another reman in
I heard they discontinued 13b remans, but 13brew should still be available?

I do have one thing to say though, people with major clogging problems probably don't follow directions well.
when this stuff touches antifreeze, before being warmed, it immediately coagulates and forms a jelly goo that will clog. I was searching videos on youtube and one guy was asking if he could skip straight to step 3 and poor it in without draining the coolant. Also, looking at threads on this very forum, one other guy did it as well...

anyway, right now, I am in a die or die situation
my significant other will not be pleased if I do another engine replacement so soon

my other option is to sell the car - as is -
would that be best to cut my losses and find someone who is willing to pull the engine?

 

I'm not a big fan of mazda reman's. I blew my reman within 18 months and less then 8k, an apex seal on rotor #2 went. I'd say, f you are up to the challenge, pull the engine yourself and rebuild it yourself with pineapple racing water seals and I'd change the rest of the seals as well while in there. Have a pro port it out the housings and you put it back together yourself. or crate it and mail it to a good builder. I've spent well over 21k on my rx7 including the purchase of the car, so I refuse to sell it and take a loss, I'll just keep it forever. lol

 

Hi potatochobit,

I agree with the advice that's posted above.

Best thing that you can do is pull the motor and do a proper rebuild. Prep the car for storage if need be. I've heard nothing but bad things about Mazda Remans.

I sympathize with your situation. I bought my first FD for $12K and had to rebuild the motor right out of the gate. I ran the car with the block sealer (using the procedure that you provided a link to) for about two months. Rob at Pineapple couldn't tell (I asked) this when he rebuilt the motor but I still think that it was the wrong thing to do. My cabin heater (small radiator) never seemed to work after the block sealer and I ended up replacing the brand new aluminum radiator as the cooling system wasn't running as efficiently as it should.

Hmm ... maybe you need to score some points with your significant other first before you start pulling the motor. Sigh ... something else to add to the rebuild budget ... flowers, jewelry, dinners out ...

James

 

mazda remans aren't notorious for being the most well assembled units, the main pro that people look toward them for is that almost all remans come with new housings, housings cost about $750 each which total $1500 for an engine rebuild. while it's not necessary to replace the housings it is more desirable as you get better compression results for longer with new housings.

you can comprehensively rebuild the engine by just replacing the coolant seals and oil control seals but it is still strongly recommended to replace the apex seals/springs as well, similar to changing brake rotors while leaving your brake pads with 30% life left back onto the car they won't seat properly to the new rotors and will wear out prematurely. most rebuilders sway away from comprehensive rebuilds and have a set list of rebuild components and prices. none of us want to deal with premature engine failures due to low budget builds.

so you have 2 choices as you mentioned, sell the car as is or convince the wife to allow you to have it rebuilt.

block weld may work but it's only temporary and just causes other issues which will cost more money in the long run.