Hydouken- glad to see your cooling system working. This is a good thread for everyone to read with cooling problems. It's good to see so many people fixing their cooling problems before they become MAJOR and cause melt downs.

eric

 

Yes it is nice to have my car running back to normal. Now I can continue to modify it even more. I agree Hapa that this is a great thread for cooling problems.....and after all the things I have replaced and checked on my personal car, I feel like an expert
But I do have one thing to say.....just because you have cooling probems or losing coolant DOESN"T MEAN YOUR ENGINE HAS BAD COOLANT SEALS!!!!!!!!!! This is the last thing you suspect if something is wrong with the coolant........unless you have soo much smoke that you can't even see your tail lights. Then and only then would you suspect a coolant seal gone bad as your first guess. But replace all the less expensive parts first before the expensive ones(motor)

 

i have a new thermostat and was wondering if anyone had installation instructions? or is it just better to pay the $200 for a mechanic to do it.....

 

Just remove the air pump belt and the upper radiator hose. Then remove the water pump pulley in prder to reach the last bolt which is behind there. Simply just remove the neck which is held on by four bolts I think and then slide the old thermostat out and replace it with the new one. Be sure to add a little water/coolant to the new seal and then just reinstall everything. It won't take any longer than 20 minutes tops.

 

If the water pump IS leaking what is best approach?

Napa $120

Mazda $240

or... does someone make a high performance water pump for the FD? thanks guys!

 

You can buy the stock mazda pump for $65 from mazdaformance.com (link up above). You also need the gasket, and should change the thermostat if it hasn't been done lately. The most tricky part is the belt should be loose, but not that it slips. It's hard to get the tension just right, you just have to feel it. Or have the tool.

eric

 

Neck's held on with 3...even easier...and they're 10mm

 

Thanks for the info on mazdaperformance hapa! I am never going to the dealership again!

 

Hi HAPA for the past week everything has been going great as far as the cooling system. But as of today I pushed the car pretty hard on the highway and when I went to park it she pushed out some water through the over flow tank. about 30 minutes later I stared her back up to go about 20 miles down the road (didn't go to top off coolant). Everything seemed fine until the add coolant light came on and the temps rose very quickly and keeps rising (no higher than 102c) until the add coolant light cut off.........then the temps dropped back down. So I know what is causing the car to overheat.........air in the system. But what I can't fgure out is where the hell the air is coming from!?!?!??!?! I am thinking one of two things, either water is not being pulled back in from the overflow tank, (and if so why the hell is it pushing so much water out.....I think it is pushing water out even when its running?), and second where is all the air coming from. I am pretty sure I don't have blown seal. No White smoke at all!!!! Only time smoke comes out my exhaust is when I take it to redline. Also vaccum is good. But recently i have been having problems cranking the car up ( yes I know what your thinking....coolant is getting on the spark plugs because of bad seal, well if that was the case then I would have coolant in the rotor housing when I cranked up.......thus causing white smoke out the exhaust along with that sweet smell..but no white smoke?) Actually I have a few things I think why i am having hard starting problem: thermosensor, fuel filter, leaking injectors. Anyways Hapa do you know what the heck is going on???????

Thanks again

 

Hi HAPA for the past week everything has been going great as far as the cooling system. But as of today I pushed the car pretty hard on the highway and when I went to park it she pushed out some water through the over flow tank. about 30 minutes later I stared her back up to go about 20 miles down the road (didn't go to top off coolant). Everything seemed fine until the add coolant light came on and the temps rose very quickly and keeps rising (no higher than 102c) until the add coolant light cut off.........then the temps dropped back down. So I know what is causing the car to overheat.........air in the system. But what I can't fgure out is where the hell the air is coming from!?!?!??!?! I am thinking one of two things, either water is not being pulled back in from the overflow tank, (and if so why the hell is it pushing so much water out.....I think it is pushing water out even when its running?), and second where is all the air coming from. I am pretty sure I don't have blown seal. No White smoke at all!!!! Only time smoke comes out my exhaust is when I take it to redline. Also vaccum is good. But recently i have been having problems cranking the car up ( yes I know what your thinking....coolant is getting on the spark plugs because of bad seal, well if that was the case then I would have coolant in the rotor housing when I cranked up.......thus causing white smoke out the exhaust along with that sweet smell..but no white smoke?) Actually I have a few things I think why i am having hard starting problem: thermosensor, fuel filter, leaking injectors. Anyways Hapa do you know what the heck is going on???????

Thanks again

 

Hydouken, I'm not sure why your engine is hard to start, thats your secondary problem. You have to get yoru cooling system pressure tested. Do a search on cooling, there was a member of this forum that did a pressure test and left the pressure overnight. Only after leaving the pressure on the system overnight did he find his problem. My guess would be your overflow tank, or even one of your hoses has a small pinhole leak. Check the pressure system first. My first inclination is that your motor is fine, but you never know. Double check the hoses to the AST and your turbo coolant hoses, these are the first to go. I'd take out your airbox, intercooler, and all piping, then pressure test overnight. Then try to find the leak. Report back after pressure testing, and we'll see what other options we have left to check.

eric

 

Were can I get a pressure tester at so that I can put my system under pressure over night to see what the heck is going on????

 

You should be able to rent it from a local car parts store. I'd try Pep boys or Autozone or whatever you have in your neighborhood. Good luck.

eric

 

Ok Well I will call my local Parts store and see what I find. I will give you guys an update of the pressure test. Hopefullly everything goes well.

 

I have similar problems as Hydouken. did a block weld fix. Worked great for a week and then started spitting out without pulling coolant back. So I did another block weld treatment. This didn't do crap! It's still not pulling coolant back and I get the buzzer everytime I go for a drive. When I pulled the filler cap off in the morning, with the engine cold, THERE WAS PRESSURE IN THE SYSTEM. That is, as I open the filler cap, coolant spewed out on a cold engine. WTF? Can anyone explain this?

Other than not holding pressure (with a Stant tester), not pulling coolant back and consuming coolant, the car runs a scalded cat, no smoke, starts right up everytime. I've replaced radiator cap, filler cap, thermostat but all symptoms point to a blown engine. But why is it running so good though? Anyway,I have budgeted for another engine as this one is a 43K reman.

 

Ok well now that I feel confident with my new found knowledge of the cooling systems on rx-7 (thanks to HAPA for walking my through)...I think I can pass respectable suggestion to others about there problems. So here goes..... I am taking in that since you put block sealer into your motor you knew that something was wrong. Also the pressure in your cooling system could be from something (line?) clogged up with the block sealer you put in there. My personal opinion (which doesn't matter) I would never put block sealer into a motor unless you new it was going dead.....and wanted to prolong its life longer until you had the time or money to fix the probelms correctly. This might explain the cold engine and pressure in system (two treatments of block sealer). Now to answer your second question.....(flexing brain power) when you "think" you have a blown coolant seal you will have the obvious symptoms. Blown coolant seals don't affect compression at first. So yes you can have bad coolant seals with good compression....how long your good compression will last is quesionable (overheat your car.....coolant getting into compression camber....air in system causing hot spots in the motor), over time these things will eventually affect your compression. Also I repeat just because you have these particular symptoms doesnt mean you have a blown engine. Just replace all the suspected parts you think might be causing your problems...starting with the least expensive part first.....and work your way up (engine). I hate how these people asking simple questions about there cooling systems......get the reply from a memeber just saying "blown engine". That doesn't help solve sh*t. Plus it scares the crap out of people when most of the time its just a simple poblem.