how bad is it to drive with a blown coolant seal?

I think mines might be gone (as to be expected after overheating last summer)

I see a little bit of oil in my coolant, and I have some starting issues. runs like **** for about 30 seconds in cold starts (like its running on 1 rotor + backfires when I press the gas pedal) and then runs perfectly.

sometimes hard to start when its hot, sometimes it just starts easily. those symptoms are pretty much related to a blown coolant seal.

however, on cold start, the car does smoke a bit, but its not think and white, and doesn't really smell "sweet". I don't see bubbles in coolant either when the car is running. I don't really run out of coolant either.

So I'm not exactly sure if a coolant seal is broken, but it is possible. I'll do some other tests to confirm, unless some of you can confirm it right away according to the symptoms

unfortunately I can't really afford to rebuild it right now, and most importantly, the summer has just started and it would totally suck to spend it without my FD. Exept for the starting issues (which I don't really mind because it starts everytime anyway), the motor runs perfectly. Is it bad to drive it knowing that coolant seals are bown?

 

holy ****

 

my old fc had a blown coolant seal. I did the copper radiator sealant trick and i drove it for another 10 months no problems and then i sold it " to a friend that knew about it of course".

 

I nursed mine for sometime, but don't recommend it. The seal channel can corrode/rust in the area the failure and that can lead to having to buy new iron. It wouldn't take much.
You have to be religious about checking coolant levels but it still tends to allow air into the system and cause temp spikes. I think that can also cause localized overheating...even if your temp gauge says everything is alright.

 

well it sounds to me you hurt more than just the coolant seals. an engine that eats coolant and has hot start issues means you most likely overheated it to the point the apex seal springs or corner seal springs have weakened giving you the hot start problems. this happened to my old TII remember Jason? i would fix it now rather than it costing you more down the road like a burned out starter and bad irons like stated above. Good Luck and have patience...

 

I have noticed that my car runs rough like you explained for the first 15-30 sec on cold start and I can smell coolant burning, but runs fine after that and have not noticed any fluid loss. I looked on here to try to find some information. I hope it is something else.

 

It can hold for a few weeks, months, or even a year. But when it fully fails it may do so catastrophically and leave you stranded. My last customer that tried to stretch some more life out of a failing engine got stranded when the seal let go and the entire motor and exhaust instantly filled with coolant. At that point a chunk of the iron where the retaining wall for the coolant seal is was missing.