Hi,
I've had my FD since 2003, the previous owner didn't maintain it so when I got it, not being in the know myself I just got in and drove.
You'll have to bare with me as I'm recalling stuff that happened in 2004!

A month down the road the coolant buzzer wont stop annoying me (it started a few weeks after I bought it), I keep topping up the coolant but still it buzzes, I buy a new sensor that attaches at the top of the water filling neck.

Still it buzzes away and uses water. But, theres no white smoke on start up....?

I read a load of stuff online and come to the conclusion that the O ring must have blown/burst gone faulty. Desperately looking for more info I come across a site that talks of a Blockweld fix that can be done on O rings that have gone faulty. It is just temporary though, however the guy who did this kept it going for 2 years!!

Anyway, I did the process a couple of times and it worked fine (i think) for a short while, until the stock radiator blow a leak....whenever I stopped the car, coolant would **** out of the rad.....I bought a new stock radiator which quickly burst, another one, quickly burst again....
Then I bought a big alloy radiator from the US and whoopie it didn't burst.

The damn add coolant buzzer never stopped buzzing so I cut the wire to the bugger..

Shortly after I couldn't afford the expensive insurance or the expensive petrol prices so I considered selling, due to depreciation the 19k that it cost me is now only worth 5 tops, especially with it probably needing a rebuild.

So, I sadly leave it in my car park, it gets vandalised and I pay for a garage for it..

6 years down the road, I don't want to pay for the garage anymore. I consider selling it for whatever I can probably 1k.....but seeing it again makes me want to get it going, its such a hot car afterall we will all agree.

Won't start.... probably due to it being left for 6 years. Now I'm thinking, was the O ring really buggered? there wasn't any white smoke on start up....but realistically I think it probably does....
I have never done a compression test because I was alwys pretty certain it needed a rebuild.

Ok, any of you old RX7 noitalls out there what do you think, I respect all of the time that needs to be put into knowing everything about FDs so hopefully I'll get some good opinions.

I really would appreciate any useful input, thanks.

 

dont use that stop leak crap...
it will make cleaning a big pain when it does come time to rebuild your engine - not to mention the high chance of radiator/heater core clogging from using that stuff.

if you are having trouble starting it - knowing there is a coolant problem - and letting it sit for 6 years - it probably rusted the seals stuck inside the engine...

just look for a new shortblock and swap it over... are you mechanically inclined?

 

Hi,

Yes I am, and for the last 5 years I had considered doing the LS1 swop but in the UK those short block engines are hard to come by and expensive to import.

 

A few things:

A compression test won't tell you if you have damaged coolant seals. You need to perform coolant related tests to check for coolant seals. Those are either hydrocarbon tests, pressure testing and seeing if coolant is entering the combustion chamber, or the old bubble test:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn40QqKg10s

You need to start by identifying where you are at with your current motors. A compression test will tell you the health of your current rotor seals and housing surfaces. Start there:

http://www.rotaryresurrection.com/3r...ion_check.html

If you have low compression, no need to go any further. If you compression is even and in decent shape, then you need to check the cooling system based on a few suggestions listed above. If one or more of those fail, then you are looking for a rebuild or replacement.

 

how could I find out for sure if coolant is entering the combustion chamber?? no idea what the old bubble test is??

I only did maybe 1000 miles in it and it has done 35000 in total!!

 

Technically, you basically can have one or both scenarios of a coolant seal failure:

* Coolant leaking into the combustion chamber
* Combustion getting past the coolant seals and pressuring the cooling system

A semi-expensive test is to have a shop test the cooling system for hydrocarbons. That will tell you if you have combustion getting into the cooling system through damaged coolant seals. Another way of testing is using the video provided above. You use a tube onto the coolant filler neck, start the car and see if you have stream of pressure like the video shows.

To check for the coolant in the combustion chamber, you can use a simple home cooling system pressure tester. Pressurize the cooling system, remove the lower spark plugs, then slowly crank the engine over by hand using a 19mm socket on the eccentric shaft bolt. Check to see if coolant comes out of the spark plug holes as the engine is turned.

 

Does sound like you're in something of a pickle.

I would consider just getting a replacement engine. Get a good short block, get the car running again, then consider your options.

With the car not running, you're going to take a BIG hit if you try and sell the car. With it running, you can of course keep it or sell it and get a lot more of your money back.

If the motor was pumping water, and if it's sat for years not running afterwards, odds are good that the motor internals are junk. If water sits in there, it will rust the seals into the rotors, corrode the surface of the irons, etc. I went through a water pumper once that sat for a good long time, I ended up throwing out the whole motor.

Ask around in the UK section for options on getting a good motor for the car.

Good luck,
Dale

 

GREAT video, Mahjik! Trying to explain the champagne test in words was always difficult for me. Now I've got a video to point others towards.

 

Great thanks alot for the video, I shall give it a go.

With regards to getting a new motor, they're pretty expensive. I did see one on ebay that had been fully rebuilt, tuned and ported etc but I bloody missed the end of the sale, it was only 1.5k which is just about ok.

I will do the test as described in the video, but I can only imagine that if it kept blowing the stock rads then it must have combustion gas leaking into the coolant.

If there is combustion gas going into the coolant when the engine is running then when it is turned off would I be corrrect in thinking that the coolant would then seep into the combustion chamber?

thanks guys, this is so depressing!! I bought a lemon, spent 8k on bodykit, wheels etc and then can't use it....aaarrrggghh.

 

Not necessarily, which is why I mentioned you may have one or both of the problems. It's possible to have a leak in only one direction. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes that's how it starts. Then as the seal gets weaker from being exposed, you have a leak in both directions.

 

so, if my compression is ok but I have combustion pressure leaking into the coolant, what are he chances that I need new engine housings?

Also, what else would make the add coolant alarms sound other then the sensor at the filler neck?