somebody buy parts off my FD so i can buy some water seals...

or somebody can just donate some water seals for a 13b! :x

i had myfirst puff of coolant smoke today...

 

Coolant seals are the cheap part. It's the rest of the stuff that costs.

 

i'm hoping to do a "quick'n'dirty"

so the water seals are the only thing being replaced...

 

my paypal is jacob.cartmill@wku.edu for any donations... :x

 

Have you done the block weld trick yet? That will buy you quite a bit of time.

I REALLY don't recommend going that cheap on a rebuild. Not to mention there will be a number of small parts that have to be replaced anyhow - gaskets and such.

Dale

 

There is no such thing as cheep and Dirty with FDs. I do know a few racers who buy the "felpro" Gasket Kit for a 12a and use thoes seals. you have to remove the whole engine when doing the seals. And it is quite an extencive and complicated job. You quickly see more things that are wrong and they must be fixed.

 

What is the "block weld trick? I am jsut curious.

thanks,
-josh

 

^ i've done it in 14 hours and that motor is still running in my car today.

the RA o-ring kit is only $160

 

How many miles on the engine? Depending on your mileage, you may already have enough wear on the seals that they should be replaced.

 

SUPPOSEDLY, the engine only has about 5k miles on it... now i'm not too sure how accurate that is since it lost a coolant seal without me overheating it....

 

Have you checked the coolant filler neck for champagne bubbles?

 

i definitely have a bad seal. its more than champagne on startup... its like old faithful. and as of today, the neighbors think my house is burning down after starting my car in the garage from all the coolant smoke...

 

That really sucks. The motor most likely has way more than 5k miles, was a bad build, or was overheated before you owned it .

 

i'm gonna go with all three.

 

The block seal trick worked for me on my 10AE, although obviously it wasn't a FD. No problem with the coolant seal leak. Lasted a year. Spun a stationary gear which took out the rear rotor. Thus a rebuild.

You can go to Kevin Landry's site, www.rotaryresurrection.com. The block seal instructions are there. I would suggest one thing extra and that once you are finished with the coolent seal, you flush the system good. This might save the radiator from plugging up. I used an old radiator and upon success, bought and installed a Koyo........My two cents

 

i was thinking actually disconnecting the radiator and turbo coolant lines when doing the block seal trick to save them from clogging...

anyone else done this?

edit: i actually went to kevins site to check that out and the "coolant seal fix" portion of the HOWTOs is a broken link... anyone have any detailed instructions?

 

Never, ever use those rad/block weld junk things, it just blocks your radiator, heater core, everything. If you have a leak, fix it properly, not with some magic-super-hyper-TV-shop-only $0.99-type of junk. I did it once to my Ford Orion and I still wake up at nights screaming, soaked in sweat...

 

nice.

 

I think the guy is trying to buy some time and save some money up for the proper build; thus the block weld trick. It worked for me and bought me a year. Nuff said. His choice.

 

If it is your only choice then try it, it'll work quite surely. Might be a good idea to try and block the water circulation from the heater also, maybe with piece of pipe and connect the in/out-pipes together.

*edit* shortened

 

the only way i can afford to do a rebuild (keep in mind, ONLY soft-seals...) is by selling this off my car like wheels/shifter/gauges/etc. and i really dont want to do that... so maybe this blockweld stuff is worth a try.

 

I did the block weld thing a long time ago and it lasted quite a while. I did eventually replace the motor and can tell you that you really do have to bypass the radiator, heater core and turbo coolant lines or these items WILL get at least partially clogged. I did it with an old radiator but did not bypass the coolant lines and there was plenty of spooge in there when I rebuilt the turbos.radiator was pretty much junk afterward.
tom

 

Hint: Follow the directions carefully about "cleaning" the system before you put in the block weld. I ran the Purple Cleaner mix thru many times before mine was clean and water running clear.

 

I completely agree- I really think the success of the procedure hinges on that. Actually though, by the time you get finished bypassing everything and all the steps you have to take, you may as well just pull the engine and rebuild it, especially in view of the fact that the success rate or longevity of the repair is uncertain.

T

 

i actually agree with tom.jelly

it sounds like to do the block sealer trick totally correctly it could take a whole weekend... i can do a rebuild (removal, teardown, rebuild, reinstall) in a weekend, but the problem is it costs more than 5 dollars.