I think my coolant seals finally went
 

Tell me if this sounds like my coolant seals...

I just drove my FD from Mississippi to Pennsylvania (~1100 miles) last Wednesday & Thursday. Everything is fine, the car ran great the whole time, and actually averaged 23 mpg (as opposed to the 10 to 12 mpg I get around town). The car has 89K miles on the original engine/turbos.

When I get into town, I take a few people for rides in the car, and do several WOT runs up to ~100 mph. The car performs fine. That was on Thursday. On Friday, I start the car up, and the low coolant buzzer comes on (never happened before). I check it and need to add maybe 1/2 cup of coolant. I drive it about 10 miles. When I go to restart it about 30 minutes later, it doesn't want to fire up, but eventually does with a little help. The next couple times I take the car out, it is VERY difficult to start... we're talking like 30 seconds of cranking. The coolant level drops again... so I add a little more.

I didn't drive the car at all on Saturday. This morning, before starting the car, I check and need to add probably 1 cup of fluid. I try to start the car, and it was almost impossible to start. It would fire, but not stay running. I eventually floored it while cranking, and it started. I had to keep my foot on the gas to keep it running for the first 30 seconds or so. Smoke was coming out of the engine compartment? (No idea what that was... looked like exhaust?) but more importantly, I was getting quite a bit of white smoke out of the exhaust for the first couple minutes of running. Its never done that before. Took it for a drive and it seems to run fine. Also, I checked my coolant overflow bottle, and its getting fuller.

I'm thinking coolant seals? Good thing I have 6 months of a warranty left on the drive train.

Paul

from what i have heard, when your water seals go, you start to loose coolant when you shut off the car cuz the pressure in the seals pushs air in to your overflow tank and it over flows, also when your running the car, it will do the opposite and suck some coolant in to the engine. check to see if you get a stream of bubbles after you shut your car off (i think your suppose to look in the radiator fill tank)

Good luck

P.S. is the white smoke you see sweet smelling?

Doesn't sound like the coolant seals are toast. When mine were gone, I never had smoke coming out of the engine bay.

Sounds like you might have cracked a coolant hose, possible a coolant line to the turbos or somewhere else.

Did you ever notice the temp gauge going above the half-way mark?

good call mahjik, i did not even think of a cracked hose, god i must be tired or something!

mine seems to be doing pretty much the same that his is doing. I have less than 35k miles on a street ported motor. It starts up fine in the mornings or after its been sitting for a few hours, but it has a hard time starting after its been warmed up. My coolant is fine and the temp is always at about 1/2. White smoke does come out of the exhaust and comes out for a little bit, but it doesnt smell like oil. Im hoping its not the coolant seals, but im saving my cash just in case.

I was kinda puzzled about the smoke coming out of the engine bay... I've replaced every single hose, coolant and vacuum, on the car within the last 1000 miles. The smoke was very brief, it was gone before I had a chance to get out of the car and look at the engine (maybe I was seeing things?). It looked like exhaust, kinda bluish. I'll check it out a little more in-depth today or tomorrow when I get a chance.

I never overheated the car, either. I have an autometer water temp gauge, and the highest its ever been is 210F. The stock gauge never moves past the middle.

I just got back from a 20 mile drive, and the car performs flawlessly... hmmm.... I'll keep you guys updated.

Paul

yeah, my car performs fine also, it pulls really hard. its throwing me for a loop.

well if the exhaust smells sweet then you need a motor you can drive it till she wont go no more!!! but just make sure you have a phone to call someone for a tow.


Lataz

If the smoke was blue'ish, it sounds like oil. Do you notice any oil dripping from the car onto the ground?

Do you remember which side of the engine bat the smoke was coming from?

My coolant seals went a couple of months ago. I was having difficulty starting the car like you, and thought it was just flooded. But of course it wasnt, and my coolant was getting on the plugs, from what I was told. But I did not loose THAT much coolant. And I got no smoke coming out of the engine bay.

At this point, I'm just gonna disregard the smoke that I think I saw from the engine bay. Maybe the wind was blowing the exhaust under my car, and it came out by the engine bay or something? I don't have any leaks, except the oil pan gasket.

I've been driving the car quite a bit today, and its been hard to start almost every time, but runs well once started. And I've been smelling antifreeze from the vents when I first start it, but I'm guess thats from me spilling a little when I filled it up.

I'll keep you all posted if I find out anything. I need to drive this car back to Mississippi later this week, so I should know at some point whats going on.

Paul

My seals went and it did the same think and if you say you have "smoke" from your engine bay was it from the passenger side? on min the coolant was leaking between the exaust and the coolant passages so when I shut it down it would leak into the motor as well as piss out the coolant overflow. When I started it up the coolant that had leaked would boil in the turbo and I would notice steam from the area above the turbos. It wasn't untill I pulled the plugs that I was sure it was the seals....Nothing like finding green antifreeze on your spark plugs.

Oh yea It was hard to start but once it warmed up it still ran but what I would look at is the plugs

One other thing you could try is a cooling system pressure tester... pump up the system... check for leaks, pull the plugs... Given enough time, you should be able to find the leak. Good luck... if it happens to be your coolant seals... do a search for CRC copper block weld. It's worked for me and many other coolant seal failure RX7 owners. It's a temporary fix... but it's a great temp. fix. Good luck to you!

You have an autometer water Temp Gauge you said...don't you keep your Temperature under check? Like personally, if I ever do a hard run or freeway driving, I always turn my fans on to avoid the heat setting in. When you're moving your radiator has a nice air flow...since there is smoking from the bay I would think maybe it's coolant dripping onto a hot manifold. Do you have a downpipe?