94touring

I know this has been discussed a million times, but heres what happened to me.

First I noticed that my boost controller stopped working all of a sudden and I could hear this noise, which I thought was the boost controller cause it kept coming on and off. This started to happen yesterday. Well today on the drive home from work after about a 20 minute drive and one hard run to 6k to see what kind of boost I would get with a broken boost controller, which turned out to be 12psi, I parked my car and went inside. I took a shower, got something to eat, looked out the window at my car and saw coolant coming from under the car, out of the overflow tank area. So I went outside to figure out what in the world was wrong. I ended up adding some coolant and noticed that my radiator cap wasn't in the greatest shape so I decided to make a trip to get a new cap, hoping that was the problem for the spill. So on my way I turned on my laptop since I have a haltech to keep an eye on my coolant. After a few miles the coolant which normally stays around 180-185, was staying around 195-200. Worried I pulled over to add more water and figure out what could be wrong. Well to my surpise when I popped my hood my fans weren't even on!! So I started thinking about my problem with my boost controller and the noise I was hearing and took off the panel to expose my haltech wiring job. Turns out that the wires that control my fans and boost contoller and who knows what else had come loose and was melting everything around it and sparking like crazy. Then realizing what just happend I nearly crapped my pants. I'm thinking that I could have overheated the car....but it still cranks up good when hot, good vacume, no more coolant overflowing onto the ground, and I havnen't noticed any white smoke yet, but it was dark at that point. I guess I need to be paying attention to loss of coolant and white smoke over the next few days. Do you think I overheated, or did the coolant cap crap out with that much pressure? Oh the agony

94touring

Let me add one more thing....I have the haltech set up to turn the fans on at 175.

Pumped

apparantly the coolant crapping out on you is quite common, causing coolant to overflow.....

skunks

check for sweet smelling smoke comming out of your tail pipe (dont suck on the tail pipe!) also, you might wanna check for bubbles comming out from the radiator when you shut the car off after a run (note: you might not wanna do this if you just took the car for a very hard run cuz it will problally over flow on you and burn your hands, i found this tip at http://www.scuderiaciriani.com/rx7/ but i dont really understand it). also, i think the normal temp is about 190-200 degrees so thats ok but the overflowing radiatior fluid catch thing is not good. if your not getting any type of smoke from the tail pipe, it should be pretty good.

94touring

Heres an update for today. No white smoke or odor on startup or while driving, and when I opened my radiator cap the coolant was flush with the top. After I parked the car it didn't flow over. I plan on replacing my radiator cap since the rubber seal keeps popping off...can't help things.

KZ1

overflowing coolant is not good, it happened to me once when my water thermosensor was bad and engine reached over 200F.

200F is not going to kill your engien at all, so you are porobably okay unles it went much higher than that.

175F is when your fans come on? what temp thermostat do you have ? seems very low.

skunks

replace that rubber seal quick! other then that, it sounds like your ok. my brothers car was kinda like yours in which it use to run cool at 175-180 degrees but then one day, the temp started to go up to 200 and it stayed like that for about a week. after about a week it dropped back down and has been like that for about a month so i think you will be fine. good luck

94touring

Thats just the way I have the haltech setup. I have the stock fan wires connected to a fan on my air condensor, since it has been relocated cause I have a fmic, it helps keep the ac cool. Then I have the haltech wiring setup for additional radiator fans for my radiaor. I have it setup so it turns the fans on at 175 and off at 165, it keeps the fans on all the time and helps with hotter temps due to the fmic blocking air.

I went to autozone and picked up a 16lb cap this afternoon. Hopefully everything is ok, at least it seems like it is so far.

weaklink

what about all the melted wires, sparks and stuff? to me that sounds much worse.

94touring

The two wires that were causing all the sparks ended up melting some other wires around them, but apparantly not bad enought to cause anything to stop functioning properly. I was able to tape everything back up with electrical tape and redo the bad connection. This weekend when I have some time I will go through and make sure everything is secure in place with no more chances of something like this to happen again.

KZ1

yes that woudl make fans on all the time. the thermostate rating is at what temp the thing starts to open. fans on before thermostat opens is an absolute waste of energy. you most likely have the 185F thermostat I wouldn't set fans to come on lower than 200-205F. anything else is just a waste. I was mistaken before, the high speed fans for stock engine come on at 226F by the thermoswtich. If I remember after liek 99C ecu will retard ignition timing. so between 80C(when fuel enrichment for cold engine turns off) and 99C is where you want to be. which is 176F and 210F. I have mine set in PFC to come on at 210F I haev read and found with personal experience that about 92-94C is optimal for power.(197.6F and 201.2F)

Warmer temperatures will aid combustion, not great to run an engien too cold.

I know it is off topic, just thought I would add it in for others if they are interested.

94touring

I never really gave it much thought, i'll have to experiment at what temp I have the fans coming on to see what the results are. The stock thermostat is 185 isn't it? I'm wondering if the haltech map I was given was setup for a car with a 175 thermostat.

Quivver

Hmmm I guess where the last guy who had the car put the sensor for the water temp guage in my 93 in the wrong place or I'm overheating all the time, like on a hot day it says around 200-210 and when I shut the car off with the hood open it sometimes hits 220 but the stock guage stays in the middle, and the overheating buzzer never goes off. so where should the sensors for that guage be in the engine, Also when I had it at Maztech in Tampa, the mechanic said there are no signs of overheating and he knows his Rotary (Jeff if any Tampa people reading this)

jeff48

The OEM gauge is non-linear in nature. That means the damn thing will show normal operating temperature (centered) between about 170-230 degrees F. After that it increases drastically and by then it is generally too late. Remember also that the fans (with the recall done) turn on at 226 degrees. Normal operating ranges for cruising are between 195 and 210 (depending on speed and ambient temps). Idling in hot weather can get you up there quick. The only cure for this is a GOOD aftermarket temp guage.

sinfestboy

get a vented hood

MrFreeze

He does

94touring

While vented hoods provide a way to release heat built up in the engine bay and as a result lower intake temps and coolant temps slightly, isn't a solution to the problem. It seems as though my vented hood works best when the car is sitting at an idle or after the car is turned off....basically the heat is allowed to escape out instead of being trapped under the hood causing heat soak.

7-sins

You should be fine, if your stock temp gauge starts to go up then you can crap your pants. Happened to me, I wasn't sure what temp it was because my gauge wasn't connected yet. The car has run fine, no problems and I know it was over 200º.

BTW - Nice setup, Haltec and all

94touring

Thanks man

I've been thinking about getting an aftermarket temp gauge. After this I think I will, its not always convienant to have a laptop in the passenger seat.

KZ1

200-210 sounds pretty normal, why do you say you are overheating?

also the stock gauge goes to 3/4 mark at 226, that is when the themoswitch switches. My experience with my car was that, ti woudl run to 226 if I didn;t haev parkin glights on, if I did, then it woudl say around 210 just idling in 100F heat.

Flybye

My engine has over heated twice. Both times I drove until the needle was just up to the top white bar, and then I shut her off and coasted to a safe place to park. I let her cool down, then I drove right back home. Lukely, both times I have been fairly close to my hose. I have no clue what temperature that is at, but I'm sure some of you may know.

Both times, it was that annoying hose going up to the throttle body. It's to the point where it's REALLY annoying. I've had to replace that one hose twice, and it's a major pain in the **** to change. My engine still runs as strong as always. I'm not saying that it is safe to drive it until the gauge reaches to that point, but from what I have noticed, those that blow their water seals are usually the ones that looked at their temp gauge, saw it pined to the top, and have no clue how long it was up there.

I wouldn't be surprised if one day I get myself into an accident, and the cause of it will be "Was looking down at temperature gauge"

jeff48

At 100F did you have the a/c on. If so, the radiator fans also turn on below 226F which naturally keeps the coolant temps lower than normal.

KZ1

no a/c, just parking lights. although a/c will turn on low speed fans. parking lights just makes them come on at liek 99c. I haev heard not all cars do this, and many haev fans come on at that point normally without parking lights. this is just what my car did.

I know for sure you don't want to run the car more than 226F or less than 180F