JHew84

iTrader: (9)

alright, this is still my same problem from before but the other thread was pretty long and jumbled so i thought i'd make a new one... heres the link to my first thread:

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/overheating-issues-among-others-help-please-526396/

heres the problem, upon starting the car it drips a few (10 at most) drips of coolant onto the ground, it also gets some coolant onto the downpipe which burns off smoking out of the hood... the coolant is dripping off of an actuator looking thing on the bottom side of the turbo's, dont know what it is but there is pictures of it on page 3 in my 1st thread... along with the leak its sucking in air and trying to overheat, now if i burp the system and let the car warm up to normal operating temp it stops leaking and runs fine... the one time i drove it like that it ran fine until i got to the car meet i was going to, i let it sit just long enough to cool down most of the way and it leaked a little bit out but didn't suck in enough air to start overheating, but it did smoke out of the hood a little bit (so it was still leaking coolant)...

now per the suggestions of members in my last thread i have checked every coolant line they suggested (which is basically everything apparently) and any i saw along the way, and i see no problems with ANY of them, they all look fine, no cracking, no wetness, nothing, i even pulled all the intake pipes off and checked the hose under the turbo's... i even got a pressure tester and when i pressurize the system using it nothing leaks out, or at least not to the point where it drips onto the ground, there is a DEFINITE loss of pressure (seen on the gauge for the tester, it drops probably 2-4psi consistantly) and when i pump it up the system gurgles, i've never had a coolant leak before so i've never used a pressure tester on the cooling system, dunno if gurgling is normal or not...

i have no idea what to think now, if it wasn't for the coolant dripping onto the downpipe/ground i'd chalk it up as a coolant seal, the only thing that makes any sense to me at all is that somehow the turbo's are leaking it out of the casing, and when they warm up the metal expands and closes up the leak? i dunno...

again, as always, any help is always appreciated, i was just going to pack it up and take it to the local dealership but i've been told by a few people now that they are terrible when it comes to anything, rotary's especially, so its looking like i'll have to fix this one myself with very limited knowledge...

thanks for bearing with me,

James

sevensix

iTrader: (1)

hi james its me again

i still haven't figured mine out either but at least the car is running fine.

JHew84

iTrader: (9)

so are you driving your car on a regular basis or anything? i'm to worried mines going to errupt in flames if i keep letting it leak coolant onto the DP ... so it sits, and when i have time i go stare under the hood/under the car some more to see if i can see anything else, but i've yet to be able to trace down the leak...

sevensix

iTrader: (1)

i just take it around the block twice a week. basically run it to operating temp and circle the block then its back to the garage. my biggest fear has been getting stranded.

JHew84

iTrader: (9)

ya see i can't even do that with mine cus it keeps trying to overheat, it goes from semi-warm to the temp rising REALLY fast, obviously its just the air pocket on the thermostat but i'm not gonna screw around and let it run when it starts getting hot :P... at this point i'm kind of hoping its something wrong with the turbo's, i would not be opposed to getting a nice set of low mileage or rebuilt twins and tossing them on to fix the problem...

BlueTII

It could be that the turbo coolant return hardline on the engine side of the turbos has rusted through. What you would have to do check it is to remove both the rubber supply and return lines, then cap one of the hardlines, apply pressure or vacuum with a gauge and see if they leak. Unfortunately it can only be replaced by removing the turbos.

BTW, there are lots of FD's in MI.

JHew84

iTrader: (9)

, ya probably, but i only know of 4 including mine, i saw the list, something around 300+... and i never see them at auto-x's, there is 1 red FD (and i'd known of him for awhile) that is around sometimes...

i did check where the hardlines feed into the turbo's but i couldn't follow them completely... so there is a reason why those hardlines wouldn't leak while under load from a pressure tester, but would when the engine is running?

and its good to know there is a rotary specialist shop closer to me, rest assured i will be there at some point ...

DamonB

You're leaking coolant from the turbos. First thing I would do is replace the two rubber turbo coolant hoses. I don't care if you checked them; replace them. If it still leaks I'd connect the two rubber turbo coolant lines directly to eachother, bypassing the turbos completely. If the engine will start and run without leaking coolant at that point you know the leak is in the hardlines themselves (don't boost the car without coolant to the turbos) and you'll need to remove the turbos to replace them.

The reason you don't see coolant dripping once the engine is running for a few moments is because the leak is tiny and as soon as everything is hot the coolant burns off rather than drip.

JHew84

iTrader: (9)

alright, i guess its not that big of a deal just replacing those coolant lines, their cheap enough i'll just go up to the local dealership to get them instead of ordering from malloy...

JHew84

iTrader: (9)

well and my question after that would be why will it leak while running, but NOT when i pressurize the system with a pressure tester? something to do with the coolant actually flowing?