Wish me luck!

I changed out the block sealer/water I've been running for the past 7 months or so and went back to running the proper antifreeze mix. I guess we will see how long it is before the dreaded leaky 'O' ring rears its ugly head again.
At least I've got several thousand miles of good, fun driving under my belt since I did the sealer in the Spring.

 

Rebuild this winter?

 

We'll see.......

I was going to go with a small street port from Pineapple originally, but man....I dunno now, what with all the recent suspect engines from them.....

 

Very true. Definitely get it ported if you're getting a new motor or a rebuild though. I tried when mine blew in April, but KDR didn't hear me say "street port" evidently. You'll regret it if you don't, so do it while it's being built anyways.

 

I know I am digging this thread up from the grave but how did this end up turning out? What kind of block sealer did you use and could you give some pointers to me should I pursue this route?

 

I wouldn't recommend it. Yes, it can temporarily fix small water leaks but there is no guarantee. I think bajaman ended up rebuilding, but not sure.

 

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...hlight=rebuild

 

Ultimately of course I had to re-build. However, the 'block-seal-in-a-can' DOES work for a period of time. My engine failed due to leaning it out one cold night on a 'hell-run', lol....NOT due to the block sealer giving it up.

As for the product, some people use CRC Block Weld, I used a product I got from O'Reilly's, I just can't remember the name of it now, but the key is that is has copper in it. Proper preparation is essential to make this work, you simply CANNOT, and I stress CANNOT have even a trace of ethylene glycol coolant/anti-freeze in your car's cooling system...it will cause it to plug up instantly...I kid you not. So you have to flush and flush and flush with water. I then ran Preston cooling system cleaner thru and flushed and flushed and flushed again, and THEN I used a diluted mixture of Castrol SuperClean and ran it thru and then...you guessed it...flushed and flushed and flushed again before adding the block seal.

It works well as a temporary fix. A lot of other drivers have had similar results...I seem to recall someone had been using it successfully for almost three years. Of course, you have to live in a climate that doesn't require anti-freeze for THAT to happen. Just keep this in mind, if you have to use the block-seal but have to drive or store the car in an environment where it gets cold, you cannot leave the block seal/water mixture in, nor can you add anti-freeze to it.

And if you go back to anti-freeze as I had to due to the cold, you have to repeat that laborious flush/clean cycle all over again....and even with the thoroughness that I did, I left just enough of a trace of the sealer in that it COMPLETELY plugged my heater core. That took a Herculean effort on my part to get unplugged...let me tell you.

 

I would never advise someone to put block sealer in their engine. It has a tendancy to coat the insides of the engine reducing heat transfer not to mention clog the small passages in the heater core and radiator. I have seen this first hand. If it's an emergancy, fine.
You should try pettit racings heavy duty o-ring kit which is much stronger than stock (fit better too).