Man I just picked up a new project vehicle (a 1956 ford f100), and just as I got it home yesterday, it seems as though the FD has lost a coolant seal.

It seemed fine the last few times I drove it, and it was even fine when I moved it out of the way yesterday afternoon. but I went to move it last night, and it wouldnt start. I let it crank for a bit, and when it did start, I got an assload of white smoke. this morning, it started right up, but smoked a little afterwards. smoked right up until it was warm. Now I gotta re-arrange my plans and my garage to allow for a rebuild. I was really hoping I wouldnt have to do this yet. had I known this was going to happen, I would have left the truck in the garage it was in until I finished the rebuild.....

 

might be just condensation. confirm if it is coolant before u tear the sucker out..

 

Agreed. Its starting to get cooler out.

I used to think the same when i havent drove the car in a while, after rainy days, there would be water collecting in the exhaust pipes. When i start her up, it would smoke and smoke. Then about 10-15 minutes later, it would clear up.

Its basically condensation.

 

wayyy to much smoke last night for condensation. only a little smoke this morning, and none 20 minutes ago when I started it again. I am definetly confused. I have never overheated, and my coolant looks fine. It doesnt appear that I have lost any coolant either. I suppose that it could have been flooded last night, but I didnt think it would smoke like that from being flooded. I dont intend to drive it over the winter, so I am wondering if letting it sit will have any adverse effect on the engine if I do acually have a coolant leak.

 

it smokes pretty bad from flooding.

+ regarding something said in another current thread, coolant leak could be from turbos leaking(?)

 

exhaust leak?
i used to have excessive smoke..and found out it was my loosely installed dp

 

Try this:
http://www.rotaryresurrection.com/3r..._seal_fix.html

 

I suppose it could have just been flooded. I know its runnin rich because of a intermittent temp sensor, and it does idle a little funny when cold. It also has not smoked like that since yesterday. I checked the dp bolts today and everything looks good. I dont think Im gonna do the block-weld. Its not a daily driver, and its gonna sit all winter anyway. Plenty of time to do a rebuild. I guess I will keep my eye on it, and see what happens

 

I tried that one. Unfortunatley it did'nt work for my car. Now I feel bad for the guy who's rebuilding it! *cough...cough**Karack***cough...

 

don't throw in the towel just because you saw white smoke.

Several things you should keep an eye out for:

1) Hard cold starts
2) once it turns on: it idles horrible for a few minutes (because it's running on one rotor until coolant burns off)
3) lots of white smoke for a few minutes
4) unexplainable loss of coolant
5) Water temps climb abnormaly during WOT runs.

So far you have only experienced 1 & 3 ONCE, the most significant is #2. Just keep an eye on it for now and by the way I think that you are ok.

 

Has anyone else tried this? I am getting the same hard startup(sounds like one rotor is running) for a minute or so, then it all of a sudden runs fine. It also swallows coolant for no reason

 

have you done a coolant pressure test to confirm it?

 

thanks for the suggestions. I realize now that any time something weird happens with this car, I think the worst. there was so much smoke saturday night, I guess I just freaked. I dont drive the car daily, but the past day and a half, I have gone out to start it every once and a while. so far, it hasnt blown any smoke at all, and seems to start and idle just fine. Im gonna hold off on the truck for a week or so, and see what happens. If I have time this week I will do a pressure test, and go from there. My worst fear is that I will have a dissasembled truck, and absolutely no workspace to do an engine rebuild on the rx-7.

 

I recommend you take your FD to www.GothamRacing.com. Sounds like a bad coolant seal to me.

 

I know when I popped the headgasket in my old car it would smoke just a little white all the time. The tell tale for me was if you get behind the car and sniff the exhaust, no matter how rich it is, the exhaust will have a sweet smell to it. My car ran rich, and it wasn't a huge blow in the headgasket, but it was still obvious that it was coolant by the smell of the exhaust. When you walk away after you smell the exhaust there will still be that hint of sweetness in your nose because you smelled vapor instead of gasses.

 

I have this problem to! The car seem sto run great, but at a cold start up it will run rough for about 30 seonds and then be fine. I do seem to lose a very little ammount of coolant occasionally. I have no smoke at any point, but the other day I got on it from a roll and when I looked in the rear view I saw a puff of white/ greyish looking smoke! Could this also be it, or could this just be a coolant sel failure? Like I said the car seems to runa nd pull great!

thanks guys,
-josh

 

Josh, My car smoked very badly when first started up cold. It did this every time! It got worse day after day. Eventually it was so bad that I could'nt start in anymore because it was so embarrasing! In fact people who drove by and saw the smoke would stop to make sure everything was ok! lol.
Beleive it or not it did'nt really effect the performance but after a hard run thru any gear, after I let off the throttle it would puff out that huge smoke screen for a second. It would do this because when the engine created vaccum it would suck in the coolant thru the bad seals.

Do your tests to confirm that you do in fact have a problem with any seals. Bubble test, Pressure test, keep an eye on the coolant level every day etc...

Dan