I've got coolant leaking from the engine of my '83. I need advice on the following:

Dealership service manager says that the engine is not repairable. Has to have a new engine. Can this be true?

If so, where do I go to get an engine for a 25 year old car?

Not a happy day for me. My baby is dead.

Thanks in advance,

Rick

 

You have a Blown Coolant seal inside the motor, it is rebuild able (about 600-800 for parts)

The reason why the dealer told you new motor is because they cant do rebuilds, that is a normal response from a mazda dealer on the rotary.

Is the coolant coming from inside the engine, like from the exhaust, or is it blowing out the overflow on startup, either of these would mean a blown coolant seal.

Someone on here will post up the re-builders on that side of the US, I rebuild allot of motors but you are pretty far away.

But if you read up and maybe get a rebuild video you could rebuild it yourself, it isn't hard, just take your time.

 

don't go to a dealer, most of them don't know what they are doing on a rotary.
your best bet is a independent mechanic that has experience with rotary engines.
I recommend these guys

Aaron Dunlap is the rotary mechanic that works there, he is very good and knows his stuff about all 3 gens.

he posts here as adunlap

also, you might want to come out to the local rx7 club meet some time,
http://rx7.meetup.com/55/calendar/8372626/?a=cv1c_grp

 

I went by precise auto today and they had a silver first-gen with a bad intake gasket, yours? If so very nice car, 150 on the original drive train, that is cool .
I don’t know if you noticed my red fd there, I hit a piece of concrete in the interstate Wednesday.

 

Try rebuilding it your self....



True, I suggest doing a complete rebuild depending on the mileage. If you choose to or not you still need to crack open the motor. You can rebuild the engine your self. The key to a quality rebuild is to replace anything that looks damaged. Just remember more a newer part equals a longer rebuild. A rebuild will run you (with just apex seals, water seals, coolant seals) will run $1000-1500. A quality Rebuild consists with all new rotor housings, all seals and potentially 2 new rotors. Don’t worry you shouldn’t have to replace the rotors or rotor housing.

You'll need (list for fixing coolant only):

1.All water seals (recommend replacing just to be safe)
2. Coolant seals. (Duh)
3.Buy Coolant pressure test tool
4.Steathascope (for listen for air)
5. A compressor
6. Some time

Water seal installation

http://www.rebuildingrotaryengines.c...ty_water_seals

Using Coolant pressure test tool

http://www.rebuildingrotaryengines.c...sure-test-tool

Plenty of help videos at
http://www.rebuildingrotaryengines.com/

All products was bought from Pineappleraceing.com


It’s worth a try. Buy the parts try it, If you try and don't succeed, try again. Well but really if its too much send it to get rebuild, it will be less money sense u didn’t some yourself and you have the parts. Win Win situation.

P.S. Whenever you bring your motor to someone to get it rebuilt(or anything for the matter), ALWAYS ASK FOR YOUR OLD PARTS BACK, it insures you the job is done, you might get out of recycling fees, and you might find something of use later on.

Good luck you survived this long post...

 

if it was his car i saw today, all he needed was an intake gasket.

 

He could be leaking from heater outlet, temperature sender, rotor housing ect.

Best way is to pull the motor, use the test tool and fill it to 30psi. Then listen for any air escaping, let it sit, check back in an hour and see is the pressure is the same. Still leaking (shouldn’t be unless you were porting..)? Depressurize the engine, remove the tool full the engine with coolant, and refill the engine and watch for a leak.

 

Where is it leaking from? I rebuild engines and owned an FB for 20 years...I am in Virginia Beach. PM me if you would like.

 

That's what I was wondering. I think people jumped to fast into thinking it was blown. Mine's leaking water from the water pump and I just need to replace the gaskets and it's good to go.

I think the first step is to find out where it's leaking from and take it from there. Could be the pump, heater hoses, or some of those hoses that go to the intake. IF it is leaking from the housings or something like that I would start worrying.

 

For one thing he never followed up on his post.


I wonder if it was sitting for a long period of time? Like I said test it…

 

^^^That's true. One post 2 weeks ago and no news.

 

Maybe he fixed it and is so overjoyed that he went on a cross country trip in it.

 

We can all hope.

 

If You Don't Want To Try And Rebuilt You Could Also Try Doing Another Rotary Swap

 

True if you really want to get into it, try a 13B swap