KZL_RX89

Hello everyone!

so i got a 89 TII about a couple of months ago from a guy who said that it was sitting for awhile before he sold it to me.

one of my buddies has a nice place to work on cars, so we decided to change the fluids, did the brake fluid/bleed the brakes; changed the oil, and last got to the coolant, (now the car has been off for long enough for the oil just to be warm when we changed it, so it's cooled down enough) and did the normal changing of the coolant, replaced the old thermostat with a shiny new one, filled her back up with coolant and tightened everything up.

right after it started up fine, but...began to smoke like a 1950 DDT sprayer!

i was like, what the hell! even when it got back up to temp, the thermostat opened up and even drove it around, but it was still smoking up the neighborhood!

before we did all of this, there was not a single time that i ever saw her smoking...

any thought or ideas?

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

What colour was the smoke? What did it smell like?

Why was the car sitting in the first place?

Go48

iTrader: (7)

If the "smoke" is actually water/coolant vapor (wispy and smells sweet), perhaps the previous owner had added a stop-leak solution to the coolant to temporarily fix an internal coolant leak. And when you changed out the coolant you may have loosened up the area that was plugged by the stop-leak allowing coolant to enter the combustion area again. Do a "champagne" test to determine if there is an internal coolant leak. There are many threads detailing such a test so do a search and read.

Also, if the smoke has a bluish tint to it and smells like oil, check the level of the oil on the dip stick. You may have overfilled the engine when changing the oil.

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

Did you spill anything on the Engine?
The engine will take a long time to burn off Residual fluids if they are Splattered on it.

KZL_RX89

the smoke was very white, thick, and heavy...

but it was also quite sweet smelling; the guy who sold it to me said that it was only sitting for the past couple of months during the time he was trying to sell it, but he said that it was his daily driver before that.

like i said, i drove it for a tank or two before we did the fluids change and everything was fine...

so what can i do about an internal coolant leak, if that's what it is?

KZL_RX89

no, it was all coming from the exhaust... tho it did seem to be smoking around the turbo too

Go48

iTrader: (7)

Sounds like coolant seal or coolant seal channel failure. To rectivy the problem you're looking at an engine disassembly/rebuild or replacement. First you want to verify that the problem is, in fact, an internal coolant seal problem by doing the champagne test. You can find more specifics in the many threads that deal with this test, but you are looking for lots of bubbles in the radiator neck. That involves starting and warming up the engine with the radiator cap removed. If you get lots of bubbles coming up in the radiator, it is likely that there is a coolant seal or coolant seal channel failure. A bit of turbulence is normal as the water pump is working, but bubbles are not good.

Do a search for champagne.

Edit: Check out this video to see what I mean. After viewing the video, click on it for more examples.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v5xn...eature=related

KZL_RX89

now one thing that i'm thinking is... if the engine wasn't completely cooled down enough (at least i thought it was) and running the cold hose water made something crack?

could that be a possible thought?

drifthackS1

I had some oil control rings go on an old NA FC before from letting her sit too long without proper oil... I mean, its a long shot, and im not too sure on how old your engine was, but in my experience, it was arround 110K miles on it and was running ok before i let it sit and **** itself... anyway, good luck with it all the same

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

Sweet smelling is definitely coolant. Now if the car was sitting for a while in this condition, much of the inside of the engine will be trashed.

KZL_RX89

it wasn't sitting for too long, only for a couple of months; but remember it was driving fine with not burning anything... then right after the coolant flush, BAM! clouds of smoke!

so do think that flushing the coolant kinda ruined the engine?

rx3racer

Sure smells like Coolant. Check if there are signs of a mixture in the oil sump.
it may not show up there on the rotary but still check

Go48

iTrader: (7)

"so do think that flushing the coolant kinda ruined the engine?"
Does it really matter? Do the champagne test, verify or negate a coolant seal failure, and go from there.

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

Please don't bump your post after 5 hours. The bump has been deleted.

A cooling flush in general won't cause an o-ring failure. Did yours? Who knows. Maybe the area was marginal to begin with and the flush removed all the gunk that was keeping the leak under control. Or the previous owner did something dishonest with block seal.

Either way, the result is the same. If the car is going to sit around while you decided on what to do, thoroughly oil the inside of the engine via the spark plug holes.

KZL_RX89

fyi, i'm a moderator on Mazdas247; i know how forums work (just not FC's apparently, lol)

i'm pretty sure that i didn't reply only after 5 hrs, but if i did, it was just a mistake, we all make them!

i think that i'll do some more research on the bubbly test and try that before i conclude anything else... but i'm going to guess that the engine is shot i'll have to do a swap soon, a good winter project i guess.