i just came into a 86 rx7 and it has an overheating prob. i have replaced the water pump, radiator, thermostat and the fan clutch seems to be working fine. the car runs with exceptionally high oil pressure. every one that i have talked to says thats ok but it tops out and something is telling me thats not right. i dont have any noticible leaks. i have noticed on start up sometimes a little bit of white smoke comes out. dont know if that has anything to do with it. on a normal car the next thing i would think would be the head gasket but i know this doesnt have one so im lost..... can any one help

 

Just to let you know, rotaries do not have head gaskets. They have seals around the rotors that are like O-rings. By reading your post either you have an air pocket stuck somewhere in the engine(which is easy to do), or a blown coolant seal. This will allow coolant into the engine, eventually either this will kill an apex seal from the rotor and need to have the engine rebuilt or replaced, or it will keep burning coolant. Just so you can see what this looks like, I'll attach a pic from my engine that I had to rebuild. Good luck with it, hope you find your problem.

 

Does the coolant level gradually drop on you? If there's no visible leak from any coolant hoses, and the level is dropping, then the only option is internal. Gray/white smoke at startup can be from residual oil in the combustion chamber, but white smoke that smells sweet will be from coolant.

Bleed the coolant system and keep an eye on the fluid level. You should have your answer.

 

i checked and i am loosing coolant but im not leaking. when i take off the radiator cap there is also bubbles coming up. so im pretty sure that it is the coolant seal. i have tried looking around and cant find any thing on how to replace one. i bought the car wanting it to be a project car so i wanna be able to do it myself and not just take it in for a rebuild. so im gonna study up and figure out how to do it myself but if any one has any advice it would be muchly appretiated. thanks for the help

 

I just had to buy a brand new engine. I took it to get rebuilt they got it apart and went Hell No. The housing walls looked like the Rockies. So 7k later i almost have 'er back on the road.