Need Help 87 N/A Rx7 Overheated now has loss of power
 

Ok so I'm posting for my roommate. He has a 87 N/A rx7 5 speed. Ok so he had been having some cooling issues the bubbling from air in the line. Well he had been adding coolant yesterday though it go worse.

He gets home yesterday tells me it's spewing steam out from under the hood never a good sign I'm not sure how far he drove it he didn't say the coolant buzzer came on but anyways.

So we flushed the cooling system did the 50/50 ratio and followed the directions we found on a couple rx7 faq sites as to bleeding the system. Well we got all the air out of the system started it and no bubbling. She idles fine no oil in the coolant from what we could tell she will rev with no hesitation but she has a huge loss in power.

Can anyone help as to what could be causing this? I've been doing some research and I haven't found a specific answer to the question other then the usual overheat a rotory once and it's done remarks. Now I figured head gasket but no coolant in oil or vice versa. I thought the coolant seals as well but would like some advice on where we should start looking.

Do a search for 'compression test'

Wow really? Sorry don't mean to be a ass but that was the first thing I thought about but don't have a tester anymore.

Hense why I posted looking for info on what else I could look at since I'm not familiar with 13B. This thread can be closed though the engine is toast.

It was running fine the first day we started it up yesterday and she had a pretty horrid ball bearing in the motor sound. Already looked in to the rebuild kit or tracking down a new motor for a swap which ever is more cost effective.

I'd figure the coolant seals are shot but you can try adding blue devil block sealant to the coolant while the car is running. It works really well, I had the same problem as you and I thought I needed a rebuild and once I added that the car ran fine and no more overheating. I've been driving it around for months with no problems. It's up to you if you want to use it.

Even solved the knock/ball bearing sound? Hmmm we will have to give that a shot considering motors are hard to come by and my roommate keeps finding the Turbo II's.

Well I'm not really sure what that sound is or could be but I had the overheating problem and it solved it. I overheated my car more than once and it still drives fine with the sealant in there. You can buy it for around $50 at Autozone.

Most of the time when you overheat the engine badly it will spit an apex seal. Hence, why I said do a search for compression test.

Pull out both leading plugs and turn over by hand. you should hear even pulses - 1 on front 1 on rear, back and forth. You should hear at least 6 "pulses" back and forth to ensure you hav e turned it over enough times. It should be 3 full crank rotations.

If you hear the pulses correctly, you at least have all of the apex seals in place. Then try the 50 dollar fix that fc3slove said.

Thanks man I'll give that a try. Sorry about sounding like a ass earlier as well.

No prob. I really should have said search for "ghetto compression test' lol.

Well we did it and it sounded good so today I was tracing the plug wires and everything was on but found some how the one was off of the ignition coil just barely where it wasn't snapped fully in so I pushed until I heard the pop and the knocking is gone.

It still has a loss in power but it doesn't knock anymore. We will try the coolant additive mentioned earlier and most likely replace the fuel filter while we're at it since we're unsure when that was done as well.

Ok so I found my compression tester and tested the car.. Shes running 105-110 all the way across the board.

Also found a couple vacum lines that looked like they came off the back of the upper intake manifold so put those back on still a loss in power though.

We will be checking on the 6 port actuators tomorrow to make sure none of those are sticking. We heard a nasty rattle I located it though part of the exhaust just rattling so no big deal. Let me know if you guys think of anything else we can try. Also it's already had fuel injector cleaner run through it.

List of things to do:
1. Check 6 port actuators to make sure none are stuck.
2. Replace Fuel Filter.
3. Possible consideration of pro fuel system cleaning (Last Resort)
4. Trying blue devil block sealer.
5. Relocating ground from the battery due to location on the strut tower and how it can corrode over tme.

Things we've done:
1. Compression Test.
2. Checked for vacum leaks all hoses.
3. Checked for broken wires or bad connectors.
4. Checked plugs.
5. Fuel Infector Cleaner.
6. Reseated plug wires.

I would be interested in how it turns out.let us know.

Yeah well my roommate was looking at replacing the injectors as well and fuel filter. We're going to try more fuel treatment one last time since the last bottle had been a while ago. We also ruled out bad gas since he puts in premium grade no cheap crap.

We're at a stand still until he gets paid. I went to check the actuators and found I didn't know where my grease went off to so that's on hold now too.

If you guys think of anything we haven't please post and if you have a link to exact instructions even better.