prone to overheating
 

recently got my FD and the few time I did some spirited driving I notice temp getting really high and have to top up the coolant.

There's a lot of miles on the car and my first goal is to increase reliability. A friend of mine suggested to change to V Mounted IC. does that have a big diff with SMIC?

There is plenty of info on this forum regarding reliabilty mods. Check the Stickes and the 3rd gen FAQ.

I'm not an expert, but If you are having overheating issues, there are many things you should checkout and do before considering an upgrade such as a v-mount.

I would suggest not driving your car until you find and fix the problem. The stock FD gauge is not very reliable when it comes to showing temps. You might damage your engine, if you havent already.

thanks. I don't see any problems when driving normally so I guess that's a good sign nothing is damaged yet.

ive checked the fans, radiator, ast but didn't see any issues.

How's that radiator cap look? Like it's got vanilla milkshake on it?

How hot is "really high"? Do you have an aftermarket gauge?

@Natey, rad cap seems ok. No "milkshake" stuff around it.

@SgtBlue, I don't have an aftermarket gauge. Stock gauge goes like 5/6 to the top.

Know that the stock gauge is NOT linear, so getting a decent aftermarket gauge is one of the first reliability mods for the car. I don't remember the exact temps off-hand, but the stock gauge goes to about the 08:00 o'clock position at something like 60 C. and will remain there even though the engine continues to warm. It's only at something like 108 C. that it begins to move upward again,. But since that's only a few degrees away from really beating up on the coolant seals at around 115 C., it's nearly always too late.
From your description, you're definitely running hot. If you're having to "top up the coolant" that means it's being lost...somewhere. And given you also said it's a high mileage engine, there's some chance that a coolant seal has failed already.

A 'V' mount isn't going to help you at this point. First figure out EXACTLY why you're overheating...and fix it. Check out the FAQ stickys in the 3rd Gen Section for reliability. For other symptoms of a failed coolant seal read through here:
https://www.rx7club.com/new-member-r...g-car-1062385/

I can vouch for an SR motorsports Radiator. Its kept my FD pretty cool and hardly ever gets about 86C unless im sitting still during the hot days. But even then climbs no higher than 98 Ive seen.

+1 on not relying on the stock temp gauge. Heavy center weight.