Yeah so my FD popped a coolant seal yesterday while Angel was driving. She didn't do anything wrong and the car didn't overheat but the champagne bubbles in the coolant are a pretty bad sign. The funny thing is that I've been planning to sell it. There wasn't anything majorly wrong with the car, it's been great and plenty reliable as a daily driver for the past 2 years. It's just that I've got my FC and I don't want and definitely don't need 2 project cars. Oh well, now I'm just going to have to sell it for cheaper than I thought. I'll post up a for sale thread when I get her cleaned up and take some good pictures.
-John

 

ha,ha when I first read the title I though we were inveted to a wedding. That sure is a bad sign,maybe early stage of faliure.Is that the original motor?How many miles?

 

lol!! Not quite....a funeral perhaps..but no wedding! The picture doesn't do it justice...it's much worse than that! When I bought the car I was told that it was not the original engine, I believe 30k miles is what I was told was on the new one. My memory is horrible. But after checking the compression on it, I'm not so sure about that statement. Unless it was just a soft seal rebuild 30k miles ago. If it's the original engine then it's got ~116k on it.

 

you gunna share those compression numbers with us?

 

I only have the rear rotor cause I did a video of it. 87, 91, 89 @229 rpm. Mazda manual says 78psi is minimum for that RPM. Not horrible, but not great. Part of me wants to pull it and just do a soft seal rebuild and keep it. I dunno....I hate this car....I love this car....ugh
-John

 

talk to scott, he feels the same way.

 

With the water jacket compromised, be sure to at least start it every day until you decide what to do.

You don't want your rotors and internals to rust up before you can open it.

Not that I like FD's or anything.

 

Good advice, 7dust.

B

 

Well theres a motor in dallas. for a few hundred maybe? 7dust and I were gonna try to get it but no luck. For some reason I cant post a reply just have to quote something. Oh well.

 

Ive got the hoist. We can pull two engines in one day - I know of at least one other FD that needs its engine pulled too.

 

The problem is the color. It should have been pinkish orange and not lime green!

 

Definitely good advice, and already in effect. Right now, I don't even have time to decide what I'm going to do with it, let alone take action.
-John

 

^^^ I'd even drain the coolant. If you just run it for a few seconds every day it will keep the inside dry and probably won't do any more damage than is done already.

 

i am having a similar scare, i need to know if the bubbles start almost immediately or does it take a few minutes?

 

I hate to say but there should be no bubbles. and it may take a min to produce em. Since the car heats up more bubbles. it could start on start up but depends on how bad its leaking internal.

 

I have champagne bubbles and just had the hydrocarbon test. It passed....did not change the blue fluid yellow at all....

 

I want one of whatever he's having.