Hey guys, I've owned a RX-7 for a while and had a rebuild done from Rotary Power here in California. The car has less then 15,000 miles on the rebuild and the car started overheating after i got off the freeway. The temperature would rise when I stopped at a light, but would fall slowly once I started moving. I had to shortshift to keep the rpm's down until I made it to the dealership. They told me to get a new engine as soon as I drove in. I took it to Rotary power and they told me the coolant had messed up the Water Seals. Is this possible when the car barely has any miles on the rebuild and its been probably 2 years since the rebuild. I drove it twice a week and warmed it up at least every other day. I wonder if the seals were never replaced. Looking for some help on what I should do. I dont want to rebuild again if the same thing is going to happen. At the same time, I dont want to spend another 4 grand trying to get the seals replaced. Does anyone know of any other shops that can replace the seals without the full motor rebuild cost? I would appreciate the help. thanks.

 

HAve a fan, fan shroud, proper radiator ducting? What kind of car is this?

Are you having to refill coolant?

 

Sorry about not posting more info. Its a 1993 FD with approximately 125k on the odometer. Stock turbos, all it has its a racing beat exhaust and cold air kit. The coolant is bubbling though when the engine starts which is why I assume the water seals are gone. Is there anyplace in socal that can rebuild for less than rotary power or the cost of getting a remanufactured engine from Mazda? Want to fix her as soon as possible. Thanks.

 

to replaced the coolant seals, the motor would have to be torn apart again. And if the motor is going to be open up, mind as well do another complete rebuilt.

 

dave aka guitarjunkie28 on here and teamfc3s
http://rotaryheads.com/
he's good and hes local

 

If infact it is coolant seals then yes a rebuild is in order. However with a low mileage rebuild on it in the first place you are not looking at a full rebuild. You just need soft seals costing about $400 bux in parts.

DIY with the video tapes and do it right this time.

 

if your local too santa ana you can take the engine to rotary reliability and racing
just the block with work and all will be around $600+
the whole engine will be around 3500-5000 (im not positive)
good luck with whatever you do i hope it works out

 

Sorry to hear about the water seals. Same thing happened to me but since I spent all my money on the last rebuild my car now collects dust. Mine lasted all of 30K...not to mention I babied the crap outta it and never got a chance to have any fun with it...Good Luck with your engine

 

guitarjunkie is now __dave__.

more than likely what happened is a coolant land broke off. after time, (especially when the coolant system is neglected), corrosion eats away at the irons. this weakens and thins out the land and it probably just snapped.

this may or may-not be the fault of RP. i'm sure it was good when they put it together, but if there's any significant corrosion, the iron shold be either epoxied, tigged and machined, or replaced. i've had good results using epoxy on broken coolant lands when the owner of the motor couldn't afford to replace the iron.

if you do it yourself, you can bend a junk side seal to match the curvature of the coolant seal area. i used a razor blade to hold it in place for this one.

do 5-6 thin layers and make the finish very rough on each one. after you get the epoxy built up, go over it with a roloc disk, or buzz it with a finishing sander and some 400-grit sandpaper. i usually dig it down very slightly under the normal level and use a touch of rtv to help seal it up when the motor is assembled. haven't had a failure yet.

what do i recommend? replace the iron. but this might help you out if you don't have that much money laying around.

 

i couldn't find the "done" pic. i think it's buried somewhere in my old hard drive.


but you should be able to imagine how it'll look when it's done.

 

Hello guys, thanks for the info. I really appreciate it. I'm wondering if someone can do the work for me here in socal. I"ll try calling up the shops mentioned above, but which shop do you think is the most reliable and has the best prices for what I need. I am assuming the housings are ok because the car was never pushed and the rebuild was so recent. Any suggestions because I want to get it fixed soon but I just don't have the time to work on it with my schedule right now. Thanks.

 

here we go...

this is a different iron than the one above, but the technique is the same.
i see that particular spot break all the time in motors--more than any other spot, so i think the casting was the thinnest in that exact area.