Hey,
Car has been playing up for a few weeks, burping coolant out of the expansion tank and buzzer comming on.
Fitted new AST cap, no longer dumping lots of coolant but still getting the buzzer coming on when sat in traffic/slow moving after a drive. Thougth might be airlock introduced through earlier problems.
Don\'t appear to be loosing any coolant - expansion tank to full at cold, but looking in filler neck and AST I can\'t see any coolant.
No mayonaise in oil filler neck.
A couple of days ago she struggled to start and sounded really rough when she took, cleared with throttle. Put it down to the weeks heavy rain.
Yesterday after an hours drive I went to Tesco and a mates house, both times I really struggled to get her started. Sounded quite rough which cleared with a small amount of throttle. Also a intermittent single \'lumps\' on idle.
Checked under AST cap today and found this:
(http://server3.uploadit.org/files/teabagger-astcap.jpg)
The did champagne test (I\'ve been putting this off) and got this:
(http://server3.uploadit.org/files/teabagger-champagne.jpg)
It\'s a bit blurry, but basically it took a couple of mins for stuff to go into the bottle. It was bubbling like mad, looked like bubble bath foam.
So, looks like a water seal. :cry:
Im sorry to say that it looks that way :(
Hopefully you will be able to reuse most or all of your parts and get all the seals done! :)
Any ideas of the cost for just doing the seals? I\'m pretty confident everything else should be fine, though the coolant system is going to need a good flushing and hopefully the rad won\'t be blocked beyond saving.
untill you strip the entire engine you dont know what else it will need such as tips/seals housings etc
Best thing to do would to speak to one of the tuners from the banners above.
If you fancy getting your hands dirty then you can remove and strip the engine. If you go down that route then you may also consider doing the rebuild yourself and then you are just paying for the parts - unfortunately I don\'t know how much the kit\'s cost.
If you get a tuner to do it all then it will cost more but you can be sure it\'s done correctly, less hassle, all tolerences properly checked etc etc.
Sadly looks like water seals mate, if you use it, it generally get worse quite quick i found. then it\'s the over-heating that destroys all the bits that may still be usable! how many miles? what area you in? i am towing a black 93 one to RX motors next week,( belongs to A guy who is not a club member as yet!) exactly the same symptoms!
Bad luck mate, Bob
I\'m going to give Jimmys a call tomorrow, see if I can get her booked in asap. I\'ve got a commander so can keep an eye on temps if I drive there from Cambridge, as long as I can get 1/4 mile from home I\'m happy as the RAC will take me the rest of the way.
It had a complete rebuild between 20-25,000 miles ago (2 /12 years) with new housings, rotors etc. Seals shouldn\'t really have gone so soon, but I guess these things can happen.
I just want her sorted out and fit and well to be honest. I expected to spend money on her but hoped I might get more than 6 or 7 weeks from ownership before having to spend this kind of money :(
Someone has suggested I haven\'t done the champagne test quite right.
Am I supposed to wait until the fans start kicking in before checking for bubbles? Will it naturally dump air prior to this? This pic was taken only a minute or two after starting, long before she\'d warmed up.
I\'m confused :(
Champagne test should be performed from start-up, when the engine\'s cold. You don\'t even need the bottle really, just remove the filler cap and start her up. If you\'re seeing lots of \'champagne\' bubbles then it\'s probably goosed. Are you getting any steam out of the exhaust?
Yep I did that, but these bubbles were coming up long before the engine had warmed up when I should be checking it once it\'s up to temperature. I can\'t believe it should look like that though, even before it\'s properly warmed up?
Not really getting much out of the exhaust on startup, not anything out of the ordinary. It\'s not blowing water out of the expansion tank after a run either since changing the AST cap.
I\'ll do the test again tonight.
It\'s best to do the test when the engine\'s cold since there\'s a possibility as the engine heats up and the components expand any small gaps between the housings that are letting combustion gasses escape could be closed up.
Well I\'ve spoken to Carl. Taking her down a week on Friday.
God I\'m depressed. :(
And soon to be poor. Worst thing is it\'s a joint purchace with the missus, she doesn\'t know how much a rebuild is. Yet. Feel pretty bad as it was me that wanted an RX.
Teabagger.... you have PM
Rmaj
Quote from: teabaggerWell I\'ve spoken to Carl. Taking her down a week on Friday.
God I\'m depressed. :(
And soon to be poor. Worst thing is it\'s a joint purchace with the missus, she doesn\'t know how much a rebuild is. Yet. Feel pretty bad as it was me that wanted an RX.
We\'ll have a good look first to see if it really does need a rebuild.You never know,it might just be ok.
Regards
Carl
some vids of a second champagne test just now.
Video 1, she\'s probably been running a couple of mins. Through to video 4 I think it was 6 or 7 mins, I shut her down after that as it was covering my engine bay in coolant. Commander read 65 degrees water temp at that last video.
Sounded lumpy on idle, also pretty high at around 1500rpm. Settled down and sounded much smoother, didn\'t check what rpm it went down to but it sounded about right.
Soz to hear of your woes matey, heard from stu that you were having problms, i know it had a rebuild when stu owned it so with a bit of luck it aint too serious as carl said.
fingers crossed for ya fella!
Brunge. :Thumbs-up
damn rex\'s they always bite you in the arse when you least expect it!:Grrr
Hope Carl has some good news for you when he\'s inspected it all :Thumbs-up
Quote from: teabaggersome vids of a second champagne test just now.
Damn, that doesn\'t look too promising! With any luck, you might be able to get away with just replacing the water seals, what with the engine being re-built relatively recently n\'all. Can\'t imagine they\'ll cost much, just gonna be labour intensive. Are you going to have a crack at doing the re-build yourself?
EDIT: http://www.rotaryaviation.com/o-ring_kits.htm