Hi guys
I\'m new to this forum, would really appreciate your help ;)
I just bought a FC, When i was driving it back up the radiator gasket leaked and pressure in cooling system drops, thus causing steam which escaped through the leak = water level going down quick.
was on the motorway, saw the radiator warning went on then looked down and noticed the water temp needle raising quick. It went over the max line (due to the temp of steam) when i pulled over. lots of steam :(
let it cool. fixed it topped it up and went back safely with the water temp always slightly below middle.
when it was steaming i touched the intake manifold, can still put my hands on it (at least not at cooking temp :god)
now my worries, i heard once the rotary has been over heat once that means it will fail very soon. does that mean i will have to rebuild mine in the next few months??? :xconfused:xconfused:(:(
Cheers :Thumbs-up
Louis
Hi there and welcome in!
You might have caught it in time, but you can never be sure, the water seals are usually what go when a rotary overheats, they are rubber and so warp and can rupture. 2 things will help diagnose an engine issue.
Does the car sound like a tractor on idle? if it does you might have blown a rotor - unlikely on an overheat.
When you turn the car on from cold, does the top rad hose (going from the top of the water pump to the top of the radiator) go hard when the engine is cold. - if this hose goes hard when the engine is cold when gasses inside the engine are forcing their way through a leak in the water seal pressurising the coolent system.
If both of those things are negitive you might have been able to catch it, but I would recommend a proper rotary compression test to see what the engine is like anyway.
I would also suggest upgrading the radiator and rad cap. Don\'t forget that these cars are getting on a bit and the OEM radiator for the FC has plastic end caps!
I won\'t panic too much, but I would recommend checking everything over inside and out to see where you stand with your car.
Its not the inlet manifold you need to worry about overheating, its the water in the block etc
The good news if it is only water seals is that you can get a \'soft seal\' rebuild, Prof has a thread on here where he rebuilt the engine himself as a waterseal had gone. Which is far cheaper than a blown rotor as you might be able to reuse basically all the parts.
Don\'t panic, ask lots of questions on here :) we won\'t bite!
When my waterpump failed - the temp needle hardly moved above centre. I got it replaced the next day, and ran the car for another 5 months before the damage that had been caused became apparent (car lost compression).
Having said that, I used the car as a daily driver, and probably did 6000 miles on that engine with the damage.
The problem is that if it\'s had extreme overheating, the springs behind the apex/side/corner seals will fail and the car will then fail at some point after that.
The sensor for the thermostat is in the rear iron - quite low down (under the oil sender) - so overheating that registers on the gauge is usually quite serious.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news - and I really hope you did catch it in time. If you are lucky - and people have been - it could just have been an air pocket heating up rapidly with steam.
thanks for the advice :)
the car still starts and idle fine, the rad is newish so i shall replace my rad cap.
hopefully i really did catch it in time lol
cheers
Louis
Keep us posted mate, if you feel anything is a miss just post it up and im sure someone on here would have had the same issue!