Hey Guys i need some advice,
When i bought my Rx7 Gen 3 i was told that there was a small water seal leak in the engine. Now the car has done just over 93000 KM so im guessing that should be about right.
So have gotten it home and finally after 6 months have started on my rebuild. Just getting the engine out this weekend hopefully. Now i skipped a few steps and i decided to remove the water pump and housing as it killed a few minutes in one afternoon. Now when i looked in to the holes where the water would normally be pumped round i noticed its full to the where the holes are.
Now correct me if im wrong but if there was water leaking into the engine wouldnt this have gone down by now? as its not run for just over a week now?
It probs wont matter but the liquid is bright red in colour. Apart from the coolant buzzer going off after every 10-15 miles of driving there are no signs of coolant leaking into the engine e.g white smoke from exhaust etc. Actually thats pretty clean.
Should i be looking elsewhere? The car was sat for 2 years doing nothing which is a shame.
cheers guys and gals
There might be an air lock in the coolant system, keep topping it up as it should work its way out, mine did leak on the heater hose where it connects to the block on the passenger side, next to the firewall, there was a tiny leak from there.
How do you know its a waterseal though? does it bubble through the expansion tank?
if im really honest i have no idea. im just going by what i was told when i bought it
Ah, when you say about "where the water would normally be pumped round i noticed its full to the where the holes are" it sounds like someone might have used some of that rad sealer stuff in the engine and not removed it meaning everything has got clogged up, perhaps post some photos up of that, it might just need a flush out of all the rubbish inside the engine waterways
That sounds like it might be spot on mate. Ive got some pics coming up so hopefully someone might be able to point me in the right direction. Its just hard to know what to do when theres no history for the car at all.
Have you got a compression test done on it? If its just water seals then its just a soft seal rebuild which isn\'t as expensive as if a tip had gone
Well this is what i was thinking, the car runs fine. All i know is it has been sitting for 2 years in a garage somewhere. So i was thinking that the water seals have maybe dried out and started to corrode.
Even thinking of that tho the whole engine still needs to come out for a water seal change right?
No i never got it compression tested. I dont have the equipment and when i went to my local mazda dealer they didnt even know how to compression test a new Rx-8 never mind a 7. So i got put off and said id look elsewhere.
Its just hard to work out a car when you dont know its history lol.
Just had all my paperwork out for the transfer of the Rx7 from Japan to the UK.
This is a bit strange for me to work out but id like to run it passed you all and see what you think.
the car was imported in oct 2004..........Mileage 91712
Now i took the last MOT that was done and these are the details...
MOT done on 28/06/2011...........Mileage 97598
So since being imported into the country the car has done little over 5886 miles in 7 years.
How strict are the japanese with rebuilds etc? I know they are pretty hot on MOT\'s and that sort of thing. Im getting the feeling now that this probably has been rebuilt in japan and its just that its been sat for 2 years and M1tch is probs right.....all the coolant ducts are clogged up with rust and gunk.
Im finding red sludge stuff in most of the pipes now im looking harder.
Sorry for rambling on but i had to share my findings lol
Many thanks
Mike
Are both mileages in KMs or miles? My engine is on 89k miles, 7.2s on the front 6.9s on the rear, original engine
Still in KM. Clock was never changed.
So thats just over 60K in miles.
Ah....imported....has it had an issue since the car was imported? If the car was started up, driven along the dock, driven into the container and the engine turned off before it was up to temperature there would have been neat fuel in the engine....which nibbles through the rubber water seals...
Not that im aware of tbh mate. The car has been in the UK 7 years and apart from the standard filter services etc there have been no problems with it.
the guy i bought it off said the water seal was leaking but only by a minor amount. Yet ive seen the symptoms of water seal leaks and the car only has one of them.....using too much water. Theres no smoke from the exhaust apart from a little for the first second or two when first started.
It actually ran fine when i drove it 300 miles back home. It just needed topping up every 20 mins or so. Surely if that much water was getting into the engine there would be plumes of white smoke?
Hmm could he have not just ment a standard water leak rather than water seal? It should indeed look like a blown headgasket for cars (ie lots of white steam) out the exhaust, sounds to me it might just be something like the water pump gasket leaking or something
Im sure he said a water seal leak as i mention to him about doing a rebuild and he said most people tie a rebuild in with a water seal change :S
Altho i might have gotten him wrong. I think you might be right. Im going to flush all the gunk out of the cooling system and replace the water pump gasket then see what the engines like.
Many thanks for your help M1tch
Waterseals are single use, you can\'t reuse them on a rebuild, a \'soft seal\' rebuild can be done, parts are around £400, for engine flush, using water and some bicarb, fill it, run the engine, drain it, keep going until the water runs clear.
With those radiator seal fluids people put in there are 2 sorts, one is a sort that is used like an engine flush - goes into the engine, stays in there and bit and is then removed, the other is added into the coolent and stays in the system (doesn\'t need to be flushed out)
Issue if that if you leave the \'flush\' sort in the coolent it reacts with it and causes odd rubbery lumps in the coolent - which seems to be what you have lol
Yeah that does seem to be what i have lol. Thanks for the tip with the bi carb, ill def give that a go :-)
Its cheaper than that \'engine flush\' stuff, you need to give it a few passes through, the last pass should be with just clean water to get any bits of bicarb out of the system, also be prepared for the coolent buzzer soon after start up, its probably due to an air lock. The engine drain plug for the coolent is on the passenger side engine mount, its the bolt that is longer and different to the others, open that first making sure there is a bucket underneeth, get it flowing THEN open the rad cap lol
Do you have a picture of it please Mitch as I\'m in need of doing this. :)