Had a bit of an overheat today... how to do a check for potential damage?

[soldave]

Driving today and suddenly smelt coolant.  Looked down at my gauges and the stock temp gauge was way up near the top.  Pulled over and turned the engine off straight away.  Coolant was piling out of the overflow tank but there were no leaks or anything.  Did a bit of checking around and managed to work out that it was the thermostat that was stuck closed and causing the overheating.  I\'ve replaced it with a working thermostat and driven home (drove for about 45-60minutes after I had replaced it).

Now I felt nothing different after putting the new thermostat in, but have read about the rotary being so susceptible to overheating.  What are the potential hotspots (no pun intended) for overheating damage in the engine, and is there any way to test for any damage?

[dthebuk]

well they usually overheat when the water seal in the engine goes. As for overheating normally, not sure if this can cause the water seal to die.

Anyhu, to check the water seal. Fill up the coolant to the brim (in the rad), remove the egi fuse. Get someone to crank the engine whilst you check the coolant filler for bubbles on cranking. Additionally if you\'re car puts a lot of white smoke out of the exhuast all of the time the water seal could be gone

[soldave]

I know it overheated because the thermostat was stuck closed.  When the engine was cooled and thermostat replaced I filled with coolant and kept radiator cap open when I started the car.  While the car heated up I checked the top of the radiator; there were the normal "burping" bubbles but no coolant seal microbubbles, and no smoking at all.

[dthebuk]

not sure if you\'d get the bubbles with the engine running propperly. Anyhu, sounds like you havn\'t done any damage and that youve been lucky!