Autopartsjoe

For a while I could smell gas from the exhaust while i was driving, assumed oxygen sensor. Then the car had a terrible time idling and driving was impossible so i parked it for the winter thinking it was the converter. Odorless smoke was coming from drivers side of the engine compartment and under the passenger seat so I assumed converter. Well i finally got the front converter nuts off and tried to start it with the exhaust cracked to see if anything happened. What i ended up with was coolant dripping from the crack at the manifold/converter. If it were a piston engine I could troubleshoot the problem. Are there coolant jackets near the exhaust ports? Or is it possible that the coolant leak is in the intake manifold?

Loki

iTrader: (1)

The coolant seals are around each combustion chamber. The motor has to come apart to replace them, at which point you're basically rebuilding.

Pressure test the cooling system, but there aren't really too many reasons to have coolant anywhere near the exhaust on these cars.

In fact, pull your spark plugs and see if they have signs of coolant.

The fuel smell might be the cat, but cats don't usually just die. How old are your ignition coils? That's the #1 problem on RX8s.

Autopartsjoe

Coils are stock they worked well enough at the time of death

Loki

iTrader: (1)

Yeah usually death is the first sign of coil trouble :/