Well I didn’t realize it but my coolant leaked mostly out of a newly cracked radiator. Now it’s smoking from exhaust and bubbling from coolant resevoir and smoke coming from it when I had the cap off after adding water ( just testing where the leak is. I hear the pressure leak from the back of t he radiator.( this is when I’m cranking it, not starting. It’s also having more trouble turning over.
I ordered a new aluminum two row radiatoralready but I’m afraid it overheated ( although the gauge was at normal temps.

I read that a bad radiator, bad water pump, or bad seals can cause this problem. I do not have time to fool with a new engine and this is my only car. I just hope this is not a catastrophic failure. Hoping there is a fix.

feel free to give me your honest opinion or best option to quick fix or bandaid this for now because I’m in a hole right now. Thanks everyone.

 

Pull the spark plugs and see if there's coolant on them. It's not looking great, but the plugs will tell you conclusively

 

Doesn't sound great to me either... iverheats are usually an engine killer I'm afraid

 

Yes, unfortunately..., classic symptoms...

1. Loss of coolant (for any reason) causes engine overheating.
2. Overheating may initially go undetected d/t the unfortunate non-linear design of the coolant gauge, i.e. it displays "normal range" long after temps have begun elevating.
3. An overheated / ing engine leads to deformation of the coolant seals (which act as a barrier to keep the coolant out of the combustion chamber).
4. Deformed / ruptured coolant seals leads to:
   1. loss of compression - symptom: difficulty starting, but will often run, if push started (MT)
   2. comingling of coolant to combustion chamber - symptom: whiteish sweet smelling smoke out the exhaust, i.e. coolant burn-off
   3. combustion gases into the coolant system - symptom: gurgling / wafting smoke while cranking w/ coolant overflow cap off

Loki's direction re: plug removal... will show definitively.
Sorry to hear, mate.

 

Ok pulled plug and it doesn’t look or smell like coolant/water. Just gassy oil. And my oil looks good still. But it is slightly below the half mark on the dip stick. Does low oil level cause issues too? I saw someone say that in one of the threads

 

Did you pull plugs from both rotors?
Oil level doesn't cause issues as long as it's in between the low and high marks.

The gurgling in the overflow bottle is the most concerning thing. If that continues, it's possible the coolant seals are breached at the exhaust section of the rotor so coolant doesn't get to the plugs. There's no good reason for there to be gurgling. You could do a block test (chemical test for exhaust in the coolant, there are kits for this).

 

This engine is just begging for a rebuild…

 

Loki. I need to spin this motor over fast to get it started😆 it started great with the f’d up radiator but now after I replaced the radiator and filled it with water and k seal it doesn’t wanna spin fast like it did with the broken radiator that had a crack. The pressure must be causing this. I might try to drain it out, start it, and then add the water again lol… I’m just trying to bandaid what I have🤦🏻‍♂️ Lmao might try some crc stuff too. I saw an rx7 forum that had the same **** as mine and it fixed it. But I know this is no permanent fix. Thanks for all yo ur helpful replies👍

 

the radiator pressure is irrelevant for starting

more likely explanation is the battery connections were messed with doing the radiator swap and the reconnection is now weak in some way

or the engine is going south internally with internal friction and drag increasing

but most likely the battery connections, especially if they’re still the original connectors that stretch and then don’t tightem well enough against the battery terminals.
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