adude

Background: bought a 04 rx8 from a used car lot for real cheap. Was told the engine was blown and wouldn't start. Took it home deflooded it and drove it around a bit. Had some problems with warm starts and stalled a few times. It did have decent power when i got on it though. It was severely neglected though and even if it did have a little bit of low compression I figured some basic maitenance would go a long way.

Now to my current problem a few days ago I drove it a little farther after building some confidence in the car and it began to overheat. The temp gauge flew up dropped down and whent up again( if that means anything) . I got it home and the tip for the overflow was broken off.

So I go to autozone and get a new radiator. It had the automatic lines but was told it wouldn't matter and being a little impatient I didn't second guess it. Put it in fired it up and tons of white smoke pours out the back. I let it idle while I filled the radiator but the bubbles never stopped nor did the white smoke. Even being cold if I fired it up with the cap off it blew antifreeze everywhere any ideas would be great. I'm guessing the seals are gone but open to any other possibilities

Love_Hounds

Seals would be nice, if it really overheated like that, you probably lost most/all of your coolant and warped your housings.

adude

Trying to stay optimistic lol

Love_Hounds

You can be as optimistic as you'd like, however if the engine was drinking coolant, bubbling, and kept smoking, you are looking at a rebuild to replace the coolant seals. If it did overheat significantly, you are looking at a more expensive rebuild or even a replacement.

adude

I like to be pretty optimistic. I'll probably go replacement since as bad as its been beat up before I even got it it would probably be cheaper and easier.

Nisaja

Yep. You definitely blew a coolant seal. Why not buy a Mazda reman engine? It's easy.

Calikid219

I'm sure it's easy for Mazda with their nonexistent quality control. Now I'm not trying to be a *****, but I've heard too many horror stories about Mazda's poor reman engines to trust them. A reputable rebuild is the way I would go

Nisaja

Yeah true, but hey! It's cheap!

adude

Haven't heard much about the remans. I was thinking used import or eBay. I'd love a petit but $$$

Loki

iTrader: (1)

As long as you understand that a used import or ebay engine could be in a similar condition to the engine you have now. Without a compression test it's a total crap shoot.