coolant strangeness

[Silver86]

after searching threads here and over at the other forum for "blown coolant seal" ive decided to make this thread.

lets see if this makes sense to anyone.

i first noticed this problem when noDOHC helped me finish bleeding my brakes and install my exhaust. the coolant neck was void of coolant. before that time, i had never noticed the temp gauge move much from its normal operating temp area (while running the car). now after being topped off and taken for a spin the other night, i noticed it was down some. topped it off again and repeated the process. it was down a little bit again.

im fairly sure the car isnt burning coolant, no sweet exhaust smell, unless the leak is too small to be detected my nose. also, after going for a drive and letting the car reach temp... youd think that the overflow would fill just a bit... mines been bone dry every time ive played around. curious.

now i have yet to test the things i have read about. champaign test. coolant chemical test. system pressure test. cap pressure test. am i missing anything?

just bothers me that the coolant neck was empty...

[vex]

If you're overflow has been empty or has not been circulating the coolant back in properly that's where your losing your coolant. You will lose coolant over time if you don't have a proper seal or the hoses are not on tight enough.

What usually ends up happening is when the car reaches temperature the coolant is removed as steam. That steam will evaporate or condense depending on how it leaves the overflow cap. If it's open to the environment via some small hole or improperly secured hoses the fluid will just disperse as steam leaving very little to no trace and result in your magic disappearing coolant.

Might I suggest inspecting your hoses and looking for cracks, holes, and tears?

[Silver86]

hmmm... good idea..

[NoDOHC]

The one that got me once is that little hose that goes from the throttle body down to the rear iron. It was leaking slightly, but evaporating on the exhaust manifold, never even saw steam. I did notice the same symptoms.

Unfortunately, it is possible that your housings rusted through, the '86 RX7s seem to do that much more than later models. That was the final death of my 6-port at 199,087 miles.

edit: We can't look for hard starting, because it already does start hard. Mine had great compression, but digested coolant. (It started hard, but ran fine once running) The irons were all junk, rusted completely around the coolant seals (which is one of the reasons that I now have a 4-port in the car).

I sure hope it is a leak...

[Silver86]

I sure hope it is a leak...

me too...

[Max777]

hey man, if it ends up being the irons, I've got some 90,000 mile 6 port housings you can HAVE! I want to get rid of them, and helping out someone instead of throwing em away would be fine with me.

Just pay shipping. :D