alright...

a buddy of mine recently came across a good deal on a 1987 turbo II rx7. ($1500) and he went ahead and picked it up

the car is in fairly decent condition, has about 110k on it and had been sitting for about 4 years.

upon discovery, we hooked up a new battery and to our suprise it fired right up after about 10 seconds of cranking... blew a nice cloud of smoke out until it warmed up, and hasn't let out a puff since.

he got it trailered home (no tags) and parked it... when he finally got tags for it he drove it a bit and that's when the problems started. When it is driven (regardless of how) the Temp gauge gets hotter and hotter and hotter... until you get scared and go ahead and shut it down and let it cool off. (its never buried the gauge)

we replaced the thermostat, coolant level sensor, and coolant temp sensor and flushed the **** out of it several times and filled it back up with water, drove it about 40~ miles and it popped its cork once we got into traffic in town... the engine driven fan never came on and niether did the electric one.

sooo... i rigged the e-fan to run constantly when the car's on... and to no avail

the clutch fan runs for about 10 seconds when you start the car and you never hear it again after that.... we ripped out all the A/C **** to hopefully improve airflow and that helped some, but not enough. it has the stock 13lb radiator cap on it and it gets warm and hits the overflow tank blowing steam...

the car runs like a dream other than a slightly rough idle... turbo makes good boost (6-8lbs) and the car has zero exhaust other than the pre-cat.


sooo... i'm hoping i can get some help here... been going in circles on another forum to no avail... thanks in advance!!!

 

Nice description of what is happening and what you have done so far. Sound like your radiator is plugged. Sitting for four years and its age certainly point that way. Try this. Start up and let run until it is starting to overheat. Shut engine off and then put your hand on the face of the raditor. Reach thru the clutch fan and check from top to bottom.If you pulled the a/c condenser then you should have really good acess to the entire radiator surface in front. It should be really hot evenly from top to bottom. If top is hot and bottom area is cold then you need a radiator. Clutch fan is probably not engaging because it needs to have very hot air blowing on the bemetal of the clutch to engage. If rad is plugged then the air coming thru is cold. Hope this helps some.

 

Sounds like the engine may have a bad coolant seal.

 

sounds kinda ruff, you pick the car up in a field or something?

 

I think that he is asking for help, & not smart comments.

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sorry dude

 

Hey, no problem. I just don't want to see this forum turn into one like a particular RX7 forum...

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