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Old 06-09-2010, 10:44 AM   #8
Kentetsu
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I don't own an 8, and have absolutely no experience with them, so I don't hang out in this section much. But in many aspects, a rotary is a rotary, if you know what I mean.

Burning coolant would be due to a bad coolant seal, not an apex seal.

Also, here is something that I have found in regards to this issue: A couple of years ago I lost an apex seal in my 12a after 213,000 miles. I picked up a used 12a as a replacement, which reportedly had about 70k on it.

I had a couple of friends assisting with the swap, and due to some bad info we ended up putting the wrong weighted flywheel on it. So a few days later I had to pull the motor again and fix that. So, motor goes back in again, and once it warmed up it started pumping the coolant straight out of the tail pipe. Serious, serious clouds of white smoke. I had neighbors coming over to make sure that the garage wasn't on fire.

So then I was faced with having to pull that damn motor once again, then finding another replacement. I was not happy, to say the least. So I began searching for alternatives. I read up on a method involving block sealant, but you had to clean the system out like 5 times, use the stuff, then clean the system out another 10 times, and it would sometimes work. Well, I figured there had to be a better way.

I spent a day researching different products, and found a radiator sealant that was based on aluminum flakes. I liked the idea of using aluminum, because when it is flaked it is very flammable (explosive, actually). So if any of the product found it's way into the combustion area, it wouldn't just sit around in there grinding away and causing more issues.

So I paid less than $4.00 for a bottle of the stuff at Autozone (Alumaseal) and dumped it into the radiator and then topped it off. I started the car up and began the process of letting it idle until warm, waiting for the product to start circulating. Once the thermostat opened up, the clouds of smoke began again just like before. But then, I started to see signs of improvement.

After about 15 minutes, I saw about a 50% reduction. After 30 minutes of idling, it was good enough that I could have driven the car without causing accidents behind me. After 45 minutes, just a trace, so I took topped off the radiator and went for a short drive of just a few miles, and by the time I got home the motor was fine. I checked the water level in the radiator, and it was still full.

Well, that was over two years ago, and that motor is still absolutely fine. I daily drive the car, and race it on most weekends, and I've put nearly 20,000 miles on it. The heater still works, it didn't get clogged up, and the product didn't eat up the bearings in my water pump either like I've experiences with other products on boinger motors in the past.

I even drove down to the DGRR meets two years in a row, again, without any problems. This past trip, I put 2,400 miles on the car over the course of 5 days.

I have helped other forum members with blown coolant seals by recommending this method/product, and we met with success 11 out of 12 times.

The only thing to keep in mind is that the majority of these were 1st gen cars, with a handful of 2nd gens. So I don't know if there might be some special detail about the Renesis motor that would preclude this method. But either way, I figured it was something worth mentioning.

And like I tell everyone when we discuss this, make sure that you buy the right stuff for the job. The name is Alumaseal. If you get something else, especially something containing copper or brass, I wouldn't be surprised if you created more problems than you fixed.

Anyway, this might be something to consider in your situation. Hope this helps.








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