Cooling issues, could use some advice

Lots of ideas, I like it.

Running stock pullies on an LA timing cover and water pump. It's a 6 vane if I remember correctly.

New, at cooling system upgrade, T-stat (185)

If I open the hood it won't overheat idling, and will recover faster.

I never checked the lower hose but will as soon as it's on the road again from having the rear end rebuilt. Never thought of that.



The big thing that ya'll mentioned a couple of times is if the block is full of crap. This is very possible. The was picked up from a junkyard and I freshened it up with new rings and bearings to go in another project, but I changed directions so the motor sat for a year before ever running. I still didn't have the RX7 yet but wanted to run it so I built a test stand and broke it in on that. The problem, and where I really think I messed up, was after the motor was pulled off the test stand I never drained the block, so 50/50 coolant sat in it for about 6-8 months before finally being installed in the car. Total NEWB mistake, I know.

When I first got it going I had a heck of a time with the coolant, it turned into something that resembled foamy diarhea. Really nasty stuff with all kinds of junk floating around. It got to the point where I was flushing it every other week to get it cleaned out and after probably a dozen times the coolant started to actually stay green.

When doing my upgrade last year I figured part of the problem was the radiator was probably clogged and not functioning properly. The coolant still gets a little rusty since during the summer I just run water with Purple Ice (due to track racing a lot) but it doesn't seem to have lots of junk floating around in it anymore. I wonder what I would find if I pulled the freeze plugs in the side of the block. It woud be a total PITA but worth it if there was a really good chance my cooling issues would be solved.

Something to think about for sure.