Fresh Sweet Donuts Everywhere! (work log)

Drove the thing a few times last week. Been topping off my coolant overflow more than usual and with some spare time on Sunday, went and checked the actual radiator and found it was about half a gallon low. Needless to say I have a leak going on somewhere. With my free time being more scarce as of late, I went ahead and ordered a coolant UV test kit to make my life easier. Just my luck, I've been complaining to Damian about how annoying draining and burping the cooling system is and now the car needs some attention in that regard. 🙄
 
I still haven't gotten my 2860 back yet.

Edit: Just checked and the 2860 is soaking in an ultrasonic bath before it gets disassembled and inspected.
 
Last edited:
323 said:
I still haven't gotten my 2860 back yet.

Edit: Just checked and the 2860 is soaking in an ultrasonic bath before it gets disassembled and inspected.
Click to expand...
while that's news, it doesn't pertain to my needs. get with the program
 
  • Haha
Reactions: 323
Haha that's not a bad idea but maybe just PRANKD for the ms3. Always considered the plates CL0WD for the msp but I didn't care enough for it.
 
On my lunch break, I put the car up in the air, added the coolant dye and ran it for 30 minutes. I revisited the car after 20 minutes and the fan definitely kicked on. Peeked around with the UV light for the next 10 minutes and saw no traces of leaks. Turned the car off and later checked my oil to see if coolant made it in there. Since UV light turns everything a weird color, I had to make sure I wasn't seeing the dye in my oil so I poured out a little bit of fresh oil in a container to compare. Safe to say there's no UV dye in my oil.

My only other conclusion I can come to is my radiator cap isn't sealing properly. When I last replaced my radiator (June of 2012), the cap wasn't sealing right so I had to file down or trim the opening a little bit and it was good to go. Fast forward to a couple months ago, my radiator cap fell apart and I replaced it. Guessing maybe isn't sealing properly on the radiator and sending coolant to the overflow tank to be spit out causing me to lose coolant.

Or my car is a diva and doesn't like summer time. Time will tell. I'll keep an eye on it.
 
kickerMSP said:
I always keep coolant in the back. Always uses coolant in the summer even more when beating on it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, spare oil and coolant is always in the trunk. Maybe the summer beating is just making my car a diva then lol. Oh well, the UV dye is in the system so it'll snitch on itself sooner or later :)
 
#tbt: A day late but that's okay. Just posting some more random photos from late 2014 when the car had some dark blue mx5 wheels.

i-HSqwsZG-L.jpg


i-XPRPrkz-L.jpg


i-BfRs9cH-L.jpg
 
Update on the coolant leak. Car is still on jackstands and I placed cardboard under the car to see if I could catch any leaks. Spotted a leak on the cardboard last night. Picture 1 is where I found the leak on the car. For reference, picture 2 is of my spare block where I found the coolant marked in green and possibly the source of the leak circled in red. Since I'll be in that deep to replace the tstat to block gasket, I'll be replacing the tstat seal as well.

IMG_9442.webp
IMG_9443.webp
 
After work, I was cleaning up the garage a bit and remembered I had an inspection mirror. You can see it on the last pic hanging up on the cork board lol. I used it to inspect the tstat housing where it mates to the block and that was where the leak is. Managed to fit my hands and tools in there to tighten both bolts. They were loose but not terribly loose. Probably a product of my solid motor mounts. Hoping that's the problem because simple fixes are the best fixes🤞
 
323 said:
After work, I was cleaning up the garage a bit and remembered I had an inspection mirror. You can see it on the last pic hanging up on the cork board lol. I used it to inspect the tstat housing where it mates to the block and that was where the leak is. Managed to fit my hands and tools in there to tighten both bolts. They were loose but not terribly loose. Probably a product of my solid motor mounts. Hoping that's the problem because simple fixes are the best fixes🤞
Click to expand...
323 said:
Update on the coolant leak. Car is still on jackstands and I placed cardboard under the car to see if I could catch any leaks. Spotted a leak on the cardboard last night. Picture 1 is where I found the leak on the car. For reference, picture 2 is of my spare block where I found the coolant marked in green and possibly the source of the leak circled in red. Since I'll be in that deep to replace the tstat to block gasket, I'll be replacing the tstat seal as well.

i-dPFjfzR-XL.jpg


i-9QBvBwr-XL.jpg
Click to expand...
Had the same problem a few times. Once it stopped for a year or so, then I had to replace the gasket.
 
Dpwhitehead1 said:
i'm surprised you've got allen key bolts on the housing. no thanks.
Click to expand...

That wasn't originally there. I robbed hardware from the spare engine and just put something back in there real quick. I don't know why I do things like that. I mean, look at the all bolts where the turbo mani would attach to the head lol

But anyway, I'll be replacing the gaskets back there when the turbo mani is off next time just to be on the safe side.
 
It's been 10 days. Seems tightening up the 2 bolts fixed my coolant leak! Also reinstalled my front strut bar. It's been off since mid May when I was replacing all my AN fittings lol.
 
"Seems tightening up the 2 bolts fixed my coolant leak!"
Click to expand...
Oh, well, the next time I encounter a coolant leak, might as well try that out. Coolant leaks, always the nasty little bugger of a problem.
 
JoshTheis said:
Oh, well, the next time I encounter a coolant leak, might as well try that out. Coolant leaks, always the nasty little bugger of a problem.
Click to expand...

Yeah they're a little harder to trace down compared to oil leaks. That's where the UV dye comes in.
 
Please log in or register to reply here.

New Posts

Back