Froggmann

As the title says 110,000 or so mi motor It just lost a coolant seal, no oil in the water luckilly. I'm wondering if I could get away with just replacing the seals or would I have to do a full rebuild at this point. This motor was possibilly overheated once about 9 or so months ago. I have put about 8K on the car since then. This morning the car was more cranky than normal and Today at lunch it spewed nothing but steam. So I'm looking at just freshing up the seals and putting her back together.

Froggmann

Oh and keep in mind I have a "Parts " motor it's the original that has 217,000 on it. It blew an oil seal.

WAYNE88N/A

Rip her apart and inspect as you go- then you'll know exactly what to replace.

With OEM 3-piece apex seals, at 110K they'll be a bit over 1/2 worn to limits...

All of the rubber should be replaced, of course...

bingoboy

you'll need to pull apart the engine for that. rebuild is in order.

Froggmann

Yea I'm getting a gasket kit from Mazdatrix this week I was just concerned about the apexes and side seals.

VietFC

I wouldn't use old apex seals on a 110,000 mile build. Side seals and corner seals are ok, but not apex seals.

bingoboy

apex seals are the one hard seal you'd definately want to replace. if for some reason you decide not to, make sure they go back in exactly the same way as they came out or you aren't going to have seals that seal anymore. if your main concern is saving the $$ you can get a rotary aviation set of apex seals for not too much though.

Froggmann

Yea I thinking that, gasket kit from Mazdatrix (They are not too far from my work) and Apex seals from RA.

homebrewer

I learned many years ago:

Do it cheap, you'll be doing it twice and end up spending more time and money then if you did it right in the first place.

jhammons01

Just check the specs of the hard seals. I tried to justify using my apex seals again. They had 92k on them. I tried for over a week to convince myself that it would be OK to use the most pivotal seal in the motor.........just couldn't do it.

The other hard seals all have tolerances per the Mazda FSM. Just go by that and you'll be fine.

Remember the coolant seal went away for a reason. Try to pin point that reason.