Like I stated before, as the ambient temps where I am are currently 95F with 80% humidity, I'm pretty sure being over 200F at idle is okay.

 

9k and I both live in Texas, our cars routinely see 95 degrees and 95% humidity (FWIW a car does not care about humidity). Our cars do not idle at 200 degrees F.

I cannot think of a reputable piston engine mechanic who would tell you to add a can of Blue Devil, rather than replace a head gasket. Since it doesn't REALLY fix head gaskets, why do you think it will fix a rotary engine coolant seal?

 

Cooling problem has been fixed. Car now idles cooler. Fans kick on high at 212, temp rising to 219 max and drops to 208 before they kick off

 

I live in south Texas where we get 130+ days of 100F+ weather and have owned my RX8 10+ years. A tad over 200 would be okay, anything above 205-210 at extended idle and you have a problem. But believe what you want.

And as Chris said, any mechanic recommending that crap has no business working on anything. But unfortunately these days, most mechanics suck.

 

"fixed"

 

Let me ask this: being that you are in the same climate or slightly warmer, what weight oil do you run? I ask because when I bought the car I put 5w20 in it. Also, do you have any mods? Lower temp thermostat, mazmart water pump, fan kit/accessport?

 

I have a couple of mods.

The Mazmart thermostat and water pump ( mine failed in 10,000 miles or so) area waste of money. I have a Flex a lite dual fans and shroud setup and it is in my opinion, the best cooling mod you can do for an RX-8.

You can see it in the first post of my build thread linked in my signature.

 

I'm wondering if I shouldn't swap the fans out. The ones in mine are likely the originals, which has about 100,000+ miles on it. I'm wondering if I shouldn't be running 10w40 or better.

 

I am going to put this out there, do with it what you will. 9k and I have had several differences of opinion since I joined the club. If he and I both think it's a bad idea......its probably a bad freaking idea.

 

Check out the "Used oil analysis" thread, I run Mobil1 0W-40, but there are plenty of solid options like Rotella T6 5W-40, Castrol Edge 0W-40, Mobil1 diesel 5W-40, etc. etc.

 

Will you do me a favor and watch/listen to a video and tell me what you think it sounds like? The noise is only heard while cranking/starting and does not sound like its coming from the engine, but more towards the middle of the car. I think it's the starter, which may explain why its so hard to start.

 

I have no clue what that is. Possibly the air pump imploding or something is my only guess.

 

sounds like your starter missing the teeth on the gear. I had the same kind of noise intermittently happening on my saturn beater on startup. Eventually the starter seized up and wouldn't even turn the engine.

 

Still having issues with starting it. And that noise is in fact the starter. Will be replacing it this week. On a good note, I believe I have finally figured out why it doesn't like to start despite having fixed all the issues I can see. I pulled the leading plug for rotor #1 earlier and here's what it looks like after 3 months of hard starts, faulty parts, at least 2 floodings, bad cat, and atf run though the engine.



Should I replace just the leading plugs? Or all 4?

 

replace all 4.
And I didn't read the thread, but I'd include coils and wires. If all are changed at the same time, then it narrows down other issues

 

Coils plugs and wires were replaced 2-3 months ago. Have maybe 5 miles on them. The reason the plugs are so bad is due to cracked fuel pump, faulty ESS, bad cat, which all led to hard starts. Now that all issues have been fixed the plugs are so fouled that it still will not start. Coils are d585's will correct harness and plug wires, so ignition is there. Replacing the worn starter and plugs on Wednesday and going from their

 

Last time I used that blue devil stuff in a motor it blew up 2 weeks later

 

I had the throttle body cleaned with the MAS and full fuel system cleaned when I was having issues with starting and that solved my problem. You should try that

 

Those plugs look fine to me. But it can't hurt to replace them if you don't know how old they are.

 

Replaced them and it fired up immediately. Drove for 45 minutes before it stalled, and since the only thing I had access to is one of those tiny jump box/portable battery pack usb things I couldn't jump it. An hour later, after lucking out with a free tow, I hooked jumper cables to my daily, did the de-flood procedure once, and it again fired up immediately. Its now back to not starting. Pulled plugs yet again and they were fouled by cloudy gas. Radiator is not losing coolant though. Thoughts?

 

define cloudy gas. got a pic?

 

Cloudy as in the gas looked white. Like clearish cloudy white.

 

im still gonna say you wasted your engine by driving it when it was overheated but you and your beast of a motor wont listen to me

 

I merged 4 of your threads together, as they are basically the same on-going topic. Also, the DIY section is for if you have a set of instructions on how to specifically do sometihng, not for general discussion.

 

Where did my last post go? Did you delete it?