sorry, read that post you quoted again with a suspicious sarcastic sounding voice and you will see i was poking fun at myself

I had a similar problem last year. Was doing a 6 hour road trip to New Jersey and nearing the destination, the car began having problems idling. On the way there was also the first time I got the dreaded coolant level light coming and going on the dash (it still comes and goes till this day). Eventually it stalled at a red light and wouldn't start again. Pushed it into a parking lot, added a little bit of water to the reservoir and then waited for about 20 minutes.

It started up no problem after than and we went on our way. Mind you it was 40 degrees celsius outside the whole way there AND I have a K&N Typhoon V2 intake (yeah, I know...).

On the 6 hours back home, there was no problems at all.

Once I got back home, I did a coolant flush with Redline Water Wetter and then got a compression test done at Mazda.

No problems found at all except for a melted coolant level sensor.

Car runs perfect up till now *knocks on wood*

EDIT: At no point did the temperature needle ever move from standard operating temps.

mine did!

I got the new coolant reservoir today. I couldn't get a hold of my friend who has tools so I went and got the ones it appears I will need. By the time I got that taken care of I was out of light. I should be able to make substantial progress tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

Update:
Well apparently I'm not a very luck person. Despite my best efforts to be careful with the hose going to the radiator, the hose connector still broke with no effort at all (just pulling the tank forward a few inches to get at the hose did it). So now it is time to go radiator shopping. Any suggestions?

After searching the forum some I think I'm going to go with the Koyo radiator unless someone strongly advises me against. I was seeing some mixed reviews on it but found some others saying it was just because they didn't seal around the radiator with foam.

Also, do I need to replace the hoses or can I reuse the existing ones?

For a stock car with a packed engine bay go with Mazmart's ron davis radiator or BHR's griffin one.
If you have an empty engine bay the koyo may work just fine.

The problem with both of those radiators (in addition to the increased cost) is that they are built to order so they have a 2-3 week delivery time. I need something I can overnight or 2-day and have by Fri or Mon. I do have a stock car. So if you don't think the koyo will fit I will need to find something else.

The koyo will fit just fine.
Foam\shrouds aside flow across it may become an issue for a clogged engine bay, a little in depth search should show you the data gathered by some members.
Koyo doesn't make bad radiators, don't get me wrong. However that's not always the best solution in our application.
Read the threads you already read again and come to your conclusions based on your environment, goals and use of the car.

What if
 

what if coolant does come out of the spark plug hole?

Then you need a new engine.

that's a bad thing....

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...a93fa8c29.jpeg