Background: bought a 04 rx8 from a used car lot for real cheap. Was told the engine was blown and wouldn't start. Took it home deflooded it and drove it around a bit. Had some problems with warm starts and stalled a few times. It did have decent power when i got on it though. It was severely neglected though and even if it did have a little bit of low compression I figured some basic maitenance would go a long way.

Now to my current problem a few days ago I drove it a little farther after building some confidence in the car and it began to overheat. The temp gauge flew up dropped down and whent up again( if that means anything) . I got it home and the tip for the overflow was broken off.

So I go to autozone and get a new radiator. It had the automatic lines but was told it wouldn't matter and being a little impatient I didn't second guess it. Put it in fired it up and tons of white smoke pours out the back. I let it idle while I filled the radiator but the bubbles never stopped nor did the white smoke. Even being cold if I fired it up with the cap off it blew antifreeze everywhere any ideas would be great. I'm guessing the seals are gone but open to any other possibilities

 

Seals would be nice, if it really overheated like that, you probably lost most/all of your coolant and warped your housings.

 

Trying to stay optimistic lol

 

You can be as optimistic as you'd like, however if the engine was drinking coolant, bubbling, and kept smoking, you are looking at a rebuild to replace the coolant seals. If it did overheat significantly, you are looking at a more expensive rebuild or even a replacement.

 

I like to be pretty optimistic. I'll probably go replacement since as bad as its been beat up before I even got it it would probably be cheaper and easier.

 

Yep. You definitely blew a coolant seal. Why not buy a Mazda reman engine? It's easy.

 

I'm sure it's easy for Mazda with their nonexistent quality control. Now I'm not trying to be a *****, but I've heard too many horror stories about Mazda's poor reman engines to trust them. A reputable rebuild is the way I would go

 

Yeah true, but hey! It's cheap!

 

Haven't heard much about the remans. I was thinking used import or eBay. I'd love a petit but $$$

 

As long as you understand that a used import or ebay engine could be in a similar condition to the engine you have now. Without a compression test it's a total crap shoot.