Today I got my thermostat from Mazda. I had my friend's shop get it for me being as how he owes me a ton of favors anyhow. So it comes today: A small box, and a gasket in a seperate little bag. I open the thermostat, and sure as ****, there is ANOTHER gasket, and on the invoice, it charges for the 2nd gasket. Now this comes from the same dealer that told me the gasket wasnt availible seperately and it had to be oredered with the thermostat. ******* Twits I swear. Now the good part: the gasket on its own, which was 60 cents, is the identical gasket to the Fel-Pro one I got from the auto parts store that was actually listed for a small block chevy, he didnt have the correct gasket for a RX-7 ( according to his books anyhow ). THE GASKET THAT CAME PACKAGED WITH THE THERMOSTAT AS A KIT : was different. It was slightly larger in diameter, which makes sense cause the other one looks a wee-bit small, and IT HAS TAPE ON ONE SIDE TO HOLD IT IN PLACE while you are installing it! How freagin sweet of them! The moral of the story: for the lousy $12 they charged for the whole deal, going with the factory piece is worth it, especially when you see the difference in the thermostat itself compared to a aftermarket one.

 

It looks like they wanted to make you sweat with the chevy thermostat gasket.

Yeah... for the small difference in price and an engine that keeps a stable temperature, it's really worth it.

When I have to remove a thermostat for a time for any reason (even 1 day) I always place it in coolant while not on the car. If you don't do that you get a faulty thermostat when you put it back. Doing this, my thermostat works like new for several years.

 

I purchased a replacement thermostat a while back from the local chain store (autozone) and ever since my temp has been erratic, whenever I beat on it the temp climbs pretty high and I crank the heat. Pretty much 99% of the time I'm driving I have the heat on now which is becoming a pain as it gets warmer out (and the car tends to want to overheat more)... I'm fully aware of the dangers of overheating a rotary, and have a genuine mazda thermostat (w/gasket as mentioned in previous posts) waiting in my bag to be installed. However, some friends who street race regularly in the area and go to the strip suggested I drill a hole or two (roughly 2mm in diameter) in the side of the mazda thermostat to ensure flow even when closed (if either during cold start stage or failure). I'm curious if anyone has done this on the rx7 and can report any problems with it. I'll probably try at least 1 2mm hole this weekend when installing it and order another from mazda just in case.

Woulda installed it earlier in the week but my trans has been leaking and I had to fix the front seal, while doing it decided to put the RB aluminum flywheel on and replace my clutch disc and other misc stuff like pilot bearing/seal etc, took some pics:

http://pengaru.com/~swivel/public_ht...x7/04-16-2002/



The donuts are my work parking lot and no, the donuts didnt cause the trans leak, it's been leaking for a while. just got sick of seeing a quart of oil on the driveway.



Oh, and I must say... the aluminum flywheel affects the car alot, and will probably increase the likelihood of me getting another speeding ticket by 2 fold at least. A bit pricey from RB, but bolts right on without any trouble. Also nice to be able to replace that friction surface insert for $80 without having to deal with removing a flywheel / resurfacing.

 

I don't really believe in this. If the thermostat wouldn't be opening soon enough you'd have noticed it (so would I). With the aftermarket one you sure can see it. But that's a good test anyway but it could even have a negative affect or won't see any difference.