a new problem

1983 mazda b2000 sundowner.

soooooooooooooo.......

I'm on the way to work this morning and about half way there my rocker arms started to rattle really bad, but if I took it out of gear and revved the engine it sound ok. then it progressively got worse and worse and then just quit on me.

I towed it home and pulled the valve cover and everything seems to be fine, checked to see if the timing was right and it appears to be, plenty of oil, a little low but nothing to be concerned about.

My first thought was that maybe it run out of oil, but that was not the case. The engine was running a little warm but not hot.

I also couldnt get any heat out of it this morning.

I checked to see if it was pumping oil with the valve covers off and the cam is getting plenty of oil.

its almost like it over heated by the amount of smoke in the engine compartment this morning, but the temp gauge had it at about 3/4 and never went any farther.

no water in the oil.

Any coolant in the rad?

well....after taking it apart and looking at some things, everything looked good and I fired it up and it started like usual, but the coolant was low, which was nothing but water since it was nice and toasty outside and has been for the past week or so with the intent of adding antifreeze to it once I made sure there were no water leaks.

Now the past 2 days it has been in the 20's at night and it has sat since tuesday night.

I pulled it around and filled it full of water and started it. its leaking up behind the exhaust. I cant really see where, but I'm hoping it is a freeze plug. Any idea where I can find a diagram of where the freeze plugs are located?

Try going to the dealership. They might run you off a copy of a block diagram.

I don't know if your engine is water routed the same way the later 2.0 liter motors are, but there is a metal bypass hose that carries water from the water pump around the back of the block. That line is bolted to the block under the exhaust and maybe it has developed a stress (vibration) crack.

check ur cam and see if it has a low spot on the cam

I don't know if you got this problem solved but it occurred to me to suggest that maybe your water pump has failed internally and what you are hearing is the impeller banging the inside of where it runs against the motor. You can test this if there is a belt that runs the water pump. Just disconnect the belt and see if the motor runs quiet.