dku

hey guys,

I'm a relative newbie to the RX-7, but I've done a fair share of reading in the past posts, and I think I need some SERIOUS directed help.

Starting just last week, my '88 vert has begun to burn an obscene amount of motor oil (it's a bluish smoke). Now, I know it's normal for the RX7 to burn SOME oil, but it's gotten so bad that I'm now adding about a quart every three days.

In the mornings, when I start up, it smokes so much that I can't see ANYTHING unless I just start driving (but when I do start driving, the cars behind me are almost completely blinded by the exhaust smoke). The dense smoke eventually disappears after about 5 minutes of driving.

However, I notice that the car smokes a bit when just idling - even after its been warmed up.

Evidently, the oil leaks when the car is just sitting there, as the smoke is by far the worst after a cold start.

I've tried switching to a more viscous motor oil (20W-50), but it doesn't seem to be helping.

It doesn't smoke any more than normal when I'm decelerating, shifting or revving high.

This problem only started after I flooded the engine for the first time (about two weeks ago). The rebuilt engine's got a little over 100k miles. .

What's going on here? Are my seals dead? And more importantly, is there ANYTHING I can do to stop/minimize the smoking (a rebuild isn't an option right now)? How about Bar's Leaks or other fluids you can get at the auto store?

Please help!

jonm16

Your spark plugs might be fouled, and if you used the atf or mmo trick to get it unflooded, then it will take a couple of days or even a week for the smoke to clear. You might want to get new spark plugs and change your oil. If that doesn't help could be you have a bad oil ring.

Jon

zjbarra

iTrader: (2)

If it were the spark plugs, wouldn't you be able to pull them off and know by looking at them? When my 87's first engine went, it had started to burn oil for a little while and then it flooded once. After that I got 25 miles to the quart. Not to say this is the only possibility, but it is not unlikely. Who did the rebuild too btw? If the side housings got reused, 100k would not be too abnormal of a time for it to go. If your oil metering pump broke, I don't think you'd get something that profound either. My guess is, it's your oil metering pump (not the most likely) or the engine has gone. If it were your spark plugs, my guess is your oil level wouldn't be dropping. So if you notice after driving say 20 miles you're down to the low line on the dip stick, it's probably not your plugs. Hope it works out to be something simple.

dku

Thanks for the responses.
After I flooded the engine, I did the pull-the-fuse trick, but not before cranking the engine a ton of times (I didn't learn about that till I started looking on here), so I don't know if the prolonged flooding/cranking might've damaged anything.
As for the rebuild, I don't know who did it. I bought the car from the second owner just a few months ago and he told me that the first owner had it rebuilt.
So if the engine IS dying, how much longer can it still be driven before it completely croaks?
And anyone know a good rotary mechanic in the bay area?

zjbarra

iTrader: (2)

I'm from Oregon so I don't know of any specifics but the following in the bay area is disgustingly large so I don't see any reason you shouldn't be able to find a dozen decent mechanics. If you're going to have the engine done, I suggest you use pineapple racing. Rob Golden makes the best rebuilds in the country and does them at a reasonable price. Though there are many people around that would tell you other places, or that he may charge too much, for 2100 bucks you can get a stock replacement with brand new side housings and he is very precise in his tolerances when he assembles them. I'd suggest having a rebuild by him and having it shipped to you and then either install it yourself or find a good mechanic down there if you're uncomfortable with the idea.

If it is the engine, how long do you have? Well, again, just watch your oil level and make sure you're just guzzling it and then you'll know you've got oil problems. I guess it's possible that your compression seals are good but your oil seals are the problem. Even then, you'd still be smoking up a storm and having to pay for an extra quart of oil for every gallon you use in highway driving. That will get old fast. My car was driven for probably a month like that before the problem got even worse and I finally broke down and got a rebuild. The engine was also losing compression by the end and couldn't build to 5k when I reved it out driving it to the place I was getting a rebuild. I don't think it's likely that you're going to throw a seal in the next few months if you drive it, but you're probably more likely to just get really fed up with it because of the extra oil, smoke and probably semi-frequent flooding

zjbarra

iTrader: (2)

Oh geez, I almost forgot my biggest key poin in that last paragraph too! The longer you run that, if you're leaking that much oil in, it's going to melt your cats. If you don't have the money, if you're hell bent on running it for now, you should look at straight pipes for a little while too. Did the car run really strong right before this happened, like abnormally strong?

dku

No, the car wasn't running abnormally strong. It's been fairly consistent and reliable (well, up until very recently). What are straight pipes?

IwannaFC

a strieght pipe is an an exhaust system with no catalytic converter or resonators. Pretty much one long unrestricted pipe from your headers to your tail. Since you are burning this amount of oil, you certainly can clog/melt your catalytic converters so i too would suggest this setup. All you need to do is get 3 pipes that can replace your stock cats for now.

IwannaFC

forgot to mention one thing, beware! this setup can be very loud, i have this setup on my TII and it is retardedly loud. on an NA (naturally aspirated) motor it will be a little louder. if the ears on the cops around your area are a little on the sesitive side, be sure to always keep the revs low do check your OMP, i would say check the lines around it but since your burning oil then i dont think the lines around it are leaking. I dont mean to kill you on this but ur motor may need a rebuild. My guess is with some of the people that its your oil seal. I really do hope that its not this thats causing the problem and hopefully its somthing simple. Good luck-alex

dku

Crappy. Real crappy.
Has anyone ever tried using Bar's Leaks or Bardahl's Stop Leak?

http://www.barsproducts.com/smoke.html
http://www.bardahl.com/automotive/pr...nosmoke_sl.htm

I'm hoping this might be a final option before deciding to rebuild the engine.

zjbarra

iTrader: (2)

I haven't tried anything like that before. I don't think your car would be sickly loud but pretty close. He'll still have the stock mufflers on it which will tone it down. I had my RP cat back and a test pipe with no aftermarket header and got pulled over when I compression breaked. The cop told me my stereo was too loud because of the exhaust.