yy4u

Hey changed my oil today and it was incredibly thinned out and smelled strongly of gasoline. Probably wasn't providing much lubrication, good thing i changed it when i did. Anyone else had this problem? Any idea what the problem could be? Thanks for any help. Mods in sig.

bajaman

I think this is fairly common for FDs. I don't have anything resembling your mods, but I too have noticed a gasoline-ish smell to my oil when I change it, but it won't ignite with a match, which is comforting!
I think that a leaky injector could contribute, if indeed it is gasoline thinning.
Lots of people on the Forum have commented on the gasoline smell of the oil.
I am not worrying about it anymore.

jr

Read here for more info - http://www.scuderiaciriani.com/rx7/oil.html#GAS Some people think it's blow-by and others think it's leaky injectors. Either way it seems to be accepted as fairly normal, and is another good reason to change your oil more often (~2K miles) since the gasoline is diluting the oil.

turbojeff

It isn't leaky injectors. You can't get gas in the oil unless it blows by the circular seals that seal the side of the rotor to the side housing.

I've had my oil tested at Southwest Spectro Chemical for the last 4 oil changes, everytime I've got 10% fuel dilution. I change my oil every 1800-2200 miles with 20W-50 (since it gets thinned it is better to start out with something a little thicker).

My car had about 48K miles when I started the testing and currently has 57K miles. It is a 93 R1 w/ DP, CB, Efini Y-pipe and stock ECU. With a FJO wideband my car runs richer than 10:1 after 2500rpm all the way to redline. Running that rich is probably the cause of my problem.

This is a very common issue for turbo rotaries, not just FDs, my TII did the same thing.

Jeff

yy4u

I don't have a A/F gauge or a wideband, but i know i'm running pretty darn rich. So you think this could be the problem? Also is it bad to mix oils. (i.e., i still have 2 quarts of 10w-30 left from the case of my last oil change, but i think going with a higher weight oil like 20w-50 wouldn't be a bad idea considering this thinning effect. Could i add 2 quarts of 10w30 and then 2 quarts of 20w50. I don't see why not, but i just wanted to check with some of you first.