I just bought a 1982 series 2 rx7 and it blows a bit of smoke. It is a standard 12a motor non-turbo.
I would like to know how to stop the smoke.

 

Unfortunately, what these good folks don't wanna tell ya is that there's probably not much you can do. Even heavier wieght oil is'nt gonna make any difference. (It'll. just be harder to get everything lubricated inside.)

I'm sure there's some "engine (piston ring) sealing" products out there, but they're all pretty gimmicky, and may actually cause more damage than good. The reason being, what they tend to do is build up gook around piston rings (or in your case, rotor side seals). But it'll also get under your apex seals, and encase the leaf springs under them. Then they will begin to lose their temper and fail. Sticking apex seals is a hazard!
What has probably happened is that some previous owner has crispied the engine. If the engine was running hot even for a few moments, the tiny hairpin springs under the rotor side seals have been burnt, lost their temper, and no longer push the side seals out very well against the side housings.

Over heating could've happened several different ways;

-A coolant hose or radiator developed a leak, and it was driven to the nearest convienient spot befor being shut down instead of immediately.

-The OMP (Oil Metering Pump) failed or one of the lines developed a crack or someone messed with the carb to OMP linkage. Not enough oil was fed to the combustion side of the rotor surfaces as a result.

-Someone let the oil run low. Even if there's "enough" oil in it on level ground, if you let the level go too far down, as soon as you go up a hill your sump is sucking air.

-Someone never let it warm up nice and slow, and the constant fast warm ups meant alot of scraping of side seals against side housings with very little oil at first. Over time, this would have to be bad.

-Someone simply beat the **** out of her, and she's just friggin tired.

If your engine looks to be in good shape from the outside, does'nt have headers or other mods on it, has no leaks visible at where the sections (housings) meet, and has less than 120K on it, it might be worth a rebuild.
(No mods means it's less likely to have had a rough abused life.)

I sure hope someone else chimes in, cause all this is speculation on my part.
I've never even seen the inside of a rotary.
I'm simply guessing.
Keep posting your question till someone aswers you! And good luck.

 

Sterling - WTF? Why didn't you mention the ATF treatment?

s2rx7 - We need a little more info. Does it smoke at start-up, under hard acceleration or all the time? BTW, start-up smoke is quite normal for these engines but it should clear up within a minute of starting. Good luck!

 

I have been dealing w/ smoking problem on my 79 GS w/~120k ever since I got it. Here is the symptom:

- Blue smoke at startup. Clear out in a minute or two.
- Blue smoke at hard acceleration, worst when decelerating on gear at high rpm. (Maybe I am using too much MMO at the gas tank)
- Very bad smoke at semi warm engine. (Like drive it for awhile, shut it off, and start up again after an hour or so)

Sometimes the smoke is blue, and some of the times are maybe white. But for sure, the intake manifold oil rings are leaking coolant, so I am hoping that it is just the oil rings leaking coolant into the rotor and burnt.

Other than that, the car runs go and it doesn't overheat.

Any idea?

 

An Oil Metering Pump that is stuck open can cause smoking BUT get those intake manifold o-rings replaced first cause that's clearly a problem.

 

Am I the only one who thinks blue smoke shooting out of the exhaust pipe would look neat?

Reminds me of back to the future... Tell spectators that it runs on depleted uranium and not to breathe in fumes.

And yeah, Sterling, you know a few gallons of ATF would propably fix his problem.