my 79 12a is burning oil, and burning it fast what should i do or what parts can i check.

 

The 12a will naturally consume some oil. Its designed to drip a little bit into the intake to lubricate the seals. I go through 1/2 quart to 1 quart every two tanks of gas (about every 500-750 miles) depending on how I drive. I understand that is about normal.

Before we can narrow down the problem, or if there even is one we need to know a bit more. How much oil are you burning? Are you seeing blue smoke?

 

Damn, double post.

 

Oooh, OWNED. Triple post.

 

well it is burnig about 3/4 of a quart per tank and is smoking (white) like krazy especially when i turn it on and it starts primering. then it smokes again at high rpm shifts of 4500-5000 rpm's

 

White smoke means your burning coolant. Are you loosing coolant at all?

 

White smoke is coolant, blue smoke is oil.

Check in your radiatior to see if there's oil in your antifreeze. If you've broken a coolant o-ring, your engine pretty much needs to be replaced or rebuilt. That would explain the white smoke.

Drain all your coolant and check if it's full of oil. There's one "last-chance, last-ditch-effort" fix for the o-ring listedn in the Archive:

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...hreadid=269544

That might actually work. It's worth a shot if you really can't afford to rebuild the engine.

Anyone else?
Jon

 

Do what they said about the coolant.

Do a search and/or get a Haynes Manual* look for instructions on how to do a compression check and to check the operation of your oil metering pump. A compression check will tell you if you have bad seals, which would leak oil or coolant. It is possible, but unlikely, that your OMP is putting in too much oil. That isn't damaging, but its not doing you any good.


*Hanes Manual: not the best repair book, but the easiest to find. Better than nothing.

 

I've had two FB's that have had this problem. It is engine oil that leaks on to the exhaust manifold. I've had them where they really smoke when you are waiting at a stop light. I was always told that it is the begining of the end and that when it got so bad put in a new engine. I drove my last one that did this over 40 k before I decicided to get a newer car. Does it leave a lot of oil under the car wherever you park it?

 

nevarmore: The compression check won't reveal problems with the coolant seals at all. Compression checks mostly the apex seals, which wouldn't be the cause of any sort of oil or coolant leak.

On an off chance, a compression test *MIGHT* reveal a leaky oil seal on the rotor if the side seal is bad, but there's no real point to it.

And the Heynes is pretty good. Not as good as the factory manual, but WAY better than the Chiltons or any other crappy source of that kind of info. I have the Heynes and am VERY satisfied with it.

As I said, if it's white, it's not oil. The water jacket o-ring problem is common, so that's where I'd put my money.

Jon

 

thank alot i going to test out these posts. If i find one the problem to be one of these i post it but if not ill fix it and post it any ways. thanks alot,
Bobby

 

Thats what I was thinking. I'm still kinda new to the rotaries so it was an educated guess.