can i use syntetic oil? i heard that u cant cuz it soaks in the seals then eventually go bad??

 

um.... here goes a 10 page thread.. who wants to bet???


you should of searched. in almost any section im sure you can find SOMETHING about this. you can even go to www.mazdatrix.com, they have an explanation for why THEY think its bad.

basically, its a big debated thing. personally, i lean to the side that its bad. senthetic oils have by products in them that wont let them burn as cleanly as regular oil. if you run premix (2 stroke oil everytime you gas up) then i read its fine to use. waht you have to consider is that your engine is actually injecting engine oil into the combustion chamber to keep everything lubed up. well, when you have senthetics in there, it wont burn as clean, not that regular oil burns that clean either, its just i wouldnt do it.

some people will say its not bad for it, some people will. what i suggest is you read up on it, and decide what you think is better for your engine, but personally, i dont think its really worth the 2hp it would give you anyways.

 

thanks for the response. yeah i wouldnt use it 2hp for what ill just put some windsheild washer lights and gain like 5-10hp.haha yeah ill read up on it but if in the long run it ends up "soaking" in the seals and seizing up the motor its not worht it i change my oil frequently and check it in the morning at least 2-3 times a week.

 

ive never heard of it seizing up the seals. what seals are you talking about? the apex seals are hardened steal, some oil shouldnt effect them very much. if you are talking about oil seals... youll have to ask someone else, im not sure. the main thing ive gotten out of researching is that it gums up alot of ****.

 

Yeah, some freak at RX-7 heaven told me not to put ATF into the chamber because "it would cause the rubber seals to expand"..... here I am 8 months later, and I still have yet to find any rubber inside that engine that would expand and cause a problem.. I used a little ATF to get the engine UNSIEZED, but I don't believe in that whole compression treatment... ATF is highly overrated, I only used it for it's ability to break down carbon and let my rotors turn again!
So much for the guys at RX7-heaven

 

anyone else???

 

For what it's worth, I was told the following from a little bird.

In a nutshell... Synthetic oil is ok for racing etc as the high engine temp and high rpm mean the oil will burn cleanly. Some semi's and most mineral are better for "street" use. Some semi's apparently burn as clean or cleaner than mineral oils.

Of course this is going to vary from oil to oil. One company will have clean burning semi-synthetic and another won't. The same for mineral.

It might not be right of course. It's a hard thing to find real evidence either way. It pretty much makes sense to me as just because an oil is synthetic doesn't mean it doesn't burn cleanly. The difference is that it must be designed with clean burning as a spec which is not something most boingers do or need.

I use Castrol GTX 20W-50. If you search the forum you will find many opinions on what oils people like.

..Matt

 

I was just at a Mazda tech session, and they had some Mazda rep, who mentioned his past in IMSA racing or something at one point. Seemed pretty knowledgeable about rotaries.

He said the same as some others here. Synthetic Oil is a NO NO for rotaries.

Your engine does mix oil to burn with gas, and synthetic oils will not burn properly.

 

I was just at a Mazda tech session, and they had some Mazda rep, who mentioned his past in IMSA racing or something at one point. Seemed pretty knowledgeable about rotaries.

He said the same as some others here. Synthetic Oil is a NO NO for rotaries.

Your engine does mix oil to burn with gas, and synthetic oils will not burn properly.

 

Racingbeat uses synthetic only!! and Mazda recomends using a good synthetic. most synthetics actually leave less deposits when they burn then dyno oil. there is actually a site about oil period and they have these charts with all the info you could ever want to klnow about oil. i think thats the name of the site actually. everything you'd never need to know about oil.

 

From my 1985 Racing Beat catalog:
"Many customers have asked for our recommendation on engine oil. After years of testing, we have found that Amsoil, a very high quality synthetic lubricant, prevents wear best. We used Amsoil exclusively in our 1980 IMSA GTU-winning RX7 roadracers, and the results speak for themselves. The only problem we have ever found with Amsoil is that, because it reduces friction, it slows the "break-in" period substantially. Once we recognized this problem, we began breaking-in engines with mineral-based oil on the dynamometer, then switching to Amsoil in the race cars. The problem is not as severe in street-driven cars, since break-in normally occurs over a period of thousands of miles of street driving rather than a few hours on an engine dynamometer. Nevertheless, you may be wise to use mineral-based oils for the first 500 mileswith a fresh engine, then switch to Amsoil."

 

search. this comes up all over the board in every section.

 

I've got a friend who swears by Amsoil. He says that he's had no problem with it. I normally use Castro 20W50 in mine, but might switch to Amsoil.