I rebuilt my 74 13B approx. 2 years ago (5kmi). Ran great until 600 mi ago when it started going through a qt every 200 mi. Now won't start. The engine was rebuilt using oe Mazda parts and the plates were sent to racing beat where inspected and lapped. I set up the rotor side seals on the tight side, too tight? Any ideas appreciated before I take it apart again. Any problems using Valvoline VR1? high Zinc. Thanks.

 

Did you replace the oil control rings? Consumption that high makes me think the rings are stuck or wore out.

 

Yes, new oil control rings/seals

 

Are your plugs soaked in oil? If they are, removing the exhaust manifold should revel a bunch of oil if the oil control rings are bad.

Maybe the OMP line(s) came off?

 

The plugs were pretty dark, didn't notice allot of oil. OMP inspected and working properly. Black fuel soaked combustion chambers. Here's a theory I hope is the problem. The Valvoline VR1 engine oil with its high zinc content has built up the combustion area with carbon. I'm going to try changing the oil and flooding the engine with fuel a couple times to hopefully free things up, then install new plugs. This all started to happen shortly after changing the oil with VR1. Odd thing is it didn't smoke any more than normal...

 

If you are "flooding the engine with fuel a couple times to hopefully free things up" - to try to burn off / dissolve excess carbon, SEAFOAM will do better job...

Stu A
80GS
AZ

 

Agree on Seafoam instead. Trying to decarbon an engine using fuel is a bad idea, because that washes all of the oil off of where it needs to be, and leads to momentary excessive wear, and also to note that cracking off chunks of baked on carbon has been known to stop a rotary engine in its tracks. See also "carbon lock". Seafoam in the tank with a full tank of fresh gasoline should clear it up within the 300 miles, plus generous application of skinny pedal (*after warmup) to help blow it all out the exhaust. The old saying, "a red line a day keeps the carbon away" is applicable here.

For our cars, special additives in the engine oil is a recipe for disaster. Most engines aren't designed to burn the engine oil on purpose. Ours are... The better the oil burns, the better it is for a rotary engine. I don't use synthetics for this reason, but don't mean to kick the sacred cat.

 

The Seafoam is a great idea, will get some. Working on it this week, hope it starts!

 

After some MMO/seafoam I got it started. I drove it about 20miles to burn off the MMO and do the James Bond smoke screen thing. Its running good, I will put some miles on it and see how it goes... Right now, I'd say don't use Valvoline VR1 conventional engine oil if you are using the stock oil metering pump! Never give up! cheers.

 

I've had issues with Valvoline VR1 in the past as well. Late 90's I had an 84 SE and about 300 miles after changing the oil to VR1 20W50, the engine would not start. I had not altered anything other than the oil. I changed the oil and did a deflood procedure on the engine and it fired up and smoked but ran fine after that. I still find it odd to this day that the oil caused a no start.

 

glad you solved that issue.

have you been able to put enough miles on it to be able to determine if you're still experiencing the high consumption rate?

 

No, I have only put 120mi on it since I've got it started. Down maybe 1/4 qt so far... I'll post up when I have some more miles on it.

 

Well, I put 4oz of Marvel in the engine oil, put some more miles on the car and am happy to report all seems back to normal now! Runs fantastic, so happy that I can enjoy the car this summer instead of working on it...

 

Oh no, I've been using Valvoline VR1 for over a year and half. I have been experiencing high oil consumption, thought I had blown my oil rings since all use my car for is track days and canyon runs. But now I see my problem is the VR1 oil! Can some one please explain how to use the Marvel Mystery Oil please?? I will drain the oil and switch back to 20w50 Castrol Gtx.

Thanks,

 

If its running, you could fog it with seafoam spray. If not add some MMO to the clean engine oil. I added approx. 4ozs. You will also have to introduce some Marvel to the combustion chambers, let it soak and blow it out the sparkplug holes.

 

It's running, mines is eating up oil and smokes like if the oil control rings are bad. It all started after I started using the Vr1. I have only done like 3 oil changes using the Vr1. What do you mean by fog with sea foam? I normaly add sea foam into the fuel tank to help clean up the carbon that builds up.

 

Marvel Mystery Oil (*MMO) is primarily petroleum distillates mixed with a healthy dose of spearmint oil - it has a very distinctive smell that's great for marketing! The purpose is that the petroleum distillates are light e nouh to dissolve pretty much any carbon anywhere and leave a clean surface with enough clean pores of metal to take and hold oil. My belief - and this is just speculation - is that something about the VR1 oil causes the seals to remove the Oil slick on the Oil Control Rings and side seals which results in poor compression, i.e., hard or no starting.

Adding MMO to the engine oil is an old Infiniti trick to keep the valve train clean, and works as well on rotary engines apparently. I still have The BIG Bottle of MMO that comes out when cleaning stuff or trying to de-varnish any metal surfaces. Adding it to the fuel also helps to get it inside the combustion chambers where it does the most good, but Seafoam works the same way, just faster. Petroleum distillates burn just fine in our engines, being a petroleum product, they're easily combustible.

 

Just a method used to spray cleaner past an intake boot etc. into a running vehicle to clean the combustion chamber. In the tank works well and is allot easier but is a slower process. The MMO in the engine oil seems to help clean up the oil control rings.

 

SEAFOAM can also be added to the oil but I like the fog method better by adding it to the intake via a vacuum hose.