My 79 was idling after a short drive. The "add oil" light came on, so I opened the oil filler cap and added about a quart. After a few seconds, blue smoke is coming out the exhaust! I shut her down, waited a few minutes and started her again .... more blue smoke, not as bad, but still there. Never have I seen this from my RX7. I have 68000 miles, original owner, no engine problems. What have I done???? Help

 

join the rest of us rx7 owners, blue smoke is fun!

 

ok, on a serious note...you have done nothing by adding oil while the engine is running. The most likely situation is you ran too low on oil...burned up some oil control rings (slightly) and now are burning some oil. Not a real good thing, but not to worry, your car will run for a long time with this.

 

do the 79's have the pcv tube on the side of the filler neck? if so you probablly just sucked some oil into the intake while adding it.
thats about the only thing i can think of. he oil light should come on when your about 2 quarts low,which isnt too bad.

 

that's my bet!

the smoke should clear up after about 10-15 minutes of driving, if it doesn't then there may be an issue.

drive it around a bit (use the gas pedal!) and report back!

 

yeah, the 79's must because when i overfilled my 79 motor, it POURED SMOKE enough to fill a 6 lane road...

you just sucked some into the system... give it a good run when the cops arent looking, and consider some engine cleaning (cause its good for you anyways)

 

Make sure you haven't overfilled the system. Too much oil will produce lots of smoke, even from a perfect engine...

 

Start checking your oil at every gas fill. You should not be waiting for the oil light to come to let you know you are low.

If you are that low, you are down 2 qts. or more. If your engine is burning oil at a normal rate, you haven't checked your oil for at least 2000 miles. Shame.

If you are checking more often than that, it's time to start looking for leaks.

 

Thanks for the quick responses. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's oil that got sucked in. It happened so quickly, and I did hear some sucking type sounds coming from the filler pipe as I added oil. It's snowing here today so won't be driving for a few days. I'll keep you posted on whether it clears up or not.

Point well taken on checking oil regularly. It's been "resting" in the garage for many years with only occaisional driving. I think I do have a small oil leak, near the oil cooler hoses I believe. Definitely something to get fixed.