Hi guys,

First post. Good to see so many rotary ppl here.

Two quick questions. I own an 85 Rx7. Had it for a good 3 years now, and even though it's done 152,000miles (246000km) it still runs fantastic and its a credit to the previous owner and shows what good maintenance can do.

However, a slight concern the last few days. White smoke came out of the exhaust while going up a rather steep hill - doing about 46mph @3500rpm in 3rd gear.... at the end of the hill a good 4 seconds of white plume clounds came out my exhaust.. it's happened twice now at the same place... however driving in normal city driving as well as suburbs - and varying the acceleration and revs - no smoke at all.... any ideas? I have a few suspicions.. .mainly my apex seal is just going... or somehow coolant is getting into my engine and out the back... or maybe the carby mixture of air/fuel isn't what it should be. hmmm. In anycase I want to get it fixed asap. Just hope the 12A isn't on it's last legs, its served me well for sooo long! *sniff*

As for the second question.... what's the take on Synthetic Oil for the rx... I heard it can do bad things to the housing and seals etc... any thoughts? should we stick to Mineral?

Darren
Mr_Rx7_Au

 

Seek and you will find:

That syn oil is a no go. The motor is designed to burn oil, via the oil metering pump into the carberator, so as to keep the apex seals lubricated. Synthetic oil doesn't burn well, so stick to mineral oil only My prefference is for Castrol GTX.

Also search on the ATF treatment. Basically this entails pooring a small amount of Automatic Tranny Fluid down your carb primaries or in through the spark plug holes into the rotors (take the spark plugs out first ). Turn the motor over and make sure the oil is in every chamber of the motor, then let it sit overnight. The ATF will disolve a lot of the carbon in the rotor housings and on the rotors and seals. The next day you spin the motor with the starter to try and expell as much of the oil out the spark plug holes as you can, plut the plugs in, then fire it up and run it, observing the truly impressive smoke screen you've created. This treatment is widely known to restore ailing apex seals. You might need to replace your spark plugs after this treatment, but keep the fouled plugs for the next time you do it.

 

I the Synthetic oil debate is pretty iffy.
Alot of people say its a no go with the syntheic. The Synmthetic oil is said to kinnda gel up on the apex seals and leave massiv carbon build up.

Another guy has talked to some place at Sevenstock, who said that synthetic oil is allright and it burns clean.

Me I run synthetic and always will. I have contacted Red line oils and they said it burns clean in a rotary. I will be rebuilding my motor in late summer, I guess then I will see what kind of build up there is, and end it once and for all.

 

Thanks guys,

The oil is a hot debate it seems.... hmm, I think I'll stick to Mineral then..though I have had a lot of good points for synthetic as well.

As for my smoke.... I'll try that carby test tonight... btw, my NGK racing spark plugs were only replaced about 4000km ago (2485miles)