well, I am burning more oil then usual when daily driving so I'm assuming that my oil control rings might be on their way out. I'm not sure. I just know that I am putting a qt in every 500-600 miles. I have an '86 n/a sport model with 150k miles now.

so if my rings are going, would disabling my OMP and running premix work to save the engine for now or is the only answer to replace the control rings (if thats whats starting to go, I just know I am burning oil more then usual.)? it didn't happen all of a sudden, this came gradually. thanks for any info.

 

Do you have an exhaust on the car? For some reason once I went with a full exhaust on my na (no cats) the car used waaay more oil. It still ran like a champ. No problems at all besides that

 

a qt in a few hundered miles is a LOT. The inside of your engine is going to be coated in carbon.

OMP or premix have nothing to do with your problem. Check and make sure you're not just leaking it out the outside of the engine. Fix the leak, whether it is inside or outside.

 

if there's no external leaks and the engine is original with over 100k miles, switch to 20w-50.

 

Switch to....what you should have already been using?

+1 for carbon concerns

 

drive it till it blows. use Walmart Super Tech oil because it's cheap. it may yet last for thousands and thousands more miles. Top the oil off every fill up. With gas nearly $4 a gallon, a quart of Walmart oil is cheap.

 

sry, more info: I have always used 20w50 in the summer, castrol conventional. I have just barely switched to 10w40 as the weather is getting colder now but the FC will be put up for the winter. changing weights hasn't seemed to effect it so far, same consumption.

I did actually have to replace my old stock exhaust a couple months ago now. it was falling apart due to rust and my pbm coils on VT roads. I now have the RB street header>RB presilencer>2.5" crush bent pipe>single 2.5" cheap thrush muffler that is not straight thru. I still haven't hooked up my o2 sensor again. now that I think, the new exhaust does kinda coincide with my oil consumption. is it because of the o2 sensor? I don't have my split air pipe for my 5th/6th ports either, I just put a metal plate over the presilencers output for it. but I never had those ports working anyway. why would changing to a full exhaust cause me to use more oil (unless it is, in fact, due to my o2 not being hooked up)? No external leaks either, I checked thoroughly.

 

sry, more info: I have always used 20w50 in the summer, castrol conventional. I have just barely switched to 10w40 as the weather is getting colder now but the FC will be put up for the winter. changing weights hasn't seemed to effect it so far, same consumption.

I did actually have to replace my old stock exhaust a couple months ago now. it was falling apart due to rust and my pbm coils on VT roads. I now have the RB street header>RB presilencer>2.5" crush bent pipe>single 2.5" cheap thrush muffler that is not straight thru. I still haven't hooked up my o2 sensor again. now that I think, the new exhaust does kinda coincide with my oil consumption. is it because of the o2 sensor? I don't have my split air pipe for my 5th/6th ports either, I just put a metal plate over the presilencers output for it. but I never had those ports working anyway. why would changing to a full exhaust cause me to use more oil (unless it is, in fact, due to my o2 not being hooked up)?

 

The 20w50 is closer to syrup to slow down any leaky issues. Short of the rebuild that's the best you can do: slow down the inevitable. You can use it year round above 40F (20F? I forget the minimum). "Winter/summer" oil became obsolete once they made multi-weight ("##w##") oil.

 

I always thought that was the viscosity levels when cold and hot for the oil, nothing to do with it being multi weight?

 

Is it smoking out the exhaust?

 

The first number corresponds to the cranking resistance of the oil at a certain temperature, the second number corresponds to the viscosity at another temperature. Much more complicated than that, or than can be explained in an unrelated thread

Plenty of reading on the internet about it though.

 

It is the viscosity levels when cold and hot and that's from being multi-weight. Could be wrong but IIRC it's the same as SAE 20 when cold and the same as SAE 50 when warm. It's still thinner when warm than cold, it's just that it's only as thin as warm SAE 50 rather than warm SAE 20 which would be super thin. Likewise there's no way you'd want to start your car with cold SAE 50 in the winter as it'd be oil starved until that molasses finally seeped it, but SAE 20 or 20w50 would be fine. That's the concept anyway; the reality might be a little different but I think that's the general idea.

I suppose all this viscosity talk becomes relevant when you consider the drawbacks of going even thicker than 20w50 to try to slow the leak, which may temporarily work but could make engine wear unacceptable in the long run.

 

From the most recent revision of SAE J300:

 

on topic (I don't mind the oil discussion though), I only have whitish smoke on startup for a minute and then it goes away. its always done that and I attribute it to a leaky injector but it starts almost every time, de-flood precedure when it doesn't. no blue or black smoke at all from the exhaust. even had a friend follow me to make sure I didn't. oil control rings going means blue smoke right? I guess I don't know what the problem is I guess.
so
this might sound stupid, but could the header be heating up that side of the engine block and causing it to burn more oil cause its hotter? I only had enough header wrap to do the pipe closest to the chassis side (didn't do my math correctly at all, plus its cheap header wrap) so the one closest to the engine is exposed. my temp gauge reads normal so probably not happening huh? idk, I'm doing a t2 rebuild over the winter I think (funds allowing) so I suppose its not a huge deal. thanks guys.

 

bad oil control rings just mean easy premix

 

+1 for Super Tech... mine burns oil fairly quickly about a quart every 2 tanks of gas... estamate 500 miles... i have 130k miles on the stock engine i and i say if it aint broke dont fix it... keep her full of oil and she may last... in the mean time i would start considering what you want to do for a rebuild... thats my plan for mine..

 

the oil control O-rings (the rubber) is bad. you're going to have MASSIVE oil leaks, and if you don't start your car say, a week, you will get MASSIVE amount of smoke

so if you hate your neighbors or someone annoys the crap outa you, park in front of his/her house, leave it there for a week, start that **** and hohoho watch the smoke.

this is what the bad ring looks like.



I didn't touch any of the black rubber, I took the metal ring out and it just fell apart like that

and Mazda said don't use these "black o-rings" long *** time ago, I have no idea who rebuild my fuxking engine, it came like that, just gotta say that whoever build this must be ... o did I say I found "wired type" corner seal springs too ? (and couple other bs)

it's actually a good/bad thing, you're having massive oil leak which might NOT be a bad thing for your housings. at least I'm sure it will be lubricated properly. lol



if you don't have the money to rebuild right now, just drive it till it's completely dead. you will go thru a lot of oil and spark plugs.

 

I had huge issues with this on my old 12a (think smoke screen, couldn't drive it at all). I was able to control about 90% of it by running 1 quart of Lucas heavy duty oil stabilizer in the engine. It ran for another 25,000 miles without more than a trace of smoke when letting off at high rpms.

Of course, the only proper way to fix it is to rebuild. Just a thought.



.

 

ya, I have a t2 block torn apart and trans. I might need another front iron since I already bought one from a member who said it was great but it has one small gash that might be out of spec so think I'll source another. I just have the bare block I know, most of the manifolds, 2 TB's (not sure if they are even t2). I need the turbo and manifold for that and an intercooler (going v mount anyway) and a t2 starter and clutch slave cylinder. then I still need the rear end. lol, I hope rebuild will happen over winter, rear end during tax refund time and all together late spring. thats the plan but didn't want to blow this motor so I could sell good parts from it. I have stopped drifting it. its spent a lot of time sideways at red line and 360'd a lot (started learning in this car). I want to keep the chassis since its the lightest sport model with no sunroof or power anything. had some metal work to do but it was worth it.