Oil Filter reeks of gasoline!?
 

Hey guys, I'm in the midst of preparing my jspec turbo engine to be put in my 88 GTU and have been taking off unneeded/unwanted parts, ie. air pump, ac compressor, etc. And I removed the old oil filter and while the filter had no oil in it, the engine connetion side was clean/spotless. No oil disoloration. Very clean.

But I had smelled a faint gas smell and sniffed the oil filter. It reeks of gasoline...
I checked the dipstick and it came out with very light brown oil up to the proper level. It didn't smell of gas. The oil had no indication of coolant or metal shavings, etc.

Anyone know why an oil filter would reek of gas??

because rotaries get a fair amount of blowby - causing gas to get into the oil quicker than with a normal piston engine. This is one of the reasons that you need to change the oil in rotaries more often; the gas dilutes the oil after a while. My oil smells like gas alot before I do an oil change alot of times. Before I knew this I was a bit worried about the smell too

Send a sample of you first oil change to Blackstone Labs for analysis if you are really concerned about the fuel in the oil. Chances are that, as C-Murder says, it is simply the normal amount of fuel contamination which is of no particular concern as long as you change the oil regularly. I had the same concern with the fuel smell of the oil in my RX-8, but the analysis showed it to be well within the normal range.