jdemott

FYI, For a couple years, my 1986 RX7 (now 130,000 miles) behaved like this:
A) on startup, a couple brief smoke puffs.
B) about 200 yards down the road, a billow of blue smoke that stopped after 30 seconds. This happened after a long period of very light use -- 1,400 miles a year -- for 2 or 3 years. I have driven this car only 12,000 miles since 2001.
C) This billowing was erratic, unpredictable. Sometimes it did it, sometimes not. Mazda experts -- Mazdatrix, my dealer -- said to get a rebuild. "It's only going to get worse."
D) Then the smoking stopped altogether 2 months ago. Stopped. Cold. Just for the hell of it, I had started using 10w40 oil instead of 10w30.
E) I dared put the 13B to the test by driving it roundtrip from Washington to Boston at high speeds. 996 miles at 80 and 85 mph. I checked oil level constantly all the way up and back. It lost about a half pint, normal, on the entire trip. Performance was excellent, even in 5th.

Any explanations? Is it possible that the car had suffered from underuse? Has something beneficial happened inside that engine because of a return to normal use? Note: The vehicle passed an emissions check superbly a year ago. Is this meaningful in relation to what I have described here?