Hey gang,
My '87 TII recently started something strange. When running at or above 3500, i get clouds of blue oil smoke. I drop down to 3000 and it quits. cruise at 3400 or below and no smoke.
Ideas?


- k -

 

Bad oil seal, my old n/a did that before I swapped in a s5 TII block.

 

could you turn the smoke on and off by going over or under 3500?

- k -

 

Yup, I could drive around fine. Then once I got on it and went above about 3500 rpms it would start to smoke alot.

 

Well, thanks for the info. that sounds just exactly like what mine is doing. I was hoping maybe it was the oil injectors since they're much easier to replace. I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with 240,000 miles on this engine. ( i was hoping to push it to 300k, but this is still lots better than pistons, huh?)

- k -

 

Injectors kick in around ~3500. Never hurts to get them cleaned.

 

the oil injectors?

 

240K on any turbo motor is fantastic! And it is losing the oil control rings instead of the apex seals which is even better.

The oil injectors on your car are controlled by a mechanical oil metering pump. The FSM has a good procedure for testing the OMP. You basically put some premix in your gas, disconnect 2 of the 4 oil metering lines and see how fast oil comes out. If your OMP is WAY out of adjustment you could see this problem. I think it's more likely you need a rebuild, especially since it comes on like a switch at 3500 RPM.

There are sealants you can put in your oil that might make the problem go away, at least for a while. It used to be they would say to use transmission stop-leak. But now there is a new kind of sealant that everyone is recommending. It might buy you another year, maybe. Unfortunately I don't remember what this sealant is

 

240k on a TII? Damn, thats really good.
As for the smoke, it is my (slightly educated) guess is that when you get to 3500, the oil pressure bumps up enough to force oil past the control rings, thus the smoke.

 

fuel.

It's probably not them. But the secondaries do tend to kick in around 3500-3800 RPM. If they've never been cleaned, I'd hate to cough up the cost of a rebuild without exhausting all less expensive options. Hell, clean the oil injectors, check the hoses while you're in there.

 

Kel, though you probably know and have been rigorous about this to have your engine last so long - make sure that you warm the car up and gradually take it past 3500 rpm, and don't compression brake a lot when you're dropping.

My engine doesn't appear to be lasting nearly as long - but I find it doesn't smoke as much the more it has run, the higher the gear I'm in and the less I compression break on decel.

 

I appreciate your input. However, I've never heeded the 'baby-the-engine' suggestions we see everywhere. I would be considered one of the worst car owners truth be told about my driving/maintainence habits.

Terry Crook of rotaryaviation.com (every RX owner can learn from Terry) has called the 13B one of the strongest engines ever developed and I tend to agree.

For what it's worth, this is the second of three RXs that I've owned. The first was a n/a that I bought new in 1988. I put 180,000 very hard driving miles on that one and would probably still be driving it except for a dummass in Texas who ran a light.

Anyway, I drive the p**S out of this thing and have since I bought it 200,000 miles ago. I am either standing on the gas or standing on the brake (i might be considered an 'agressive' driver).

I drive this car all year around rain, shine, snow and summer heat. I take it over mountain passes (on pavement and dirt), city streets and long highway trips. I change the oil when I get around to it. I change the plugs when I think about it and still it runs like a top - starts every day and always gets me to my destination whether it's a few blocks or a couple of hundred miles.

I have never warmed it up before driving - even on single digit temp days - I just jump in, start up and GO! Nor have I let it cool down after a hard drive as I've been told is important to the life of the TII.

All in all, the Rx7 has been the MOST reliable of all the cars I've owned in 35 years of driving. I have my share of small headaches - occasional running hot, alternater failure and such. But after all the abuse, I still got almost a quarter million miles out of this engine (on top of the nearly 200k out of the first one).

I begin to wonder if some of the advice offered to be careful with the rotary engine is behind the trouble many folks seem to have.

Thoughts anyone?

- k -

 

he's not saying sit in your driveway for 15 minutes before you drive it anywhere, he's saying don't beat on it until it's warm, that's all.

 

Yes, I understand and am certainly not complaining; I greatly appreciate anyone who takes time to reply
. I'm just making the point for sake of discussion that Ive never waited 2 minutes (intentionally) before I roar down the street. And, more importantly, I've never followed any of the commonly offered precautions except to regard the slightest overheating as serious danger.

I'm interested in seeing this group's thoughts.

- k -

 

overheating isn't quite as bad as everyone makes it sound..... a slight overheat won't kill a motor, it's serious prolonged overheating that you have to worry about.


240k miles eh! wow. The oil seals are probably pretty thin by now, what grade oil are you running? A switch (if you aren't running it allready) to 20w50 may help matters out.

how many miles on the car if this is your second engine?

 

I've run the heat to the top a couple of times - broken heater hose both times - and got away with it. It still scares me though. I had an '88 GXL I bought used that I had to scrap after 4 months because the radiator ruptured on a hot summer day and by the time I could get to the side of the road, the engine was blown. Absolutely no compression on the back rotor.
Last change on this one, I put in 10w40. I am way over due (as usual) and will put 20w50 in this time and see what happens. Recently, it's been very drivable. I haven't been traveling (got fired from my road job) and around town there is no smoke as long as I don't get on it as much as I'd like.
Anyway, this TII has 240,000 very agressive miles on the original motor. The only thing I've done beyond spark plugs and such is had the front and rear oil seals replaced about 10k miles ago. It was smoking from under the hood and leaking like a seive. Other'n that, like I said...the VERY BEST car I've had the pleasure of parking in my driveway (and racing around the Rockies).

I wish all of you the joy in your RX that I've found in mine!

- k -

 

Damn, part of me wants to feel sorry for your car, but its lived a longer life than 99% of the cars out there. Especially impressive for a turbo rotary!

 

The secondary injectors come on at 3688 rpm just for reference.

 

That's exactly my point. Maybe rather than making it sad, I've made a happy car by pushing it to it's limit. ;-)

- k -

 

That's amazing!

I have a '93 camry that i have always driven hard and not really given much thought to maintenance. It's been on really long and really short trips. I've had absolutely no problems with it ever.
just goes to show that cars need exercise, too.

I'm more careful with my rx-7. I don't push it until it's warmed up and I try to keep up with maintenance as best I can. I just wish I could drive it more often.
I hope it is as long-lasting and reliable as the camry has been.

On this forum, I've noticed that daily and hard driven 7's seem to be the ones that last the longest. The ones driven like a granny, and the modified ones have the most problems.

 

that certainly supports my thoughts. maybe these things are supposed to be driven hard. I know it's certainly more fun to just jump in and go.

When I first got the TII, I was told that you need to let it idle for a couple of minutes after a hard drive to 'let the turbo temps stabilize'...otherwise it'd greatly shorten the life of the exhause/turbo system.

I did that for a short while, but quickly stopped because I just don't have the time. Yeah, I know...just a couple of minutes. But if I've just driven 25 miles going like the 'bat-out-of-hell', late for a meeting. Nerves just won't let me kill another two minutes in the parking lot.

So, I found that it didn't shorten the turbo life at all. The only attention I've paid to the turbo was to fix a crack in the rubber plenum at the intake to fix an idle problem.

Anybody else 'abuse' their RX and still get an unusually long reliable life out of it?

- k -

 

And if you take that into consideration with the fact that our tachs are usually a couple hundred RPM's off.... That could very well be it.

 

Also, I would discourage adding anything to your oil like a "sealant"... you aren't having an oil leak that a sealant could, or WOULD fix. Oil sealants in a rotary are a bad thing.. since they are designed to clog small holes... OIL injectors are small holes. Doesn't seem like a smart idea to me.

 

You COULD get a cheap turbo tiimer... they are REALLY easy to use... and if you can't afford a turbo timer, you have the wrong car.

 

that would be a good thread topic - people list how many miles (or kilometers ) their car has and how hard they drive. I realize people's definition of "hard driving" is subjective, but it would be an interesting thread nonetheless.