she was just idling in the garage, purring if you will. i was seeing if it was still having overheating problems, and its not anymore. so after 30-45 minutes of idling, all of a sudden there is oil spraying evrywhere. i mean evrywhere, it even got on the rear glass. it is aparent that it came from the pass side of the car, thats the most ioly. is there an oil line there that could have came off? it didnt die, it was still idling just fine when i shut it off. It is outside and under a foot of snow right now(tarped up ofcourse). any ideas where to start looking when this snow melts off? there is no oil in the coolant. i havent tried to restart it, but im sure it will.

 

sounds like a oil line. what kinda of rx7 do you have?

 

Did you check the oil cooler lines..... the fan might have blown the oil from the drivers side over to the left side is the oil line ruptured at the oil cooler. even though those lines are on the drivers side, the fan rotations could be discharging it on the passenger side.

Yor car is an 86, so its definately not the turbo oil lines....

The OMP is on that side of the engine, but I don't think it puts out THAT much pressure, its only supposed to pump out like 5 cc's in five minutes at 2K RPM...

my advice is to wash the engine down, refill it with oil, put some goggles on and stick your beak in there with a flashlight!!!!!!!!!!

 

Holly **** batman! 30-45 Minutes of Ideling is WAY too long for anything that is not a diesel! What were you thinking? just cause your fan might be keeping your radiator and cooling system within spec, nothing was keeping your oil cool. I am willing to bet your oil was boiling, thus blowing crap up.


-Robert

 

Second checking the oil cooler, when one of those lines break, you get a geyser of oil spray.

 

that really happens?

 

hell yes, Oil will boil. The oil cooler needs air flow, just like the radiator does. The radiator gets air flow at idle from the fan, where as the oil cooler does not. It's no coinsidence that somthing burst in his oil system after idleing for 30-45 Mins ..

 

if his bottom and top plastic shrouds are on the air pulls through the cooler too.

however idling for that long is still really hard on the engine. even worse for pistons though. they shouldn't idel more then 30-60 secs or so at a time.

 

I don't know, when I finaly got my project car running again I let it idle till it ran out of gas witch was like almost an hour and everything was fine.

 

Why would you run it till you ran out of gas? That would starve the fuel pump and possibly cause it to be damaged or worse you might suck some debris from the bottom of your tank into god knows where.

 

It didn't and thats what I was doing was burning all the old gas out so I could change fuel filter and clean the gas tank.

 

oh yeah and it didn't run out of gas completely it was really really low though. Just to the point where it starts to idle ruff

 

that's what the drain plug on the bottom of the tank is for....

 

i didnt know that it was bad to let it idle, i was jsut checking coolant flow. making sure that evrything was a-ok. so im hoping it was just the oil line.

 

So what happens when its winter, you start your car up, and let it idle for 20 minutes so it can be nice and warm inside when you have to get in it? I've never ever heard of it being bad for your car to idle. What happens when you are stuck in a traffic jam?

 

put on a bigger jacket... run the car for 30 secs and then start driving it under 3000rpm untill it is warm.

 

Oil cooler lines are on the drivers side right? i know mine are

also with the oil blowing at idle i think thats bs you still have some oil pressure and you have a oil COOLER and when you rebuild you have to let it sit and idle for a while so every thing can seal. For the **** in your tank being sucked up i thought this was brought up once before and answerd and the 7's pump was designed not to pick that **** up

just my .2

David

 

Right on! Or if you are really want some heat faster consider an oil preheater. That would help. Better than letting it idle into oblivion.

 

The coolant will heat up long before your oil gets to a boiling point. If you start your car and let it idle until the coolant gets near operating temp, so the windows can defrost thats fine. But after the car gets warm your coolant has the fan to help keep it cool, the oil cooler does not. I am not saying it's a bad idea to let your car warm up, but what I am saying is that 30-45 Mins with no air flow to the oil cooler is a very bad idea! Your oil will boil, and break down eventually.


-Robert

 

Dude I have been in traffic that long and nothing ever happened. Hell, I'm in that kind of traffic every day and my 90 GXL doesn’t spray oil everywhere. This is a first time I have ever heard of this!

 

For those of you that don't belive me about the oil boiling:


think about it this way, The stock cooling system holds 9.2 quarts of water, and anti freeze, The surface area of the radiator is roughly 4 times the size of the oil cooler. So, you have twice the fluid, and 4 times the surface area, would you let your car idle without a fan for 45 mins? Hell no, it would over heat. 2x the fluid 4x the surface area, it would still over heat.

Now, the boiling point of oil is probably a bit higher than a coolant mix, but coolant is also under pressure to raise the boiling point, the oil system is not. The coolant flows around the external (less heated) parts of the housings, the oil is circulated in the hotest parts of the motor. You are only dealing with 4-5 quarts of oil, and a oil cooler with no air flow that is 1/4 the size of the radiator, and not pressurized.

So, if you would not run your cooling system that long without a fan, why would you ever let your oiling system run like that.


Now, I am basing this on general principal, I have never been dumb enough to test this. The plactic shrounds and such on a 7 may suck enough air past the oil cooler to keep things just below the boiling point, but I doubt it.

If you are dumb enough to sit in traffic without ANY movement for 30-45 Mins and not turn off your car.... sell it, cause your too fuking dumb to own one.



-Robert

 

One more thing to add;

I just did a little web research. Quaker State 20W-50 motor oil reaches it's boiling point at a mere 212 Deg. Farenheight. So I would assume Penzoil, Castrol and the others are in that ballpark. Now, you be the judge.


-Robert

 

Own one......... I own Five *******. Sorry I stuck a nerve. I didnt know you were so sensitive

 

I swore a read about someone on the forum falling asleep for the entire night with the car idling. That must hurt..

 

Alright, time for this bullshit to stop.
I let my car idle for 90 minutes tonight after warming up completely. Within that time, the oil temperature did not increase from 181 degrees fahrenheit according to an oil temperature gauge. The cooling system is set-up with the stock undertray, fan shroud, and stock fan with good-condition clutch.
So... how would oil boil without its temperature increasing?

How would you go about bleeding air out of the cooling system? Need to let your car idle for that. How about starting a fresh rebuild? If you were correct, would this not happen EVERYTIME these situations occur? It obviously does not.

You don't know what you're talking about. Stop acting like you do, and stop spreading misinformation.