Had the car in the shop working on it for about a month, hadn`t been started in all that time. Finished the bodywork today so decided to run it out, wash it and take it for a drive. Well, when I started it, it smoked quite badly, ran it out in the driveway and let it set for awhile at about 2,000 RPM to clean it out. Never did stop smoking and the more I reved it the more it smoked, definatly oil. I killed it with the fuel pump shut off and washed it. took about 30 minutes, When I restarted it there was no smoke at all, not even at startup. These things are just plain strange.

 

YES they are....and I LOVE THEM. what year was it? you could have had excessive oil, fromt the OMP.

 

It`s a 1987, NA, I have owned it for about 6 or 7 years, it now has 291,000 miles on the original engine. It has been wrecked 6-7 times. From hitting dogs and deer, to falling rocks. This time the wife just lost it in the rain and it kissed the guardrail a couple times. I told her if she wanted it painted she could have just told me. Anyway it`s going to be that new dark blue purple color on the new Ford Pickups and Focus`s.

 

291,000 miles on original engine, good job!!!

 

damn thats a rotary for ya. does killing the motor w/ the fuel cutoff switch hurt it? it's getting cold here in KC and i've had to use it a few times all ready, (when i don't let it warm up and don't rev it to 4k then turn it off) and i was wondering if the fuel cut switch will help me w/ it.

 

Yep, you can just kill it with the switch.

 

sweet. i didn't know if would put a strain on the pump and lines on account that its pulling fuel with the pump not running

 

I'm surprised that the 3 piece apex seals are still holding up.

 

It's not unheard of...

My friend Mike, who worked on rotaries for a solid 25+ years, serviced a GTU from day one that had over 300,000 miles on it. Never rebuilt it either. It kept going and going....one of those properly maintained freaks of rotary nature...lol

 

This makes me confident that my mechanical OMP with 150k on it isn't going to take a **** on me. If your car is flooding like that then you need to get the injectors cleaned methinks.

 

FYI: Gas isnt being 'pulled' the only thing that pumps the gas to the engine is the pump All injectors do is open and close, they dont pump fuel.

I guess, If your injectors are stuck open, _theoretically_ high engine vaccum will suck a few drops of fuel out, but it doesnt strain anything

 

that's one of the very rare times you see apex seals "wear" out. my buddies 215k motor still had great compression, but he blew a water seal. the apex seals looked like ***, but still sealed. we were gonna recycle them for the sole purpose of finding out how long they'd actually last, but since we had a new set...we used them.

i do wonder though...

 

a friend asked me how my roatry worked?

i told him its so simple it'll blow your mind, and it really did

 

I know that the apex seals rarely wear out however, my concern was it's 3 piece design. The top piece must be thin as **** by now and on the verge of flipping out of the rotor groove. This isn't a problem with the 2 piece seals on the 1st gens. The older 2 piece had more structural support and can wear down longer. The proof is in the original mileage differance between the 1st and 2ns gens. There is a guy on here claiming that his dads 12a 1st gen has 511,000.

 

This car was purchased from our son who wanted a miata. It had about 125,000 miles on it then. My wife liked it so I thought I`d let her have a toy for awhile. Me, being an old autobody , and mechanic type person always thought the Idea of a Rotary was cool, so I went along with the Idea. It`s basically a GTU without the badges. Full power everything except door locks. I have kept the oil changed at about 2-2,500 miles, (Because the oil starts to smell like fuel), and spark plugs every 10-12,000. Changed all the gear lube to synthetic, replaced the rear wheel bearings and a water pump, not to mention the belts and hoses a couple of times., and one water pump. Also have changed the coolant every couple years. I`ve been running stop leak in it all this time also just as a precausion. I also have been using Militec1 as an oil additive, and using Dello 400 as an oil. It used to carbon up quite regularly with Castrol 20W-50, but doesn`t anymore. I also use SeaFoam at least once a year. I put it into the spark plug holes and let it sit overnight. It had a clutch and driveshaft replaced at about 150,000. I`d have replaced it long ago, but the wife loves the car, (It`s her little car), Hey, when Mamma`s happy we are all happy. I now have an extra engine and Transmision from a parts car I recently bought. So who knows how long I will have it.

 

i take it its a carbi if so has it ever had a rebiuld
is that the fist time its ever blown smokeor does it do it often

 

Curious, how hard does your wife drive the car?

 

It`s an 87 and it`s fuel injected. How hard does she drive it??? Well, she knows that there is a beeper when it redlines and is always telling me it still works. She may be 52 years old, but she can drive. She used to drag race. Ya, you are talking to an old guy here, 57 last I checked.

Only time it smokes like that is when it sets for a long time and that doesn`t happen much. Or after it has flooded which hasn`t happened since I put in the fuel pump switch. This time however, Whether it matters, I had the back end jacked up about two feet for about a month.