So I go into O'Rielly's on my way home today to pick up filters/fluids/plugs so that when my crush washers and gasket get here I'll be ready to finally fire up my year long 84 project. They don't have my plugs in stock, no surprise. I grab an oil filter and some MMO,antifreeze and brake fluid, but am having one of those "stupid" moments where you just draw a blank and can't for the life of me remember the viscosity recomendation for the oil. So I ask the guy at the counter to look it up for me. Surprisingly, he actually knows what a rotary is, but the computer tells him the oil is "SD", that's it. Now we're both confused and after 5 minutes looking for some conversion or something the guy calls the local Mazda dealershipand asks for the parts/service desk. The freakin parts guy has no clue! He yells to the tech. who in turn says "Tell them to find a Haynes Manual and look in it." At this point both me and the counter guy are disgusted and tell the Mazda rep. " Thanks, you've been a BIG help!" I ended up just picking up some 10W40, figuring I'll use it in my truck if it's wrong. I just can't freakin believe that the damned Mazda dealership doesn't know what oil to put in a freakin rotary engine! I'd never take my var to them anyway, but that's both hilarious and scary!

 

Ray,
10w40 will be fine for the cooler weather and will work good, don't worry. As the weather warms up go to 20w50 as you will need the weight to help keep it cool on the twistys.


Joe

 

20w50 goes for all rotaries in the summer?

 

thats what the faq's all say. or 5W20 in colder areas.

 

hmmm i should have looked that up when i was in reno. i was runnin at 1/3 to a half when it was hot on my temp gauge. oh well i got a new motor now.

 

Yeah, I looked as soon as I got home and my brain reingaged! I expected the counter guy at the parts store to be ignorant, but figured the tech at Mazda ahould know. I ended up with a counter guy that had half a brain and a Mazda tech that was a moron. Go figure! Thank God I bought the FSM, parts fische and electrical schematics first thing before I ever started to tear down. The ignorance and amount of bogus facts I've come across since starting this project could fill volumes, not to mention had I actually listened and not researched I'd have probably totally fucked my car before I had a chance to get it running. Between the manuals and you guys, I'm confident that when I turn the key this weekend, I'll hear a sweet sound!