my oil is very very thin, not much thicker than gas. the oil smells pretty much just like gas and is very burnt. i just changed the oil about a week ago and am using castrol 20w50. the oil that was in there that i changed out was also very thin and burnt and had only been in there for 2 or 3 weeks. i thought that problem was the fpr, but i replaced that at the same time i changed the oil last week so thats not the problem. any ideas?





also, my ps hose is leaking and im gonna replace it probably today, theres a big mess where it has been leaking so whats the best way to get the fluid all cleaned up? carb cleaner?

bump bc i need help

Take your car to a car wash and use the engine cleaner/tire cleaner cycle to clean your motor off and engine bay. Just remember that you need to cover your intake and dizzy. As for the gas smell, the rotary as you know mixes gas with the oil so that smell will be there. Gas thins oil that it why you change it regularly. I found it a good practive to do mine at no more than 2500 miles and if I ran it hard I do it at 12-1500 miles depending.

yeah i know that there will be some gas in the oil, and thats what i told the guy i bought it from when he said the oil was very gassy, but this is way more than normal, like i said the oil is very very thin. im just worried about it not being significant lube for the motor. ive probably got 250-300 miles on this oil. i wouldnt think that the oil in this would be any different than my fc and the oil in that has always stayed thick and hearty.





just in case it matters, i have great pressure, gets up to 60 and stays there in no time

How much are you losing if any? Whats you oil pressure at idle and at cruise speeds?

im not losing any oil, at least the dipstick stays the same. it just seems more gassy and thin and burnt than it should be. oil pressure at idle is about 30 and at speed it pretty much stays at 60

possibly related...

when i start the car after its been sitting for a coupe of hours it will sometimes puff blue smoke when i shift, only when i shift though, not just from revving. today i went in a restaurant for about 20 mins and went back out to the car and started it and revved it up to around 5k just to see if it would smoke and lots of blue smoke came out. as far as i can tell this engine has never been rebuilt and if thats the case it has 218k miles on it.



it did sit for 3-5 months before i got it, but i dont think that its still burning any carbon build up out because i have driven it pretty hard at times to be sure i got it all out.

Man my 12A sat for four years in a garage and it doesnt smoke at all (knock on wood). With that many miles you are probably just ready for a rebuild bro. Good luck to ya at least ya got an SE to play with.

if you start it up cold and rev it to 5k then the motor is tired. just keep driving, it will still run quite a while longer

i dont rev it up when its cold, i dont even move the thing before it warms up

Gas in oil = lowering compression. Air/fuel mix blows by the side/corner seal and mixes with the oil in the rotor.

the 84 GSL-SE i had was going near 300K and still runnin strong with no rebuilds, but had low compression on the rear rotor, it had a few little problems but was still fun.. i'd say probably a rebuild is in your future

well thats not sounding so good, if i got an engine lift how hard would it be to rebuild it myself? id probably get it streetported so id have to send the housings off but other than that how hard would it be? would i have to have many tools?

Wouldnt send the housings you'd send the plates. I'd get a junk engine to rip apart first and labeling everything is a must. Dont mess up and forget what apex seal came from what side of what rotor you gotta make sure take care of what you have if ya plan on reusing anything.

with this oil problem would it be better to start premixing or should i not worry about the oil being so thin?

IF your OMP is working there is no sense in premixing. It will make it harder to start and add no benifit. I thought that about my SE so I started premixing...however the OMP was working fine. End result ran like chit. Lean it out as much as possible.

ok thanks a lot!



hopefully this will be the last question ill ask you guys on this subject but how long is it ok to run between oil changes when the oil gets as thin as gas and black within a week or two of changes? should i start running a thick synthetic to try to increase the lubrication and reduce the blowby? sorry that turned into two questions

Isn't there some issue about a lot of extra carbon buildup with synthetics? I've heard it's true, I've heard it's a myth...

there are differing opinions on synthetic in rotary. the arguement against it is that it doesnt burn off as well as natural oil and gets gummed up in the apex seals and stuff. royal purples website says they have been running their synthetic in their rotary race car for years without a problem directly related to the oil use. royal purple statements: http://www.royalpurple.com/techa/faqsa.html#re0

Yeah, I read on the "myth" side of the field that Mazda had a falling out with their oil company so switched to organic to spite them.

There has been so much debate over that. Realy don't know what to believe. Just my own personal thing to stay with the dino oil though. Not that I think syn is bad just because I am old and set in my ways.

i think ill go with the thickest syn that i can find, not gonna hurt anything if its on its way out anyway

dont waste your money on synthetic for a 200k motor, just put 20-50 in there

I've always used synthetics. On the motors ive taken apart everything looked peachy!