The guy that bought my 2005 started his first winter, and guess what? He has foamy stuff all over his dipstick. This is not a thread to discuss whether this is ok or not. It is a thread to say if my idea will not work. The idea is to take an extra oil cat i have and drill the biggest hole in it I can. Then run a line from it to a catch can. The idea is to allow more venting out than the current line to the air intake and to catch any crap before it goes into the intake.

I am a total amateur, so it won't do any good to blast me. It is an idea that will not cost me anything but some time. And i will do it anyway because the car needs a catch can to prevent oil in the intake regardless. Thanks!

 

There's a TSB describing Mazda's fix for this. Do you think your idea would work better?

Ken

 

This would be easier. I see now I need to think about getting the output of the new catch can as big as the input of the catch can. Maybe he doesn't mind smelling a little oily smell of letting the catch can vent to atmosphere.

 

What does any of that have to do with foamy stuff on the dipstick?

You would best determine what the "foamy" stuff is first; water from condensation, a coolant leak in the oil sump, etc.. Condensation is a result of the engine oil sump not coming up to temperature, which will burn minor condensation off once it gets hot enough. Extreme winter conditions may require blocking at least one of the two oil coolers off on a 6 spd model for this to happen.

My RX8 is an early 2005 model (built 12/04) with the original factory arrangement and it has never gotten one single drop of oil or anything else through this line into the intake. If your engine is not turbo and pushing oil into the intake then there is a major problem somewhere and you need to figure out what it is and fix it properly rather than resorting to backyard bandaids.

 

^ I agree with Team on this one, mines is a early 05 too (08/04) and no foam for me either. unless it's destroying the car you should be okay, still check it out to make sure it's not something else.

 

Thanks for the thoughtful answer, Team. The new owner had read that the TSB on upgrading the "pcv" (my old terminology) gets rid of the foamy stuff. Plus there is a local 8 driver who had it done and he says it worked for him. I guessed that if true, it could be that the better airflow was helping get condensation out.

I had a lot of trouble with the foamy stuff and I drive 27 freeway miles one way five days a week. By the time I had driven 10 of them each morning, my coolant still wasn't up to temp with both oil coolers covered. Toward the end of my trip I would run it up to 8,000 or 8,500 several times to get a little heat in it. One time I took a 3 hour trip going 65 and higher (I had to stop once to receive my Christmas ticket) and still had foamy crap. My coolant level has always been stable and an oil test showed no coolant (only 2% gas after only 2,000 miles on the oil change).

So, yeah, if I could help him with something cheap, that would be cool. Otherwise I have been telling him to get used to it.

Funny, as we were approaching winter, I had told him he needed to drive the car enough to get it warm. He came over one day before winter and he said the idle is getting rough, so I asked him how he was driving it. He said he revs it up to 4,000 on occassion. So I took him out on my favorite drive and told him this might help a little bit. It was fun feeling both ends scrabbling for traction on my "road course" and running it up to the mid 8,000 range. My BMWs have never felt that good! (I miss the 8 intensely.)

 

I find that (after reaching proper operating temp) running the engine at high rpm with the car stationary will bring the oil temp up the quickest (no airflow across the coolers, fans only move air across the radiator as the coolant temp setpoints are reached)

and this is without any real load on the engine, anyone who runs their RX-8 on a dyno without fans on the oil coolers in addition to the radiator has likely blown through the maximum engine oil temp danger zone without realizing it because the oil coolers only work when air is flowing across them which requires the vehicle to be moving


.

 

That is a good idea. I sold my Cobb separately, so I have no way to judge for him when it is getting hot. I do agree this would work - I remember that on one 0 degree day I was stuck in rush hour at about 10 mph. The coolant temp would cycle thru its range from fan off to fan on in well under a minute. He could just drive thru his neighborhood and listen for the fan to come on a few times...

 

or just let it idle and be warmed up fully prior to leaving

 

What do you think is best for ceaning carbon buildup safely? Using Seafoam sucked in by vacuum or squirting some ATF in the spark plug holes, turn it over and repeat several times and letting it soak?

 

After seeing several pics of seafoamed engines torn down, I am thinking you are wasting your money.

If you want to do it properly with about the same stuff either buy the actual mazda product that sprays in or find seafoam deep creep, not sure if they even sell it any more though its been a while since i've seen it. There are several DIY's threads about seafoam and what ports you use it on.

Edit: Actually not deep creep, but this. http://www.seafoamsales.com/sea-foam-spray.html

 

The Deep Creep is a stronger cleaner? I have done the sea foam once and the ATF once. I did not see any difference, but I was doing it preventatively.

 

been trying to tell people this for years, that's why I didn't bother to respond earlier as I'm just tired of beating my head on the wall

 

What is a good way to clear the carbon out? I didn't like mixing premix and cleaner in each tank because that seemed counter-purpose. And now the the new owner is driving it easier than me, he is likely to get more carbon build up.

I will certainly volunteer to take it our for a regular tune up. (I am not Italian, but I know how it is done!)

 

I was going to mention that, because I did not believe you before. I figured "every little bit helps" but after seeing comparison pictures between engines there just isn't enough of a difference they always look bad.


The deep creep stuff is actually not what you want, I was wrong. Just look for the pressurized seafoam spray bottle instead. I could have swore it was the deep creep, but that is for another use. That is if you still plan on doing seafoam ganseg. http://www.seafoamsales.com/sea-foam-spray.html

 

I will drop the seafoam idea. still wondering about ATF or something else I can inject / get sucked in directly.

 

Think the only thing you can do is run a water meth system from day one.

I was reading something about this on the 7 club. I don't remember the specifics...

Aside from that running some of the zoom cleaner might free up a stuck corner seal or side seal but that's about it.

You aren't removing tons of carbon and left with a spotless engine, at best it loosens up some of the fresh gunk.

If you wanted to get really crazy you could fashion a block off plate at the exhaust ports and spray in some cleaner through the spark plug holes as you manually turn the engine, so you get each rotor surface. That would most likely be the only way you could utilize a cleaner.

All the built up carbon would still need to be removed with a wire wheel though.

 

There is info on the rx7club.com board on using ATF for badly flooded engines, or as a last resort to increase compression. Here is one thread tlaking about it, http://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=108620 I would try and link ones from this site but I am having major issues loading rx8club, and will be lucky to even get this posted.

Also search this site for a thread called "steaming your wankel" there are probably several other threads that talk about steaming the carbon out. I know there is a very recent one called "rotary experimental 8" where he is trying to make a steam system thats always on. Look around about that.

 

ATF is yet another 'old school' rx7 myth - it doesn't clean worth ****.

I know, I've heard the endlessly repeated rubbish about it being 'loaded with detergents' etc., but it ain't.

Anyone who's dropped an oilpan off an automatic tranny knows that it is the opposite of detergent, it is a very stable hydraulic oil formulated to drop crap to the bottom, pronto.

It doesn't clean, it doesn't dissolve deposits and it doesn't hold gunk in suspension. pretty much anything else would be a more effective solvent/cleaner - brake fluid, antifreeze, water, wd40, anything.

But use it if you like......

 

Thank you all for your advice!

 

there is NOTHING that you can put into a running engine that will get rid of hard carbon deposits. NOTHING.
For example--BMW is having problems with the valves stems/guides in their new direct injection cars. No fuel to help keep these parts clean anymore---duh!Very smart people --right?
They have to tear it down to the point that they can blast those areas with walnut shells to get the hard carbon deposits off.
Like Team said--waste of money. UNless a seal is stuck--then its worth a try.

 

All y'all have just saved me from another hokie idea. In this case you saved an innocent 19 year old kid (if there is such a thing) from one of my hokie ideas. The new year is looking more hopeful already!

Seriously - thanks for the dialog.