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Not new to autocross or Mazdas (used to have an NB Miata, probably the most fun car I've ever owned), and recently picked up an STX prepped (DSP capable) S1 RX8. It's been sitting for a while and seems to have some heavy smoking issues, that have sort of cleared up now that I've been driving it a bit. I'm excited to learn about rotaries, and am enjoying how the car drives besides the misfire/ bog, smoking issues. It was known that it was a bit low on compression (70psi with a rotary tester?) but I'll enjoy it until it needs a rebuild or blows up. Glad to be here! I've learned a lot so far, just lurking.
It's got a fairly long list of modifications already! Taking it for its maiden autocross voyage this weekend in Toledo.
Suspension:
Custom Valved AST 5200 2 way coilovers
Swift 750lb front springs
Swift 609lb rear springs
Agency Power front anti roll bar
Mazda Motorsports delrin front control arm bushings
Driveline:
Kaaz LSD
4.77 final drive
Exedy Clutch
Engine:
Racing Beat RevI intake
Racing Beat Header
High Flow Cat
HKS Legamax exhaust
Mazdamaniac tune with increased oiling
LS2 coils
Cobb Accessport
Interior:
Racetech Carbon Fiber fixed back seat
Momo Monte Carlo Steering wheel
Wheels:
18x11 Forgestar F14s (have 295 Hoosiers on them, if I ever get a hankering for DSP I may buy some at some point)
17x9 Enkei RPF1, just mounted 245/40r17 Falken RT660s
ARP Wheel Studs
Here's some photos of the car since I picked it up. It *barely* fit on my trailer with the 18x11 wheels and slicks Loaded up Say hello! A lil smokey...
First suggestions are to read through the sticky threads in the new member section.
If you plan on keeping the car and continue with autox I suggest buying a rotary compression tester. These tend to have sales alot of the times posted on the forums. 70psi is rather concerning and suggests you need a new remanufactured engine or rebuild soon. Typically compression lowers over time with normal wear. Symptoms of low compression usually are difficulty hot starting >> then as compression gets worse you will see it hunting and stalling at idle.
Are you seeing any flooding? You may want to change out the sparkplugs first considering your last image.
Miles on the engine?
Last edited by MincVinyl; Jun 9, 2023 at 03:06 PM.
First suggestions are to read through the sticky threads in the new member section.
...
Are you seeing any flooding? You may want to change out the sparkplugs first considering your last image.
Miles on the engine?
Thanks, I've been making my way through those threads the past few days, lots of great info.
I haven't seen any flooding no, it's started fine every time, cold or hot hasn't seemed to make a difference. I pulled the spark plugs yesterday and cleaned them off (torch until HOT and then lightly wire brush) and reinstalled. I haven't had smoke like that since I actually get the car up to temp and warm/hot if I'm going to start it, as well as the cleaned plugs. It puffs at around 4-5k rpm on tip in/ on the shift but only while it's cold. Less/no smoke after it's warm.
I believe it's original to the car to my knowledge, 101900 miles on the dash.
FWD rotor, leading plug FWD rotor, trailing plug After cleaning
Last edited by Tacit.Blue82; Jun 9, 2023 at 03:34 PM.
White smoke on cold startup is usually coolant seeping into the combustion chamber. Puffs while driving could be oil control rings, or could be she is barfing oil into the intake. Have a look in the accordeon tube.
Otherwise sounds like a fun build, welcome aboard. Tacit Blue eh? Is there a story there or you just like codenames?
White smoke on cold startup is usually coolant seeping into the combustion chamber. Puffs while driving could be oil control rings, or could be she is barfing oil into the intake. Have a look in the accordeon tube.
Otherwise sounds like a fun build, welcome aboard. Tacit Blue eh? Is there a story there or you just like codenames?
There's no smoke ON startup save for maybe a small puff, but when it was bad bad it would be a couple of minutes after startup.
Hah yes, bit of a codename, no real story other than having worked for a large aerospace OEM at one point. I assume you know the reference?
Last edited by Tacit.Blue82; Jun 9, 2023 at 07:53 PM.
I've been driving this thing to work a few days this week to get a feel for it and try to give it a bit of an 'italian tune up', which seems to have helped some in terms of the amount of smoke, but it seems to go through A LOT of oil. Like I've had to put 3 quarts in it in a week, a lot. Couple hundred miles total. Something is definitely not right here,
Took the car to it's first autocross this past weekend. The motor definitely isn't the most healthy, lots of smoke when cold (didn't like the short drive back and forth in the driveway and on to the trailer), smoking out the paddock but eventually clearing up (mostly).
I had a friend who's much faster come drive the car as well, filling out what was a fairly small STX showing for this event. The car smoked a bit on course but didn't make any huge clouds, but burned quote a bit of oil for the day - close to a quart and a bit. It's also terrible ergonomically, because I have the tallest torso known to man it seems. The seat was leaned back to fit my head but made the reach with the hands and feet a little too long, unless I pushed the seat way forward, but that made my knees hit the column. I'll need to mess with it some more to make it better but I think I'll need to ditch the slider unfortunately.
The chassis though... **Chef's kiss** man this car drives amazing!! We had a weird dry to wet situation with rain showing up just after the start, with some folks not getting any dry runs, and many DNFing their only dry run (myself included). The rain steadily got worse throughout but fun was had! If you nix the dry runs, my friend would have finished 1st, and I would have been 3rd in a field of 9 cars.
In grid
Last edited by Tacit.Blue82; Jun 12, 2023 at 09:10 AM.
Sounds like your oil control rings or side seal springs are seriously gummed up with oil sludge/carbon. Suggest looking into doing a deep clean with ATF. AKA, vacuum ATF into each rotor and let it sit for a day or so while turning over the car a couple of times a day (not starting it, pull the fuel pump fuse), try to start it, and repeat. I'd do it a couple times before driving it hard. When you finally want to drive it hard, suggest adding a bit more premix to your fuel for the initial attempt. ATF is a detergent and will help clean out carbon and gummed up oil in the seals but also wipes all the surfaces that need lubrication clean.
Note you can also do this with Seafoam but I believe ATF is better at cleaning up the crap in there.
Sounds like your oil control rings or side seal springs are seriously gummed up with oil sludge/carbon. Suggest looking into doing a deep clean with ATF. AKA, vacuum ATF into each rotor and let it sit for a day or so while turning over the car a couple of times a day (not starting it, pull the fuel pump fuse), try to start it, and repeat. I'd do it a couple times before driving it hard. When you finally want to drive it hard, suggest adding a bit more premix to your fuel for the initial attempt. ATF is a detergent and will help clean out carbon and gummed up oil in the seals but also wipes all the surfaces that need lubrication clean.
Note you can also do this with Seafoam but I believe ATF is better at cleaning up the crap in there.
There's definitely SOMETHING going on, I'll look into that/ try it.
The seat was leaned back to fit my head but made the reach with the hands and feet a little too long, unless I pushed the seat way forward, but that made my knees hit the column. I'll need to mess with it some more to make it better but I think I'll need to ditch the slider unfortunately.
I see you have the sunroof which means you have heated leather seats. They sit VERY high up. If you want a cheap solution the stock cloth seats sit much lower. Otherwise suggest a new seat. I didn't know of the difference until I sat in a leather interior rx8 before. probably a good 2 inch to be gained, though I cannot say for certain.
I see you have the sunroof which means you have heated leather seats. They sit VERY high up. If you want a cheap solution the stock cloth seats sit much lower. Otherwise suggest a new seat. I didn't know of the difference until I sat in a leather interior rx8 before. probably a good 2 inch to be gained, though I cannot say for certain.
The stock seats are cloth, but this has a Racetech bucket on buddy club low profile mount with slider, and about as low as I can get it. I think I can mess with the mounts a bit (cutting the top hole off one of the brackets), and go down a set of holes vertically, and un-lean the seat a bit. Likely means going to something fairly custom.
Do RX7 seat mounts fit the RX8?
Or, alternatively.. are there any good sunroof patch panels? Then just swap a non-sunroof headliner in.
Smoke seems to be hit or miss.. Sometimes will have barely any, other times it has a ton. Today was almost no smoke on start up/ warm up, and then after being on the highway and coasting down to a light it started a ton of smoke and shut off.. On the restart (no problems actually starting), big smokescreen as I pulled away, and similar when I stopped after getting to work. This was irregular since the smoke is usually just after start up/ after first load applied and then clears up as it gets warm. I filled the tank and wanted to see what a bit less premix would do (in general, obviously a LOT of smoke at idle isn't a premix problem)
Thinking about a seafoam/ ATF bath and "decarb" and a new set of plugs.
Other suggestions, just as a matter of course, were to verify SSV, ADI, APV function, and likely remove/ clean them.
Last edited by Tacit.Blue82; Jun 16, 2023 at 08:26 AM.
Maybe I missed it, but is there oil in the intake accordeon? Blowby can cause it to come up the oil fill neck and into the intake, which if ingested gives you clouds, but usually also gives driveability issues.
I wouldn't put a ton of time into the intake valves, they're not the reason you have smoke and if the engine needs to come out you'll have plenty of time to clean them on a bench.
Maybe I missed it, but is there oil in the intake accordeon? Blowby can cause it to come up the oil fill neck and into the intake, which if ingested gives you clouds, but usually also gives driveability issues.
I wouldn't put a ton of time into the intake valves, they're not the reason you have smoke and if the engine needs to come out you'll have plenty of time to clean them on a bench.
I haven't looked in the intake, other than pulling the MAF to clean it but it looked brand new, very well could be. Doesn't seem like there's anything in the catch can but I need to pull it open, but very well could be blow by, there's usually a missfire/ hesitation on throttle or a really irregular idle while its smoking.
MM's tune doesn't supress codes, unless someone specifically asked for that. It's totally possible there's nothing for the computer to code for.
Actually, my MM tune suppressed a lot of codes. This was the list when the tune was converted by VersaTuner support, after reading the MM tune via VersaTuner:
P0300, P0030, P0031, P0032, P0037, P0038, P0133, P0138, P0139, P0171, P0172, P0410, P0420, P0441, P0442, P0443, P0446, P0455, P0456, P2096, P2097, P2195, P2196, P2257, P2258, P2259, P2260, P2270, P2271, P2401, P2402, P2404, P2405, P2407
No idea why did he do this, because I certainly didn't ask for it. I wasn't even aware since he did the tuning in person himself, during a dyno-based tuning session.
I didn't include these code suppressions when flashing the car via VersaTuner
Just as a curiosity, I plugged in the accessport and wanted to see what tunes were available on there... There was a "Stock Style" map there, so I loaded that into the car, to see if there was any difference in the amount of smoke going on.
To my surprise, there was a TON less smoke, and it was actually showing the check engine light for missfires. It seemed like it needed a bit of relearning ( would die when pulling up to a light, but would idle after you restarted it), and the next day (today) I took it to work and had zero issues. No misfires, no smoke, and no check engine light, just a slightly rough idle at points.
It's been a minute, but have occasionally driven the car to work to make sure it gets warm, and then took it to Gridlife Mid Ohio Meet last weekend!
Car is smokey as hell, having only been started to move on/ off the trailer a few times, smoked out the paddock near me, and the grid area when I drove by. I also had the tracks fire rescue called at one point because it was smoking so much...
But... on track? Nothing, once it's warm and being flogged, it's happy.
However... She did burn almost 5 quarts of oil over the whole weekend! Obviously even a top spec Renesis isn't fast, but nor did she feel super slow (though this motor is known to be down on compression). Not too bad for a 110k mi original motor!
Good driver progression through the weekend, dropping a second or more almost every session, with some coaching from friends. Hot shoe friend posted the same time to Garret's red RX-8 ClubTR car (with wings/ splitter) with my S1 on a dying motor.
Super fun to drive, does everything you ask, and sounds great!
Last edited by Tacit.Blue82; Aug 10, 2023 at 01:51 PM.
After sitting for a while, went to verify things were good to go before an autocross, and ended up getting a BAD misfire, only running on one rotor and barely made it back home. I was pretty sure (hoped) it was only fouled plugs, and bought some new plugs that evening. I had been planning on doing a seafoam 'decarb' just to loosen some things up, but didn't want to mess up the plugs. This provided a good opportunity to do that, so I had it suck down about 8 oz of seafoam and let it sit for a few hours, and was ready for the smokescreen.
It started but still only on the one rotor, so decided to chance it with the new plugs...
Smokescreen it did, but eventually cleared up.
The Autocross went well all things considered, the car did great and I just need to drive better. A quirky bunch for STX this time around, with a Mini and a truck
I struggled to put a clean run together, with leaving DSC on accidentally for the first run, an OK second run and then cones on all the other decent runs with raw times. Here's a view of one of my fastest raw time runs, with lots to improve on. I did my final run almost a second faster but still clipped a cone, and didn't get it on video.
