hi so I have an 05 red 6 speed. I've had it for a few months and yesterday i got up to go to work and I made it down the street and turned around to a wall of white smoke. just did an oil change last Friday and ignition was all changed 5k ago. it misfired once really bad a few weeks ago after a car wash and it stalled out got it into a parking lot and checked everything and it was fine I got back in and it started right up. so I didn't think much of it. the shop that I had it towed to yesterday after all the smoke says there an "excess of oil in the engine and that's what the smoke is" dont rx8s have oil injectors to add oil to the engine to lubricate the housings and rotors? and the smoke doesn't smell all that much like oil. either way I've decided to rebuild it. I'm ganna get the Atkins rotary master kit is there anything else I would need to get trying to make this as painless as possible and have everything ready to go once it's out.
thanks guys
Tim

 

if you haven't already read the new owners thread a few times, no really read this !

What color was the smoke? oil should be blue or light blue, if white it's water.
Also did you over fill when you did your oil change, the is a breather that dump oil back into the intake if you over fill, it was re routed on 06 and later.

also when you make a "help me" post include as much detail on your car as possible millage, engine comp/health, mods, etc.

 

Stop. You can't just change the seals, that will not last more than like 10k miles.

How about we start with a compression test to determine if it is actually damaged, or if you need to look at other causes, for example the oil was overfilled or your cat is clogged.

 

What Sonic and Loki said. Read more about the engine. If you aren't certain of the existence of the oil injection system on the Renesis engine, you need to do a whole **** ton of research before plunking down thousands of dollars.

If you try to do this for less than $2500, you'll probably end up redoing it again in less than 10k miles. If you try to do it for less than $3000, you might get 20k miles. A good rebuild of a 2005 is almost certainly going to require at least one, probably 2 rotor housings (~$850 each) on top of the rebuild "kit".

Even after the engine rebuild cost (or reman engine price) is paid, you're going to look at another $1000 in incidentals (maybe more if you don't have an engine hoist and such). Things like 3 gallons of coolant, 9 quarts of oil, lots of shop rags or paper towels, tons of liquid wrench, possibly a MAPP gas torch. Many of the plastic and rubber parts are going to be old and brittle, expect some to break. You'll want to check your intake solenoids, oil injectors, oil injector lines, vacuum hoses, coolant hoses, radiator, coolant bottle, oil cooler hard and soft lines, belts, clutch, clutch hydraulic system, catalytic converter, coils/plugs/wires, air filter, intake actuators... just to name a few.

Yes, we're being serious. Do it correctly the first time or do it at least twice for more money than it would have cost to if you'd just listened to our advice. I know this from personal experience with a shitty rebuild.

Odds are, though, that you overfilled the oil and it puked up into the intake track.

Get a rotary-specific compression test first. No, not the same tool and procedure as a piston engine compression test. That won't work no matter what anybody says.

 

it was definitely white smoke. as far as compression I'm not to sure but it has 95000 on it. I didn't over fill it tho. it did like studder at high rpm before followed by a flashing cel but it always went away and always started right back up. as for mods it had a mazda speed cai that came with the car but they didn't have it connected coming out from were it comes out by the radiator support. it also has a muffler delete but pipes exit the back of the cars stock exhaust holes

 

I wasnt really questioning the existance of oil injectors the guys explanation just didn't make sense to me. I have hoists stands and a shop to work on it it's just my first rotary rebuild.

 

and would a clogged cat make the exhaust pour out thick white smoke? it's not like the smoke died down after a while it kept billowing out. at first I thought coolant seals but my coolant is full still clean for the most part and the is no leaks anywhere under the car

 

All of your questions are answered in the new owners thread....

A flashing CEL is ALWAYS a misfire, clogged cats can cause misfires and if it's melting might smoke but it would look like you have red underglow first. The easiest way to tell if you blew a coolant seal is with a pressure tester, although continued smoke from the exhaust isn't a good sign.
Just because a rotary has less parts doesn't make it easier to rebuilt than a piston, there are a lot of very important tolerance that a first time attempt you will miss. Just spend the 4-5k$ on a good quality and trusted rebuilder you'll thank yourself later.

 

White smoke is usually a result of excess water in the exhaust (potentially coolant seals)
Blue smoke usually presents as a result of excess oil in the exhaust (potentially overfilled, oil into intake tract, or oil control ring failure)

My engine still had decent compression, even with the blown coolant seals. It first presented as a no-start condition (flooded chambers), once cleared and started, the exhaust billowed lots of white smoke.

With a pressurized cooling system, pressure was bleeding into the rotor housings. This was most-evident with the spark plugs removed as the flow was audible as the pressure/water fed into the housings. Depressurizing the cooling system would stop the leak. With the engine running, you may see air bubbles in the coolant tank as compression gases escape into the cooling system; mine did not as I believe my coolant seal failed outside of the compression/combustion area.

 

I've checked the cat before it had never started glowing. I did check the coolant when I depressurized it and ran it but couldn't see any bubbles but continued to smoke the entire timeI knew the flashing was a misfire but it never did it regularly enough for me to really diagnose it. I've had it hooked up to my scanner and snapped a bunch of pictures but I dont know were exactly everything is supposed to lie.

 

so if it is a coolant seals the kit comes with all the seals and gaskets apex seals corner seals. so in theory if the housings aren't that fucked up it should be a straight forward disassemble and reassemble. coolant oil and other supplies I can get from my job. I tried finding a rebuild thread but couldn't find one maybe didn't search it right

 

If you insist on rebuilding it, we can't stop you, but don't be surprised when it still smokes after you've rebuilt it because you haven't fixed the problem. If it has no problem restarting when warm, then your compression is fine enough for now.

White smoke can also be running very rich, or oil in the intake. It takes about 5 minutes to check for oil in the intake, so I'd suggest you do that first. If there's oil, clean up what you can and let the rest burn off. The fact that the issue occurred at high rpm is consistent with oil in the intake (which may be what the mechanic was trying to tell you), the fact that it kept smoke is not surprising. It takes a while to burn off oil.

If you have misfires the FIRST places that need to be checked/replaced are the ignition coils, followed by the cat. Glowing is one indicator that it may have crumbled, but it's not conclusive. It could be broken up and not glow.

 

The thing about engine rebuilds is you get to find out just how fucked up the parts are by seeing how long it takes for you to need another rebuild. Do it right or do it twice
It's FAR more economical / safe to buy a professionally rebuilt engine, but if you're in it for the adventure, knock yourself out.
There are youtube videos of rebuilds, from Speed Academy for one.

 

I'm not hell bent on a rebuild I would rather not but the smoke started after a cold start with no trouble. It had blow by when i first bought it I cleaned it all up new maf and cleaned the whole intake and made sure not to over fill. if white smoke could be running rich that could be possible I know they dont get great gas mileage but I was getting like 12-16 highway when I did the math on a road trip I did with it. it never doesn't start and its usually within 3 seconds of turning the key.

 

12-16 hwy mpg is not good.

 

so it being rich like that could it cause massive amounts of smoke? like I'm talking it looks like someone dumped an entire can of seafoam in it. it doesn't smell sweet and it doesn't smell like oil I've been scratching my head on it trying to narrow it down

 

Cat, oil in intake, or ignition. There, it's narrowed down

 

thanks Loki It has to be the cat then ignition it's new but I'll change it out again. when I bought it they had just put a new o2 in the cat so maybe it's been fucked since then

 

when I had it on my scanner the cat temp warm was around 1500*f