I have a 2005 RX8. In February I had the engine replaced. New housings, CAT, Apex Seals, starter and so on.

Here it is 8 mounts later, I have but almost 7000 miles on the new engine and now I have a blown oil control ring. It blows smoke like crazy, and now only runs on one rotor due to oil in the combustion chamber. So it sits parked now.

My question is what would cause a oil control ring to go bad in so fast in a new engine? From what I have been told, the oil control rings are the original ones from my old engine. Just trying to sort this out and figure out if I want to put more money into the car or finally just let it go.

Thanks,

Paul

 

I was going with "poor rebuild" until I got to "oil control rings are the original ones", so now I'm going with "terrible rebuild". Who did the rebuild work? I think they owe you an engine that runs for more than 7000 miles. What was the original reason for replacing the motor?

 

The reason for the rebuild is my CAT was bad and to much heat got in the engine, to the point there oil was burned on the internal parts.

So your saying the oil control rings should always be replaced on a rebuild?

 

Oh man.

Sorry, but that explanation doesn't make any sense. If your cat was clogged, one likely culprit would have been the ignition coils and spark plugs and wires. What symptoms was the engine showing at the time?

When rebuilding an engine (any engine) all seals and gaskets are usually replaced with new parts, precisely so you don't have to rebuild it again. You also have to observe proper clearances, not just slap some parts together and call it a day.

 

Long story short, my engine lost compression. Due to a clogged CAT it was running hot and eventually over heated. It had high miles to, 116,000 on a original motor.

 

as someone previously said, ALL gaskets and seals have to be replaced with an engine rebuild including oil control rings. Using original gaskets and seals will result in exactly what you experienced, another engine gone in no time flat.

Also if your cat was clogged it'd actually cause the compression to go up, it'll still run hot but it makes compression go up in the engine. I am on my second engine and mazda said that my cat was clogged to the point of where the compression was up in my car. As soon as they slapped a new cat on the engine wouldn't run due to too low of compression.