Hi, I have been wondering. I was thinking of switching my oil to 1 quart of Lucas oil. Its a bit thicker. I was wondering if there was any harm in doing so. I use it in all my other cars and always have.
Thanks

 

So your going to take out all of your oil and add one quart of Lucas? I don't follow.

 

Is there anything we could say to stop you?

Sounds like your mind is firmly made up.

S

 

Well I have a couple of opinions about oil. First of all if your oil is of a quality that you need to add to it to make it better, you should probably just use a better oil in the first place! Keep in mind oils are not designed to be mixed with other products. Their formulations are designed to be used in the quantities that they come in. When you add to it, you mess this up.

Second, most autoparts stores have a little clear plexiglass display that has 2 sets of gears. Each set has a handle that you can spin. It is a Lucas "Oil Stabilizer" display. One of the gear sets is supposed to have just plain old motor oil. They don't say what type or weight though. The other is supposed to have their "Oil Stabilizer" additive. The point of the display is to show you that the oil that has the Lucas added to it can stay up on the gears better than the plain motor oil which means better startup lubrication. This is in fact what their display shows. However it shows something else they probably don't want you to see.

Since I'm not content to just casually turn the crank, I spun each of them as fast as I could and I encourage anyone else to do the same. The results were downright scary. The regular motor oil side just looked like regular motor oil on gears as it should. The Lucas stabilized side showed severe oil foaming! Remember this is just me turning a crank fast. How good is that going to protect your engine? Air isn't that good of a lubricant. The scary part is that Lucas plainly mentions that you can use it in almost any ratio with your oil up to and sometimes completely replacing all of your oil with it. Hell no!!!! Run Forrest Run!!!

Do not use that crap at all. Throw it away. Let that company go out of business. They are probably responsible for many engine deaths due to their crappy product. They show off a benefit without telling a severe downside that can be catastrophic. Put it in your engine if you want to but even the crappiest of conventional motor oils would be a better call. Just use a good oil and forget about it. Don't over complicate things.

 

What kind of Oil do you recommend using? I have a stock RX8 with 141,000 miles. All I have done to it is a ReVi Intake.
Thanks

 

10w40 of whatever walmart has on sale.

Good to see another 'bama guy here

 

yea Alabama, where was this guy last weekend...lol...or two weekends ago i cant remember

 

IS this even the right place to post something like this?

good job Mr. 10 post

 

1 qt? I use 4 or more but if u want to use 1 that's ok...

 

hey all,

Just wanted to add my input to this endless thread.

First of all, forget all the "snake oil" additives out there.

For normal street use, including having fun with the car where possible, other than on the race course, any name brand oil is fine. Mazda has to warranty the engine per their recommendations, so the 5W-20 rating works for me.

Now, here's why they don't want you to use a synthetic or semi-synthetic oil in the rotary engine for normal street use. Synthetics don't burn off under high heat as much as conventional oils do. You would think that would make synthetics a "better" choice for those who like to "pamper" their cars for the slight additional expense.

But....in the case of the rotary engine, when equipped with a catalytic converter as the cars for sale to consumers are equipped, the higher flash point of the synthetics, which cause them not to burn off at a certain point, actually harms the cat converter by way of unburned oil fouling up the cat, which decreases performance and creates other problems over time as well. This is probably the major cause of problems with the rotary engine in the RX 8.

Please don't misunderstand where I'm coming from. Synthetics are the best, but not for a cat equipped rotary. However, as mentioned earlier here, any name brand conventional motor oil has more than enough protection to keep your engine happy for a long, long time.

Unfortunately, Mazda does not include the explanation made here in the owner's manual. It just specifically says not to use synthetics.

The rotaries that are raced minus the cats can and should use synthetic oils, as you see on the sponsership ads on the cars.

I await the onslaught and venom to come.