Jon just a few notes from my experience today. I was helping fellow rotarist RIWWP with his intake cleaning and seafoaming after inspecting the SSV valve today. While the SSV had no trouble operating, it clearly had some carbon on it from the oil in the intake. He has an '05 and I suggested the catch can as I plan to install on my car as well when getting it back on the road for the summer. Here's something we found on his; after cleaning the intake and placing it all back together to back out of the garage for seafoaming, it got a crap load of gunk right back in there. I mean it was a bit for just having it run for 10 minutes to warm up. His oil level is 3/4 full, nothing overfilled and yet crap still went right back into the accordion.

Second thing is the TSB. I'm not very keen on the looks of it for a few reasons. While it gets around plugging up the valves in the intake (SSV, etc) it's still essentially introducing crankcase oil to the intake for going onto the rotor unless I'm envisioning something wrong in my mind. This is alike to using the regular crank oil for lubbing the apex which I didn't want and used a SOHN specifically for this. So in my mind this defeats the purpose for those who want 2-stroke, proper oil, going into the engine. If this seems sound from your experience I plan on using vacuum plugs on those 2 ports like the '04-'05 have and running almost all the lines that go into the intake back to a catch can to eliminate virtually any possibility of this crap going into it. I rather do that for a peace of mind that gunk or crankcase oil in general is NOT getting back down into the engine.

Let me know what you think.

BTW, thanks for your effort in the past on SSV topics to show the video and DIY's you did. They were extremely helpful making people new to the engine understand and inspect those areas within hours. RIWWP plans on eventually tearing his lower intake manifold off to clean all those valves up as do I at the end of the year when it's in hibernating.

 

Yup, fresh 4 stroke dumped right back into the accordion, only pulled it out of the garage about 30 feet, let it idle warm, and shut off. Accordion looked wet, dug a pinky in there and came back with fresh partially darkened amber oil. Maybe 1-2 oz total that i cleaned out.


Idle is unstable again. First through third are good, bit of power loss top of 3rd, 4th+ are still weak.

I'm thinking your guess on the fuel sock or pump (as well) might be worth looking into.

 

Dang, so much for all that effort. At least we eliminated some possible causes. If it doesn't cost much to rent/borrow the tool for the fuel sock then might as well. One more thing you don't have to pay the dealer to look into.

I'd also take the exhaust off to see if anything is loose in there for the sound we heard when time provides.

 

When you guys cleaned the intake, did you also clean the hose connecting the oil filler neck to the intake?
Also, did you remove and clean out the resonance chamber?
Was there excessive oil on the air filter and/or box and if so, did you clean that too?

There is nothing wrong with plugging the maintenance ports and just running a catch-can with a breather installed.

 

No to the hose, probably should have. Yes to removing the resonance chamber? We took off everything before the LIM, including UIM, that curved piece that spans underneath it that joins up with the LIM, throttle body (didn't disconnect coolant lines), accordian, air box, filter.

No oil on the filter or in the air box itself, though the screens were black and I wiped them to silver?

There was also a bit of sand or dust grit in the throttle body and the UIM, which was concerning to me. Gonna replace my air filter again as well.

 

Does the question mark mean you're not sure
Its a common item people forget about.
Its the black box on the driver's side of the accordion tube and is connected with a single hose clamp.
Its easy for oil to build-up and settle in there.

 

Yes, that is what the question mark meant.

If it is the more vertical smooth fairly square edged (compared to everything else there) piece that is attached to the tube, then it was removed with the tube, but not separated from the tube.

Looks like something else I will need to check out.

 

Yeah... separate the resonance chamber from the accordion tube and give it a good flushing.

 

^+1 yup didn't even think about that, good call. That'll at least stop old gunk from getting up in there, but he still needs a catch can to address that issue.

I plan on getting one and adding a few more inlets so that literally no hose goes back into the intake, I'm not taking any chances with crap going back in there.

 

Ok, tried something on the way back home yesterday that significantly improved my 8. Again, still not back to where it was, but much much closer. Again.

Early on in the trip, I stopped to fill up, having let the tank drop down to bare minimums (filled up 14.9 gallons), I dumped the entire can of seafoam into the gas tank, all 16 ounces. I then did the 20 brake pedal stomp to reset the fuel trims. Immediately after starting, pulled out of the gas station and onto the highway. Literally like 40 feet to the ramp.

Kept it at steady RPM cruise in 6th gear between 3,000 and 4,000 for most of that tank, and it was responding better and better the more seafoam filled gas it used, and got 20.5mpg. Down from the 23-24 I would usually get, but by the end of the tank, I could feel that 'pop' to the gears engaging from their loose bit of play when I would apply the gas from off-throttle, rather than it just bogging down.

Was thinking that maybe if my fuel filter sock is partially clogged from premix, the seafoam should break that down quite well. I think I will be adding a replacement filter to my list of repairs. Starter comes first though...

 

Yikes, I'd be careful tossing all that in the tank. Read a few people had issues with that if too much eliminates the oil lube then you have problems with the seals. Then again, for your scenario you almost should welcome broken seals since it will mean, new engine sucka!

 

Yeah, seal wear isn't a top concern for me at the moment

It's still running significantly better.

Idle is still rough, but i'd take that over power loss. Then again, if the tech was right about a motor mount failing, it could be that for the rough idle.

 

Hi I'm new to this club. I have a couple of questions? What does MAF and SSV stand for? And can I clean these things myself? I did just change the air filter on my 2005 Mazda RX8 36,000 miles...here are some pics...I have oil in the airbox, in the tray under the airbox, in the duct, and on the filter of course....Excessive Blow by? I know it wasn't overfilled...I checked the dipstick the moment I got it back from the mechanic 3 weeks ago...I really don't think they checked the air filter either, but thankfully I did...and Just look at those "Dirty Cabin filters!" WTH! lol Thanks for your input? Oh maybe I have a clogged check valve? If so, where is that located? I'm a girl..but not afraid to get some grease on me and I do understand "How to" do things myself...Thanks guys! *Smiles

 

I am having the same problem ...... dealer??? boooooo

 

It's probably not the problem here, but IMO, most concienscious RX8 owners overfill their oil. The dipsick is marked to me accurate when following the measuring proceedure in the owner's manual. This specifies a warm engine with a significant wait time for the oil to drain back into the crankcase. What's "full" following the procedure measures low if you don't wait, or if you measure with a cold engine. Full with a cold engine is ~4mm down from the full mark on the dipstick.

 

MAF = mass airflow sensor (located in front of the throttle body)
SSV = secondary shutter valve (located on the LIM = lower intake manifold)

To clarify the reason for using a funnel for oil fills, (1) if oil runs down the upper inside of the oil filler tube, it can get into the breather hose opening. (2) if the little plastic ring around the neck of the quart container comes off, it falls straight into the crankcase and may require dropping the oil pan to retrieve.