'High mileage' oil?

[need RX7]

My FC has 203xxx miles on it and has a tendency to spit out large clouds of smoke under certain conditions (usually during high RPM upshifts, or revving at high RPMs in the driveway like a ricer). A guy on another general car forum I'm on mentioned switching to Valvoline Maxlife Synthetic blend in his (non-rotary) vehicle, and claims he burns far less oil then he did with normal 10w-30 oil. Do these 'high mileage' oils live up to the hype and are they worth the additional cost? I'll be changing my oil soon and I'm thinking about trying something other than my usual Castrol GTX.

[djmtsu]

I am under the impression that it won't do shit in a rotary.

I wouldn't use it. I used the gold old Castrol GTX 20w50 in my 186,000 mile FB up until I sold it.

[N.RotaryTech]

Stay with your Castrol GTX.

[MaczPayne]

I personally have only used Total Quartz Racing 10w-50 Full syn in my engines. I can't quantify any results but the oil seems to handle the higher oil temps very well when I'm at the track or auto-x.

With that said, I'm also premixing, so none of the motor oil is burned in the combustion chambers.

[KTune]

high mileage oils generally have higher zinc content as well as additives which soften rubber seals(solvents)

[Kentetsu]

On my old 12a I had a lot of oil burning issues also. Mostly when letting off at high rpms (would put out a smoke cloud to put James Bond to shame).

I tried adding a quart of Lucas Heavy Duty Oil Stabilizer (in place of a quart of oil), and it actually worked very well. I would guess it eliminated about 90% of the problem. Later I tried the Lucas brand of oil (non-synthetic, but they have both types) and it performed just as well. Now that's all I run in my rotary.



.

[need RX7]

Originally Posted by Kentetsu

On my old 12a I had a lot of oil burning issues also. Mostly when letting off at high rpms (would put out a smoke cloud to put James Bond to shame).

I tried adding a quart of Lucas Heavy Duty Oil Stabilizer (in place of a quart of oil), and it actually worked very well. I would guess it eliminated about 90% of the problem. Later I tried the Lucas brand of oil (non-synthetic, but they have both types) and it performed just as well. Now that's all I run in my rotary.



.

Interesting. Maybe I'll try that.

[RETed]

High mileage engines (not just rotary) usually smoke due to higher-than-spec tolerances on seals and o-rings.
This is your "wear & tear".

These "high mileage" oils tout they are better cause they have specific additives.
Bunch of bullshit.
There is no (good) additive that can magically "seal-up" and engine to minimize or prevent smoking due to excessive blow-by from worn seals.
Be careful of "stop leak" products that claim this - you will usually hurt your engine rather than help it in the end.

Old-school trick is just to run thicker viscosity oil...
If you're not running 20W50 by now, try it...
Smoking will noticably decrease.
No magic in that - thicker oil will not leak as much past seals versus thinner viscosity oil.

At over 200,000 miles, your engine is probably in it's golden years...
I put money the oil control o-rings are degrading pretty badly by now.
Easy test for this is to rev the engine in neutral to about 4k RPM - I bet you get copious amounts of smoke out the exhaust in about 10 - 20 seconds?
If this is the case, nothing short of a rebuild (to replace those o-rings) will fix this smoking problem.
No special "high mileage" oil will help this problem.
A stop-leak product might stop the smoking, but you'll probably end up ruining the engine anyways.

This is where diligent maintenance could extend the life of the engine.
Do religious oil changes at a minimum 5,000 mile interval with quality motor oil.
Do engine cooling system flushes every other year.
Do not overheat the engine.
With just those 3 simple rules, you can get a 13B to run 200,000 miles...maybe even up to 300,000 miles without cracking her open.


-Ted