This is on a 1996 Mazda Miata with about 165k miles on the engine if the odometer is to be believed.
Ever since I overheated my engine I've been going through a gallon of oil every 4k ish miles or so. A literal gallon. Of Shell Rotella T6. So basically I'd buy two containers of T6, One for the oil
change and one to use as top off oil. I would use up the top off oil container BEFORE my actual oil change was scheduled, So under 5k miles.
No leaks, no smoke AT ALL at ANY time EVER. The oil just Houdini'd out of my engine.
So what I did out of curiosity is buy two cans of sea foam. Take out my spark plugs and cover the piston tops with seafoam. Just to see if my issues were in the oil rings being stuck. So I let them soak over night, the next morning two pistons were dry and two were wet. I turned the engine over to blow out the liquid from the cylinders and to get the pistons and rings moving after having them sit all night soaking. I covered the pistons with seafoam AGAIN and let them sit overnight. The following morning ALL the cylinders were dry. So I reinstalled my sparkplugs and started the engine after the sun went down so nobody'd know that I was smoking up the neighborhood. I drove the car hard for about a half an hour. The smoke had gone away but my engine was misfiring as I let off the gass. The sparks plugs looked a bit fouled when I took them off so I went and got 4 new Denso Iridium power sparkplugs. I swapped them out and let the car sit over night.
I drove the car to work the following morning and changed the oil out with Amsoil 10w30 Z-Rod Synthetic oil and a Fram Ultra oil filter.
That was on Monday. It is now Thursday as I post this.
By this point I would have added about 1/4 to 1/2 of a quart of oil to top it off. Again, I was using Shell Rotella T6 5w40.
Now however. The level on the dipstick has not moved. At all.
I'm flabbergasted. So far I have not needed to add ANY oil. I repeat SO FAR.
I'm going to keep monitoring my oil level as I drive the car. But now, it seems to be working.
If it does in fact work. That'd be the best 20ish dollars that I ever spent.
Side effects. I don't know if this is due to the thinner weight oil or the new spark plugs, but it's MUCH easier and faster to downshift now than before. I also have an overall butt dyno feel of improved acceleration. But I do definitely feel the engine to be smoother from idle to any RPM range. But I think that's due to the new spark plugs.
I'll take pics of the old spark plugs later on.
So far I'm really happy.
Ever since I overheated my engine I've been going through a gallon of oil every 4k ish miles or so. A literal gallon. Of Shell Rotella T6. So basically I'd buy two containers of T6, One for the oil
change and one to use as top off oil. I would use up the top off oil container BEFORE my actual oil change was scheduled, So under 5k miles.
No leaks, no smoke AT ALL at ANY time EVER. The oil just Houdini'd out of my engine.
So what I did out of curiosity is buy two cans of sea foam. Take out my spark plugs and cover the piston tops with seafoam. Just to see if my issues were in the oil rings being stuck. So I let them soak over night, the next morning two pistons were dry and two were wet. I turned the engine over to blow out the liquid from the cylinders and to get the pistons and rings moving after having them sit all night soaking. I covered the pistons with seafoam AGAIN and let them sit overnight. The following morning ALL the cylinders were dry. So I reinstalled my sparkplugs and started the engine after the sun went down so nobody'd know that I was smoking up the neighborhood. I drove the car hard for about a half an hour. The smoke had gone away but my engine was misfiring as I let off the gass. The sparks plugs looked a bit fouled when I took them off so I went and got 4 new Denso Iridium power sparkplugs. I swapped them out and let the car sit over night.
I drove the car to work the following morning and changed the oil out with Amsoil 10w30 Z-Rod Synthetic oil and a Fram Ultra oil filter.
That was on Monday. It is now Thursday as I post this.
By this point I would have added about 1/4 to 1/2 of a quart of oil to top it off. Again, I was using Shell Rotella T6 5w40.
Now however. The level on the dipstick has not moved. At all.
I'm flabbergasted. So far I have not needed to add ANY oil. I repeat SO FAR.
I'm going to keep monitoring my oil level as I drive the car. But now, it seems to be working.
If it does in fact work. That'd be the best 20ish dollars that I ever spent.
Side effects. I don't know if this is due to the thinner weight oil or the new spark plugs, but it's MUCH easier and faster to downshift now than before. I also have an overall butt dyno feel of improved acceleration. But I do definitely feel the engine to be smoother from idle to any RPM range. But I think that's due to the new spark plugs.
I'll take pics of the old spark plugs later on.
So far I'm really happy.
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