Synthetic Oil or Regular Oil for the RX8???

subject:	Oil argument still going on after all these years:)
author:	twistedwankel
date:	December 12, 2010 - 11:20am

Precisely why you should just keep getting oil changes from a Dealer or someone who keeps records to prove you changed it until the engine warrantee is expired. Keep a quart of whatever they use to top off every 400 miles. When the warrantee is up use whatever you want.

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subject:	Synthetic oil
author:	Hawaiian
date:	March 18, 2010 - 6:41pm

After breaking in your rotary engine with regular oil, the next oil change drain about a quart, add a quart of synthetic flush and idle the car for the required time (5-10 minutes). Then drain both the engine and oil coolers before topping off with Synthetic oil.

I believe there are only TWO brands that are actually 100 percent Synthetic, Royal Purple and AMSoil, the rest like Mobile 1 are blends mixed with regular oil.

I have rebuilt turbos which ran on regular oil and notice how much carbon built up was on the oil passageways and especially around the turbine fin area where it is hottest from the exhaust gasses. This is one area you would like to be as clean and unrestricted as possible before turbo bearing failures occur.

The turbos using synthetic was exceptionally clean with hardly any carbon build up.

As far as the frequency of changing oil, true, synthetic are advertised to last twice as long, but bear in mind, that rotary engine oil by design will get contaminated by gasoline. Therefore the longer the oil remains unchanged, the more gasoline builds up and will breakdown its protective additives and start to prematurely wear the copper based bearing casings.

When checking your oil stick, also smell it for gasoline. Some guys using synthetic will change the oil filter instead before draining it. I would recommend one use a magnetic core on the oil filter when breaking in the motor and keep it there.

Lastly, for people worrying about the oil injection amount, just add the recommended pre-mix in your gas, about 1/2 oz per gallon gas. Do not use any type of pre-mix, but those recommended for rotaries, I use Idemitsu, the same used in the legendary 24-hour LeMans race when the rotary cars blew away all competition and was banned from ever entering any races...yeah, performance speaks for itself! Ha ha

However, if your vehicle is coming up for emissions test, don't put any pre-mix in the tank, it will probably fail.

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subject:	Synthetic or not
author:	Joe Platano
date:	May 27, 2009 - 11:44pm

Take everything thing else mentioned in this forum before my comment into consideration.

If you have less than 30,000 miles on your motor and haven't used synthetic yet start now if you like the pro;s more than the con's. From what I hear, either or is good on a new motor. If you just rebuilt your motor use non synthetic mineral oil until you break it in, then switch to syn. Syn inhibits new star-ups.
Syn makes the ruber seals swell in motor which is a good thing on new rubber.

If your motor has alot of miles on it, your engine has carbon build up that aids in sealing the motor. Syn's cleaning properties will remove all of that carbon build-up. Your small leak may become larger. I am paraphrasing Racing Beat's "tech tips" articles. According to their testing with Royal Purple, they squeezed out a couple horespower with it, too

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subject:	Do I have to use MAZDA oil?
author:	jj1019
date:	June 8, 2006 - 11:11am

A guy at the Mazda dealership said I have to use specifically Mazda oil for my RX-8. It is $7.05 a quart. It is really necessary, or can i use something like castrol?

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subject:	oil
author:	Dan Mazzella
date:	June 8, 2006 - 12:02pm

You can use any oil, so long as it is the correct weight, and you change it on a regular basis.

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subject:	Stick to the owner's manual
author:	No Rotor
date:	December 20, 2004 - 2:04pm

Instead of taking other people's opinions, do what the owner's manual says. They've done the testing and if synthetic offered any advantage, they would recommend it. Even better, you will not have to worry about voiding your warranty or wasting your money on 8$ quarts of oil. The main advantage offered by synthetic is that the viscosity holds up longer than natural oil. It doesn't protect any better, it just lasts longer. With an engine that intentionally consumes oil at a fairly high rate by injecting it into the combustion chambers, you would not reap the benefit that synthetic offers. But don't take my word for it either. Stick with the manual, oil salesmen did not write it, Mazda engineers did.

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subject:	Oil for Rx-8
author:	lone_wolf025
date:	November 10, 2004 - 10:38am

Use sythentic if you like it shouldn't void your warranty. The only difference between sythentic and conventional (other than the fact one is man made) sythetics are usually of higher quality than conventional. If you want to spend the extra money for sythetic go ahead, but if you're really worried about it ask the techs at the dealer you bought your car from. The techs always know best.

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subject:	OIL FOR RX-8
author:	No Rotor
date:	November 17, 2004 - 10:04am

i work for mazda. what happens is as the synthc oil burns it leaves a film that will build up in the eng. **not good** i have heard that royal purple is good for it

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subject:	No synthetic, but oil changes every 7500 miles is all's you need
author:	GPRxZoomZoom
date:	January 11, 2006 - 7:43pm

This is great, to hear this from somebody that works for Mazda and can really give us some sound advice. Now for question #2: Who in their right mind would get the oil changes done once every 7,500 miles, as Mazda recommends? I would NEVER let the oil go that long, It would be as thin as water. The rest of the world gets their oil changed every 3000 miles. Could you please clarify this? This double-whammy about (1) no synthetic oil, just dino oil, and (2)no more often than once every 7,500 miles, just isn't believable. RX-8 owners deserve a good explanation for these policies. They paid $30,000 for their cars, and they want them to last. Thanks.

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subject:	It more looks like you dont know what you are talking about...
author:	No Rotor
date:	December 19, 2004 - 5:47pm

Before replying with that kind of stuff, search on the internet. It's known that MAZDA uses synthetic oil on their rotary engines over europe.
The problem with syntetics that mazda was addressing was with the first synthetics oils that damaged the oil injector seal.

Also, it's known that synthetic oil when burns ooff, it's A LOT cleaner than petroleum based oil.

Also, synthetic oil will make your engine last more, and IF you want more insurance for your engine, I would add 2 time engine oil to the gasoline(synth.).

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subject:	Re: Synthetic Oil or Regular Oil for the RX8???
author:	No Rotor
date:	September 22, 2004 - 1:39pm

Never use synthetic oil for an RX-8. The synthetic oil will produce a film on the inside of the engine because it does not burn with the gas. It will also void the warranty if you have problems and they find out about the synthetic oil use.

DCE-Speedy

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subject:	synthetic oil.
author:	No Rotor
date:	October 21, 2004 - 1:39pm

I bought an rx-8 from a dealership who recommended sythetic oil, In fact before i picked it up they had just had the oil changed to the synthetic type. They said it was better...

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subject:	Gabriela Juarez
author:	No Rotor
date:	December 7, 2004 - 3:02pm

Is it okay to change from synthetic oil to regular oil even if synthetic oil is the only oil I have used my Chevy truck....? I hardly ever use the 4X4 and thought maybe I should just go to regular oil but I want to make sure it won't harm anything. I was told that once you go synthetic I should never change back to regular oil.. Please let me know. Thanks

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subject:	Save your money
author:	No Rotor
date:	December 7, 2004 - 4:31pm

There is no reason to go with the more expensive synthetic oil in a rotary. The oil needs to be changed too often to reap any benefits of using a more expensive synthetic.

Save your money, use regular oil.

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subject:	OIL CONSUPTION
author:	No Rotor
date:	November 9, 2004 - 8:52pm

the RENESIS motor requires 5w-20 NON SYNETHIC because the oil is injeted and cooled through a OIL/AIR COOLER. SYNETHIC OIL WILL NOT BURN, not allowing the engine seals to be lubed, thus your brand new RX-8 will become an oil leaking RX-7. please DO NOT use synethic oil

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subject:	Synthetics For Rotary
author:	No Rotor
date:	November 8, 2004 - 12:15pm

Generally they have a higher flash point temp. therefore I would suggest getting the specs of the lube you're thinking of using and have your OEM approve it. 100% synthetic candidate lube would have to be evaluated by a tech dept.

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subject:	SYNTHETICS
author:	No Rotor
date:	September 8, 2004 - 8:18am

when mobil 1 first came out & was tested in rotaries, the
problem wasn't with the lubricating properties; the metering pump didn't pump the proper amount of oil into
the engine. when the adjustment was set at maximum flow,
the metering pump delivered the minimum amount needed.
personally i would stick to the 5w-20. since these engines
are built to use oil (about 1 quart for every 2k miles) pouring away $8 for every 2k miles is a little stiff.

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subject:	according to the oil.....
author:	No Rotor
date:	October 16, 2004 - 2:10pm

hi guys,i would like to know what's the mesure of your oil pressure.Mine is 2 lines after normal.Is that ok?

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subject:	Oil pressure
author:	No Rotor
date:	November 12, 2004 - 7:56am

Well, unlike most of us would think, the oil needle in RX8 shows the oil pressure and not the LEVEL. So even if you are running low on engine oil, the needle would still be 2 ticks above the center. Which means your oil pump is taking care of the oil pressure in your engine. But make sure to CHECK THE DIP STICK every now and then.

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subject:	oil pressure gauge (not)
author:	No Rotor
date:	October 20, 2004 - 7:59pm

the oil pressure "gauge" in the rx-8 is really just an idiot light dressed up like a gauge. At a certain pressure, the gauge will read around the 60 percent range. If the pressure falls below the predetermined level of the oil pressure switch (not an oil pressure sending unit), the needle of the gauge will simply not move from it's far left position. The word is that due to the renesis engine's unique oil system, the gauge would tend to fluctuate, and even though this would indicate a nominal condition, the Mazda people feared it would cause RX-8 owners to panic and flood the service departments with calls of erratic oil pressure problems even though that wouldn't be the case. Alas, we have a "pressure" gauge that is either always on or off.

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subject:	and the oil pressure switch a
author:	devilmaycry
date:	August 21, 2010 - 8:11am

and the oil pressure switch and gauge seems to go to just above halfway and sit there-regardless of throttle input. The MX-5 gauge moves back and forth from idle to open throttle as did both of my previous RX-7s.

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subject:	ReZ
author:	No Rotor
date:	December 22, 2004 - 3:20am

Haha. Good old FCs like to sound the buzzer when you corner to hard. "I NEED OIL!!!!"

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