Rx8 2004. White smoke coming out of exhaust on turn-over

[Dihloozi0n]

I recently bought my rx8, New engine supposedly. odm says 160k miles. Ill call him "Car guy" so car guy tells me he had someone down in L.A. replace the engine and that it currently was sitting at around 30k miles. so I was like not bad. So I went to take a look at it. Ended up driving it around the block. Felt smooth really nice 2nd stage clutch felt nice. Checked the engine out afterwards, everything seemed fine. I ended up buying the vehicle. Drove it home with my homie, it was about a 2 hour drive back. It went super smooth got some gas on the way back and mixed it with the oil the guy gave us. He said mix it with 100ml of oil to a full gas tank. so if I was filling it up from nothing mix 100ml of this fuel mix in aswell. so I did. It ran smooth. got home safe. after work a couple weeks after having it. Me and my homie decided to take out my newly acquired rx8 and take it for a some swings. As one does. So we swung it for a little bit and all of a sudden when were just about to leave and go home. The car fills with white smoke and we get out and the exhaust is just shooting out thick white smoke. So we turn the car off and have no clue what is happening. long story short we get towed home. and I've just been having it sit in my apartment parking space for the past month and cant find the time to look at it or ask anything about it. until now. but I've looked on forums and read all types of things. I just don't know what the problem is. I got an odb2 reader but everytime I turn-over the car and get it running it shoots white smoke. the engine still has compression and power. other wise it couldn't start. but I just don't know where to begin.. so i'm asking this forum please i'll answer to the best of my knowledge but anything helps. thank you.

[Luke.]

'I recently bought my rx8, New engine supposedly. odm says 160k miles. Ill call him "Car guy" so car guy tells me he had someone down in L.A. replace the engine and that it currently was sitting at around 30k miles. so I was like not bad. So I went to take a look at it. Ended up driving it around the block.

Felt smooth really nice 2nd stage clutch felt nice. Checked the engine out afterwards, everything seemed fine. I ended up buying the vehicle. Drove it home with my homie, it was about a 2 hour drive back. It went super smooth got some gas on the way back and mixed it with the oil the guy gave us.

He said mix it with 100ml of oil to a full gas tank. so if I was filling it up from nothing mix 100ml of this fuel mix in aswell. so I did. It ran smooth. got home safe. after work a couple weeks after having it. Me and my homie decided to take out my newly acquired rx8 and take it for a some swings. As one does.

So we swung it for a little bit and all of a sudden when were just about to leave and go home. The car fills with white smoke and we get out and the exhaust is just shooting out thick white smoke.

So we turn the car off and have no clue what is happening. long story short we get towed home. and I've just been having it sit in my apartment parking space for the past month and cant find the time to look at it or ask anything about it. until now. but I've looked on forums and read all types of things.

I just don't know what the problem is. I got an odb2 reader but everytime I turn-over the car and get it running it shoots white smoke. the engine still has compression and power. other wise it couldn't start. but I just don't know where to begin.. so i'm asking this forum please i'll answer to the best of my knowledge but anything helps.

thank you.'

Yes, I do have too much time on my hands.....

[samoht]

White smoke from the exhaust means coolant is entering the engine combustion chamber and being burned.

On a piston engine this would be a caused by a head gasket failure. On a rotary it means that a water seal has failed.

The engine will need to be rebuilt to replace the water seals. If you're lucky the other parts will be fine so it's "just" taking it apart and reassembly.

(The water seals are distinct from the apex seals which close the combustion chamber, but the remedy is the same, rebuild).

Depending on the leak you may be able to buy some time by using something like "K-Seal". This is only a temporary fix. It's possible that a previous owner of the car had already done this shortly before you bought it, hence it running fine when purchased and failing suddenly thereafter.

I have no idea of your consumer rights in the US, and whether you may be able to get some help from the seller.

When the engine is rebuilt the most important thing is to find a good place to rebuild it. There aren't that many rotary specialists, and of those there are, most are not very good.

Good luck!

[untakenname]

Luke. said:

So we swung it for a little bit and all of a sudden when were just about to leave and go home. The car fills with white smoke and we get out and the exhaust is just shooting out thick white smoke.

If it was being driven spiritedly when it occured then it's likely that it's just overfilled and had an oil burp, if you take off the intake accordian where the MAF is and look inside and it's wet then that's what happened.

I've done the same a few times so only fill it halfway now if going on track, when you corner hard to the right the oil goes out of the sump and into the intake, Mazda did a mod to prevent this with the later models.

Pic of the last time this happened to me on a drying track, was ok in the wet but as soon as the loads increased this happened.