Hello,

Recently, something has caught my attention. While searching the forums, there seems to be complaints about blue smoke coming from the exhaust thanks to the PCV system. I know the PCV system layout, but are these rumors about blue smoke from the exhaust real? I've only seen one instance of blue smoke (from the cars.com review of the RC F, where they did a track test and it started spewing blue smoke).

 

There's supposedly a lot of oil blow by during hard high rpm driving (track days, mountain runs, etc). At least that's what rr racing says in their ads for the catch can.

 

Yeah, I remember seeing a picture of their test, where there were like 2 inches worth of oil in the water bottle... To me it doesn't make much sense, but then again, it could have to do with the way people break their engines in...

 

I'm starting to wonder just how much of this 'oil' is actually just blowby gases and water...

 

I can verify car does produce huge amounts of blow by during hard driving on track.
I literally fill the RR catch can every session of 20-30 minutes on track.
On the street, if you get that same volume, then you should belong in jail. I’ve owned the F almost 4 years now and have never filled the catch can in one day when driving on the normal roads, mountain twisties or highway pulls.
Only during high G cornering do you get a lot of oil.
And it is oil because at the end of the track day, I would have dumped that RR catch can like 5/6 times and my motor oil will be almost 3/4 of a quart low.

 

I drive back roads and mountains. I have never tracked my RCF. My car has never smoked and burns zero oil between changes.

Obviously track driving puts way more stress on the engine and car. If I tracked my car I would get the RR racing oil catch can.

 

This is how much oil is in my catch can since I installed it 5 full tanks of gas ago. I don’t drive it everyday but I don’t baby it when I drive it.

 

Dang, thats actually slightly deterring. Since Toyota knew about this problem, I guess they were too lazy to bother trying to fix it.

 

I sold Vipers for years. It seemed like the guys who owned those always said they burnt a lot of oil. Vipers are very cool cars.

I had a Subaru WRX STI and that engine seemed to always need a little topping off after a 1000 miles or so.

My point is high performance engines may burn a little oil or have some Blowby especially when driven hard. Toyota was lazy? It is not easy designing engines. They have to meet not only performance standards but emission standards. Personally I think the V-8 in the RCF is one of the finest motors out there. Reliable, robust and efficient. It would be amazing to see this engine in a 3000 pound car.


Plus there is a simple solution available if you track you car. That is why the aftermarket exists.

 

I think it's because it has become standard for performance cars to burn some oil. I know that some BMW's and AUDI's actually refer to oil loss as NORMAL.

 

Lost180 is correct.
When I instruct at SCCA Track Nights or at any non-road event, it is standard rhetoric to remind the drivers that cars will lose 1/2 to 2/3 qt of oil per hour on the track. Period. I don’t care what brand of gasoline-powered vehicle.

An EFI engine drops engine vacuum the closer it gets to WOT ( not direct linear relationship but close). Even at, say, a consistent 3/4 throttle, the engine (an air pump) sucks a tremendous amount of oil up and out thru the intake manifold. By the way (BTW), some British and Italian brands blow more than others. I commend you for catching the oil in your cool little water bottle. Keeps things neat and clean. I just let mine blow all over the poor sucker, usually in a Miata, that is coming up behind me as we approach a braking zone.

On my race motor in my ‘67 Shelby vintage race car, I overfill with approximately 2/3 qt before I leave the house.

Good advice: my Dad always had an extra quart or two of oil in our RV if we were going to be on or anywhere near mountain roads. Hard on an engine! Sucks oil fast!

bottomline: if you are going to put hard time on your gas-powered, camshaft-spinning engine, keep an extra quart of oil in the trunk (boot). If it bothers you that Toyota has this happen, I invite you to experience happiness with something called a “Tesla”.

P.S. it is not recommended that you recycle your blown-by oil by dumping it back into the crankcase.

 

All right... so I believe I have a plausible theory about this 'issue'.

So, when a engine is beat during its breaking-in period, it can cause piston ring damage/not properly seated piston rings, which could cause excessive blow-by, right? Well, what if whats going on with these cars, is that some guys aren't actually breaking them in properly.

This might explain why some people have the issue, and others do not. For instance, lobuxracer doesn't have the issue, but a decent amount of people do. Now, look at the track reviews, and you'll see that not all reviewers have blue smoke coming out of their test cars... only cars.com had that problem. So, what if instead of an issue with the engine itself, its actually how you break it in. And besides, this issue would have been caught in the 24 hour (or 48 hour, not sure I remember) test they did of this engine.

I read a thread a couple weeks ago on a motorcycle forum about this guy who kept getting his air filter clogged with oil (since the breather tubes led to the air filter).
After some bickering and stuff, he finally said that he beat his engine during the break in period. Almost everybody on the thread said that was a plausible cause.
Remember, this is just a theory, I could be wrong. I am open to constructive criticism.


EDIT: Another theory would be sketchy PCV valves... It most likely has to do with the PCV valve more then a break-in issue

 

That is a REALLY CLEAN setup you have there, do you by chance have a write up on it?

Thanks

 

Thanks! I have a write up on FB if you are on the RCF owner's group. Or post #639 on my build thread, I have a few pictures posted.

 

Total hogwash. Google lance wolrab break-in and you'll see how I drove my IS F and GS F off the lot. No, you don't just hammer the gas, but you should be at full throttle as quickly as possible after progressive thermal cycling to get there. Every engine I built to win races and championships got broken in very quickly. This silly notion that going easy will result in good ring and valve sealing is just worthless noise.