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I joined the rx8 world earlier this year when my desire to REW swap an 8 became a reality.
I've played around with enough 7's over the years and wanted to pick up a more practical daily so my FD can relax a bit.
I picked up an 05' 6 speed with 90kmi on the clock and a fading engine. After months of planning, research and assembly, the 8 is days away from startup. After I can get my post count up I will compile my build notes for my specific take and experience on this common swap. (Teaser pic)
Thanks for the add, a few more things to be road worthy but the car is running now.
I'll post a build thread in time, here is a basic shakedown for now.
Ultamate goal was to put together a basic bolt in/ plug and play install. Started with a Reasonably built REW block, CX racing based full mounting kit, Borg Warner SXE turbo, adaptronic PNP rx8 ECU, rx8 to REW TB adapter, and a ffe rx8 pattern trigger wheel. The only piece fabbed so far was the BW marmon V band adapter on the down pipe everything else has literally bolted right in. A few plugs and clips on the harness were also changed for the inj and a few sensors but most of the rx8 components were retained. Ac bracket is still under works(very freaking tight in there). Here is another incomplete build pic.
I drove my '8 as a daily driver for about 3 years and was never disappointed, even did well taking my 2 kids to school a couple of times a week. It only became impractical when my kids got too big for the rear seat.
My RX8 is a daily driver,splitting time with my rebuilt 2000 Protege ES sedan. Had a new 2008 Mazdaspeed3 GT to split driving chores with my new 2008 40th Anniversary Edition RX8 for a couple of years before I sold the Speed3 GT. A fun car, but I couldn't really afford two new car payments at same time. Glad I kept the RX8. My 1993 FD was my daily driver (had a company car, Honda Civic for work).
I have had passengers in the back seats of my RX8 which I never could do in the FD, as fun as it was.
As sad as it sounds, I was looking into picking up an 08-10 focus and turbocharging it for a sleeper daily driver for the hell of it. When running the numbers for what I could pick up an 8 for and install the REW comparatively, my decision was clear. However, almost 10 months later and the 8 is still not on the road.
I'm not sure how much more practical your 8 is over an FD, save for the back seats, lol. But, in the same sense, I can't argue with the beauty of the build. Looking forward to seeing more pics!
I'm still working on finishing my build notes and a few more posts to be able to start my build thread. In short, REW front cover (FFE single mag trigger wheel), nicon rotary TB adapter (elite also makes one now). It will have ac but my adapter bracket isn't done.
yeah nice. Look forward to reading more before my swap. Cant seem to buy trigger wheels anymore so probavly will go reni front cover. With the aircon can you use fd compressor at all?
Using the reni front cover was my original plan but there was ultimately less compromise with switching to the REW cover, for what I wanted. I am going to use the factory rx8 AC comp and will only require a custom bracket to mount. My goal is "easiest" bolt in method possible.
Yeah totally get that easy is best for me aswell. All the milling req for reni puts it into toohard basket. What do we loose by keeping rew cover with the trigger wheel?
12-28-2016, 05:53 AM
guess it's all relative..
