Rakesh Shanmugam

Hey guys,

A bit of background for those interested. 5 years ago, I saw a particular rx8 rolling down the street and I fell in love with the way it looked and the way it sounded. I told myself that I'd own one, when I start earning money.

Having finished school 3 years ago, I owned some sensible cars, a 2014 Golf, and my current daily driver, an '05 Subaru Liberty (Legacy). While owning the Legacy, I learned my way around little things, general maintenance, that's sort of stuff. The "hardest" thing I ever really did was change the fuel pump. I couldn't risk biting more than I could chew because I had one car, and I needed it! That frustrated me!

At that point, it hit me that I could combine my love for the rx8, and my desire to learn more about cars into one. RX8's go for dirt cheap when they are in need of a rebuild and so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to realise my dream. So last December, I made that dream a reality!!

Here is my 6 Speed 2004 RX8!!



I copped it from a few for buying a "shitty rx7" but couldn't care less, driving the car for the first time (despite it's appalling compression of around 1/2 of spec), was the most magical feeling!

Anyway, enough dribble.

My plans for this car is to rebuild it. I've bought all the necessary equipment to get the engine out, and am taking it out as I write this (I'm up to taking the bell housing bolts, and they're seized on D.

Rebuilding will take a while as I'm simultaneously saving for parts, and to make matters worse, I'll probably need new housings as it is a high k's car (170,000km).

After the rebuild, I plan to do plenty of big and small upgrades, but for now, I have the rebuild which is a bit mountain to climb for someone of my skill level.

I'd like to use this thread to share info, and document my progress!

Thanks for reading! Wish me luck!

JinkoMK

Good to see another fellow Australian. Good luck with the rebuild!

ZoomEricZoom

Welcome man!! Stormy Blue is such a cool color.. So cool to have a color that hardly anyone else has!

Rakesh Shanmugam

Cheers buddy!!

I had such good luck with this car, the colour is amazing, the car looks purple in the sun!

I managed to crack one of the bolts in the bell housing, 2 more of the difficult ones left! The ones on the bottom of the car should be a piece of cake.

Dokuji

Beautiful color!
Welcome and best of luck!

Brettus

iTrader: (2)

If you take out the engine mounts and lower the engine/gerbox , those bolts are way easier to get to ....

Rakesh Shanmugam

Thanks buddy!

Yeah I was having a ton of trouble even with the engine and gearbox as low as they'll go. I got them eventually!

Rakesh Shanmugam

The engine is out! Proof that with some tools, determination and some guts, you can definitely do this yourself!!







The next step is to assemble my engine stand and make a mounting plate. Then I'll disassemble this to a short block and put it on there!

RX8-User

good luck with the project

mazdaverx7

iTrader: (6)

Well done!! Are you going to rebuild your engine or replace it with another good engine? Any more pics of your car to share?

Rakesh Shanmugam

Thanks!!

Cheers buddy! I've thought about replacing it with another good engine, but there's not that many around and unfortunately, they're really expensive!

The biggest factor that played when deciding to rebuild myself is a vision I had of turning the key after the rebuild. I really want to rebuild my own engine, there's something special about it!

Is it worth doing a practice or a "mock up" rebuild with the original parts to learn for the first time? I had a little idea, but I'm just not sure if it's worth pursuing. I'm considering cranking the engine by hand, recording the sound pulses it makes, then take it apart, clean all the parts, and put it all back together. I guess if I take the engine apart and find ruptured seals and stuff, this may not be doable. But is there much point? Or should just focus and get everything right the first time?

As for pics, it's been in the garage for a while, but now that the wheels are back on, she can roll I think this weekend calls for a wash and a photoshoot haha :D Although I have two issues with that. 1. The car is sitting quite high because of the lack of an engine! 2. How should I put this, I left the driver side windows OPEN Hahahahahaha. I might have to put some plastic bags and seal it with tape or something!

rx8m8

A build thread I'm interested in! Congrats man, looking forward to your work!

Rakesh Shanmugam

Thanks mate!

I just got offered an awesome price for a rebuilt engine, so I'm sitting on the fence as to whether I want to buy a rebuilt engine or do it myself. I am leaning towards buying the rebuilt one simply because it's very cheap, and becomes even cheaper if I sell my existing worn out engine too. Workmanship is great though, the shop has a good rep! :D

But this has me thinking about a whole lot of other things to do! Will update on what I decide when I do.

But an update for now!

Got the engine on the stand. My dad made an adaptor for my engine stand for me. Quite a simple solution, no welding required. Just drilled a new plate with mounting holes to the engine stand and the renesis, which are offset to keep the engine's weight as equal as possible on all axis. I'll post up the adapter, and maybe even a cad drawing later on!

(Before the engine stand adapter plate)


Right now I'm in the process of stripping it to a short block. Regardless of whether I buy a rebuilt engine or not, I still want to learn how these engines really work so I'll be taking this thing apart for sure!

Another view of the engine on the crane, with the not so tasteful rims the previous owner put in the car . Look at how high the front sits with no engine!! haha


The car did get some vitamin D after sitting in the garage for a good few weeks. Note the single oil cooler that the Australian models got. Definitely something to upgrade later down the track. Also, those arms coming from the front reinforcement, they are from a custom front splitter I'm currently designing

rx8m8

Nice update, thanks for keeping us posted. Keep em' coming!

ouimetnick

Regardless if you get a rebuilt motor or rebuild this one, tear it down, I want to see if there's an obvious reason it failed. Nice pictures too!

Rakesh Shanmugam

Yeah definitely tearing this one down. Funds are a bit low right now, so I'll probably take things nice and slow. Might focus on lots of the little things and work up to the rebuild.

It's a project after all.

Rakesh Shanmugam

Quick little update

When I drove the car, it seemed to stop well. But when I free spun the wheels, there was some pretty bad resistance. I put it down to bearings that were shot, but I had a proper look today and it seems that the brake pads themselves were touching the discs.

All 4 seemed to have the same issue, and I really had very little idea on how these things work.

I went on the internet, found some articles and read about calipers, I found out what each of the little pieces do, and how to disassemble them properly. These are just some of the things, I did not do. Hahaha

I looked behind the calipers and found the brake line banjo bolt, removed that and drained the fluid that came out. Then I found the 2 17mm bolts that hold the caliper onto it's bracket.
I removed those, but as I expected, the caliper just moved with the disc because it was stuck on. In my infinite wisdom, I saw a few more bolts and removed the bolt that you remove to get access to the pads, that seemed to loosen the caliper and it came off.

Did the same thing with the rears, but annoyingly, I found out after removing the necessary bolts, that I need to bolt it back in again so I can get enough torque on the bolt for the hand brake.. As you can see from the first picture on this thread, access is incredibly, and I mean incredibly tight.

Either way, no matter what the journey was, I got the end result that I wanted, 4 calipers, 8 brake pads.







The plan from here on in is to do some actual reading to understand what I'm looking at. I'll most likely rebuild the calipers if I need to, new seals and stuff etc. Then I'll try and polish out the rough casting marks on the calipers with a die grinder and some sanding bits. And finally, give them a nice coat of paint. I'm thinking a gun metal type colour, similar to what I want my wheels to be.

Honorable mention to my 50/50 Acetone and ATF mix. Seriously, everyone who'd dealing with cars over 5 years old needs it. It's made my life so much easier.

Hopefully the next time I update, I'll have a clue about calipers, and what's wrong with mine, and I hope to have done something about it.

Rakesh Shanmugam

Update time!

I've been busy with university and uni, so progress has been a bit slow. I've decided to polish the casting marks off all the visible surfaces on the front calipers and thoroughly clean the rear calipers. They've been coming out really well.






Another rather major turn of events is drive train related. Having tallied up the costs of the rebuild, it will be in excess of $6000 AUD which I find is far too excessive for what the engine will give back.

Having done a cost analysis, I've come to a decision and that is to install an LS1 and T56 into my rx8 and keep it as a track car. LS based in Australia are quite easy to come by, our GM subsidiary, Holden, released many models that had LS engines in them, which makes parts and knowledge very accessible.

Marrying the Chassis performance of the rx8 and the engine performance of the LS (while keeping the lightness), came to me as the perfect match for a stripped out track weapon.

Admittedly, deciding on a track car layout does in theory make my job a lot easier as I do not have to worry about AC, ABS, TC etc. That works in my favour which is great though.

Needless to say, I'm freaking excited to get the ball rolling.

Right now I'm gonna be selling off the rotary related engine components to free up space in the garage and help fund the purchases for the LS drive train components. I'll also strip the engine bay further and repaint it a nice silver perhaps.

ouimetnick

Really hate to see another RX ruined with an engine swap to an LS engine.

Rakesh Shanmugam

If you have driven an LS powered RX8 and only if you have, could you please list why my rx8 would be ruined with an LS?

If you haven't and would like to know my reasoning, they are as follows.

+ Far more power and torque
+ Better on fuel
+ Far more reliable
+ Much more availability of parts
+ Much cheaper for parts
+ Cheaper ways to increase performance

=Weight is marginally increased
The weight is slightly increased and from reading the forums, the difference in weight is just a bit more than adding a turbo on the car, but don't quote me on that.

- Steering geometry affected but largely corrected for with the appropriate parts
Steering rack has to be lowered to clear the sump. But the bump steer kit corrects for the change in geometry.

- Shifter feel not as good
An unfortunate circumstance of going from the Aisin to the T56, something I must live with.

- Losing what made it special
Whilst true, I'd argue that swapping an engine into a car makes it incredibly special if not to you, but to me.

Everything tangible and statistical that I've listed above is from my research and also has been said by owners of LS swapped rx8's. The only exception is the last point which is purely my point of view.

I'm open to suggestions of course, but ones with substance

Rakesh Shanmugam

Furthermore I'd like to add that you should remember that this car was bought with a blown engine as the owner couldn't afford to fix it. Had I not purchased this car, it could've been written off by insurance and possibly crushed or sold as parts.

So I'd like to think of it as I'm giving it a new lease of life.

Mazda Sports Corner

save yourself the pain of a LS swap and just buy a commo!

Rakesh Shanmugam

I'll buy a boat instead, that'll make my old man happy too

Jazer

If you think 6k$ is steep, wait til you come across the costs of an LS swap. Even though a rotary isn't unique when looking at rx8 and 7s, it is when looking down the street. I see at least a couple LS powered cars ever day, I rarely see another rotary. In general, it's far more unique. It really is such an awesome little engine, driving it. I contemplated the idea of a swap, until I drove mine. Fabulous engine, I'm addicted.

An LS motor is a lot bigger than a 1.3l rotary. There is no way a v8 is going to weigh hardly more, even an aluminum block variant.You're going to lose the benefits of the 50/50 weight distribution, part of what makes the Rx8, the Rx8. While I enjoy following these projects and will root for your success regardless. Just remember this is not even close to a direct swap. Everything will have to be custom.

Chrishoky

iTrader: (9)

This is not entirely true, while there will need to be custom items made, there are a lot of kits now that exist for this application. Hinson, LS1RX8.com, and V8 roadsters all make kits for this application with supporting mods (headers, diffs, steering kits, etc). The only items that aren't plug and play are the electrical components to keep the stock gauges because of the difficult CANBUS system. As the OP said however, this is going to be a track car, so it wont need all of that nonsense. A RACEPAK will be able to handle all his wiring needs.


I agree with his decision, a rebuild at that price isn't worth the 175 rwhp it will return. The V8 swap will be much more costly, but will provide an equal level of performance per dollar (not taking into account fuel savings, ease of modification, ease of maintenance, etc).