Originally Posted by Weglat (Post 4843291)

I am loosing compression, apparently of the 4 different readouts for compression all but the last one isnt hitting the mark, they could not get i supose my second trailing spark plug above 6.5 (i think, im at work and the paperwork is at the house.)

Originally Posted by NotAPreppie (Post 4843285)

Step 1:
Read this.

Step 2:
Read it again.

Step 3:
Read it a third time.

How many miles?

Have you personally cleaned your MAF sensor recently? If so, did you use MAF sensor cleaner? If not, do that.

Have you personally cleaned the ESS and reset KAM/NVRAM? If not, do that.

Have you personally visually inspected your catalytic converter? If not, do that.

I'm confused about the "cylinder 4 misfiring" thing. P0301 "cylinder 1 misfire" refers to the front rotor and P0302 "cylinder 2" refers to the rear. If you're getting P0304 (cylinder 4 misfire) something is very wrong.

The car will run poorly with the leading and trailing plug wires mixed up so verify that is correct.

Also, check for a vacuum leak.

When do the misfires happen? At idle? Under load? While cruising? When cold? When hot? All the time?

If you don't have one, get yourself a bluetooth OBD-II adapter (search for ELM327) and download an app on your phone (Torque, OBD Fusion, DashCommand, etc). Pull the exact codes and also tell us the MAF rate at idle, short term fuel trim and long term fuel trim.

I'm surprised that a dealership would just give up when they can charge you money to throw parts at the problem.

If you're dead-set on doing the rebuild yourself and you've never rebuilt a rotary before, you'd better be prepared to do it again fairly shortly. Make sure you have all the tools you need to check the tolerances of everything. If it's a 6MT, you'd be better off getting a Mazda reman for about $3k. The parts list alone can easily go that high if you do a DIY rebuild.

Originally Posted by Loki (Post 4843293)

4 readouts? There should be 6. There is no point in measuring compression in the trailing spark plugs, just measure the leading, you should get 3 readings from each (one per rotor face).

You may want a new dealer, one who knows how to follow a shop manual :/

+1 to getting an OBD reader to get more data on the problem. You could go through the whole rebuild exercise only to find the problem is the MAF sensor.

Does the car start easily when the engine is warm?

Originally Posted by BigBadChris (Post 4843296)

If it starts hot or cold (and stays running) it may not need a rebuild. A higher power starter keep you going for a while. We need an RPM value to go along with those six numbers, however. They are only useful in the context of RPM. A given rotor will create more compression spinning faster vs spinning slower

Originally Posted by NotAPreppie (Post 4843285)

Step 1:
Read this.

Step 2:
Read it again.

Step 3:
Read it a third time.

How many miles?

Have you personally cleaned your MAF sensor recently? If so, did you use MAF sensor cleaner? If not, do that.

Have you personally cleaned the ESS and reset KAM/NVRAM? If not, do that.

Have you personally visually inspected your catalytic converter? If not, do that.

I'm confused about the "cylinder 4 misfiring" thing. P0301 "cylinder 1 misfire" refers to the front rotor and P0302 "cylinder 2" refers to the rear. If you're getting P0304 (cylinder 4 misfire) something is very wrong.

The car will run poorly with the leading and trailing plug wires mixed up so verify that is correct.

Also, check for a vacuum leak.

When do the misfires happen? At idle? Under load? While cruising? When cold? When hot? All the time?

If you don't have one, get yourself a bluetooth OBD-II adapter (search for ELM327) and download an app on your phone (Torque, OBD Fusion, DashCommand, etc). Pull the exact codes and also tell us the MAF rate at idle, short term fuel trim and long term fuel trim.

I'm surprised that a dealership would just give up when they can charge you money to throw parts at the problem.

If you're dead-set on doing the rebuild yourself and you've never rebuilt a rotary before, you'd better be prepared to do it again fairly shortly. Make sure you have all the tools you need to check the tolerances of everything. If it's a 6MT, you'd be better off getting a Mazda reman for about $3k. The parts list alone can easily go that high if you do a DIY rebuild.

Originally Posted by Loki (Post 4843293)

4 readouts? There should be 6. There is no point in measuring compression in the trailing spark plugs, just measure the leading, you should get 3 readings from each (one per rotor face).

You may want a new dealer, one who knows how to follow a shop manual :/

+1 to getting an OBD reader to get more data on the problem. You could go through the whole rebuild exercise only to find the problem is the MAF sensor.

Does the car start easily when the engine is warm?

Originally Posted by NotAPreppie (Post 4843285)

Step 1:
Read this.

Step 2:
Read it again.

Step 3:
Read it a third time.

How many miles?

Have you personally cleaned your MAF sensor recently? If so, did you use MAF sensor cleaner? If not, do that.

Have you personally cleaned the ESS and reset KAM/NVRAM? If not, do that.

Have you personally visually inspected your catalytic converter? If not, do that.

I'm confused about the "cylinder 4 misfiring" thing. P0301 "cylinder 1 misfire" refers to the front rotor and P0302 "cylinder 2" refers to the rear. If you're getting P0304 (cylinder 4 misfire) something is very wrong.

The car will run poorly with the leading and trailing plug wires mixed up so verify that is correct.

Also, check for a vacuum leak.

When do the misfires happen? At idle? Under load? While cruising? When cold? When hot? All the time?

If you don't have one, get yourself a bluetooth OBD-II adapter (search for ELM327) and download an app on your phone (Torque, OBD Fusion, DashCommand, etc). Pull the exact codes and also tell us the MAF rate at idle, short term fuel trim and long term fuel trim.

I'm surprised that a dealership would just give up when they can charge you money to throw parts at the problem.

If you're dead-set on doing the rebuild yourself and you've never rebuilt a rotary before, you'd better be prepared to do it again fairly shortly. Make sure you have all the tools you need to check the tolerances of everything. If it's a 6MT, you'd be better off getting a Mazda reman for about $3k. The parts list alone can easily go that high if you do a DIY rebuild.

Originally Posted by Weglat (Post 4843313)

Hate to keep bugging you my responses will be more organized and informative after work, why in particular would i not want to rebuild the 6 speed MT verion of the RX8 renesis enginer?

Originally Posted by Shnifty (Post 4843290)

Since you mentioned getting a reman as an option, what is the best place to purchase a reman engine? Seems like Banzai is the only thing that came up in a google search that gave me any confidence in what I was buying.

Originally Posted by Weglat (Post 4843313)

Hate to keep bugging you my responses will be more organized and informative after work, why in particular would i not want to rebuild the 6 speed MT verion of the RX8 renesis enginer?

Originally Posted by rotarygod

As a bare minimum you will need all new seals (apex, corner, side), and springs, oil control rings, as well as all new rubber parts such as water o-rings, oil seals, etc... These along will cost you around $1000. I don't even recommend skimping on apex seals which is a very common thing to do. If you can't afford Ianetti ceramics, go with stock Mazda seals. Forget you've ever heard of any other names.

Now once you have all of these lined up, you can take the engine apart and inspect it for wear or damage. Measure everything! If you don't know how to or don't have the proper tools to do so, get them and learn! Buy a rotary rebuild video. It'll help. You may need to buy new rotor housings. I'd personally never replace just one so if a pair so if you need one, just buy 2. They are $631 EACH! Do your side plates show too much wear? Do they need to be resurfaced? End and intermediate housings are anywhere from $500 to $600 each. If they can be resurfaced then you may only be talking about less than $100. Is the eccentric shaft good? Usually is but you need to measure for wear. How are the bearings? What about the stationary gears? How are the rotors? Are the seal grooves showing signs of excessive wear?

Do you have a parts washer? You MUST get all of those parts completely clean BEFORE you even inspect them for damage and wear. This is often the most highly overlooked step. Please do not take your nice rotors down to the end of the driveway and set them on the bare concrete while you are hosing them down and scrubbing them clean with gojo hand cleaner and a toothbrush!

When you assemble the motor, how clean is your work area? It needs to be as clean as possible. Any good race engine shop looks like an operating room at a hospital. There's a good reason for that. You should do your best to get as closed to that as possible. (The clean part not the hospital!) Do you have any hylomar (or vasoline depending on your assembly method)?

You need to take the time to clearance everything. That means side seals, apex seals, and even bearings. Yes you can sand on them to true them! Seeing copper means nothing as your bearing is really your oil anyways. The "bearing" as we know it is just the place that the oil is allowed to act as the bearing. Since you need to clearance everthing, do you have feeler gauges? How about a torque wrench so you know how tight to put the tension bolts back in? Do you have the torque specs and clearance specs handy?

What other parts are you going to need to put it all back together? Do you need new gaskets anywhere? Vacuum lines? Do you remember where they and all of the electrical connectors you unplugged go?

Hopefully everyone gets the idea that in order to do a proper engine rebuild, it isn't cheap and it isn't quick. It's not difficult but there are lots of details to worry about. Keep in mind that there are many people that insist that you don't need to go to these lengths. They take an engine apart, not clean anything, replace some apex seals, port it haphazardly, and then use new water seals to put it all right back together having never measured or even cleaned anything. These engines may even start up and drive just fine. The big question is how long with they last since your engine life is really going to be determined by the most worn component you left inside your engine. It may even leak coolant or oil. Just topping if off is much easier than fixing it.

My personal opinion is that if you want to do it yourself, do your homework. Be very thorough. Take your time and do it properly. Also plan out a worst case scenario for how much money you may end up spending. It's almost never as cheap as you think it will be. Of course you could also just call Paul up and buy a Rick Engman rebuilt Renesis engine for around $2K or so. That's probably the same that you'd end up spending anyways but with the peace of mind that it's built properly!