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I picked up an RX-8 from a junkyard for really cheap. Why did I do this? Because I wanted to rebuild it. Little did I know these suckers like to blow themselves apart leaving very few reusable components.
But I like being hands-on, and don't mind having a project taking up garage space (that's what garages are for, right?) Luckily I have a lot of tools, and have access to a few people who have rebuilt these in the past, so I won't be too out of luck. I'm looking forward to getting this thing back together. I'm trying to be frugal, yet realistic. I look forward to y'alls input!
When you only have like a dozen parts in the engine, a failure event tends to affect all of them pretty quickly.
Seen another way, it keeps running until 50% of the parts have failed? :P I'm rationalizing, I know.
As long as you have access to tools and known-good parts, and known-good people, you should be fine. You can always pick up a ready rebuilt one from a number of shops. Rotary Resurrection, Pineapple Racing.. there are many, should you choose to go that route. Sounds like you're more about the adventure though. Just remember: do it right, or do it twice.
Frugal isn't all that realistic in this application. Combine a specialized motor with expensive and unimpressive performance mods and you get something that is only cheap to start. It sounds like you jumped into this without doing your due diligence. Spend some time exploring the site, read the new owners thread 5x through, try not to ask to many stupid questions that can easily be googled. Someone here has posted pretty much any question about this car at this point.
As a reference (if it helps), to rebuild an engine the parts along are $1500-$2000. I've seen a range of quotes for rebuilds but allow $3K. You can buy engines directly from Mazda still but they were on back order recently.
The rotary in Rx8 is basically poop. If you do some research you'll find they have problems and there's no real permanent solution. But do not be turned off to rotaries themselves. Actually most are awesome and people love them. It's just the renesis that turns people off. If this is hobby car, maybe thinking about putting another rotary in. Just saying swapping is an option.
IMO, from a peace of mind standpoint, it's hard to argue against a Mazda reman. There's no worries about the rebuilder opening the engine up and finding more damage than expected. A Mazda reman 6-port motor (for 6MT and 6AT cars) is about $3k + $1k core.
If you're going to do the rebuild yourself, read all the things. Buy the books. Buy the videos. Buy all the SSTs and gauges and measure everything ten times. Don't purchase any parts until you have the engine apart and have had a chance to measure. A full seal/rebuild kit is going to be $1500. Each housing is going to be $850+. So, if you have to buy two new housings, scrap the rebuild idea. Bolt everything back together and use the engine as a core for a Mazda reman (which will more than likely come with two new housings).
A budget rebuild won't last very long. Mine lasted about 2 years and 15k miles. Seriously.
If you have $10k to burn, you can also do a good LS swap. Any aluminum block LS-family motor (LS1/2/3/6/7, LM4, L33, L76, LH6, LC9, L92, L99) should work and there are 3-4 swap kits out there. The LM4 is particularly appealing because you can get the block for under $1000. Swap the head, add a cam and free-flowing headers/exhaust and you can get close to 400whp. If you pick a truck motor, you'll need an LS intake, car accessory drive, and probably a car oil pan. T56, TR6060 or CD009 transmissions are all pretty robust.
Yorkie needs someone to hangout with when I'm out of tow
I planned to do the opposite, my 8 has a great motor, crap body from midwest salt rusted it to crap. Planned to buy a nice body from the south/southwest and swap it in. Maybe go that route, find an 8 that has a good engine, drive it home and swap it.
I planned to do the opposite, my 8 has a great motor, crap body from midwest salt rusted it to crap. Planned to buy a nice body from the south/southwest and swap it in. Maybe go that route, find an 8 that has a good engine, drive it home and swap it.
I've found (through a second time around now) that midwest cars are not good cars to invest in. I've snapped the stud holding one of the starter wires off as well as the weldnuts off of the subframe that mount the crossbar with my impact. I can't see myself getting another midwest car anytime soon.
I recently bought a 2005 rx8 project myself, thinking the engine was blown, but found out it was the A/T instead. Two weeks ago found out it had low compression too, and now am having an engine rebuilt with new rotor housings. Sooner or later I’ll get it back! I have built BennettBuilt LS1 coils and a sohn oil metering adapter to put in as well. The body will have to wait until next year! Anyway I’ve found this forum to be awesome, especially the new owners section
The rotary in Rx8 is basically poop. If you do some research you'll find they have problems and there's no real permanent solution. But do not be turned off to rotaries themselves. Actually most are awesome and people love them. It's just the Renesis that turns people off. If this is hobby car, maybe thinking about putting another rotary in. Just saying swapping is an option.
Welcome abaord and best of luck.
In fact, the Renesis engine is fine, but it affords its owner a very small margin of error for maintenance neglect. Realize you only read about people who've had problems with them; the thousands of folks who are happy with their car and Renesis have no reason to find their way to this forum - most don't even know it exists. I bought my '05 new and, over 12 years and 45K+ miles, have yet to have an engine problem. Do you know how many people here, over the years, have said that's just not possible?? (Of course, I've maintained my Renesis by the book with regular oil changes, regular checking of oil level, redlining the engine frequently, and letting it fully warm up every time before setting off. Most people don't. And when you don't do these simple things – unlike with ordinary engines – you get problems. Big problems. Hence the Renesis' bad reputation.)
Last edited by New Yorker; Aug 30, 2018 at 03:09 PM.
Thanks for the feedback y'all. I just picked up some spare rotor housings that are in much better condition, just need to clean them up and send them out to get them resurfaced. Anyone have a good experience with this?
I need to clean the surface first to see if there are any imperfections. I got these free with the rotors I bought. Needed a front housing anyways, so I figured I can see if they're salvageable by taking them in to clean off any high spots. If they're not usable, just a couple more housings for the coffee table.
In fact, the Renesis engine is fine, but it affords its owner a very small margin of error for maintenance neglect. Realize you only read about people who've had problems with them; the thousands of folks who are happy with their car and Renesis have no reason to find their way to this forum - most don't even know it exists. I bought my '05 new and, over 12 years and 45K+ miles, have yet to have an engine problem. Do you know how many people here, over the years, have said that's just not possible?? (Of course, I've maintained my Renesis by the book with regular oil changes, regular checking of oil level, redlining the engine frequently, and letting it fully warm up every time before setting off. Most people don't. And when you don't do these simple things – unlike with ordinary engines – you get problems. Big problems. Hence the Renesis' bad reputation.)
I have 75K on my 05 then it started having problems. I have over 250K 02 Chevy truck no major mechanical problems & 225K on my 06 Passat samething. Renesis cannot even come close, last thing goes together is reliability & rotors. Anytime you add condition to a statement your creating unaccountability.
Update: Finally cleaned up the usable rotors, going to pick the best of the rears to re-use, and probably sell off the other rear rotor. Or I'll save it for another build, who knows. Next step, clean the housings.
We have a parts cleaner here in garage where I work, the stuff that's used is some organic cleaner, so it's not super abrasive. I let them soak overnight, brushed them the next day with some scotch brite pads and sprayed them with alcohol after they were clean to get rid of the solution. I'm thinking of doing something similar with the housings, only I won't soak them overnight, just want to remove the black oil film and inspect them for any flakes, chattermarks, any abnormal wear, etc. I'm going to send them out for an inspection/resurface if they're in good condition.
Is it normal to see wear lines in the bathtub area (Leftmost rotor labeled RR)?
That rotor is the one that came out of my engine. To my understanding, that is normal, I've seen other rotors for sale with these uniform machine markings. These are a bit more pronounced compared to the other ones because I spent more time cleaning it up, but my other sources told me not to focus too much on the bowl area since it isn't critical to get it super clean. As long as the heavy carbon build up is taken off, should be alright.
