Whip1a5h

Here to ask questions about rx8's in general and see what I can make one of these things do

mazdaverx7

iTrader: (6)

Welcome to the forum! Saw you also found your way to rx7club as well!! Welcome from both!

Whip1a5h

Yes thank you


V8 swap is my intention

CaymanRotary

The whole car is the rotary engine experience. May as well get a Corvette.

DannyR3

You won't find many friends here lol. Most of us are rotary purists.

Loki

iTrader: (1)

Welcome. Feel free to ignore the 'most of us' claims made by not most of us.
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mazdaverx7

iTrader: (6)

At the end of the day it's your car and you do with it what you want. It's not a swap I would ever do as I am a rotary purist, but it is a swap that people have done and seem to like doing. Best of luck with your project!

NotAPreppie

If the whole car is the cut-rate craptacular experience that is the Renesis, man, I don't know what to say.

The whole car is the excellent chassis which is pretty completely let down by the motor.

CaymanRotary

That's why you should 13b REW swap it with a large single turbo. Will make all the power you need while staying true to the car. The problem with a V8 is throws the balance off on this car. What you end up with is a worse Corvette. You'll have the straight line speed but the handling goes to complete crap.

Loki

iTrader: (1)

Have you driven one?

I haven't an 8, but I have a V8 Miata and it was fine. It might have lost a bit of subtlety, but it was still predictable.
Since our cars are basically stretch Miatas, we should be able to do just as well.

Obviously if someone swaps the engine and nothing else, there will not be success, but if you approach it as an engineering project and design the appropriate shock/spring to handle the weight distribution change, there's no reason it shouldn't approximate original handling with far more power for a net faster car.

10KRPM

What V8?

I like anything that is an interesting project, well planned. So yes, I'm interested in what you might be thinking!

CaymanRotary

I'm skeptical it would work out well in this car. Yea, you can get it to work but is it really worth it? You can buy second hand Corvettes that will easily match this build. I prefer to drive my cars and not spend years tooling around on them haha.

edit: coming back to this, you mentioned the other issue with a swap like this. The amount of money and time to source parts simply to accommodate the engine. You would need to swap out so much stuff the time and effort it took you could have just bought something already good to go. I'll just never see the sense in it I suppose. Yea, its cool and you get a unique car out of the deal but that's about it.

10KRPM

Sometimes the project is so interesting to the person doing it that it's worth whatever effort and pitfalls might be involved. Cayman, I'm a bit in your camp, just don't have the time, and to be honest the skills, for huge projects. But, I keep my sanity with smaller ones. I have a friend that just completed a Duramax install in a Hummer. The amount of work is huge, he did a body off frame sandblast and paint, so much engine bay and drivetrain work. But, at the end of it he has a super cool truck that only a very few people have done, so for him it's well worth it.

CaymanRotary

Different strokes for different folks I suppose. I just don't see the sense in putting a V8 in an RX8, its too big and heavy and has way more torque than needed (unless you are setting this up for drag racing). If I was gonna go non-rotary, I'd do a straight 6 like a 1JZ.

JimV8

I put an LS1 into a Porsche 968 and the balance was about the same as the 3 litre. The same swap into the RX 8 will really change balance as it will add about 100 lbs and that weight will have to come forward somewhat to allow the valve covers to clear the firewall, on the 968 I had a hell of a time getting headers to fit, especially around the steering shaft. After several tries and a lot of scrap SS tube I got custom headers from Kooks. They look so good it’s almost a waste as theyre hidden deep in the hole.

The power is going to come on differently from what the chassis is designed for too. Huge gobs of torque starting at 2200 rpm up through to 4000 rpm is going to want to twist it into pretzel and for openers the spring rates will need to bump up hugely. Likely 450lb up front and 600 at back. It will be a totally different machine.

Id look to swap in a BMW N series engine as theyre a compact inline 6, very light and friendly to FI. Also readily available. The difficulty with all these swaps though is the ECUs.

Loki

iTrader: (1)

Yeah of course buying a vette or even new Camarro or Mustang would be more cost-effective, especially given how they keep value. At the same time, rotary ownership is rarely the product of sound budgetary decisions

I mean yes you have to drive it differently, but torque is a function of your right foot and rear tire, you can manage it on the fly. With a V8 power deliver is linear and predictable.
All depends on what the owner wants to do with it.

CaymanRotary

Pretty much exactly what it comes down to. If he wants to invest his time and money into it then that deserves my respect. It's not an easy build especially since there are easier cars to choose for this type of build.

Brettus

iTrader: (2)

IDK ...those that do swaps seem to go to a ton of effort , never get the thing properly sorted , then two years or so after they get it going half assed and are sick of it ...sell it for peanuts . Don't be that guy

apex1

This is closer to where I am.

Not to many coupes support room for four, a rigid chassis, decent factory suspension geometry and a curb weight <3k.

In a performance car, you want the power plant to have character. However in this example the character comes with some durability and design issues.

10KRPM

If I was buying the car strictly for torque and acceleration, I wouldn't have bought an RX-8. I believe my 2500HD crew cab Duramax truck will best the RX-8 0-60, and my 5.7 Durango will also beat it I think. But the overall experience of the rotary, the quick smooth revs and power coming on above 5000 rpm, coupled with the handling makes this car extremely satisfying for me. Sure, 400 HP would be nice, but that's just not what it is. From point A to point B on a curvy road it will beat the other 2 vehicles and I'll have time to eat a PB&J sandwich before they finally arrive!

CaymanRotary

I don't think anyone can disagree that the Renesis was an underwhelming engine. If Mazda had made it 300hp with a small turbo, using a lower compression rotor design and better exhaust porting it would have been near perfect. Just a bit more juice and the RX8 would have been an instant classic car imo.

apex1

An improved version of the rx7 engine. I could see that...

I know its not a rotary but what about the MZR engine that came the in Speed 3 and 6. 270 hp and 270 tq??? Not too bad plus its already in the stable.

DannyR3

too bad that 16X never took off. I wonder if they had made an N/A 3 rotor RENESIS what it could have made. Certainly enough room for it.

Brettus

iTrader: (2)

Take a look at a siamese port someday ......that's why that engine would be a disaster. Could be fixed by buidling wider centre irons ...but then it would be too heavy!

Whip1a5h

I'm thinking an aluminum 5.3 engine (L33 code) so I can keep the weight a little less in the front, adding at least a roll bar/half cage to put some weight in the rear, and maximizing tire size on the front and rear before any trimming or more custom Fab parts need to be made to fit wider stuff



I basically want Corvette handling and performance but without the high insurance rate of the Corvette