So forgive my non mechanically incline mind, but I am not sure what to do with my car. I bought an 04 rx8 about six months ago with roughly 65,000 miles on it. It ran great and I didn't have any serious issues until recently. It started having difficulty firing up and it was difficult to keep running at low rpms. The CEL starting flashing, so I ordered new plugs, wires, and coils. I limped my car to Walmart to buy some locktite for the spark plugs, and I noticed a large amount of white smoke billowing out from the engine, and from underneath the car. I immediately turned off the car and pushed it into a parking space. Now the car won't even start. A mechanic buddy of mine told me it smelled like it was burning coolant. I guess my biggest concern is that the engine is toast. I am no mechanic, but unfortunately I am a very long ways from a rotary mechanic. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

P.S. I'm sorry for posting here, but it would not let me create a thread anywhere else.

 

Unfortunately, sounds like you lost a coolant seal(s). If your sure it's coolant, it could be oil. If it is coolant, the motor will need to be rebuilt or replaced. Sucks man, but that's pretty much the bottom line.

What's with the locktite on spark plugs?

 

I hope you aren't putting loctite on the spark plug threads. You are supposed to be putting anti-seize. Loctite will have the opposite effect of what you want.

This is what you need:

 

jcrane, i remember reading a while back that ngk says anti seize shouldnt be used on our plugs but i still use it on mine.

op sounds like a coolant seal. did you overheat your car? if the temp needle (dummy gauge) moves past the half way mark your usually screwed

 

I had read that is what is supposed to be used, and I talked to a mechanic to confirm, but I may have been mislead. I never even got as far as purchasing the locktite, but I'll definitely keep that in mind, thanks for the heads up.

 

I didn't overheat my car to my knowledge, I was watching my gauges very carefully and they never moved. I finally found a mechanic who is willing to rebuild my engine if necessary, but the whole rebuild looks like it's going to run about $4400. I'm not too stoked, as I can purchase a fully rebuild motor for $5100 with a $1000 core charge. But I'm not capable of doing this kind of work on my own. Does this seem like a decent charge for rebuilding a motor? It is a full rebuild, with a complete replacement of all seals, springs, and o-rings. It even includes a clutch, water pump, thermostat, wires, plugs, and coils.

 

who will do the build? rx7 engines are different than the renny

 

you can do WAY better on the rebuild or replace price. $3,300 for a reman from mazmart, and around that, or lower, for a quality rebuild from rotay resurrection. for $5k, you can get a brand new mildy built engine from pettit.

and the temp gauge wont move till 235f, but you can blow a coolant seal as low as 220f. 15f of danger zone before the gauge moves.

however, it would be wise to confirm the problem, in case it is a much cheaper fix. for example, you seem to indicate that the white smoke came from the engine bay, not the tailpipes...

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I've been having problems finding a mechanic who will even touch my rotary motor. I live in Eastern Oregon and I am considering hauling my car to the Portland area, simply because he is the only mechanic I have found that will work on it. His name is Kurt Robertson, and he did say it may be as simple as an external water leak. The white smoke was coming from my engine bay, not out of my tail pipes. But I'm just a foolish man that bought a car without researching it. Lesson learned, but I have no idea what I'm doing. I've spent the past week researching as much as I possibly can. I know I'm in deep, but your guys' help is greatly appreciated.

 

Does the $3300 price include labor for installing this motor? I'm don't think I am capable of doing this work on my own. I do have friends that are mechanically inclined, but they all cringe when I tell them it's a rotary.

 

an external coolant leak could be an easy fix such as a rad, hose, water pump, coolant tank ect. but no starting sounds like a more serious problem unless you flooded it.

working on these cars is no different than any other car unless your talking about an engine re build. no the $3300 motor from rr is you pull it, ship it and reinstall it yourself.

 

Yes, this doesn't sound like an engine failure yet. I could easily be anything from a coolant leak in the engine bay that also shorted out something to a spark plug blowing out, etc... (we have seen a few spark plug defect failures recently, where the core of the plug separates from the threaded cylinder) White smoke from the tailpipe is where I'd start pointing you toward testing for a coolant seal failure.

So don't think it's the engine at the moment, unless you turn up other evidence that it is.

That's the engine price from Mazmart, not including shipping, labor, or core. Keep in mind that there are individual car quirks from replacing a Renesis, but it is no harder, and probably a lot simplier, than replacing any piston engine, due to it's size and weight. You aren't breaking apart the engine, so the fact that it's a rotary shouldn't be automatically scary.

 

How's the oil?

Makes a whole different kind of white smoke.

 

Ok so I have an update. When I went back to tow my car, it fired right up and I limped it over to a buddy's garage. I went ahead and swapped out the plugs, coils, and wires, thanks to an awesome DYI I found on this forum. After that I reset the computer and took her for a drive. She ran great, and I never experienced white smoke again at all. I hesitantly took a couple good pulls, but before I was done I had hit 140. It never overheated, and it didn't have a power issue at all. The plugs that I removed were horrible though. I am wondering if gas could have pooled in the engine, and finally ignited causing the white smoke? The car seems to be running flawlessly again, except it had trouble starting after I ran it hard. But it was a hot start, I guess it could still possibly be flooded. I guess the true test will be if it starts in the morning cold. I also checked the engine coolant level, and it never budged. Any thoughts?

 

The oil seems to be fine, I check, add as needed, and change it regularly.

 

Oh, I was mistaken then. I am learning all of this as I go. I must have misread the thread. It fired up about the same whether it was cold or hot. It doesn't fire up immediately, but it does start on the first crank after about a solid second or two at the most. It never had this problem before though. It used to fire right up immediately. It's only day two of running after the smoke issue. I'm very happy it's up and running, with what appears to be no need of an engine rebuild. But the simple fact that it takes longer to fire up after new coils, plugs, and wires, definitely has me a little concerned. I am about 300 miles away from rotary mechanic, or I would go get the compression checked.

 

with hot and cold times the same, I wouldn't be concerned about compression yet.

Battery health, Starter health, and ignition health are the main factors for starting when there is a problem equally hot and cold, though battery can change (like really cold can make a battery weaker, as can repeated starts, hot or cold).

If the problem manifested just after an ignition change, then I'd suspect that there is something wrong with the ignition install, such as the wrong plugs in the wrong positions, plug wires crossed, or something not seated completely.

 

Thank you for the reading material. I feel like if I was smart enough to read this before I purchased the car, I may not have signed the paper. However, I have fallen in love with this car. You are right to say it "plasters a grin on your face at every turn!" Now I feel a little more confident about taking care of her to hopefully give her the longest life possible. Thanks for all of your help, everyone!

 

Hi anyone can help, My 2006 RX8 231bhp was driving lovely has a straight through sports exhaust was driving quite slow along the road and something went pop engine management light came on and car sounded rough and growly lost power wouldn't drive turned off it was hard to start wouldn't idle. Realised that a coil had gone replaced the coil and all 4 plugs, now have sparks out of all coil leads and new plugs. But car starts perfect just have a lot of white smoke and it is really growly popping and smells bad like unburnt fuel. Only other thing had off was the air filter and pipes and wires to the throttle body to get some room to work. Have i not put something back together right or as it got some other problem. I have tried the brake pedal reset. She now idles fine and goes through her reset procedure the error code (misfire on cyclinder 1) has now gone and it will idle fine just wont rev correctly verry grouchy and popping out exhaust with white smoke. Cant believe it has blown something else as well as plug and coil because only code was misfire and it would not start or drive. Now it starts perfect any advice anyone? There are no error codes at all now. This car drove beautiful has just under 60k on the clock never had a problem with it. Just dont believe that a coil and plug went and something else all in the same second. Misfire code pointed to coils or plug changed coil because had no spark on T2 still had code and engine light so changed all plugs. Code has gone and she idles fine just a lot of white smoke unburnt fuel and popping very grouchy and growly wouldn't drive right the way it revs now HELP PLEASE
PS name is LEE

 

Change all the coils, not just the one. If one is dead the others aren't far behind.

Also if you have any open vacuum connections having undone the intake, that will do it. Or connected the spark plugs to the wrong coils. Go over your work one step at a time. The intake needs to be absolutely air tight.