A friend of mine had her rx8 and drove it home from the oil change place she got it changed at last week.

Immediately her oil pressure light was coming in so she "checked the oil" and said it was fine.

Oil change place told her to bring it back, but it might be something else if oil level was fine.

She never made it back, and a week later, showed it to me after it died while driving..

Turns out the oil she was checking was the transmission.

The oil dipstick was at ZERO
And the car will not start..

Assuming the obvious, the car needs a new engine, and now it has been given to me..
I'm debating to sell the shell with bad engine, or to find a used running one and replace.

So here I am turning to this awesome forum to ask for solid advice and if I did choose to swap motors, what kind of price range is normal


Its a 2005 rx8 with 90k miles and basically mint condition, minus the engine being bad

 

sounds like its an auto. they are not worth much at all. you could part it out or get a rebuild. if there was no oil in it i would be on the phone with the oil change shop and/or my lawyer. if you can pull the motor yourself and send it out it would be ~3k to get a rebuild possibly more depending on damage

 

Ya I don't see how far I'm gonna get tho, it's a week later, she was told to come back, and now I'm a new owner.

But ok so a rebuild is out, as it's not worth that.

So now is it better to swap to a running one? What's the average cost?
Or just sell as a shell?
What would be the average sale price?

Thanks

 

need more details. miles, trim level, what trans, mods?, pics etc

 

I'm not sure it'd really be worth it to do a manual conversion either. I'm in the boat of part out. Now...if you have unlimited funds and felt like being silly, you could do something cool like turbo auto. That sounds like it'd be fun. Again, probably not cost effective but if you've got a garage and time on your hands....

 

no, turbo autos are ******* lame. my buddy shell spent so much money to boost his auto which dynoed barely more than my tuned mt with bolt ons and a tune. he eventually swapped to a 6 port mt turbo which blew up from a **** tune, speed one rebuilt the motor and he parted the turbo and sold the car

 

It's basic stock 2005 auto which I would say interior and exterior are 9/10 condition.

It is an auto

Has no extra trims on it I'm aware of..

Does have an intake, and aftermarket coils.
That's all I see.


I cannot afford to waste money on this so anything close or beyond the total value of the car is not worth it to me.
Id rather sell the entire car as is, or to swap another engine in for a cost less than the value of the entire vehicle of that is possible

 

what intake and coils? honestly a blown auto base might get you 1k. parting it out would be more money but its a pita

 

I'll have to go look and report back.

I am seeing used engines no warranty for about 1k from part puts here in Tampa /Orlando area.

Is it hard to swap out?

 

Any chance it has any of the speed aero bits on it? Those are worth lots of monies if it does. How hard's an manual to auto swap? My shell has a fair amount of northern corrosion, I might consider it.

 

zman swapping a motor isnt that hard

cg theres a thread from rr on the auto/mt conversion

 

Ok I have found 2 engines , used, 1 is 1000 just the core engine from a shop.
The other is a running vehicle about an hour from me, but he will show me it running, check compression , and sell to me with all the components for 950.


Thoughts?

 

If he can prove he has a healthy auto engine, I'd go for it. Start premixing right away and hope it's been maintained.

 

Please excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by premixing..?


Also, I am going to see it running in vehicle before removal, what should I look for , especially compression wise?

 

Without a ROTARY SPECIFIC compression test anything else you check is simply a guess.

Have him start it. Run it for about 20 minutes. Shut it off and restart multiple times. The time it takes to start hot should be almost the same as cold with a healthy motor.

Travis

 

Thank you is there a rotary specific tester at harbor freight or anywhere else for pickup today?

Also, would this guide work?
http://www.rotaryresurrection.com/rotary%20pages/comp%20folder/comp.html

 

You won't find a tester at HF no...

Google rotary compression tester. I do believe a member here sells them.

Travis

 

The RCT Vct5 is a neat, easy to use tool with good instructions. The only issue I had was one of the pins in mine was off place so my sensor readings were a little weird at first until we fixed it.

 

I am going to look tomorrow to buy this engine , I won't be able to order anything.
Is there any for local stores?

Also...the guide I posted above from the link, does that work to check compression?

If anyone was buying a rotary car should we check the compression ?
Or is the hot start test good enough?

I'm happy he will show me the running engine prior to sale, but I just want to make sure I'm getting a healthy engine

 

As a rule, you shouldn't buy any rotary without known good compression test results. Otherwise it's a cat in a bag. Could be fine! Could be not :/

Hot start test will tell you if the engine has failed, but it won't tell you if it's healthy. So it's a good way to eliminate engines without spending money, but it only gets you so far.

Local stores don't really carry rotary tools, there just aren't enough rotaries running around, although if you have a rotary shop nearby, they should have what you need.

The guide posted above is better than nothing, but again, it'll help you eliminate bad engines, not confirm healthy ones.

 

Premixing is a way of using a tertiary lubricant in the fuel system to assist with rotor lubrication. Remember, think "2stroke" when you think rotary.

 

Thanks for all the great info from all of you.

What would you recommend doing with no access to a tool, and no access to any shops to ensure this motor I get is in good shape

 

To walk away and not buy the car.

 

I'm not buying the car, I'm buying an engine to replace.

You wanna give me 1k for the vehicle I have?
I'll walk away from it, otherwise...I need to buy an engine

 

Replace car with engine.