When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I have a 2004 rx8 6speed manual. its my friends car which i bought off him for $2,000.
It blew a seal and there it coolant in the chamber and failed compression test. the engine only had 60,000 miles on it, and my friend took really good care of it. would you guys say its rebuildable or would the housings be toasted. the car was turned of immediately when it was overheated. Im looking at rebuild, rebuild plus turbo, junk yard engine, or reman engine. please let me know what you guys think.
With coolant in the housing from overheating, it isn't likely, but possible. The longer it has been sitting without running but with coolant in it, the less likely your chance of a rebuild, as the coolant starts corroding internal parts.
Even if it was rebuildable, the cost might be as much as or more than just buying a reman ($3,300 + shipping from Mazmart, $3,300 + dealer markup from a dealer). You can't just replace seals on this engine and get anything more than 10,000ish miles out of the engine afterwards, especially if you have coolant / overheating damage.
How much luck have people had with reman engines? That's the route I'll probably take just don't wanna drop it and it goes out 10,000 miles down the road...
If someone just drops in a reman without bothering to do anything else, the outlook is sketchy. Might be fine, might not. In these cases, most of the early failures are actually cooling system failures that then blow coolant seals. These cooling system failures soon after a reman replacement is mostly because of all the excess sealant that Mazda remans are assembled with. It's just sloppy work, but not much we can do about telling them to do it correctly.
If you are putting the engine in yourself, you can eliminate most of the problem by flushing the coolant passages heavily. Then flush the coolant system 1,000-2,000 miles after installation. The heat cycling will break of anything left that could be a problem. If someone else installs the engine, then give it a bit more time, and then flush, then a bit more time, then replace the radiator and thermostat (as they will have caught the sealant floating around).
As long as you address that excess sealant properly and be wary and prepared to catch a cooling system failure before it hurts the engine, then the remans are generally acceptable to good. A rare DoA is possible, but it isn't common any more. If you have some extra money, a good option is to ship the reman to someone like RotaryResurrection first and have them pull it apart and re-assemble it. Not critical, but a for-sure safe way to go. That type of disassembly/reassembly would have everything reusable. If you buy from Mazmart, they can probably do the same thing (without the interim shipping). They used to build engines, but don't advertise it any more, so not clear on that.
thanks for the fast replies. its still up in the air tho. just dont wanna throw money away with a bad route. i have this $2000 beauty with one owner ive been waiting to fix... just trying to do my research before i make a decision. you dont think i can rebuild my self and replace seals and housings if needed ??
Well, I am not going to say that you can't rebuild it yourself. Just you have to really go into it with your eyes wide open, a set of proper precision measuring tools, and the factory engine manual. This engine is easier to screw up than the RX-7 engine, and will fail more quickly on a botched rebuild.
The seal kit is... $800? Add two housings at $700 each, you are up to $2,300. Add re-lapping of all 4 iron surfaces, and you are closing in on a reman price, but probably still under it. If you have copper showing on the e-shaft bearings, or the rotor seal seats are worn past spec, you shoot right past a reman price.
This is assuming nothing is warped or corroded past usability from the overheating, which is a real possibility.
The cost / difficulty / benefit comparison between rebuilding vs buying a reman is just not really a favorable outlook for rebuilding.
on mazmart it says $4100, is that before the additional core charge or would it be $3100 .. i got the impression it is 5100 if i dont give them my engine...
Yes, the core charge is added if you don't get them your engine first, and is returned when you do. So you can avoid that if you pull your engine first and ship it to them before they ship out the reman. Obviously you would need to coordinate that with them.
It can take an hour or so after you clear the requirements, and possibly a log-off / log-on, in order for the forum software to clear the restriction. It only checks periodically.
04-28-2015, 05:02 PM
