Hello everyone!
I seek the guidance and advice of the members of the club.
I purchased an 2004 RX8 from a dealer. Cheap. No prior knowledge of rotary and no compression test was done. Sure enough, engine compression is low 6s. She barely starts.
My mechanic (not a rotary mechanic) advises me to part her out to get my money back.
I would rather give her another life and keep her on a road.
I have called a lot of Mazda dealerships and finally got a reasonable quote from one.
They would put in new reman engine (with 1year, 12k warranty).
I would change all the coolant lines, put in new plugs wires and coils.
Car is clean inside, outside there are a few small dings. The rest of car is tip-top.
It is 6 speed manual with 86000 on ODO.
I think it is GT with appearance package. Blue with black leather interior.
If I would go ahead with a engine replacement, I would want to keep the car, but could potentially be forced to sell her later.
I am asking for input from forum members here, what would be fair asking price after engine replacement. I am trying to figure out if it makes any financial sense to do a engine swap.
Thanks!

 

$6,000 to $7,000 would be a reasonably quick sale, you might get as high as ~$9,500ish if you hold out for as long as possible, and take the time to clean up and refresh other stuff on the car as well.

 

contact rotary resurrection, hes a member here and can help you out with a rebuild. pull the engine and ship him the keg. since its still running he can probably re use a lot of parts.

 

really pearl? an 04 with 86k and low comp? **** maybe i should sell mine for 9500

 

He said value AFTER engine replacement.

 

oh sorry. for a second i thought you had a stroke but i guess i did. lol

sorry op. can you pull the engine yourself?

 

I am liking the plan from 200, once he read all the posts......

Where are you? that may make a difference. There could a good shop very close. Rebuilding one before something breaks is a lot better than after, if you are lucky, it is a clean up, change seals, and put it back together. If no metal is gouged or broken, I have heard it is pretty straightforward. Like rings and bearings one of those piston thingies...

 

Yeah he needs to make up his mind $9500, good luck he told me the $7k I bought my 04, for was to high with only 64k on odometer and 4k on Banzai Racing rebuild ($4600). Borla exhaust, magnaflow cat, new brakes, aftermarket wheels, and tinted windows.

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Onebadd, there two points which make it different:

1) There is a HUGE difference between your engine and the engine of the guy in this thread. That is most of the price difference.

2) You could sell yours for $7k, I mean, someone obviously did. If someone bought this guy's car for $9.5k, I'd probably tell him he overpaid too, but the OP COULD still sell it for that, depending on what kind of buyer he found.


Note that I indicated that he could sell his for $7k. Now compare it to what you would have gotten if you had held onto your money a bit longer? 40 more hp, a stronger transmission, cheaper repairs, and more reliable over all. That is what I was referring to in your thread. For the money, you could have gotten much much more.

 

Inspect the body, if its rust free, and no other major repairs are needed then go right ahead and revive that rotary. You could easily sell it for 6-7k as RIWWP stated after the swap/rebuild.

You mentioned, you got it for cheap. How much was the cheap if you don't mind me asking, it will help us significantly knowing your total investment vs repair cost vs resale value ;-)