CristianJDM

First of all i'm thinking of buying a 2004 Mazda RX8 found one locally for 1,300 pretty

clean/clean title/ 6 speed manual, engine is bad it has low compression. I can probably

rebuild it my self i have 20+ years of experience as a mechanic/technician, now for the real question

are Atkins rotary rebuild kits any good? i'm looking at the 1300 dollar one. Or is

it better just to buy a engine?

Atkins rotary rebuild kit im looking at: 04-11 Rx8 Manual Master Rebuild Kit (ARE158)

elford_tim

Atkins is a reputable parts vendor, so I wouldn't see any immediate reason to not buy the kit. That said, I wouldn't buy any parts without pulling the engine apart as you might need much more than a rebuild kit depending on what got damaged.

Is it better to buy an engine? Depends - Mazda sells remans, most of the other vendors will rebuild your engine. Or you could buy another engine on, say, ebay, but even with verified compression I'd consider that one as a rebuild in waiting.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Roughly, the question is like asking:

"My engine is dead. Should I buy an engine hoist?"


...Only if you need it.

Whether or not you need the rebuild kit depends on if you do the rebuild or if you pay someone else to do it. If you do it yourself, expect to be buying way more than the rebuild kit, since you will probably be replacing housings, relapping irons, possibly replacing rotors and/or e-shaft, etc... Don't expect the seal kit to be a "complete rebuild in a box".

iTs Ghastly

It may also be worth noting that a rebuild of our engines is much different from a rebuild of your every-day honda , camero, chevy truck, what have you. Where you may have expirence in rebuilding piston engines, this is very much a different jouney altogether, and is worth trying to look a little further into this before you jump in. For example, provided your issue is your apex seals, often times when your apex seal goes, it takes the irons with it. Even if this is not the case, your apex seals make a groove in your rotor housing as normal wear. this means when you replace your apex seals, they will not be flush with your rotor housing, and will yeild a lower compression number than if you had replaced the rotor housing. This means you can be looking at a dramatic price jump to replace your rotor housings, after you get your seal kit. not to mention, imporper installation of any of these parts can pretty much cause immediate engine failure, and further damaging of the parts that were good a couple thousand dollars ago. Im not trying to say you cant do it, but you really need to make sure you are adequatly prepared to get into. Things can get expensive fast. I have a word document from Kevin from rotaryresurection that helps show these things in a little more organized manor, which , with his permission i can likely forward it to you. Just dont want to see you get burned if you take on more than you are prepared to.

CristianJDM

I found a engine for 1500 imported from Japan with compression 96-100psi on each it also had the transmission with it and the computer. So basically the apex seals are going bad on this engine? What if I buy it and replace the apex seals before they damage the housings and rotors? Or am I wrong?

iTs Ghastly

i'll let somebody a little more well versed answer that question. while 90-100 isnt terrible on each side, i wonder if that is post normalized with altitude factored. fact of the matter is buying a used engine is always a gamble. our engines dont take well to sitting out and not being started frequently , so say for instance if it was a junk yard car with rear end damage and they pulled the engine, even if that was the compression when they pulled it if it sat in a junkyard for a year and wasnt started those compression numbers also could be meaningless ( im paraphrasing from Kevin from RR in one of the documnets he sent me on my personal search for a new engine) As the saying goes, if it seems too good to be true, it normally is. and 1500 bucks for a full engine, ecu, and trans, well lets just say thats one hell of a deal.

elford_tim

First, make sure you know which engine you're looking at - outside the US, the manuals were also available with a four-port engine (same or similar to the US slushbox engine) and you don't want to swap one of those into a US 6-speed car.

That said, fleabay seems to be full of JDM engines around the price point you mentioned and they can make a decent core if you want to rebuild one *if* you get one from a reputable source. Not all of them are, or so I hear.

Low compression isn't necessarily only the apex (or side) seals, as Ghastly already mentioned there's housing wear to consider as well and if you're unlucky you'll end up replacing a lot more parts than just the seals.

Munozl360

What the ****. why is it so expensive?

elford_tim

The rebuild kit? Try pricing up an OEM one if you think the Atkins one is expensive.

This isn't a rebuild kit for an SBC that you find at every street corner.