Has anyone ever done a swap such as this one? My rx8 renny just died and looking for a cheaper option for power upgrade. Already have the 305 and all engine components, what are the biggest complications with this swap? Im thinking engine cradle and mounting but can anyone give any insight? Looking for a cheap(er) build than ls to get me by.

Thanks for any insight!

 

use an isuzu v6 instead. its the best for mad torque yo. ya digz mane?

also search the 383 stroker thread

 

 

if you do this and its not a full 9 second drag car, im selling my 8, the guy that did the 383 said he would never do it again, the car will handle horribly, just do an ls1 or something lighter, its just soo heavy

 

see my previous post. v6 tq curve yo

 

Are you going to get an electric supercharger??? (You're about to get hit by allot of b.s. and hilarity).

Go Isuzu for a maaaaaaaad VIP build mane.

 

Also, don't listen to kickerfox or kfc, one of them will show up soon enough.

 

It depends. Would you like to stare at a car that doesn't run for several years?

 

Like every other swap.....you have to mount engine, fit a transmission, do custom exhaust....wire in ECU that works ...both with stock peripherals and with the new engine. Make a drive shaft that will convert the transmission to work with the existing diff....deal with the way Mazda mounts the diff to the power plant frame......etc etc etc

Swaps aren't for the weak at heart...and many never get finished so the car can be driven reliably EVER

Sure you want to go there ;-)

 

Add that if you want any of the additional electronics in the RX-8 to continue working properly, you will need custom electronics to get them talking properly. Everything in the RX-8 is run through it's ECU in some fashion.

The RX-8 is one of the worst possible platforms to choose for an engine swap, because of engine fitment due to being significantly different than where the Renesis was placed plus the electronics and wiring headache that every swap ends up trying to solve.

Sure it's a good performance chassis if you can figure it all out but... most never do. Very few piston swaps have ever been completed. Some % more are running, but it's like driving a pile of electronic spaghetti. If you live somewhere where that matters for safety and/or emissions, it's going to be hugely expensive to get it all working right.

There isn't a single person that I can recall that started a piston swap thinking it would be simple that succeeded in completing it. There are probably some more, but they simply don't talk about it on forums. They just go do it and we only vaguely hear references to them.

I note "piston", because there are quite a few REW swaps, which is significantly simplier, and a few 20b swaps, which are usually cost-no-object builds. Only 1 cost-no-object piston swap has been posted to the forum that i am aware of, and it was a >$50k LS3 swap into an R3 by TougeFactory, and that car went up for sale a month later for $69k, and years later it still hasn't sold.

So take it how you will, but underestimating costs, time, and ease will backfire on you. We don't have a stake in your finances, passions, skills, or patience, just telling it like it is.

(and plenty of people think we are over-complicating it, over exagerating, etc... but the history and stats don't lie. If you want to prove otherwise, more power to you, but the deck is stacked against you, and we see it over and over again.)