My LFX Swapped RX8
 

To give you the punch line at the beginning, yes, this is another LFX swapped RX8 story (based on the comprehensive and detailed kit designed and marketed by Andrew at Keisler Automation). I hope to provide you with some of the behind the curtain stories about what went well and what didn't and the steps I took to get to this stage of the story. I'll point out the issues I had, the decisions I made, including the mistakes and learning opportunities. This was my first foray into this level of car modification without a serious background in the field. So, plenty of learning experiences. With that said, here are a couple of pictures of the car as it sits today to grease the skids.
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2006 RX-8 Started out life as a 6Spd Automatic. Louvers are part of the Keisler Automation kit. Most people would likely rotate the louvers forward. I haven't decided yet whether I will or not.
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The new engine bay with a 3.6liter LFX extracted from a 2015 Cadillac XTS with 37k miles. It's a snug fit... but it does look nice in the engine bay
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Yes, as is obvious in these photos, we removed the hood interior sound proofing and cutout the interior of the aluminum hood. This was done to clear the front top of the LFX intake. However, we got a bit more aggressive and removed a large part of the interior of the hood. However, with the louvers, I can now exhaust more heat from the engine compartment and get better airflow through the inclined radiator.

Before I get too far into this, my experiences with the RX8 started in Dec of 2003 when I purchased a brand new 6spd manual RX8 and immediately joined the rotary car club in Arizona. I participated in regular monthly car club mountain drives and daily drove the car until I moved from AZ to Indy in 2007. During my time in AZ, the rotary club hosted an annual caravan out to Seven Stock where we joined up with many rotary enthusiasts to share stories and experiences with this unique family of cars.

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The new 2004 RX8 parked at the top of south mountain in Phoenix Az.
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My original 2004 RX8 sharing the tarmac with some of it's friends from the Rotary car club.


Fast forward to July of 2018,when sold my 2004 RX8 with 85k miles on an original engine that was still running strong. Here are pictures of the car when I sold it in Indy.



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2004 RX8 with 85k Miles on the original engine which was still running well. Car was never in an accident and never left me stranded.
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Headlight covers were getting tired and the typical dashboard cracks above the glove-box were it's biggest problems.

After moving back to AZ in 2018 I was toying with the idea of building a kit car and had focused in on one of the factory five options with my eyes on the 818. However, I thought as a first entry into this level of automotive work, that might be too big an effort. In the mean time, I had purchased a 2015 BMW M4 and was teaching myself to drive it in the local autocross competitions. While it's a great car, I found the throttle difficult to modulate and tended to overdrive it aggressively. Even with decent tires and the double clutch transmission I found myself wrestling with the car. It felt heavy with more under-steer than I wanted and was turning out to be a moderately expensive car to drive aggressively. During this time I bumped into TrackCarObsession's youtube series on the RX8 LFX swap which pointed me to Andrew's website (https://www.keislerautomation.com). After reading his web site and thinking about the information he provided, I realized that the RX-8 was 600 lbs lighter with a shorter wheel-base than the M4. It sits lower in the front with improved visibility and has a fantastic (my opinion) suspension underneath it. So off I went looking for an RX8 donor car that I could start with. In Jan 2020 I found a 2006 6Spd Automatic RX8 with the original engine, transmission, with 67k miles on it. The car was running and moderately healthy without any accidents. In addition to that, the car has lived it's entire life here in the Phoenix AZ area. It was a base model car with cloth seats and no sunroof which was exactly what I was looking for. The cloth seats wear better, are a lot lighter, and don't include all the motor driven adjustments. The standard roof provides me with above 3/4-1" extra head clearance for when I'm driving with a helmet on.

The car has a few blemishes but the undercarriage and interior were in good shape and the previous owner was a non-smoker ( a necessary requirement ). Here is a picture of the engine bay and console view showing that everything was still original.
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Nice to see an original unchanged engine bay with all the standard covers in place. Not only that I got a copy of all of the maintenance records for this one owner car who had in maintained by the dealer.
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Car was driven lightly by the owner with only 67k miles over the first 14 years of it's life.


Finally, since the car was garaged and lived here in AZ, there was little rust on all of the undercarriage hardware and the paint while not great was at least in good shape.

Prior to starting the disassembly, I listed the engine, transmission, differential, and exhaust for sale. I did this to allow new potential owners the opportunity to drive the car and experience the current state of the engine. I had compression measurements from the dealer which showed that the engine was still acceptable but was showing some of it's age. In fairly short order I had contacts from two individuals interested in the engine and exhaust systems respectively. After driving the car and experiencing the engine condition, I sold the engine to an individual from Scottsdale. Additionally, the individual interested in the exhaust was really focused on the Cat and wanted some photos of that before they came over to look themselves. So over the next week I removed the exhaust, transmission, and engine in that order. I had a hard time breaking the bolts free at the exhaust flange to Cat transition fitting and ended up removing the exhaust manifold from the engine to make this process easier. However, that was still a difficult process because you need to be able to remove the passenger side engine mount to allow the exhaust manifold to clear. In the process of trying to pry the motor mount out... I ruptured the mount bladder which destroyed the mount and dumped the damping fluid all over everything. So, word to the wise, be careful with these fluid filled motor mount bladders. If you get aggressive with them, they will tear and you'll be buying another one if you need them. Fortunately, I didn't need the one I destroyed.

Here are some pictures of the disassembly process. At this stage I had place the car on jack stands both front and rear and removed all the wheels and tires to give me some room to move about underneath the car.

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Here is the original Cat after 67k miles. The flat spot on the bottom shows that it was scrubbed against something hard at least once in it's lifetime. However, not to bad for the wear.
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The person interested in the Cat wanted a picture of the active elements in the core. This is my photograph of that element showing that it is in pretty good shape.
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I took off the exhaust from the midpipe back. While I sold the entire exhaust for 350 which I thought was a fair/ maybe low price. I found myself wishing that I had kept the muffler and exhaust tips for use on the new exhaust. It would have been cheaper to have kept this hardware. However, this muffler is quite heavy.


Next I removed the transmission with a trans-jack and my son. It was touch and go doing this. I hadn't really given myself enough clearance to pull the transmission out from under the car. So, word to the wise, extend the jack stands far enough that you have adequate ground clearance. Removal of the powerplant frame and drive shaft/propellor was fairly straightforward. Additionally, getting the transmission was fairly easy as long as you had all the extensions to get to the transmission housing bolts. Also, in some cases, it was easier to reach bolts from the engine bay rather than underneath the car. Off course you need to remove the starter and the torque converter bolts before you pull the transmission. Additionally, you will need to remove the shifter linkage in the drivers compartment. In my case, I had every intention to convert the car to a Camaro 6 spd manual transmission so much of the car interior was removed too.


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Car on jack stands prior to engine removal. Bumper, radiator, cooling fans removed.
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Rather than cut anything, I took my time to remove all of the fittings and connectors at the proper locations. I wasn't in a hurry and over couple of days working part time I was able to get to the point that the engine was ready to be removed.
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This side view shows that the battery and battery box, body control module, steering control module, and engine control module along with the mounting box have been disconnected and removed from the engine bay.


At this point I still needed to disconnect the oil cooler lines. As it turns out, it probably would have been beneficial to have removed the anti-lock brake system prior to engine removal just to get it out of the way. However, we removed the engine without doing that. Later I removed the anti-lock brake module anyway to clearance the bracket it mounts to. So it might have been better to do that first.

At this point I came in with the engine hoist and attached it to the engine. With the help of the people that were buying the engine, we pulled the engine out of the engine bay through the top with the engine hoist. Knowing a bit more about the process now, it probably would have been a lot faster and easier to have put the car on my MaxJax lift and removed the front subframe, engine, and transmission by lifting the car off the top of that assembly. With that said, the engine by itself comes out pretty easily with the engine hoist. Thanking back... I didn't have the lift yet so it wasn't available for the engine removal.
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Six port Renisis engine after removal from the car. I was able to remove this without having to remove the intake. At this point I have loosely reattached the exhaust manifold so we wouldn't misplace any of the hardware. As you can see, the engine side oil cooler lines were still attached.
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Engine bay following engine removal. Note: I had the AC system discharged by a local auto repair center prior to listing the car for sale. So, I was able to break into the AC lines without releasing anything into the atmosphere. At this point the engine bay looks big. However, it fills up pretty quickly when you stuffing a 3.6 L V6 into it.

Next, the steering assembly was removed from the front subframe... I could have waited to remove this but I removed the steering linkage prior to removing the front subframe.


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Radiator and cooling fan assembly, AC compressor and associated AC refrigerant lines, electric power assisted steering gear and dual oil cooler heat-exchangers with associated oil lines.
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Front subframe assembly with front coilovers and steering assembly removed. Note: To remove the subframe it was necessary to disconnect the brake lines in the wheel wells and it was convenient to remove all of the wheel well covers from the car. Because I was building up a large number of bolts and fittings, I started putting everything I could attach back in the holes they came out of and everything else went into labeled baggies that were stored in the same location as the parts they went with. This helped a lot during the reassembly process even though many parts were changed.

While not shown in these pictures the stock front coilovers were removed from the front subframe and the tower struts during this disassembly process.

Next I removed the rear shocks, disconnected the rear brake lines and detached them from the rear subframe housing. This required removal of the truck finish covers and wheel well liners. In the process of removing the wheels from the rear wheel hubs, I broke one of the wheel studs. Rather than leaving it like this I decided to replace all of the wheel studs with extended length ARP studs. Once the brake and rear coilover hardware were removed/disconnected. I removed the rear subframe from the car with the differential intact. However, before I took pictures, I removed the differential from the subframe.


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View of the rear subframe forward looking aft. All the suspension linkages have remained intact at this point. But the differential and the half shafts have been removed.
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View of rear subframe aft looking forward. Thinking back, I did have to disconnect some of the suspension linkage in order to remove the half shafts prior to removing the differential. Also, I bought four of these 1000 lb roll around carts that you see in these pictures. These were great for moving engines, transmissions, and front and rear subframes easily and precisely. For 20 bucks a piece at Harbor Freight they are hard to beat.

Very clean jealous of how little rust it has Im sure it was a breeze to get most bolts out
Lots of work but Im sure you will be another happy customer he has a good reputation and stands behind his work
I havea good friend who has been racing this setup for 3 seasons now and done very well with little to no issues

You are correct... one of the real advantages of living in AZ is the fact that car undercarriages don't get consumed by rust and as a result most bolts and nuts are painless to remove. I still elected to use FreeAll penetrating oil prior to most of the disassembly. With that said, the car came apart cleanly with minor sacrificial hardware. Additionally, the subframes cleaned up nicely with some warm soapy water and a few rags. Even the paint was in pretty good shape. Definitely feel fortunate for that. Watching some of Andrews many swap videos I was shocked at the rust on the cars coming out of the rust belt.

As I pointed out before, while removing the rear wheels and tires, I snapped one of the wheel studs. On this car that creates a minor issue... the only way to replace the rear wheel studs is the press the wheel hubs out of the rear knuckles which destroys the wheel bearings. However, this gave me a good reason to replace the existing wheel studs which were of questionable health with new ARP studs. I went with the ARP-100-7708 studs which included a longer threaded length and decided to go with a set of Gorilla Automotive 45038BC-20 Black 12mmx1.50 Forged Steel lug nuts.

It's helpful to have a reasonable manual to do this type of work... In my case I acquired a electronic copy of the Mazda Service Manual which provides assembly/disassembly pictures like this (which include the recommended torque specifications). So I removed the knuckles from the rear subframe to replace the studs and wheel bearings.


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This is an example of the diagrams in the Mazda service manual I had access to. As stated, it provides an illustration of how each of the parts come apart and go back together and identifies all assembly torque levels for each part. With that said, youtube has become a wonderful resource for people that haven't done this type of work before. Of course critical thinking is required to filter through the chaff while retaining the wheat.
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When pressing out hardware... 1) You need a blank that is the right size (matched to the part your pressing out) and 2) you need to be able the support the stationary hardware while limiting residual damage. This take some experimentation... but after some thought and jiggling, rotating, balancing, and supporting the axle hub is pressed out of the knuckle. This brings with it the center race of the wheel bearing. Note: The C-clip can't be removed as it is trapped by the hub. As a result, the wheel bearing is destroyed during this process. Additionally, you need to remove the center race from the hub shaft and the main bearing hardware from the knuckle with additional press operations. Different size blanks are needed for each of these operations.
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Closeup view of the wheel hub. Note the rust buildup on the spline. This came back to bite me later. After the wheel hub was removed I pressed out each of the wheel studs. and installed the ARP studs after cleaning the hub surfaces. I should have spent some time cleaning up the hub internal splines at this time. Later this would cost me.
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Wheel side view of the reassembled wheel hub and knuckle assembly. I tried to clean up most of this hardware before it went back together. I wasn't working to a clock and had the time to try to clean things up. While cleaning the dust shields, I also did my best to return them to a round condition and removed the superficial dents and damage caused by my inexperienced press operations.
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This is the back side of the wheel hub and knuckle assembly. Note that the bearing is pressed fully back into the knuckle first using the outer bearing contact surface with full support across the bearing. The C-clip is installed. Then the back of the bearing is supported as the hub is pressed back in.

Note: I worked on one side of the subframe at a time so I would have an unmodified example of how things were originally configured to use as an example if/when there were questions during reassembly.

So, now the screw-up. When reassembling the axle into the newly installed knuckle and axle hub... I couldn't get the axle to cleanly slide into the splined joint. I tried a half a dozen times to make this work, rotating the hub assembly to clock the spline links... but it wouldn't go together. So, being a newby at this and assuming that bigger is better... I proceeded to try and force the two parts together with the help of a mildly persuasive 2 lb mallet. Yes, you've guessed right, after thinking about what I'd done (which wasn't really successful) I went out and rotated the wheel hub to find that I had completely trashed my new bearing.

After ordering a new bearing and repeating the pressing operations a second time... I carefully took a micro file and cleaned up the splines on the axle and the hub. Surprise, surprise once cleaned up, I could easily push the axle spline through the wheel hub while still having positive engagement of the spline surface. (Moral: Might doesn't always make right).

The wheel bearings I used in my rear wheel hubs were National (511039) purchased from RockAuto. As I was comparing these to the wheel bearings in my car I found that they had the exact same marking on the observable faces. I installed the bearings oriented in the same direction as the originals came out.

Replacing the differential was one of the next tasks. Andrew provides a nice example video illustrating how to complete this operation as a part of his LFX swap package. In my case, I wasn't too worried about trying to minimize costs and I wanted to end up with a car I could drive aggressively. So, I purchased Andrew's Total Swap Kit, the track package, the part 1 & 2 stainless steel exhaust with Cats, the AC line package (because it's hot in AZ), the Wilwood superlite front brake calipers, his fairly comprehensive LFX swap disassembly and reassembly videos and a set of Bilstein B16 PSS9 coilovers. This was a big ticket, but it's also a huge kick start for me to make this swap happen. Later, after trading some emails with Andrew I also chose to his newer baffled oil pan (which reduces the chance of oil starvation when exposed to long duration high G maneuvers during track driving).
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Original RX8 differential, half shafts, propeller/drive shaft, and power plant frame after removal from the car. After a request from Andrew, I cut the half shafts apart with a cutoff wheel and shipped them back to him for conversion to a hybrid drive shaft configuration (GM splines at the differential and Mazda splines at the wheel hub).
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I acquired a 2015 Camaro Carrier Assembly/Differential (3.27 Gear Set) from LKQ with 80k miles on it (would have liked less - but it's what I found). Based on Andrews instructions I drilled out the drivers side mount bushing rubber section and removed it. Then I removed the existing bushing sleeve by hack sawing through 90% of the sleeve and then persuading it to leave with a punch and a mallet.
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As you can see the sleeve looks a bit worse for the wear. Here is where you can have some fun with a mallet/hammer.

I also replaced the rear axle shaft seals on both sides of the differential with GM Genuine Part Number 291-338 (purchased from RockAuto) prior to assembly into the rear subframe.

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As shown here, the normal passenger side diff mount has been removed. Those of you that are detail oriented will notice additional cut marks in this section of the mount. So, here I'll suggest... measure twice and cut once. I thought I had aligned my cut properly only to realize I was not quite in the right place. Fortunately, no-one notices this faux pas. So don't spread it around. Then I added the poly bushings provided in Andrews kit. The pins on the aluminum bar extending from the left mount provide the alignment for the holes that you need to drill through the front of the subframe. With this configuration it would be hard to screw this up. It's a well designed process.
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This picture shows the mounting of the front of the Diff to the rear subframe after holes have been drilled through the subframe. The alignment pins and aluminum cover plate make it easy to get this alignment correct. Note: I think the Andrew has modified his kit to potentially use an alternative stronger differential which has a different mount configuration. However, it looks equally straightforward in terms of installation work. Here you can see m first cut error. I became worried that I would cut into the wall of the diff forward snout. Fortunately this mistake is just a shoulder shrug.
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Top down view of the diff mounted in the subframe. In this image you can see the new diff rear cover (provided in the kit) which ties right into the Mazda diff rear mounts. Additionally, you can see the front mount fixed to the front of the subframe. This fit like a glove. If you didn't know better, it would look like it is original equipment hardware (minus my weight saving efforts).
.

Here is a final picture of the Diff from the rear of the subframe. Note: I thought about changing out the diff gear set before I put it in the car. However, when I looked at speed versus engine rpm for each gear, I decided this was a pretty good fit for the autocross driving I do. In most cases I can drive in 1st and 2nd for an entire autocross run. If I switch to the 3.45 or 3.91 gear set, I will definitely be required to make additional gear shifts at various stages of the autocross courses we run. If / when i migrate to road track racing, I will likely revisit this option.
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The subframe has been slightly cleaned and the billet aluminum diff rear cover with nice heat sink fins dresses up the diff nicely. Again these roller carts were great to hold and move these subframes around easily.

Just added a quick cross link here: TeamRX8 has pointed out that Andrew has developed another differential option for this car. If your interested you might look here https://www.rx8club.com/non-rotary-s...ion-kit-274355


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At this point I elected to replace the rear upper and lower control arms with spherical bearing adjustable control arms. At Andrew's suggestion I looked at Phase 2 Motortrend Inc who makes the control arms shown here. This gave me a lot more control over toe and camber for the rear suspension and allows a wider range of ride height adjustment while keeping wheel alignment in a reasonable range. I know that some people feel that the RX8 suspension is very good stock and I tend to agree with this. However, I wanted to see how the car behaved with some of the remaining compliance removed. Those of you who have been paying attention will also notice that I have not replaced to subframe mount bushings. I didn't want to wrestle with these at this stage of the build and ended up assembling the rear frame back into the car without swapping those out. I do have a set of poly bushings that I could install if I ever decide to pull the rear subframe again. Right now however, I'm not experienced enough to say that I really need them. I need to get more experience driving fast before I make a decision to change the current configuration. I will say that the spherical bearing control arms with the Bilsteins at medium ride height with max stiffness on compression and rebound is a pretty harsh ride on the street. I like it on he autocross track but need to try a variety of other options to decide what works best for me.
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In these photos you can see the modified/hybrid half shafts installed between the diff and the wheel hub. Later, I also purchased a set of front and rear spherical bearing anti-sway bar end links. When putting this hardware together I was no longer able to include the headlight leveling sensors. This really isn't a problem for me in AZ. It just points the head lights toward the bottom of the forward field of view which is adequate.

Hey, That is a very nicely documented process of the Keisler conversion. I appreciate that you took the time to document all this. Please keep it coming. ;-)

Thanks for the feedback. My plan is to continue through my history up to the car as it currently exists today. However, I haven't always taken all of the photos I should have. I will try to insert other photos and information where I can to supplement the photos I've taken. This will likely take a few weeks of nibbling away at the history. I'm glad that your finding it useful/entertaining.

Once I had the rear subframe back together, it was time to install it back in the car. To complete this process, a friend and I balanced the subframe assembly on my low profile hydraulic jack with a piece of 2x8 sandwiched between the diff and the jack lift arm. We then supported one side to hold the assembly mostly level and slowly raised the assembly with the jack.As we raised the subframe, we moved and aligned the subframe with the chassis subframe alignment/mounting pins. Those alignment pins do a pretty good job of helping you reinstall the subframe in the correct location. There was a bit of jiggling and nudging to get the subframe to the right position... then some extra manual lifting to get all the pins engaged and allow the subframe to slide smoothly up to make contact with the chassis. Once the subframe was in complete but soft contact with the chassis, we verified that all of the subframe mounting bolt holes were centered. Once satisfied, we installed the mounting hardware, washers, bolts and nuts depending on the location. All of the mounting hardware was installed with blue loctite and then torqued to the Mazda service manual torque spec.

I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't take more pictures of this process to help illustrate the process. The following is the only picture that I have... which shows the rear drivers side wheel well looking across the underside of the chassis after the subframe was removed but before the original coilover assembly was removed
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Rear suspension removed (driver's side wheel well viewing across chassis). As you can see, there are four subframe alignment pins (two on each side). As shown in this photo, we reinstalled the mounting hardware loosely on the pins they were removed from to reduce confusion about where hardware goes during reassembly. While not visible in this picture there are also subframe bolts that attach the subframe to the chassis on the flat section of the chassis forward of the coilover in this picture. Other observations; the two holes through the chassis into the trunk are for the wheel speed sensor cable and rear highlight leveling sensor. You obviously need to remove these prior to subframe removal and reinstall them after the subframe is back in the car. Also visible in this view is the green rubber glove finger I used to try and prevent the brake fluid from leaking from the open brake line. We were not entirely successful keeping these lines from leaking. It would have been better to assume that these would leak and place a proper pan underneath it to catch the fluid. As it was, I ended up wiping this down regularly and finally put plastic catch tubs under the fittings anyway. However, the covers were helpful to ensure that we didn't accidentally push crude into the open rear brake lines.

To gain access to the coilover mounts and undercarriage wiring, we removed the truck liners and the rear bumper and lights as the following pictures show. This helped with exhaust and subframe removal
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Rear of the car with the bumper and tail lights removed.
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Passenger side trunk interior with finish trim panels removed. The black tube with brass trim at the top is the passenger side coilover location and mounting bracket. My car had one of the optional spare tires with the mounting bar between the rear shock towers. I sold this because I never had a spare tire in my 2004 RX8 for the 14 years I drove it (so no perceived need) and I didn't want the weight and loss of space in the trunk.
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Driver side view of the trunk interior with finish trim panels removed. Those of you that are studying this picture will notice the extra wire connector above and to the left of the shock mount. That connector is for the headlight leveling sensor that is mounted on the drivers side lower rear suspension arm.
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Most of the truck trim panels including the tail lights, tire changing tool kit, and rear/side interior trim panels. While some of the plastic fittings used to secure these panels were ok. I ended up buying a whole bunch of the various fittings for the car by looking them up in the Mazda parts catalog and finding a vendor for them www.auveco.com. Here are some pictures with the part number call-outs. Note: I had to find a part number translation to order the correct parts.

Auveco Part Number 19315 Mazda Part Number 56-145C Mud Guard, Clip Front and Rear Fender Skirts
Auveco Part Number 21024 Mazda Part Number 68-865Q Trunk liner fastener
Auveco Part Number 21112 Mazda Part Number 68-865E Trunk liner fastener
Auveco Part Number 21663 Mazda Part Number 50-038A Front bumper rivet
Auveco Part Number 20755 Mazda Part Number 50-022B Front and rear bump fastener
Auveco Part Number 16843 Mazda Part Number 50-052H, 50-233C Front and rear bumper fastener.


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RX8 trunk retainer and clip part number call-outs from illustrated parts catalog
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RX8 front bumper retainer and clip part number call-outs from illustrated parts catalog
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RX8 front fender liner retainer and clip part number call-outs from illustrated parts catalog
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RX8 front undercover and rear fender liner retainer and clip part number call-outs from illustrated parts catalog
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...4c62a3e679.jpg
RX8 rear bumper retainer and clip part number call-outs from illustrated parts catalog

Moving on to the front of the car. I purchased a 2015 LFX with 38k miles on it, removed from a Cadillac XTS, from American Auto Recycling. The pictures below show the condition of the engine when I acquired it. As is often the case with these types of purchases, the recycling shop has stripped off every possible part that they could remove from the engine. That results in a requirement to purchase a lot of parts to dress this engine prior to installation in the car. Here is a listing of the parts I purchased to dress the engine:

1. AC Delco Starter Motor (12544788) - RockAuto
2. AC Delco Oil Pressure Sensor (12674782) - RockAuto
3. Four Seasons Thermostat Housing (86005) - RockAuto
4. GM Genuine A/C Compressor ( 15-22273) - RockAuto
5. GM Genuine Alternator Bracket (12612734) - RockAuto
6. GM Genuine Intake Manifold (12642700) - RockAuto
7. GM Genuine Intake Manifold Gasket (12691199) - RockAuto
8. AC Delco Belt Tensioner (38397) - RockAuto
9. AC Delco Fuel Injection Pressure Sensor (12635273) - RockAuto
10. LUK Clutch Kit (04-262) - RockAuto
11. Alternator (Used) - American Auto Recycling

Given the number of part I purchased, it would have been nice to have found a fully dressed LFX in a Camaro configuration. However, just the engine cost is about twice the price of the engine I purchased and your would still have to purchase most of the parts listed above. Add to this the desire to find an engine with fairly low mileage at this point in time and there may not be many options.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...ff3b2b364c.jpg
Front view of Cadillac XTS version of 2105 LFX. Note: This is the transverse mounted front drive configuration of the engine. So, I was required to convert it to the longitudinal mounted configuration to work in this engine swap.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...c1108fcbcc.jpg
Rear view of the engine.

As mentioned previously I purchased Andrews redesigned oil pan for this build. It is a really nice part and like most parts he provided in his kit, it looked good, fit well, and facilitated straightforward assembly. The new part is a very nice casting which eliminates all welds to a modified oil pan and makes for a more professional finished look. However, the real benefit of this new oil pan is the internal baffling designed to keep oil at the pump pickup even during sustained high g maneuvers. He is some pictures Andrew provided which illustrate the new oil pan design
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...0c92bccdf2.jpg
Andrew's new oil pan showing oil retention region and baffling.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...8825bfff44.jpg
Andrew's new oil pan showing oil retention region and baffling.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...9b68a73c6a.jpg
Andrew's new oil pan showing oil retention region and baffling.

To prepare the engine, the first thing I did was remove the XTS intake manifold. This of course gave me access to the intake valves and like Andrew predicted, even with only 38k miles on the engine, there was already fairly significant oil/carbon debris built up in the valve stems. So, I headed down the path of walnut blasting these with the really cheap walnut blasting gun (Part # 95793) sold by Harbor Freight. With 90 psi and plenty of airflow capacity from my air compressor I couldn't get this to flow well and it was clear that I was going to have walnut shell bits all over everything. Since by this time I had also removed the valve covers, I didn't want to potentially contaminate other engine hardware with these. So, I decided to go another route... I chose to manually clean the valves with Berryman B-12 Chemtool. Prior to spraying this into the intake valve ports, I made sure that the valves were completely closed. Then I literally filled the entire port with chem tool. I let this mixture sit in the port for some time I think 10-15 minutes and them used a slow speed drill with a brass brush on it to agitate and scrub the port wall, valve stem, and back side of the valve head. Having completed this for a few minutes on each valve port, I used a hand vacuum pump to remove the majority of the residual Chemtool. In all but one of the valve ports, one pass was all that was required to get the valves cleaned up pretty well. I think you can do a better job with a properly configured walnut blasting system and a well trained operator. However, I was satisfied that the Chemtool process significantly reduced the intake valve deposits and likely would improve inlet airflow. I've taken a view pictures of the before process after the intake was removed. Unfortunately I did not take after pictures of the intake valves after I was finished cleaning them. There a number of youtube videos out there which describe and illustrate this cleaning process.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...1639911142.jpg
Top down view of the intake ports after the intake has been removed from the engine. The left side of this picture shows the high pressure fuel pump and supply tubing. Parts of this were replaced to configure the engine like the Camaro. The front of the engine is on the right side of the picture.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...afb74f0a43.jpg
Trying to get a better picture into the #3 cylinder intake valves
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...c02c4c2484.jpg
Trying to get a better picture into the #5 cylinder intake valves. Note: The valves all had a fairly consistent level of debris and buildup on the valve stems and on the back of the valve heads.

Love the build and pain staking level of detailed documentation. Gonna grab a six pack and sit back to read all of this 👍.

Thanks R3MIX. It was a new experience for me to go through this engine swap process. I'm hoping that those people who take the time to read through this can find something worth-while from the time they spend reading it. It appears now that I was not always very diligent taking photos of the process. I've made many mistakes doing this work and hope to pass those along so others can avoid them. I'll try to tell the story in a way that is entertaining and informative.

Having done many swaps in my years I've never taken enough pictures or documented enough points about them assuming certain aspects to be common knowledge or easily understood. With each project you get better and more adept at planning and seeing potential issues or pitfalls in advance. All the headache, blood sweat and tears only ever seen to show some worth on the "next one" lol.

The mistakes are what you grow from and I for one have learned you never know what tiny bit of info you might include or omit for whatever reason, has someone on the other side of the world digging through threads on some backwater forum using Google translate at 3am to figure something out. Ask me how I know 🤣

If you don't mind answering, what is your estimated cost for the swap, not including the vehicle cost.

SparklingFresca,
At the risk of scaring some people away, I'll give you the abbreviated complete rundown of my costs. However, I will also point out that I think Andrew's cost summary for the builder that uses his kit is a pretty good starting point if you don't put in all of the bells and whistles I did and if you buy less of the options Andrew has put together for a fair price. A comparison of his price estimates and my costs:

(Andrews Estimate) ------ My Costs --- Sorry I haven't figure out how to align simple tables here... looked good but spaces removed during upload
Good Condition RX8 roller: ($500- $2000) ------ $1500 minus ($500 engine & $350 for exhaust I sold)
Used drive train components: ($1500 - $3000) ------ $3300 engine, diff, trans, and all engine accessories including conversion from XTS to Camaro configuration
LFX Totality Swap Kit: ($8000) ------ $8000 lots of stuff here (suggest if your really interested going to Andrew's web site https://www.keislerautomation.com/ and look at component brochure
Custom Exhaust ($200 - $1200) ------ $1410 Andrews - downpipes, high flow cats, y-pipe, midpipe (875) and axle back muffler and dressed tail pipes (535)
V1 Track Package ($1000) ------ $1000 Andrew has transitioned this to V2 Track Package (now $1250)

Basic build ($11200-$15200) ------ $15210 Assuming you use Andrews packages like I did.

Additional Options I added
$300 Andrews AC line package
$600 Wilwood front superlight 4 piston calipers through Andrew
$1450 Bilstein B16 PSS9 Coilovers through Andrew
$2873 Enkei RPF1 Wheels 18x10, Yokohama Advan A052 265x35R18 Tires - from discount tire
$1553 Phase 2 Motortrend Inc front upper and rear spherical bearing control arms, ARP wheel studs, and Gorilla Forged Steel lug nuts

Intermediate cost: $21986

All the other small stuff adds up $1822 Clips, Oils, bolts, nuts, Paints, Powder Coating, Thread locker, gasket maker, fasteners, catch can, TPMS sensors, shift knob and boot, etc

Current real price for my car $23807 (includes every cost for parts, hardware, consumables, and a few minor services)

Some might say... wow the car will never be worth that... my reply is that I had the pleasure of doing all the work myself, I learned a hell of a lot completing the swap, and I have a really fun car to drive and race to boot. So, to me, the process was definitely worth the time, money, and effort to complete the research, chase down the parts, work through the trials and tribulations to end up with what I currently have.

Other people are bound to have different options, could I have done things cheaper??? without a doubt... however that wasn't my path.

I learned a very long time ago that any dollar spent on a car besides insurance and gas is a waste of money you'll never get back. With that said I've never cared about what it's worth to someone else now or later. Build it for you to your standards and enjoy it. You can always make more money but you can't always create more time or experiences with something you've built.

I've got roughly the same amount in my 2jz setup and it's completely stock, twins and all. I definitely could have done things differently or cheaper in hindsight but who cares? I enjoy it as much as I can and plan to spend much more very soon lol.

On another note, how's your ride with all those solid bushings and arms? I've got front uppers and some of the rear arms with bc coils and it rides decent enough but idk after going full solid.

Also what's your opinion on Andrews wildwood setup?

So, I never got any good pictures of the intake valves after manually cleaning them with the B16 Clemtool. So, here is the best picture I have.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...18e77b65d0.jpg
I think this is cylinder #5 after cleaning. Sorry for the terrible picture quality.

To reduce the rate that I foul intake valves when driving the swapped car, I purchased an Elite Engineering catch can for a gen 5 Camaro (Part Number CC302R-LFX-RH-C1B). We went through a number of iterations with them before we got the order correct. The first one I received did not have the mounting holes machined into the case, and the second did not include the filter container and filter media in the top of the catch can. However, they continued to work with me and made things right. So, all this cost me was some additional time and a few emails and photos. I'll talk a bit more about this when I show how/where this was installed in the engine bay.

Next I had removed the valve covers to get a look at the overhead cams and bearing. Additionally, since I had these removed I wanted to clean them up and dress them up with some wrinkle paint. So, I pulled off the fiber blankets that normally top the valve covers and used white scotchbrite pads to clean up and lightly abrade the surface to prepare for the wrinkle paint. I chose the white pads because these provide the mildest abrasion of the aluminum valve covers. I chased down a listing of scotchbrite abrasion/grit levels from 3M and provide it here for people that might be interested

3M Scotch Brite Nylon Pads:
7445 - White pad, called Light Duty Cleansing - (1000) 1200-1500 grit
7448 - Light Grey, called Ultra Fine Hand - (600-800) 800 grit.
6448 - Green (?), called Light Duty Hand Pad - (600) 600 grit
7447 - Maroon pad, called General Purpose Hand - (320-400) 320 grit
6444 - Brown pad, called Extra Duty Hand - (280-320) 240 grit
7446 - Dark Grey pad, called Blending Pad (180-220) 150 grit
7440 - Tan pad, called Heavy Duty Hand Pad - (120-150) 60(?)
Blue Scotch-Brite is considered to be about 1000 grit.
(The value inside the parentheses is directly from 3M.)

Once completed I taped off the valve covers, laid plastic across the garage floor, stacked up the valve covers on top of some open boxes and proceeded to make four passes across the valve covers length wise, width wise, top to bottom, left to right, bottom to top, and right to left. By the time I was done I realized that there was more over-spray than I expected (should have been wearing better PP gear, should have moved more stuff away from the paint area, and should have covered more of the garage floor). After finishing this wrinkle paint process for the first time... I was not happy at all with the results. I probably violated all of the rules of painting. Likely was not the same distance from the surface all the time, didn't account well for all the different surface faces, tried to spot fill during the process for areas I thought were too light, etc.

Here are a couple pictures of the results I didn't like...
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...21b9d0ca67.jpg
Driver's side valve cover as is plain from the pictures, the wrinkle effect is not even vaguely uniform or consistent.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...0dd7de2d97.jpg
Passenger side valve cover had the same problems as the driver's side. So, in short order I went a bought a few containers of paint stripper and stripped these back to bare metal
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...c83c88069d.jpg
Both driver's and passenger's valve covers after I stripped off the wrinkle paint. At this point I figured out how to removed the oil fill tube, the PCV valve and removed all of the oil seals. Then I took the valve covers to a local power coating company and had them power coated.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...765d326c3c.jpg
I got some color swatches and laid them down on a fender for comparison. While the last swatch was likely a better match of the color, I chose the red winkle finish for the valves cover power coat.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...f2dcf71517.jpg
Passenger side valve cover as it cam back from power coat. Note: Even though the masked these off somewhat, there was some over-spray cleanup necessary for me to be happy with them.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...675d72221a.jpg
Driver side valve covers after power coating. Needless to say, I am much happier with the power coat finish and even though it cost more, I think it will weather use in the engine bay much better than the wrinkle paint I started with.

One additional comment, care should be taken to pay real attention to the orientation of the seals which seal the spark plug cavities in the valve covers, these can be installed either direction and only one of them is correct. After a brief false start, I went back and looked at pictures of these to make sure I put them in properly. Getting this wrong can easily result in oil soaked spark plugs and a requirement for valve cover removal and new seal swap. Pictures prior to disassembly are a good way to get this right... assuming nobody before you has mucked it up.

I wish I had taken pictures of the cams and vale train when I had the valve covers off. The entire top of the head was very clean with a light covering of clean oil, there was little to no staining of the interior of the valve cover or the cams, valve lobes, or rocker assemblies. This gave me a good feeling about the health of the engine and was at least an indication that the engine had received regular maintenance.

r3mix. The car has much more vibration and noise than it originally had. No surprise there. I am also running the coilovers at the stiffest compression and rebound setting which makes the ride on the harsh side of things. While racing I like the very stiff suspension and the limited body roll. With that said, on the street where I drive the rest of the time, I find myself wanting to soften things up a bit. I'm one of those people that dislikes buzzing and rattling in cars and of course with this suspension it is somewhat the cost of doing business. I haven't started chasing the biggest offenders yet, but that day is approaching. One plus side for me is that I can switch to my M4 which gives me a different type of power and driving characteristic when I want a softer ride on the street (still fun though).

I like the change to the Wilwood calipers. They give me good preliminary bite but their not so aggressive that it has dramatically changed the behavior of the breaking system. I am using the stock stability control module and antilock braking system and the system behaves nicely even when driving at the limit. Note: I driven it in autocross sessions but not on the road track yet. So, I haven't really pushed enough heat into the system to have brake fade problems. I'm sure when I get it out on the track I will experience brake fade when driving hard. I still got lots to learn and I think the car has room to grow with me.

I'm the same way with rattling and buzzing etc. I'm running higher spring rates for various reasons such as a boat anchor engine lol. 12k front and 10k rear. Probably could have gotten away with 10/8 but whatever, rides well enough all things considered. I'll probably never use my brakes to the same degree since I just daily it with spirited driving every so often. The OEM brake setup is ok but clearly doesn't like the weight imo.

Thanks for the pricing breakdown, that is very helpful. Are you trying to aim higher than the 300whp estimates? I've been down the lfx rabbithole and built up a parts list to aim for 350whp, unfortunately the LFX tuning scene is weak up in the north east. There might be some Australian tuners who do remote tuning, the lfx scene seems to be most active down there.

I was focused on completing the swap instead of making meaningful changes in the engine performance levels. However with that said, I did opt for the high flow cat configuration of exhaust that Andrew offers as an option. Picture provided below.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...0fd94a03c3.jpg
Y-pipe and mid-pipe exhaust configuration offered by Andrew as an optional product.

In addition to that, I purchased one of the JacFab LaminatorFX inlet cavity fillers and modified stock inlet by removing airflow waffle and grinding down the resulting nubs. Their testing indicated that they could increase the inlet flow levels by as much as 17% with this modification. The cost of the mod was less than $100. The youtube video that describes this system can be found at the following link:
Not sure if they are still selling these.

I haven't had the car tuned yet. I've spent some time looking for dyno-tuners locally. This has led to a wide range of prices ($500 - $1500) with limited references I can draw upon to be confident with the product I'll get. At this point the car is running reasonably well. However, I do still have plans to tune it. Like you I have found that there are less options relative to tuning for the LFX configuration. More effort appears to have been placed on the V8 cousin (no surprise).

After installing the new seals, bolt hole grommets, and replacing the valve cover gaskets, I was ready to reinstall the valve covers. Note: You will need to apply a couple small dabs of RTV sealant at the joints between the timing chain cover and the forward edge of the cylinder head. I used "TheRightStuff" rtv for all of the RTV-based sealing requirements I had (new back cover on differential, oil pan, sealing on valve cover joints, etc).

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...95dc9326e6.png
Diagram showing valve cover tightening sequence and at the top one of the interface points to apply RTV sealant is pointed out. Bolts should be tightened to 89 inch pounds (it might be prudent to torque these in two steps 44 in-lbs followed by 89 in-lbs but I think i completed this in one step without later incidents). Recall these are aluminum heads, it is not necessary or desirable to over-torque these bolts. I did however, chase these threads before reinstalling the valve covers.I think this specific picture is for the LLT version of this engine but believe that the same sequence and tightening pattern applies to the LFX.

The next order of business was to pull the LFX oil pan and replace it with the modified oil pan provided in the LFX Swap Kit by Andrew. I'll point out again that as a part of the kit Andrew provides 15 detailed videos that walk through much of the engine swap process. This is in addition to the many parts Andrew has developed for the kit. Because of my poor documentation of the oil pan removal and replacement, I've chosen to pull a few still pictures from one of these kit videos which capture the high points of this process. The first order of business was to recognize that you are required to pull the harmonic balance pulley in order to pull the oil pan, as the three bolts which pull the oil pan up against the bottom of the timing chain cover are secured from the front of the timing cover. While two of those bolts are easily reachable, the one in the center is located directly behind the harmonic balance pulley. Fortunately, this pulley it (1- keyed, and 2-comes off easily with a proper puller). I was able to get a three arm puller from Autozone, pull and reinstall the harmonic balance pulley without having to buy this puller.https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...1156f48601.jpg
Harmonic balance pulley with mounting bolt removed prior to applying puller. Note: While the center bolt partially hidden just below the pulley looks like you might be able to sneek it out... you can't. This pulley must be removed to pull the oil pan. Notice the keyway on the pulley that provides alignment for reassembly.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...8427e5ea76.jpg
Prior to installing the puller, you will want to reinstall just the mounting bolt (or equivalent sized bolt to act as a anchor for the center puller bolt to press against. Otherwise you might damage the threads on the crank. Then you can just back out the pulley with the puller.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...4c582cb7ee.jpg
There are 13 mm bolts which secure the bottom of the oil pan and a couple of 10 mm long bolts that secure the back of the oil pan. Finally, you have to remove the three 13 mm bolts that secure the front of the oil pan through the timing belt cover.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...2cd07e0962.jpg
Once all of the bolts, securing the oil pan, have been removed; you can use the reliefs along the side of the oil pan to release the RTV sealant holding the oil pan to the bottom of the block
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...4ed330f1e5.jpg
Once you've released the original oil pan, you can begin to clean up the oil pan mating surface. One thing to note: There are two alignment pins which help to locate the oil pan with the bottom of the engine block. It is possible that one or more of these pins will stay with the oil pan cover rather than remaining in the block. So, check to make sure to remove any alignment pins which stayed with the old pan and reinstall them in the proper locations on the bottom of the block.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...6f3e1c45ea.jpg
As suggested in the swap videos, it is best to turn the engine over so that the block mating surface is pointed toward the ground before you remove/clean up the old residual RTV that has stayed attached to the bottom of the block. This is also a good time to use a thread chaser to clean up all of the bolt holes to make reassembly easier.

Note: You don't need to clean up the old RTV on the original oil pan surface because you will not be reinstalling the old oil pan. Andrew includes a new modified oil pan (which is the reason we are doing this). I decided to buy the newer modified baffle oil pan that Andrew designed to ensure that oil returned to the oil pan was primarily store in a confined region around the oil pickup tube. This new part is a completely new casting which resulted in a really nice part which bolts up directly to the LFX block. There were no fitment issues with this new part. Every bolt hole lined up exactly and since the new part is a complete casting, there are no cut and welded surfaces. Once installed it looks like the engine came that way from the factory.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...40cb09ad6f.jpg
Once the oil pan and block mating surfaces have been cleaned on any old RTV, I made sure to clean the surfaces with some brake cleaner and a mild scrubbing with a white scotchbrite pad. Then I used THE Right Stuff RTV along the new oil pan mating surfaces. Note that you do not want to apply RTV to the narrow ridge along the front of the oil pan. It is actually the front of this region of the oil pan which mates to the timing cover. The oil pan in this picture is the older oil pan design Andrew provided in the earlier kits.The newer cast oil pan I used required an additional purchase cost due to the added design and manufacturing expense. The price bump was minor and the new cast oil pan is really nice. I would buy it again.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...ed584934df.jpg
This picture shows application of new RTV to the mating surface of the timing cover. Note: You want to add small dabs of RTV at the mating interface between the timing cover and the bottom of the block.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...7767d0fa51.jpg
You also want to add small dabs of RTV at the rear seal interfaces at the back of the block to ensure that these locations do not leak oil after reassembly.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...7fd17a7c6e.jpg
Once the RTV is applied to all the mating surfaces, you want to carefully locate the new oil pan relative to the engine block and exposed rear of the timing cover. Tipping the front of the new oil pan down like this enables more positive engagement of the front of the pan with the read of the timing cover. Once contact is made, rotate the new oil pan down to engage the locator pins in the block. Then proceed to hand install and start all of the oil pan bolts. Again, the bottom bolts are 13mm, there are two long 10 mm bolts which secure the pan to the rear cover, and three 13 mm bolts which secure the timing cover to the front of the new oil pan. All of the 13mm bolts are torqued to 18 ftlbs while the 10mm bolts are torqued to 8 ftlbs. The tightening sequence for the bottom bolts is that you should start in the center of the oil pan and progressively work you way toward the front and rear regularly swapping sides of the oil pan as you move forward and aft on the oil pan.

When you are installing the front three 13mm bolts which secure the timing cover to the new oil pan, recognize that we will be adding the trigger wheel sensing bracket to the front of the timing cover as is illustrated in the following picture.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...b72a15a1e5.jpg
Illustration of trigger wheel sensor bracket mounted in it's proper position on the bottom front of the timing cover. There may be different versions of this bracket which look slightly different. Andrew has continued to improve and modify some of the kit hardware as he learns new lessons during his engine swaps.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...2c651ff7be.jpg
This is a picture of the trigger wheel mounting hardware. As shown here, Andrew includes all of the bolts necessary to complete the engine swap activities. This new piece replaces the bolt and washer that would normally secure the harmonic balance pully to the front of the crank shaft.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...9d3bf7ffef.jpg
During the original engine disassembly and removal, you want to make sure you retain the phonic/trigger wheel from the original engine and the magnetic induction coil pickup used to sense the wheel rotation. This information is used by the car to manage many engine and display operations. By retaining and installing these, all of the display information and fuel management controlled by the car computers work properly. I put this image in here because I thought the trigger wheel hole pattern was not aligned with the trigger wheel mounting hardware. At first glance, the hole layout appears to be symmetric... however, it isn't. You need to rotate this trigger wheel and possible flip it until you get it to properly line up with the kit trigger wheel adapter hardware. It will only fit one way. So, "do not" drill out new holes to "make it fit". This is a really bad idea. Fortunately, I came to the proper conclusions about this before I decided to drill holes myself. However, I did spend some time thinking about this before I got to the correct solution.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...45cfa4c096.jpg
View of the engine with new oil pan, trigger wheel sensor bracket and harmonic balance pulley properly installed. Again, this is not the oil pan on my car because I have borrowed this image from one of Andrews swap videos.

During the oil pan change process I thought I would be smart and replace the bottom bolt that required me to pull the harmonic balance pulley with a stud that would allow me to use a nut in it's place. So, that is what I did. The picture below is the outcome of that process and why I would recommend that you not head down this faulty path. I tried to be smart about this and made sure that the stud I used was shorter than the existing bolt. However, as you can see in the photo, once the harmonic balance pulley was reinstalled, it was a hairs width away from the new stud ( I obviously got the stud length a bit too long). Amateur mistake. But worse than this, after I proceeded to carefully grind off the extra length of the stud (right up to the face of the nut). I realized that the whole process was doomed from the start because there is not enough room to back the nut off and clear the back of the harmonic balance pulley. So, while I thought this was a good idea... it wasn't. Again amateur mistake. I should have measured this clearance before disassembly to ensure the proposed change could work.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...596fddd67f.jpg
Picture of harmonic balance pulley after being reinstalled. As is clearly visible in this picture, the stud I used to replace the original bolt was very close to the balance pulley. To fix this clearance problem I carefully cutoff the end of the stud right at the face of the new nut with a cutoff wheel. It was apparent after the cutoff process that I still didn't have clearance to remove the offending nut. In addition to this, if I ever need to remove this stud, to get the oil pan out... I may have fun removing it. Guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. If I get there again, I will go back to the original bolt at this location. Lessons learned.

Seriously bro, Andrew needs to hire you to write a comprehensive guide for DIY customers to include with the package. Good stuff 👍

Thanks for the positive feedback r3mix. Andrew's videos are a huge assist to getting this swap done. However, there are always some things that sneak into the mix that you have to work through yourself. I'm trying to document both while pointing out the things that worked well and the bits I had trouble with. The target is to help other people that decide to go down this path. Much of this is information I would have liked to have when I started the process. With that said, a lot of the learning is driven home by the search, consolidation, and implementation of what you think you now know.

Time to move onto the front subframe modifications:
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...e9142e2c0e.jpg
I replaced the following components on the front subframe as shown in this photo, the wheel studs, the front rotors, and the brake calipers. Note: I think the RX8 came a couple different configurations of front rotor sizes 11.9" or the 12.7". I believe the 12.7" rotor came with the sport suspension. In many earlier automatic RX8 configurations the car came with the 11.9" rotors. You really don't want these on your car. The 2006 Automatic that I bought came with the 12.7" rotors which is what you need to use the Wilwood caliper in your swap. As a side note, the 2006 automatic car also came with the 6 port engine configuration (but the engine was limited to 7500 rpm in software. I think this was due to the reduced speed tolerance of the automatic transmission.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...d9735c27ff.jpg
There is no requirement to press out the front wheel bearings to replace the front wheel studs. The hub can be removed with four bolts and the bearing assembly comes with it. However, there is no requirement to remove the hub. Instead, I just pressed out the studs with a ball joint separator and the new studs can be pulled through the hub with a Lisle stud installer and a impact wrench. Also shown in this picture is the adapter bracket used to mount the new Wilwood superlite caliper to the existing wheel hub. While the original front upper control arm is shown in this picture, these were later replaced with a new set of upper control arms from Phase2motortrend.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...3346a71c2f.jpg
This is a photo of the ball joint separator tool I used to press the original studs out of the front wheel hubs. I purchased this from Harbor Freight and while some folks have had issues with theirs, this tool worked exactly as intended for my application. The wheel studs pressed out with no issues at all.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...12f2312e21.jpg
This is a picture of the Lisle 22800 wheel stud installer. I purchased mine from Amazon. Again, I found this to work very nicely. I can't remember but I think I used some additional washers between this and the wheel hub to enable me to use the original wheel lugs to pull the extended length studs into the wheel hubs.

Additional subframe modifications include:Relocation and adjustment of the steer rack assembly is provided in the following pictures.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...64fcff0f8c.jpg
After removal of the existing steering rack assembly, the spacer supplied with the kit is attached to the existing steering rack mounting location. Note: The straight spacer is used on the drivers side of the front subframe. These bolts are torqued to 70 ftlbs.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...b4ee073f37.jpg
Similar spacer attached to the passenger side of the front subframe. Note: This spacer has a curved cutout which is necessary for clearance of the electronic power assist unit with is part of the steering assembly. Again, these bolts are torqued to 70 ftlbs. Also, you will need a thin wall socket to get down onto these bolt heads.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...353593274c.jpg
Then the original steering rack is reinstalled on top of the new mounting brackets. The steering rack bolts are torqued down to 70 ftlbs. In this photo the steering tie rod end locking nuts have been slightly backed off and the tie rod has been removed.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...b8da995745.jpg
This photo shows installation of the new tie rod on the drivers side of the steering assembly.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...cb3bfbafbb.jpg
Similar image of the installed tie rod on the passenger side of the steering assembly.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...128e9dfeba.jpg
Passenger side tie rod installed into the knuckle. Note: The new tie rods supplied in the kit provide a number of different spacer configurations which allow some latitude to eliminate/minimize potential bump steer due to the relocation. Also, observe the orientation of the solid aluminum rod in the new tie rod. This section needs to be rotated so that the bent section is facing aft as shown in this picture. If it is facing forward, there is a good chance that it will rub against the inner wall of the wheel. So, make sure it is faced rearward.

The next set of picture illustrate the replacement of the anti-sway bar with the modified position provided by the kit spacer brackets.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...4b58cfac5a.jpg
Following removal of the original anti-sway bar. The new anti-sway bar positioning brackets are installed on the front frame at the original mounting locations. The mounting bolts are torqued to 50 ftlbs. Note the orientation of the new brackets.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...7d5e7ec8c8.jpg
Similar installation of the new anti-sway bar bracket installed on the passenger side of the subframe. Again, these are torqued to 50ftlbs.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...f80b600239.jpg
This picture shows the new anti-sway bar installed to the new aluminum adapter plates. A couple things to notice, the C-clips and bushings from the original anti-sway bar are removed and used with this new anti-sway bar. As Andrew points out in his installation video, you want to make sure to center this sway bar prior to torquing down this sway bar with a torque of 50 ftlbs. I later found that if the car was on the lift with the suspension fully unloaded (full droop)... I had contact between the sway bar and the drive pulley for my ac compressor. After figuring out the issue, I was able to move the anti-sway bar over slightly which provided the clearance I needed. So, this is something you want to look out for during you installation process. I shared this with Andrew and he was not aware of anyone else experiencing this issue. Also, before reassembling the anti-sway bar, I applied some new thick/sticky lubricant to the bushing to bar interface. This will likely become a periodic maintenance item.

Next we can see the removal and replacement of the engine mounts.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...e984c4364d.jpg
The original RX8 hydraulically damped engine mounts are removed from each side of the front subframe. You don't want to try and pry these out of the car while the engine is in the chassis. If you get under the hydraulic bladder with anything that can out a stress concentration on the bladder. If can and may fail if you do... ask me how I know.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...21a2b50515.jpg
Then you want to take an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel and remove the guide bracket welded to the existing subframe.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...58a7bc02f6.jpg
Use the face of the grinding wheel to grind the bracket stubs to a flat surface for the new engine mounts.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...0ee7d55aaf.jpg
Similar picture showing removal of the passenger side guide bracket.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...724cd1a0e8.jpg
Again, you need to use a grinding wheel to eliminate the excess metal left after bracket removal. After the surface has been flattened and the new engine mount fits nicely in the modified hardware. The exposed metal surfaced should be primed and painted with a reasonable quality automotive paint.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...e67ddcfeb3.jpg
Picture showing the passenger side poly engine mount (supplied in the swap kit) installed in the subframe. At this stage of the process, the engine mount bolts are left loose to enable easier installation of the LFX engine. Once the LFX engine is installed on the engine mounts, the engine mount bolts can be torqued down.

Pictures of my modified subframe partly through the modification process.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...30d71d2f65.jpg
Mostly front view of my subframe after installation of the steering assembly and new anti-sway bar. While I have removed the original engine mount guide brackets and ground down the surface, I have not primed and painted the surface or installed the new poly engine mounts. The people paying attention should notice that I have the aluminum section of the new tie rods facing forward in this photograph. You want to make sure you rotate these 180 degrees so they are facing aft. These must be facing aft to clear the interior surface of the wheel.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...86516ca899.jpg
Top down view of my subframe after installation of the steering assembly and new anti-sway bar. While I have removed the original engine mount guide brackets and ground down the surface, I have not primed and painted the surface or installed the new poly engine mounts. Again, people paying attention should notice that I have the aluminum section of the new tie rods facing forward in this photograph. You want to make sure you rotate these 180 degrees so they are facing aft. These must be facing aft to clear the interior surface of the wheel.

Have you received your PSS9s yet? I too am in the middle of a Keisler swap.

Yes. Note: I bought the kit from Andrew about 2 years ago now. So, I've completed the car and I'm currently driving it. I'm just getting around to documenting it for other people that might have an interest. The only thing I still need to get figured out is the air conditioning.

Moving back to the engine bay:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...c0011f9090.jpg
The original engine has obviously been removed. However you can also see that the inlet airbox, radiator and cooling fans have been removed. The battery box. and electrical control box have been removed from the front passenger side of the engine bay. The air pump assembly and it's control have been removed from the tower strut area on the passenger side of the engine bay. Finally, the wind shield washer fluid reservoir has been removed from the passenger side firewall. As can be seen in this picture, the front subframe was still in the car at the time of this photograph. However, it was removed before any additional modifications where made to the engine bay configuration

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...9696e449c3.jpg
Slightly different viewing angle which allows you to see the Mazda standard clear plastic cover which blocks off the location hole for the clutch master cylinder (just to the right of the brake booster) when the car is configured as an automatic. This plug was removed and I acquired a used (clutch, brake, and accelerator) pedal set from Ebay for my swap to be able to install the new wilwood clutch master cylinder (supplied in the kit), and to swap out the original automatic brake pedal. Note: The original accelerator pedal will be replaced with a new Camaro accelerator pedal with all of the necessary position sensors. Additionally, there is a small adapter to allow the Camaro accelerator pedal to bolt directly in the original accelerator spot without additional modification. Both the Camaro accelerator and adapter are provided as part of the kit. Since the original clutch pedal support was found to be somewhat weak (it broke for many people in the original standard cars). I made sure that the clutch pedal I purchased from ebay had already been modified by welding additional support in the region that was known to break in the original cars.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...b9c57381ea.jpg
Picture of many of the parts removed from the engine bay. Lower far right are the coolant hoses. Side those is the windshield washer reservoir. Above the hoses are the RX8 coil packs and plug wires, and some pulley belts. Above that is the battery box. To the left of those are the intake airbox hardware. Directly below the airbox are the airpump and electronic control box hardware. Most of the rest of the hardware are interior console, and trim hardware. Except for the spare tire kit, and the lower transmission tunnel/drive shaft protection brackets, the RX8 exhaust manifold before I reinstalled it and original coolant overflow reservoir.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...c46c2f7560.jpg
This is a parts breakdown of the RX8 air pump assembly. We really only need a few parts from this. Those include the air pump bracket 13-920, the resistor 18-831, and the rubber mounting hardware 13-331A, 13-343, 13-363, and 9973-0508
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...ceca19c45a.jpg
Location and illustration of the wind shield washer reservoir. Note: There appear to be multiple versions of this part so your part may look slightly different than this one. This part is removed to make room for the new engine coolant reservoir that is provided as a part of the LFX swap kit.


Note: At this point the heater hoses have been removed from the heater core tubes poking through the passenger side firewall. The high side AC refrigerant lines have been removed at the same location. The battery and oil coolant lines have been removed along with the oil coolers. But, the support beam that spans the width of the engine bay which provided attachments for the battery, oil cooler lines, and cooling fan electrical connection are still in place. No modifications have been made to the engine bay supports yet. You do have to spend a little time to release all of the retention tabs on the electrical cables that are routed into the control box and you will need to remove the cooling ducts which route cool inlet air into the electronic control box housing. I did have to modified the cooling air supply ducts before I put this all back together due to changes in the radiator mounting location.

The next order of business was to clean up the engine compartment even further and prepare the compartment for installation of the LFX engine hardware. Again, I will walk through a combination of photographs from the swap videos and the resulting outcome in my specific swap actions. In my case, I removed the insulation/sound blanket which covers much of the engine compartment, and cleaned up the engine bay. However, even though this was not absolutely required, I removed the brake power booster and brake master cylinder for two reasons. The first was to give me easier access to the firewall area around the clutch master cylinder access hole through the firewall. The second was that I needed to remove the larger brake pedal hardware from under the dash anyway to install the alternative brake pedal for the new six speed manual Camaro transmission. Additionally, I elected to temporarily remove the brake ABS/Stability control module. Note: The RX8 has different configurations of brake modules and you will need to send some photos to Andrew early in the process so he can make sure to provide the proper modified mounting bracket for the brake module you will be moving. The reason I pulled this brake module was that it gave me a lot more space to remove the drivers side subframe mounting/locating posts and opened up space to modify the existing mounting pad normally underneath the brake module. The following photos illustrate the changes to the engine compartment:


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...fc73f755f1.jpg
This photo shows the an overall view of the modified engine compartment after much of the charges had been made. It is obvious here that the insulation/sound cover has been removed. The engine compartment cleaned up nicely as shown in this photo. Additionally, you can see that the brake power booster, brake master cylinder and antilock/traction control brake system module have been removed. In my case, since I was converting from the six speed automatic RX8 transmission to a six speed manual manual transmission I needed to run a new electrical connection from the ignition switch, through the clutch lockout switch, then out through the firewall and to the fuse block in the lower right of this photo. I drilled a small hole just barely large enough to route this new wire into the lower region of the fuse panel. This wire was then used to provide a proper signal to the starter solenoid relay to crank the starter. When going through the firewall, I used the existing grommet and wiring that was already routed through the firewall to route this new wire. Then I tied it off to the existing wiring loom with periodic zip ties to keep it from moving around.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...67a1b6a0fb.jpg
Whether you have the automatic or manual transmission version of the RX8, you will get a new Wilwood clutch master cylinder as a part of the swap kit. This part is required because the Camaro six speed manual transmission clutch throwout bearing actuator requires more hydraulic force than the RX8 clutch master cylinder can manage. The new Wilwood clutch master cylinder provides the added hydraulic force required. However, the Wilwood master cylinder requires a slightly larger access hole to fit through the firewall. So, you will need to open up the existing access hole about 1/8 of an inch. This photo shows Andrew opening up the hole.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...996d035188.jpg
This photo shows the clutch master cylinder access hole in my car after it has been opened up. As you can see, when I was opening up this hole, it was easy for the grinding bit to walk out of the hole and scrape the paint. I suggest grinding a little bit at a time and test fitting the new Wilwood clutch master cylinder until it slides cleanly through the widened hole. Then, debur the modified hole. I lightly sanded the area, cleaned it and applied a coat of primer and red paint to match the existing body paint. I did not go crazy trying to match up the paint, I just picked something that was close... because most if not all of this region is hidden by other hardware once the installation of all hardware has been completed. I did use a high temperature paint... even though it was probably not necessary.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...1638185bdb.jpg
Before installing the clutch master cylinder, you can loosely assemble the clutch pedal assembly to the clutch master cylinder outside of the car. This allows you to adjust the actuator rod to the proper length so that the mounting pin will easily slide through the mounting hole when it is under the dash. Once the clutch actuator rod length has been set to the correct length, you can disassemble the clutch pedal bracket from the clutch master cylinder to prepare it for installation in the car. There is not a lot of room under the dash and this makes installation of the brake pedal easier after the clutch master cylinder has been installed through the firewall.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...e67add0c1c.jpg
The next order of business is to remove the subframe mounting/alignment pins from the engine compartment chassis. You need to do this to enable movement of the subframe while it is in close proximity to the chassis during reinstallation of the subframe with the LFX engine in it. Since these subframe mounting pins are tack welded to the chassis, you need to lightly grind down the welded region. You want to remove most of the weld but you don't want to cut into the chassis structure.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...167869d025.jpg
Once each of the subframe mounting bolt welds have been ground down. You can use a impact wrench to break these bolts free of the chassis. I used a old corded electric impact wrench for this and the welds broke free without much resistance. Note: These bolts are an interesting design. They have two threaded sections. The threads closest to the bolt head are used to anchor the bolts to the internal threads in the chassis (locate the mounting bolts rigidly to the chassis), while the second set of threads push through the bottom of the chassis and provide the alignment and mounting location for the front subframe.


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...318dcbbaae.jpg
This picture shows the holes which result from removal of the drivers side subframe mounting/alignment pins which normally reside below the ABS module. Again, after lightly sanding and cleaning these holes, I applied a primer and paint coating to this region before I began the installation. As shown in this photo, I did tape off all of the open brake lines to minimize the risk of getting crude into these lines while they were open. The large connector in the bottom of the picture is the electrical connector which attaches to the ABS/TC brake control module. Also, if you look through the power booster access hole, the tan metal tab you can see on the inside of the firewall it the retention feature you need to work the brake mounting bracket off of to remove it from inside of the car. Note: I needed to do this because I was switching from the automatic transmission to the manual transmission. If you already have the manual transmission with the narrow brake pedal, I would not remove the brake pedal or the brake power booster. In you do remove the brake pedal, you will likely be required to purchase a new brake position indicator switch. The car must learn the proper position after the pedal is swapped and this is apparently something that can only happen once. So, I bought a new switch and the relearn process worked automatically without incident. I did not spend any additional time trying to figure out if there was a way to reset the switch so I wouldn't have to buy a new one. It wasn't expensive enough to make it worth my time to do all that additional work.

The it was time to remove the battery mounting cross brace. Note: In the standard RX8 configuration, this brace provides mounting points for the battery box, the fan power lines, a number of grounding posts, and mounting locations for the oil cooler lines.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...c79af71be5.jpg
This photo shows marking the top location to cut the battery support brace.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...92a50df1d5.jpg
This photo shows the target cut line for the top of the battery support brace on the drivers side of the car. Note: You want to walk softly here, you don't want to cut into the chassis frame when making this cut. While not shown here, I similar process is used to mark the bottom of this brace prior to using a angle grinder with a cutoff wheel to remove the brace.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...047a3d5ba9.jpg
Here is a photo of my car after the cut and removal of the brace. This is the drivers side of the car which should be obvious due to the appearance of the bottom side of the fuse panel in the top of the half of the picture. Again, after this brace was removed, I lightly sanded the affected area, primed it, and applied a coat of read paint to protect the cut surface from future rust/corrosion.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...bccab3200b.jpg
This photo shows the other side of the engine compartment after removal of the battery support brace. Again, you want to be careful not to cut into the frame rail. This is the passenger side of the engine compartment. The rubber coated tube in this photo is the remaining AC line between the firewall and the expansion valve mounted to the front rail of the engine compartment.

The we needed to clearance the brake module mounting pad. Things get tight when installing the LFX and front subframe back into the chassis and this clearancing is necessary to thread the needle during the reinstallation process.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...a2fb405980.jpg
This photo shows a top view of the target cut line for the top of the brake module mounting bracket. Not shown is the corresponding vertical cut line that is aligned with the vertical metal overlap region of the brake module mounting bracket. This provides a clear target cut line for the vertical cut.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...a17a7ece97.jpg
View the angle grinder making the top cut of the brake module mounting bracket at the target cut line with a cutoff wheel.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...59dc4da494.jpg
This photo illustrates the dominate changes made to the engine compartment region prior to reinstallation of the subframe with the LFX engine installed. Notice the removal of the four subframe mounting/alignment posts, removal of the battery support brace across the engine bay, and trimming of the top left corner of the brake module mounting bracket. The gold rod you can see to the left of the brake module mounting bracket is the steering shaft. I later removed this to get it out of the way during the engine installation. While this was not required, I felt better getting it out of the way. Note: I wish I had taken better pictures before I removed it as there were some questions about the location of the plastic sleeve on this steering shaft. Fortunately, I was able to find pictures of the part breakdown for this assembly to make sure I reinstalled all the bits correctly.

Andrew's videos did a great job of guiding me through this process and demonstrated the actual process. This information is hugely informative and gives an inexperienced engine swapper the confidence necessary to get the job done.

Respect! One of the finest adverage guy documentations of a build I have ever seen.
Are you driving it yet? Any further engine mods such as intake porting/spacer, true cold air intake etc? I am still contemplating this swap myself, I would like just a little more wheel hp. Do you think there is room for an overkill centrifugal supercharger mount?

Thanks for the kind words Olddragger. I've been feeling a bit guilty for not getting back to this. So, in the next couple days I will try to get back to the rest of the swap story.

In answer to your questions:
1. Am I driving it yet? Yes. I've been driving it since the beginning of December... I've competed in 5 autoX events (one per month since Dec). I have also put about 2k miles on it running around the Phoenix area. The car is running well and I've been having a good time with it (it has performed consistently without issues - outside of some very minor oil leaks that were fixed with some mild wrenching).
2. Any engine mods? Kind of, while I had the engine out I cleaned up all of the intake ports and valves. I elected to purchase the laminator (by Jacfab) insert to improve the inlet airflow and removed the plastic airdam/swirler at the front of the intake manifold just down stream of the throttle body. If the video is to be believed, those changes to the inlet should allow for 16-17% increase in inlet airflow. Have I formally tested with and without the changes (No). I provided a link/copy of the video from Jacfab that describes this modification earlier in this engine swap story. As a part of the track package I bought from Andrew, I got a modified intake that routes the intake filter out in front of and above the radiator. So, this is probably as close to a cold air intake as I can get. One down side of this change is that to change/clean the intake air filter I now probably need to remove the front bumper. I have high flow cats on the exhaust down pipes and a fairly low restriction exhaust system. My car has not been on a dyno yet so I cann't offer up any performance plots to show you where it is performing. I did not buy the intake spacer to improve airflow into the head... mostly because there is likely not enough space to clear the inside of the hood against the top of the plastic air intake.
3. Do I think their is room for an overkill centrifugal supercharger mount? I've included the A/C compressor because it is desirable to retain air conditioning here in Phoenix. If you elected not to do that, I think with the proper design and effort, it might be possible to squeeze the supercharger in. Note: I don't think this will be a simple task and I haven't really looked at the dimensions for that supercharger system. As an aside, I seem to recall some comments about the transmission and differential not having a lot of extra margin beyond the original design power levels. I seem to recall that 350-400 wheel Hp is about the limit of the drive train. However, I haven't experienced those limits myself.

Great write up. Here is a picture of the Ford 8.8 Diff installed in the rear subframe since Andrew has since gone to this configuration. Also pictured are the latest half shafts.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...d2548479e7.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...bcb1d4e174.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...e2d4f914bd.jpg

Hi 1StopJeff and thanks for the nice words. I was aware of the 8.8 diff change Andrew has prepared. I provided a link to the thread that RX8club had prepared that provides a link to the video Andrew prepared for this newer diff integration. I've repeated that link here https://www.rx8club.com/non-rotary-s...ion-kit-274355

I don't recall seeing the new half shafts in the past though. I really like the look of the new half shafts. Thanks for providing these pictures.

The half shafts are hot off the press. I had my car done but had to wait over a month for the new half shafts from the new supplier. They arrived last week 5/2. Andrew said they are good for 1000HP! 😳

Those axles look great. Really need to get off my duff and get my 8.8 installed...

Great writeup and pix. Not my cup of tea as a project, but I appreciate the time and money you incurred to bring it here for us to enjoy.

Thank you.

I joined this forum on a journey to a potential LFX RX8 swap as well. Thanks for documenting!

that’s Andrew Keisler; 1st class as always

I may have to consider that, best 8.8 setup out there for sure.
.