Hi guys I will try to not leave any details out but basically this is what happened. I broke in my RX-8 that a small local business built for me about half a year ago when I lived in PA. It was a streetport Renesis along with some other mods like a stage 1 clutch kit, turbo xs exhaust, FD oil pressure regulator, Turbo 2 throw out bearing, etc. All internal parts were OEM except for apex seals which were atkins.

Fast forward to today we decided my break in would be 3k mi to be safe in which I did not exceed 4k rpms. Yesterday I finished that period and revved it to limiter for a few seconds. Today I went to barely redline and later a pull to about 6k. I then felt that the clutch pedal and shifter were pulsing and the car was making all sorts of weird sounds. The engine was making thudding sounds and overall the car just didn’t feel normal; luckily I was around the corner from home so I got home, parked it, checked the oil. Did find some sparkles although not a lot.

Not sure what to do next or if I should just consider the engine toast. Or maybe the sparkles were just dirty from my oil pan? Or I may have blown the clutch or something? I cans send videos to anyone who is willing to help. I really want to diagnose this as it is my daily and I spent thousands on it for this to be reliable. I now live in FL so my builder can’t really help me.

 

Streetport Renesis...Atkins... Stage 1.. not setting yourself up for success here. Sparkles could just be breakin debris or left over from before. Depends on how much and if they come back after you change your break-in oil.

Check the obvious stuff: ignition coils & wires connected correctly, intake snug, transmission shifting smoothly. It could be a lot of things, try to narrow down what's *not* broken.

 

+1^^

The rebuilder who installed my new engine referred to Atkins seals as "trash".
Just an FYI.

 

I appreciate the response, I will go check the ignition side of things just got home from work. I do understand that porting a renesis and the stage 1 kit tend to have issues but I just tried to make the car as reliable as I could in my budget, I used the Turbo 2 throw out bearing to not use the infamous one supplied in the kit at least.

The issue is mainly a lot of vibration and pulsing felt through the clutch and shifter. At idle and when shifting. It does shift and doesn’t feel weird when the car is off and still shifts at all times, and the engine starts up like normal but makes these sounds shown in the videos.

I called a shop who sold me some parts for the engine and they said the sparkles could be a bearing. I hope it’s nothing that serious but I need to keep investigating.

 

If anyone else has anything to pitch in let me know. I took out the engine mounts and spark plugs they all look normal? I’m thinking maybe the tranny or clutch have issues.

I was experiencing some vibrations occasionally at idle before and I thought it was my engine mounts which is why now I was going to fill them with polyurethane but they look ok. Has anyone else blown a clutch stage 1 excedy or the stock tranny and has anything to say?

Are there any adjustments perhaps that could affect this vibration maybe for the shifter or tranny from when you install the clutch? I wasn’t there when it was installed.

 

Does pressing the clutch while stopped make the vibration go away? If so, the problem is somewhere on the trans side. If not, it's on the engine side.

One idea is perhaps when they put it back together from the engine or clutch install, they didn't correctly line up the PPF (powerplant frame). It's a beam that runs from the trans to the diff and it needs to be aligned correctly, to avoid stressing the diff and driveshaft.

What's going on with your intake? It seems to only have 1 of the 3 vacuum hoses it's supposed to.

Is the Exedy Stage 1 you have, a real Exedy? There are many fakes. And even the real ones have been problematic in our cars.

 

How is everything going, is your problem solved?

 

While I would suggest just using mazda seals. I dont think the atkins apex seals would cause this issue. Their apex's may have lower compression and wear through housings faster. Same goes for their corner seals, if you can get compression with these to start with...... Highschool me found this out the hard way.

I've spun a bearing before, but never noticed the bucking/pulsing that you are describing. If it was a bearing you could probably change/filter the oil and then see if you get more sparkles. Mine happened due to a failed regulator though.

Loki's idea of the ppf might make sense if they just happened to not align it or not properly tighten it. However considering the noise is happening at idle without spinning the driveshaft, this may be a cause and not the effect. If you can get under the car, it should be easy enough to pull off the starter and take a look at the clutch. Clutch would be my bet after going to the limiter, perhaps your clutch assembly and throw out did not like shifting that high.