Just bought my 8 today
 

Hey all, I bought a 2004 yellow Rx8 today with 84k miles. I am coming over from a 2010 STi. Surprise child number 3 forced me to sell off my baby and get into something much more reasonable. Always liked the 8 and saw this one, took it for a test drive, 3 hours and a mountain of paperwork later I'm back in the Mazda family. There is a small dent in the driver side door and fender. I am planning on replacing with CF parts, was considering doing all the body panels in CF to save weight. Then plan on getting engine rebuilt with a mild port and polish. If that doesn't satisfy me, I'll go FI. Thanks for reading and I suspect I'm going to love being an 8 owner.

welcome to the addiction

couple of points. replacing with CF won't save you weight and porting and polishing are a lot of money for little return (in and of themselves)

happy zooming

I would assume that hood and roof would have fairly significant savings, and I need a new driver side fender and door panel anyway. If I do drivers side, I mint as well do passenger side too. So no weight savings at all on those parts though? That's disappointing.

I figured that while my engine is out for rebuild, might as well have it ported. So far I like the power well enough, it's not my STi, but it's no slug either.

Thanks for the comments, I'll keep those things in mind.

the hood and roof are already made of aluminum so the weight savings will be minimal. replacing the roof with a CF roof is just a ridiculous amount of work if you ask me. if i were transporting a baby in the car, i would want the car as safe as possible and i'm not sure the CF would make the car much safer than it already is. porting the renesis will gain power of course, but depending on the port, mileage and idle will suffer, as will the overall longevity of the engine. its your can and you can do whatever you want to it but for the money you are thinking of spending on the CF parts, and engine rebuild, you could probably buy another used RX-8 with the money spent..

Congrats and post pics.

actually a CF hood and trunk are heavier than OE,,,

Thanks, I didn't realize, definitely food for thought on the CF. I won't be transporting the kids in my 8, that's what the new mini-van is for. The mini-van is why I had to give up my STi. My aim was to get something in the neighborhood of the STi, so rebuild, mild PnP, and FI should get close, no?

Maybe just a rebuild, no port, and massive turbo? Anything I need to do to this engine to prep it? Dealership quoted $5100 installed on a reman, good deal?

I don't really get what's going on here... you bought an Rx-8 with 84,000 miles and you're thinking about getting a rebuilt motor? Why didn't you just buy an 8 with less miles or check if you still have a warranty left over because there's an 8y100k mile warranty.

Congrats and welcome. Let's see some pics.

Got it at a decent price, thought I would have it rebuilt, but the dealership said they don't rebuild, just reman and quoted me that price. I'll look around for a shop that would be willing to rebuild and turbo in the DC area, hopefully I can find one.

reman's are rebuilts.:)

Yeah, however I was hoping to simply pay for the labor of getting mine rebuilt and maybe get a mild PnP while they were at it. Reman from Mazda would be all complete with no ability to add extras like ceramic apex seals, etc.

Congrats on getting the best color ;) and remember to read all the threads/stickies you can, they'll share a wealth of information to help you make any decisions

If you're serious about a rebuild you should talk to Charles from BHR.
I'm not sure his price but I know he does some of the best quality work.

there are a few very good people who rebuild motors. Having them upgrade parts (seals, water pump, etc) is a option lots of people do during this process. If you search here you'll find the reviews of people who've had work done and even pictures of the process.

Is the compression low?

Also, I wasn't knocking the idea of CF parts, I have a hood myself. I just wanted to make sure you weren't doing it as a weight savings measure, the car is already pretty light and only a gut job would bring noticeable savings.

As with all things, a little research on these boards will give you a good starting point for any mods you're looking into doing.

Haven't had a compression test done yet, will sched when I have time. Maybe I'll take her down to a proper auto body shop to see if they can't hammer out the dents and color match the paint. Could be cheaper and easier I guess.

Welcome.

Yellow is the second fastest color, you did good.

Light reading below. I would definitely look at the $100 thread. Probably all of it applies. It is what I learned over the first year with min

Welcome.

Did you run the VIN # through a Mazda dealer? They would tell you the service history of the car. Also any warranty work that has been done to the car.

Also we (Black Halo Racing) do offer rebuilt performance engines and FI systems. And we do remote installs.

Well, first thoings first, bought a bunch of audio equipment last night as the aftermarket stuff the previous owner left in was a mess. Got the custom RX-8 Zenclosure subwoofer box and amp box (with the rotor shape plexiglas window), an 800 watt 5 channel amp, 2 MTX 10" subwoofers, and 4 MTX 6X8. Also a Bluetooth A/V receiver. I'm gonna pull out the HU and replace it with my Galaxy Tab 7".