What to do with my RX8 paper weight?
 

I'm at 91k miles. The body of the car is in decent shape. The interior is pretty spotless. The amp on the left front speaker is glitchy and the HVAC heat control is too. The CAT is shot so I have a constant CEL. I know one of the apex seals was going because the car was hard to start after it warmed up but fine when it was cold.

It won't start anymore. I assume it's flooded, my fault I moved it out of the garage to the driveway. It's really not worth it to fix the flooding at the dealer $300 or more for a car I can barely drive.

What do I do with it? My son wanted to replace the engine but my local guy can't find an engine(he found a reliable mechanic in Flordia but than we have to ship it, $4k to $6k). It's just not worth $6k to fix.

Sad paperweight owner. -- smileynh

RX-8s with blown engines typically go for $500 to $2000, depending on condition.
If it's a 4-port automagic, ignore everything below. It's really not worth it (4-port remans and rebuilds are more expensive for some reason). Find somebody looking to do an LS swap and see if they'll give you $2000 for it.

Assuming this is for a 6MT car, you can get a Mazda reman engine for about $3k from various dealers in your region of the country (RI, NY, PA, MD, MA). If you can go pick up the engine, even better. I pulled my engine and stuck it on the back of my 4'x4' Horrible Freight trailer and carted it over to a dealer about three hours away. We pulled the reman out of it's crate, dropped the old engine in and I towed the reman back home on the trailer.

https://www.peruzziautoparts.com/oem...e-n3h302200rv0
https://www.oemmazdapart.com/oem-par...IyLWdhcw%3D%3D
https://www.newautoparts.com/oem-par...e-n3h302200rv0
https://www.cagparts.com/oem-parts/m...e-n3h302200rv0
https://www.tascaparts.com/oem-parts...e-n3h302200rv0
https://www.mazdanyparts.com/oem-par...e-n3h302200rv0

If you don't have a way of transporting an engine (i.e. truck/van rentals aren't a thing in the northeast) you can ask the dealer what the freight cost would be.

Doing the swap yourself isn't terribly hard so long as you have a basic mechanics tool set, jack, jack stands and engine hoist.

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tec...w-pics-178937/
https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tec...ctures-178945/

You will want to budget extra money for 9 qts of oil, 3 gallons of coolant, a few solenoids, an oil injector or three, air filter, coolant hoses, and vacuum hoses.

You can fix the flooding for free by following the deflood procedure, or pulling the spark plugs and cleaning them off.

Also I wouldn't assume it has lost compression, there are other possible reason for hard warm starts. Coils/spark plugs/starter. I'm not saying it's stellar, but you might be 30 minutes of wrenching from a running car.

The cat is shot so you have a constant CEL.

IF the CEL is for a bad cat, (P0402)
GUT IT.
Misfires kill cats, bad cats kill engines.
You likely had a misfire usually caused by bad ignition components, (usually coils) that possibly clogged your cat.
Same bad components cause flooding.

I don't drive much. The last time I brought it to the dealer for the CEL it was flooded. Plugs, coils and wires are all new as of 2000 miles ago. The tech said the starter was not running at full capacity but they were saying the warm start issue was caused by loss of compression. They were up in the air about changing the starter considering the motor might be losing compression.

I tried the deflood procedure several times. It's the only way I could start the car when it was warm to begin with. I guess I'll try pulling the plugs this weekend. Charged the battery to full as well. Battery is 1 year old.

I would really like to replace the motor. We have a great motor sport garage that can do the work but he was having trouble finding a motor.

"Assuming this is for a 6MT car, you can get a Mazda reman engine for about $3k from various dealers in your region of the country (RI, NY, PA, MD, MA). If you can go pick up the engine, even better. I pulled my engine and stuck it on the back of my 4'x4' Horrible Freight trailer and carted it over to a dealer about three hours away. We pulled the reman out of it's crate, dropped the old engine in and I towed the reman back home on the trailer."

It's a 6 spd GT. So, you swapped your engine for a rebuilt reman? Leaving them your old engine/core? What is a reman?

I have a big suv and 6x8 utility trailer that I could go to RI with.

"Reman" means "remanufactured". A reman is an engine built by Mazda using new and old parts. They used to be awful but the quality appears to have picked up quite a bit 4 or 5 years ago. Many engine builders start with a Mazda reman and then upgrade from there. Paul at MazMart posted some photos and reported that all of the remans they have gotten for the last few years have had many new parts and are pretty good.
https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tec...azmart-265994/

A friend of mine that races his RX-8 in NASA TT5 got one a year ago and it's been pretty good. I just installed my reman about a month ago and after just 150 miles compression was already 110+ psi at 250 RPM.
https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tec...enesis-267220/

You can buy a reman from Mazda without returning your old one but they charge you an extra $1000 (so, ~$4k total). If you return your old "core", you get that $1000 refunded. Most engine builders do the same though the core charge may be different.

Remans get shipped to the dealer in black crates. The dealer then has to arrange to ship it on to you. When you get it, you take a close look and make your engine look exactly like theirs (take off everything except water pump, crank pulley and oil pan). Then you freight it back to them. They really like it if you come and pick it up yourself because LTL freight is annoying. If you don't need the vehicle in question, might as well just pull the engine out and take it with you when you go to pick up the reman.

I made a little plinth on my trailer out of 2x4 so that the weight was resting on the rim of the oil pan rather than the pan itself. When I arrived, they opened the crate and let me inspect the reman engine while they inspected my old engine. Then they just used a crane-style engine hoist to lift my engine off my trailer and set it aside before moving the reman onto my trailer. Then the old engine went back into the crate and I signed paperwork.

A rebuild will take your original components, throw out what is out of spec (seals, springs, sometimes housings, irons, rotors, eccentric shaft). There are specs for everything but sometimes you can get away with a slightly out of spec part if you are on a tight budget. I don't recommend a budget rebuild. Hell, I don't recommend using the word "budget" anywhere near the word "RX-8".

As I said before, you should add a little more money to your mental price list. About $1000 on top of the engine is a good number to cover a worst-case scenario. That will cover gas, fluids, parts you find out need to be replaced, upgrades if you want. When the engine is out, it's a good idea to go rust hunting, especially along the crossmember over the radiator and the oil cooler hard lines. Sandpaper and POR15 are your friends.

While we're getting into scope creep, might as well thoroughly clean (and maybe upgrade?) all of the grounds and send your fuel injectors off to be cleaned and flow-tested (I'm a fan of WitchHunter Performance). Use a MityVac hand pump to pull vacuum on the 4 solenoids and 4 oil injectors; replace any that don't hold vacuum. Maybe upgrade your radiator. Better cooling = happier Renesis.

The big downside to a Mazda reman is that you don't get a warranty unless a Mazda dealer installs it. Most rebuilders will give you a warranty regardless of who installs it (but getting them to back them up can be a challenge). People say that a good engine rebuilder is better than a Mazda reman assembler but there's no easy way to know how good the engine you get is so it's a crapshoot either way.

Thanks a ton for the help.

What about something like?
https://automotix.net/usedengines/20...0631&seq_num=2

Not just "No" but...

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...33adaa46e6.gif


Used rotary engines without compression tests are worthless.
This goes the same for "JDM" engines on eBay. If it doesn't come from Mazda or a reputable rebuilder, DON'T DO IT!!!

Those engines are worth $1000 as cores for a Mazda reman or custom built engines. In other words, buying one is a great way to set $1800 on fire.