Blown Renesis motor?
 

hey yal, has anyone one blown their renesis motor by over boostin or detonation? wat was the effect of it? on the 3rd gen, if one popped their motor the apex seal would just go out the exhaust ports. but if anyone popped their motor on the renesis how would the seal go out the exhaust cuz our exhaust is on the cast iron part of the housin. let me know ppl. bye for now

when mine killed over, I pulled the plugs, cranked it and heard puff, pa, pa, puff, pa, pa. So, either I just cracked a seal (my guess) or it stuck itself somewhere nice.

Yeah, mine went. Was driving pretty normally and all of sudden lost power and sounded like I was driving a tractor. EGT's shot through the roof. Car would barely drive across the parking lot after I turned it off, and started it again. Quite a bit of smoke came out the pipes after that.

has anyone taken apart their motor yet to see if the blown seal damaged the housing?

Just wondering what caused your engine to blow.

It dosen't leave the housing, rather it usualy stays partway in the seal groove and scores up the housing and rotor.
There are pics on this site somewhere.

I say it was the Greddy Turbo Kit, but others on here want me to prove it 100% before I say that. I can't say with certainty what blew my engine. Could have been a bad 04' engine. I was running a better EMU @ 6.5 psi, with A/F ratios that were good, with several reliability mods.

were you boosting when it blew?

The Greddy turbo is a small turbo. You start boosting at about 3000 RPM and runs out of air at around 6000-7000 RPM. I was at about 5500 RPM when it went.

Kits don't cause engines to blow. Uncontrolled explosions do. You weren't even running Greddy's engine management anymore.

Gee, detonation causes the engine to blow. Thanks for the heads up. It wasn't the EMU. Just this kit wasn't made for this car. It ran a lot worse, even with the EMU (I got the original kit a long time ago with the EManage Blue) tuned. Like I said it could have just been a bad engine, or this car (as in all RX8's) not really being setup for turboing. Did almost everything I could to make this car eliable. Just isn't right, especially with the Greddy kit. Turbo sizing, no fuel system support, piss poor EMU, etc....No matter what some people think.

The problem I have with Greddy (actually just one of them) is that they tout this as a plug & play kit when that is far from the truth. You need to do/buy so much to make it even semi reliable. By that time you have basically wasted a lot of your time to get new hoses, you've pulled the EMU. Just really disappointed with the completeness (or lack thereof) with this product.

Here's what mine looked like
 

Side housings were fine and re-used.

were u able to reuse the rotor?

two rotors, did you have the greddy, and if so, what type of engine management? Also do you know why it blew?

Would YOU put that rotor back in?

:wavey:

From what I was reading on the forum it is not the Greddy system that caused the engine to blow. It was the stock Rx8 fuel pump failing.

The person that documented the issue (I think epriochoid...spelling) indicated that the stock fuel pump failed during a normal cruise on the highway. He was barely in boost...maybe not even in boost at all. What happens is the fuel pump starts working at 100% capacity over heats and drops to 50% capacity and engine goes byby. Mazsport has an after market pump they make to resolve this issue. They also recommend an injector upgrade.

Again, do not quote me I read all this...Like 200 + pages from different threads.

yes, the stock fuel pump can overheat. On paper it is designed so that you should easily be able to hit 300 hp, but it heats up and can fail. I have the upgraded pump, but stock injectors. I don't think I need to upgrade unless I go past 12 psi.

Greddy's version of *complete kit* means = It works out of box, right ? Your car have more power now, right ? Ok, alright, its plug and play. We're done.

Next thing you know is all their couplers crack and smoke is coming out from the Turbo .... etc.

Its hard to say what causes the Renesis to fail under boost. Is it cause by *not designed for force induction ?* or was it cause by the stupid Turbo ? Dont know. but I wouldnt touch Greddy kit at all. Forget about blow up engines or whatever. The kit itself sucks anyway.

The greddy kit isn't plug and play.

You'll want an oil restrictor, a bov, new hoses and clamps. Additionally, you may want to opt for the int-x for fuel management. Once you do these things, you should have a reliable setup. So factor in $300 - 2000 more to make it usable. Most of us end up spending ~$6,000 to get everything installed and tuned, or ~$60/hp.

If you're not using greddy's fuel management, you can't point fingers to greddy since there's no way the rest of the kit could blow the engine.

for those interested read the fuel starvation thread--if he was cruising on the hwy below 5.6K--no way would the fuel pump overheat from that. it would be receiving less than 11 volts. Now it may have just have chosen that time to fail--dont know. but the high speed relay doesnt turn on unless the car is accelerating, pedal is well pass 1/2 full and the engine rpm is at 5.6 or above.
olddragger

Dunno, but we swapped the engine and it runs pretty well right now. If the fuel pump failed then wouldn't it not run even if I am NA now ?

PS : we did not replace the fuel pump when we replaced the engine.

Fanman, that's very interesting. I think Epi also said he was just cruising when his engine died. You weren't in boost, correct?

It was Greddy with E-manage.Problem was stale fuel,7psi boost.

No,the main point of the picture is to show the apex seal jammed in the groove.

I it didnt work then it shouldnt work now. Course it could have been a starvation issue that caused it to go lean and not a total pump failure. I am not the expert but from what others have told me a fi engine can just run lean a little and its enough to blow it? Isnt it always a pretty good idea to upgrade the fuel system when you fi? I have never modded an fi car so I am just guessing here.
olddragger