Rotorain

Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum so hopefully this is the right place for this, but I just finished my motor replacement. I did the whole thing in my front yard/garage with a few friends over a week, and so far everything is working out great!

My old engine had about 150,000 miles on it, but it was a remanufactured motor put in under warranty when the car only had 30,000 miles on it. It ran great until about the last 10,000 miles when I think one of the apex seals or corner seals started to go out, reducing power and making a really ugly noise above 6k rpm. It was totally driveable, but not really being able to go above 6k rpm just sucks.

I got a remanufactured 6-port MT short engine from University Mazda in Seattle, and highly recommend that dealership if you live in the area. They cut a few hundred bucks off the motor just because I asked, and were actually interested in helping me solve the little problems that inevitably come up with a motor swap. Everett Mazda was also pretty great, but I had a terrible time with Doug's Mazda in Lynnwood.

I mostly used this thread to take the engine out, and reinstalled the new motor by figuring it out myself, and I'm glad it worked haha.

I reused almost all the parts from my old engine, as I have been pretty good about preventative maintenance.

I also changed a couple things with this motor...

I deleted the air injection system, which has caused me no problems so far and makes the engine less of a headache to work on and deal with. I used this block off plate to cover the hole in my exhaust manifold, and ditched that silver pipe and black air pump next to the passenger strut tower. I left the bracket and connector on and plugged in so that the CEL turns off (and the error code clears) when the car "shuts off" that system as the car warms up. This doesn't give any advantages other than opening up the engine bay and making more room for my AutoExe body brace, and giving me better access to the intake manifold and fuel rail. This is a really easy $12 mod that cleans up the engine bay a bit and simplifies the whole engine system.

I also added an OMP oil adapter which I feed with valvoline TC-W3 two stroke oil. My brother custom made an aluminum mounting plate that replaces the windshield washer fluid bottle with two bottles. I used a hole saw to cut a hole in the bottom of one for the winshield washer fluid pump, and the other has a nipple on the bottom for an oil line to the adapter. Clear bottles make it easier to see the fluid levels, and it looks good in the engine bay. This also allows me to run some expensive full synthetic motor oil :D

I replaced my OMP oil injectors with new ones from Mazda because my old ones failed the vacuum test in the shop manual, and it's bad to gamble on those...

While the engine detached from the transmission I took the time to install my exedy stage one clutch and my mazdaspeed lightened flywheel.

I already had a K&N typhoon intake, which people say actually loses you a little bit of power, but it sounds so much better and the red looks really good with the tower brace...

Also got some good gates racing belts. Probably not necessary, but they are cheaper and probably better than OEM belts so why not.

And polyurethane motor mounts. These make the chassis very responsive with the throttle, making oversteer/understeer much easier to control through corners. between idle and 2k rpm these make the whole car shake though, which is annoying but easily avoidable. So far I'm enjoying these a lot.

A Cobb AccessPort from MazdaManiac with his custom calibration tuning service is in the mail on its way to my house right now, which should wrap up everything I wanted to add to this motor right now.

Things I broke:
Inside the intake manifold there are two APV valves, and the little hinge on one of them was broken so I replaced it. I turned the old one into an awesome shift ****, and I'm pretty sure I'm the only person in the world with one of those right now :D
I also broke the tiny screw that attaches that valve to the manifold, which I had to have shipped from New Mexico at $12 each.
And I broke the plastic splitter for the vent lines that attach to the oil injectors with a wrench when I was trying to get one of the injectors off. Whoops... easy $10 replacement from my dealership.
I broke a motor mount sometime when I was driving around on my old motor; the top plate completely sheared off of the rubber mount so they weren't even connected. I don't know how long this mount was broken when I was driving the car, but it didn't seem to cause too many problems given that I very rarely got above 6k rpm during the last several thousand miles.

I started it for the first time a few days ago, and it started up and worked on the first try! That moment of relief was incredible after seeing the motor in pieces in my garage only a few days prior.

Problems:
My intake manifold tuning valve got gummed up during my extensive cleaning of the inside of the intake manifold, and it required a ridiculous amount of force to open/close it. If I opened and closed it a bunch of times it would eventually unstick and move freely, but give it a few mins to sit and it was gummed up again. Thankfully that problem solved itself and the heat from the engine over the last couple days must have burned off whatever was getting it stuck, because it works totally fine now. I was getting ready to use a little bit of SeaFoam or Heat in the intake to try to unstick it from the inside, but i'm glad I didn't have to do that to a brand new engine.

I got an error code P0302 cylinder 2 misfire which was intermittent. sometimes my CEL would flash indicating a misfire, but the car would still be driving totally fine, and the light would turn off with no effect again on the engine. I tried switching the spark plugs and coils around hoping the misfire would switch to the other rotor, indicating that one of those parts was bad, but that didn't change anything. I reset the NVRAM by pumping the brake pedal ~20 times in ~10 seconds suggested by this thread and that seems to have solved that problem!


I now get a CEL when I cold start the car, but it turns off after about a minute of driving, and I have no CEL after that! Mission accomplished in my book. The car feels great now, and after about 500 miles of break in, this car is gonna be seeing a lot of twisty roads :D

Other mods that I have on the car:
PowerSlot brake rotors on the front and rear: RX8: Brake - Discs: PowerSlot Brake Rotors - Front - 04-11 RX-8 -
Hawk HPS brake pads: RX8: Brake - Pads: Hawk HPS Pads - Rear - 04-11 RX-8 -
AutoExe tower braces: AutoExe - Tower Brace Set - Nengun Performance
Tien S. Tech lowering springs: 04-08 05 06 07 Mazda RX-8 S.Tech Lowering Springs by TEIN
Mazdaspeed struts
Racing Beat sway bars front and rear: RX8: Suspension - Sway Bars: Sway Bar - Front - 04-11 RX-8/MX-5 -
Racing Beat rev8 Cat-back exhaust: RX8: Exhaust - Cat-Back Systems: REV8 Exhaust System - Single Tip - 09-11 RX-8 -
Dunlop Direzza DZ101 245/40/18 tires: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....Z101&tab=Sizes

I have a bunch of pictures of the whole process and a lot of the parts, but I have to create a gallery on my website and upload them all. I'll link to the pics as soon as I have them up.

patrick_andraste

Excellent Write up!

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

This is just you talking about your personal situation rather than a DIY thread

Rotorain

Here's a gallery of some of the pictures:
Engine Replacement | Trevor Cameron

AreAxeAte

iTrader: (1)

Lucky! I just finished my engine replacement last night using the same guide but haven't successfully started it yet.... . Good work on your replacement! I am sure it was not luck.

I will check for a spark tonight and clean the ESS sensor and then try again. I did smell a significant fuel odor (outside the car of course) after I tried starting it a few times. I am going to also double check the fuel lines but I am sure I re-installed them properly. I guess fuel smell would indicate that un-burnt fuel is getting pushed through the motor when it turns over? You have any opinions?

patrick_andraste

fuel lines, make sure the plastic clips are on properly, make sure the fuel line to the secondary injectors is attached. make sure the little plastic piece is in the fuel line with the red connector.

shazy

do you ever have anything nice to say?

Carbon Fibr

you probably screwed up your wiring for spark.
& now you've flooded the engine.

Rotorain

I agree, that fuel smell is bad. No fuel should be unburned outside the car. I'd recommend pulling the fuel lines off and check the routing. The ones with the blue and red quick release connectors. If you got them backwards it will pump fuel into the intake manifold. That would flood your engine and make it smell like gas. An easy check is to pull your spark plugs through the driver side wheel well and see if they are covered in gas. I don't know how else gas would make its way out of the car.

patrick_andraste

check the fuel line connectors in the picture attached to make sure they are connected properly.

check to make sure you do not have the fuel line with the blue connector (tank vent to intake manifold) and the fuel line with the red connector (high pressure fuel to injector rail) reversed. there is a red paint mark on the hard line from the fuel pump and I believe it is the rearward hard line. Also make sure the white plastic insert is in the fuel connector with the red.

I do not have a close up picture of the fuel lines connected to the hard lines.



https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1365666800

AreAxeAte

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the responses everybody. I will do some more checks tonight as I have been too busy to look at much the last couple days. I did notice that I forgot to connect a small vacuum line from the underside of the intake manifold to the backside of the air intake.... no change though.

I am sure that I have connected the fuel lines (with plastic inserts) and spark wires in the correct locations but I will double check again as it doesn't hurt to do so.

I had flooded my last engine a couple years ago and that sounded much different as my ignition system was weak then and I believe I was having some compression issues then. I am definitely getting compression as I turn the engine over, I can hear the difference. I suppose if I have mixed up the fuel lines though and dumping fuel into the intake I could still flood it despite good compression?...... As a side note I am using brand new spark plugs and BHR coils.

Thanks for the input again guys, I will keep you updated.

AreAxeAte

iTrader: (1)

So I spent a little time tonight troubleshooting....

I confirmed that I am getting spark from the plugs. Wires are connected from coils to plugs in the correct configuration.

Removed the ESS sensor and cleaned it but it was perfectly fine. Bolted on the one from the old engine anyhow because I know it worked....Didn't fire up.

I started checking the fuel lines. I do have the fuel lines connected in the correct locations and not accidentally swapped. One note that did get my attention was about the white plastic inserts in the connects. When I was pulling the original engine out and removing the fuel lines I don'r remember seing these. I was distracted by the comment to not lose the smaller "burgundy" sleeve that sits slightly under the blue and red clamps. I did go back to the guide though and I saw that the white plastic inserts were left on the tubes for the car side of the fuel line. What purpose do these white inserts serve? I really don't remember seeing them and I looked all around just in case I dropped them somehow. I guess I can try to go down to the dealer and buy a couple of these inserts but I suspect this won't completely fix my problem.

I believe that for whatever reason the engine isn't getting fuel. Fuel pump is turning on with key and fuel lines are successfully getting fuel, which I confirmed when I separated the fuel line connections we talked about. I guess the only thing left would be the injectors? I am using the ones that came with the engine pre-installed. The engine is used but with only 7000 kms. Everything included on the engine looked in really great shape which is why I did not replace them with my old fuel injectors.... but maybe they are gummed up..... Can a fuel injector get plugged after an engine has been sitting too long?

Anyhow, until tomorrow when I dig farther......

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

This isn't a true DIY thread. So, it was moved.

AreAxeAte

iTrader: (1)

So I finally got it started but I have a major fuel leak. Also, the reason I couldn't start it in the first place was because I did indeed flood the engine, which I hadn't realized.
The first thing I did after getting the engine fully installed was reset the Ess sensor memory in the computer by doing the 20 brake stomps. I messed up the first few times as you have to complete the procedure in the first 8 seconds from the key being turned on. Because that took me a few times I absentmindedly was injecting extra fuel into the engine... Hence the flood.

Before I clued into this I inspected the injectors because I was curious if they appeared to be working properly. I ended up removing them, cleaning them up and then reinstalling. By the time I got everything reattached I figured that it was probably a flooding issue and not injectors. I followed the procedure, and then the car started up. Unfortunately that is when I noticed the excessive leaking from the engine (fuel). I shut the car off, removed the intake again, pulled the injectors, inspected them to make sure they were seated correctly in the harness, and checked the o-rings. They appeared to be installed correctly, however I haven't installed these before so I really don't know how firmly the injectors should feel in the harness. In the mean time I have been removing and reinstalling the fuel lines in the appropriate locations.

Anyhow, but everything back and started right up again just fine but major fuel leak persists. I don't even know how that much of a leak is possible. Does anyone have any experience with these injectors and fuel lines. To me the only 3 explanations are the fuel line connections aren't working properly, a fuel line has a crack or split and is leaking, or the injectors are still not seated correctly and fuel is spilling out. The leaking fuel has been pooling around the injectors....

Rotorain

Do you have all of those plastic inserts that go in the fuel lines? Every connector should have one, and these could cause a leak I guess.

I'd have someone look at the fuel rail (as best as they can anyways) while you run it to try to get a better idea of where it's coming from. Mine didn't leak at all...

Carbon8

iTrader: (4)

Only 1 fuel line has a blue insert in it, that is crucial, otherwise pin,point where it is leaking from there are only so many connectors, primary and secondary fuel rail connector, Fuel line and return line, then individual injectors.

Is it leaking on the LIM, or is it leaking by the brake booster?

Details will help, pictures would be best.

AreAxeAte

iTrader: (1)

Yes I checked to make sure each connection had the plastic inserts.

This is the problem as there as so many potential locations and with everything covered by the intake manifold it is hard to see where the leak is when it is started. I do know that fuel is pooling around the injectors.

After a little more reading I have come to the decision that I probably have a few ruined O-rings around the tips of the injector that seat into the fuel rail. Some people recommend that new O-rings should be installed when re-seating injectors and that you should coat them with Vaseline to avoid rips during install. I will try this today.

I appreciate all the comments and feedback!

Rotorain

Yes, this could be your problem. I got a gasket set from Mazda which had those O-rings and pretty much every other gasket on the engine. Might be worth the investment as other gaskets could go bad under the heavier load of your new engine.

AreAxeAte

iTrader: (1)

So it turns out that the fuel leak was in fact due to not seating the oil rings properly when inserting the fuel injectors into the fuel rail. Car is up and running now. Test drove it today and it runs great!

I am kicking myself a little for not thinking the engine was flooded after my initial install and then looking into other things that caused another problem. . Oh well, I suppose I learned a lot of new things about the fuel injectors. Thanks for your help everybody!

Rotorain

Glad to hear you got it sorted out and working! Are you getting any check engine lights?

AreAxeAte

iTrader: (1)

No Check Engine Lights. Everything seems to be in order.

Rotorain

Awesome! Congrats on the successful motor swap! I just passed the 500 mile break in period and did the oil change and spark plugs. Also got an accessport, which is pretty cool. The 9600 rev limiter is fun, and the engine is a lot smoother throughout the entire rpm range. Should have gotten one of these a long time ago!