66Racer

Hey guys,

I think Im falling in love with the rx-8 again, and may actually buy one this time. Love the styling, looks like a high end sports car if you ask me but with a great price tag. Also reminds me of the classic Shelby Daytona Coupes.

The ONLY thing Im kinda worried about though is the Renisis rotary engine. Mainly how many miles are they typically good for if well maintained in stock trim and how many miles with a turbo in the mix? Im new to rotary engines so dont know all their querks yet. I have read about the gas milage and the oil consumption though. I keep hearing though that a rotary engine cant make reliable power, and that if I boost it i will most likely need to pull the engine out quite often since the seals can blow out somewhat easily. I also read about some people needing to get their engines replaced within the 1st year, worst case I read about, which i find hard to be true, is 3 engines within 7 months, and the car was all stock from what i understand. Is any of this actually true????????

I regained interest in the rx-8 though after reading about the 390hp PTP turbo setup in car and driver. I think with that power it would match the looks of the car. My biggest complaint has always been that the RX-8 is underpowered for looking that good. Glad the PTP kit makes good power. But now Im worried about the reliablility of a rotary. I dont wanna pass up on the great styling though, please talk me into it

Seriously though I need the brutal truth on the rx-8's engine, please let me know what you guys think before I purchase one so I have no surprises

Thanks guys
--Anthony

expo1

This question has been asked over and over. Please search " longevity" or "reliability ".If you go turbo reliability is is a crap shoot. I have 67,000 miles on my 8 without any major issues by the way.

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

There was a post about why Rotary had(notice, had) a bad name in reliablility not long ago. obviously you didnt search "hard" enough.

but I can tell you, N/A engine will ALWAYS last longer than FI engine.

the 13b-REW (FD's engine) was perfectly fine. its just that Mazda "forgot" to put enough cooling and .... some of them blew at around 60K due to extreme heat (rotary makes alot more heat)

and most(I mean ppl who knows about Rotary) changed their radiator to counter that problem, and many of those FD's last over 100K. (typical number for any engine) and some Older,non-turbo FC engine last over 200K (N/A)

enough said. go search.

Paul_in_DC

The brutal truth is:

1 - It's a terrific engine, with fewer moving parts than any piston engine. It'll last forever and a day if you treat it right. Folks have reported them lasting over 200,000 miles.

2 - Long-term reliability with a turbo is currently unknown. If Mazda did the engineering on it, I might be interested. With after-market turbos, you might not have too many problems, or you might seriously limit the life of your engine for some as-yet-undiscovered technical reason. Some people here have installed turbos - do a search for those threads and see what they say.

Rinkadink

From what I've heard, the rotary engine gets better and better with age. Better as in faster and more efficient. I saw a video of a guy in an only 80's RX-7 running his engine at 9k RPM for over 5 minutes. The only thing that made him stop was that his bumper caught on fire. I don't think any piston engine could do that.

66Racer

Yeah I was looking through some of the turbo threads, nothing really with reliability in there, mainly just tips on performance. I guess the turbo kits available to reach the motors limits? Which would be good though since 350-400 hp would be nice if the PTP kit can do it as advertised.

As far as piston engines go, a v8 wouldnt be able to do 9000 unless its a $20,000 race engine, a four cylinder may for some time, but piston engines seem to build WAY better torque.

I just like the Idea of a rotary engine since its different. The two cars im looking into are a 2005 STI and a new rx8. Mainly because they both have unique engines, the STI being a boxster engine. RX-8 hands down due to styling but the STi has my eye for the brembos, turbo, and AWD. Dunno though, the rx9 hands down looks WAY better though, lol

Thanks, keep the comments coming about the rotary

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

I know what u're talking about. That dude just sit and let it go redline for like couple of minutes. between then u can see it starts shooting fire, the engine coolant starting to boil. and finally, the bumper caught the fire. Piston engine idle @ 9k redline ? I think the driver probably be dead in 3 minutes. (cuz its just gonna blow up)


I trust my rotary, yes there were a couple of unlucky ones with dead engines. but which car actually does NOT have engine problems? look at 03 2.5 Altimas. lots of them gotta replace the whole engine due to a design issue.

Brettus

iTrader: (2)

Thing is , you can't do much with the looks of an STI but you can do something with the performance of an RX8 !

mlx8

For a user's version, https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...ghlight=cayman go to the 3rd page of the thread, 55,000 miles, including a lot of HPDE track time/days. The car is periodically checked throughly, including engine compression. It's running flawlessly, including circles around many "higher" powered competitors.

I'd say engine reliabilty for NA motors is very good. HTH

Paul_in_DC

Oo, that's cold!

Sephiroth

Rotaries are amazing motors. I love to spin mine up to redline, then go to the next gear and repeat. It's nice and smooth. I would hold off on turbos or sc until some long term results are in. Previous rotories are notorious for being extra-sensitive when adding F/I, this one is no different.

Nubo

My advice is to appreciate the car for what it is and keep within the design that the engineers built the car around. If you want to boost the Hp by 50% or more, you are then driving an "experimental" car -- you become the engineer, and reliability and longevity are now your responsibility. 390 Hp RX-8? Don't know how long that would last unless you're planning on some major bucks. Take a look at the tranny threads -- enough problems at stock power levels.

Cheap, reliable, powerful -- pick any 2

66Racer

Thanks for the tip, I almost forgot about looking into that since im so concerned about the potential of a rotary engine.

***A couple threads up I noticed I had some typos, sorry bout that, accidentally called the rx8 an rx9 and a boxer engine a boxster engine, lol dam multitasking!