Well after a few weeks of researching and testing and wrenching, I finally gave in and had a compression test done. After two hours of waiting I received results that were less than surprising.


As you can see my engine is getting quite exhausted. What's curious to me is that After the initial warmup she runs excellent from 4k all the way to redline. Hard starting is not a particular issue, cranking time varies from 3-6 seconds on the original non updated starter and idling is perfectly stable. The only visual cue that prodded me to do the test was the choppy acceleration during warmup. It felt almost as tho I was attempting to start driving in 3rd and proceed to drive two gears ahead of where I should be, lots of awful lugging. Also from idle to 4k rpm the actual acceleration felt Similar to driving a truck thru thick mud, just fighting it all the way then picking back up at 4k.

Now that story time is over, it's time to find out where to go with this. I do want to replace the engine and eventually step up to FI. With this in mind I know I need a professionally built engine with proper mods that will support a turbo. My two choices for an engine build are pineapple racing or bhr. I have yet to call them as I am still doing research to find what exactly I'm looking to get out of the build without breaking the bank. Any advice, input, cautions, or previous experience would be much appreciated.

 

Where are you located? Did you normalize the results? It's still failing but just curious. You cannot go wrong with Pineapple or BHR.

Pineapple built my boosted engine 20,000 miles ago. So far, so good, just did a compression test last month and it's still good, not great, but well within spec and it runs, starts perfect, etc. But I have also dealt with Charles many times over the years and he is as stand up a they get.

 

I'm mainly located outside of Nashville tn but I travel to memphis pretty often. I didn't normalize them as I assumed the dealership did that following the test but I guess they didn't.
If you can link me to how to normalize them I can get that info for you.
Also I have been looking into Pettit as a third option for building. I'm not sure which is the best route. I wanted better oil flow and I know that is an option with pineapple as well updated seals.
When they built your engine was it with the turbo or did you add boost after? Hoe much was the actual cost for the built motor if you don't mind me asking? If you prefer not to discuss it in the thread we could continue in pm.

 

Call RR, he is local

Rotary Resurrection

 

Mine was built with boost in mind from day one, it was never NA, but I used OEM seals (except coolant seals) so it wasn't really "built" for boost per say. There are not many proven methods for building a Renesis with boost in mind, just opinion and unproven theory.

RR and Pettit are both reputable.

 

How well is it running with the boost 9k? You said it was good but not great does that mean it's slowly losing compression due to the extra stress from boost?
Also does RR rebuild strictly to OEM specs or do they offer upgraded options?

 

It's running fine, my turbo is out for a rebuild but it was running awesome at 10psi before I pulled it to get the rebuild done. All boosted Renesis are slowly losing compression, . Generally they last about 30,000-40,000 (some longer) if tuned well (most important).

 

Ahh why the rebuild? And it looks like my plans for boost might be pushed back if I can't keep the engine running for more than 30-40k. My modding budget doesn't extend that far unfortunately. As far as a rebuilt engine, if done by one of these various builders and properly maintained it should certainly last many years n/a correct? Or would I be looking at a shortened life span due to the use of old engine parts that sometimes get used in the builds?

 

My Mazda reman failed due to a faulty coolant seal after 30,000 miles and I had already planned to go turbo so I just added the cost of a proper rebuild (past 100k, out of warranty) to my build. It wasn't cheap to do both at the same time but it had to be done. If your funds are limited and the car is a daily driver then don't go forced induction.

 

The plan looks like it will stay n/a for quite a while since it is my daily. I have an old bronco that needs a part here and there to be running, that may be an option as a daily so I can move towards boosting the 8.

As you stated prior your built engine was done with boost in mind, the modifications done by pineapple (assuming there was some porting, heavy duty seals, oil mods or something to that effect) ,were these done to essentially increase the reliability of the engine since it cant be technically built for a turbo setup?

 

It was ported and I did get the Stage 2 oiling mods. The oiling mods and heavy duty coolant seals could help with reliability but that would apply NA or boosted.