Series II Engine Rebuild
 

So it finally happened, after 115k miles low compression finally reared its ugly head and my car won't turn over. Its a sad day, but, I'm using this as an opportunity for some upgrades and learning. I'm pulling the motor out myself thanks to RotaryResurection's amazing guide (seriously wherever you are I hope everything is going very well, your guide is excellent), and sending it to Pettit Racing for a PBR II re-build and street port. I've talked myself out of the bridge port since this is a street car, but, since I have everything out I was wondering what might be some worthwhile upgrades (and general good practice maintenance items) to put in since I have everything apart already. Before this whole adventure I had the following:

• Racing Beat Exhaust
• BHR Mid-Pipe
• BHR Ignition Coil Upgrade (not the globally compliant newer versions)
• BHR Wires

Some stuff I was thinking about doing:

• Bridge port (I still keep coming back to this even though I know I shouldn't)
• Lightweight flywheel
• New pulleys (I sort of need to do this since I had to hammer the s*** out of the crank pulleys to get them off)
• New exhaust manifold
• Cold air intake
• The new upgraded BHR coils and wires?
• Radiator hose replacement?
• New starter? (I really had to crank the motor in the end to get it to start)
• New alternator? (I really had to crank the motor in the end to get it to start)
• Anything I might have missed

Also, when putting everything back together would you recommend brand new nuts/bolts/washers/etc, or just reuse what I pulled out (except all those bolt clips in the wheel wells I broke). Put loctite/antiseize on anything specific. Anything to keep my eye out for when putting everything back in? Really appreciate the help!

Bridgeport is a quick way to do this all again soon, so try to keep the urge down :pSounds like a good plan otherwise.
New exhaust manifold - why? There's nothing to be gained or repaired there.
Yes to lightweight flywheel. Probably clutch too if it's not recent?
Yes to rad hoses.
Cold air intake - eh. It's not super worth the money but you could. AEM/MazdaSpeed or Racing Beat, everything else is a downgrade.
Starter and alternator: you probably had to crank a lot because the engine was losing compression. Verify your cranking speed and go from there. Should be 250ish, or at least over 220. Alternator wouldn't play a role in that anyway.

I'd replace the water pump if that's not already in the plan. After 115k miles who knows what state it's in and you don't want to have to do it again later.

If you're in a climate with salt and winter, check/replace the oil cooler hoses. They tend to rust out.

You are the man!

Alright I'm going to be honest, pulling this engine has been such a pain....I mean, such a huge pain. I don't want to do anything that will bring this upon me sooner if I can help it. The bridge port idea is officially dead. I appreciate your words of wisdom. Regarding everything else:

• I wasn't completely sure if anything could be gained from the exhaust manifold (probably should have researched this more, my bad). That's out
• BHR Flywheel and counterweight it is
• Clutch is somewhat recent so that should be okay
• Yes to the silicone rad hoses
• Cold air intake out. Can always put this in later if I truly get the itch
• I'll check the starter
• Good call on the water pump, I'm already there so I might as well
• This Rx8 lived through a lot of NJ winters and those oil cooler hose lines were HORRIBLE to get apart, I'll go with some Racing Beat Stainless Steel lines

Regarding the pulleys. I believe the crank shaft pulley is the N3R1-11-400A, but, I'm not positive. When pulling that stuff off there were two pulleys that separated and the trigger wheel (eccentric shaft position plate?) was behind. All mounted with 4 bolts. However, I'm only seeing the one pulley and nothing behind it in the parts diagram, and only the single bolt. Is this correct or do I have the wrong parts? I can't seem to find that trigger wheel for sale new anywhere.

Good luck with the build! I think I will follow along as I just picked up a Series 2 with a blown coolant seal and will be doing a build soon myself. I'm planning to go with a street port and will be using rx7 apex seals, but otherwise keeping it pretty basic.

Coolant hoses
 

When you’re installing your new oil cooler lines I read somewhere that a good rust preventative is to take a rag and soak it with some WD-40 and give it a light coating, I did this with mine and it’s been good so far.

Kevin is alive and well, also a great source for used RX8 parts, or even an engine rebuild

https://rotaryresurrection.com

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Sorry for the delay. I had some family visiting for the last week so I haven't made any progress on the engine removal. Still trying to get that damn upper middle bell house bolt out. I've given up at getting at it from underneath and I'm working on taking the upper intake manifold out to try and access it from the top.

I think I'll be going with some new stainless steel oil cooler lines from racing beat so I'll definitely be trying that WD-40 trick. Getting those things apart was terrible. Also damn, wasn't expecting oil cooler lines (both stock and aftermarket) to be as pricey as they are!

One new question that did pop up was tuning. With A Pettit street port will a tune be necessary? I don't see a mention of it on their website, but, some guys at work made it seem like with any porting, a tune would be a necessity. The street port modifications seem pretty minor, is that something the stock ECU would be able to adapt to with the existing fuel maps? Or is a tune recommended? I'm seeing a RotorSports racing in the Charlotte NC that seem like they could tune if needed. Just want to make sure I'm doing everything right when putting all of this back together.

don’t be dumb by porting the engine, in 18 years I’ve yet to see a single ported Renesis engine that had higher output than an unported engine, all else being equal.

A renesis is different that any previous 13B engine and that difference doesn’t correlate with the same mods having the same positive results, you have to get this in your head

because when you take it to a 13B shop as mentioned they aren’t going to have that understanding, all those RX7 guys who were going to show everyone how it was done came here and left with a hole in their pocket and hurt feelings over that same 18 year period.
.

So you're saying don't even go for the street port? Just have Pettit clean up the housing, install new seals, generally re-man the engine, etc.?

Also, after taking some time off from the engine removal cause life keeps getting in the way, I'm back at trying to pull the motor. However, I am still stuck at trying to get that top dead center transmission bell house bolt (the one behind the rear engine lift point) to break loose. I've tried getting at it from underneath with ~15" of extensions, a universal, and an impact and can't get it that way. I pulled out the intake manifold and tried to get at it from the top and I still can't get the clearance/any oompf to break the thing. Anybody have any recommendations? I am on the struggle bus with this bolt.

Maybe have somebody from the top assist with holding the sockets on the bolt while I hammer with the impact from underneath? Any particular tools that can help?

Appreciate any help.

get a better impact gun maybe, never had a problem with mine, but I put high grade nickel anti-seize on everything once it comes apart the first time.

And my apology for being a blockhead and using the s-word when the d-word was what I was really thinking. There’s plenty of info on here warning people over and over not to do it. Actual positive results other than someone talking out their butt-dyno are few and far between. Why do you think that is after all these years and so many people thinking they know better doing it?

Just a clean up to make sure the edges have some radius not to catch the side seal, maybe grind the shelf in the top Vee of the exhaust port smooth so carbon doesn’t build up there. Because the side seals on the Renesis are under a lot more heat load than the earlier engines due going over the side exhaust ports. Porting is only good for about 10 bhp *maximum* and only if it’s done right, but side seal life is going to suffer because of it. So it’s just not worth it. Understand this though; there’s no shortage of merchandisers out there who are more than eager to sell you exactly what you’re willing to pay for.
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How is your build going? You get it running yet?

Agree with Loki and Team like I usually do.

So you are doing the full rebuild yourself, have you ever done any Rotary?

Not a fan of renewing parts that are supposed to be better than OEM, when they are not.
Check your Rotor Bearings and E-Shaft.
Water Pump is a YES, but is S2 Specific.

And DO NOT Port any Renesis.

Unfortunately I don't have it up and running yet. Up until this project most of my experience working on automobiles was routine stuff like oil changes and brake jobs. So my ambition got ahead of my skillset (and tooling) which left me driving a motorcycle to work every day during the winter which, got old real quick with all the rain. So I pulled the trigger on a Tacoma which delayed my rebuild a little.

The good news is I'm back to working on everything! The motor is out and broken down into a long block in my garage (thanks again Kevin!). With all the above recommendations I'm no longer going with a port and instead just doing a rebuild. There are a couple of rotary shops in/around North Carolina, so I'll be taking it to one of them to perform the rebuild while I wait for some other parts to arrive and begin the rebuild process and clean everything up. This Rx8 was my daily driver for about 10 years and it shows. Now that I have reliable transportation that keeps me from getting wet I get to really turn this into a project car and just have some fun with it.

I'll also look into the E-Shaft and rotor bearing. Appreciate the insight!

Glad you are getting back to it! I just got mine up and running and it is such a good feeling! Still have some bugs to work out, but man it feels good to have it mobile again.

What's everyone's thoughts on the necessity of the upper and lower manifold insulators? Part #N3H1-13-391C and N3H1-13-392B. When pulling everything out those two pieces were badly rusted and basically fell off as I was pulling everything out. My girlfriends Corolla had a similar situation and everyone on those forums agreed the cheap piece of metal wasn't doing a whole lot. But the Rx8 generates a lot more heat I imagine. They worth the $225 replacement?

Shop around. Took me less than 30 seconds to get that number down to $160. I wouldn't futz around with things like that. Mazda's rotary engineering team put a lot of time and money into figuring this stuff out. They wouldn't have spec'd $225 (or much less) worth of parts if they weren't doing something important. It was their top of the line car, but it still wasn't a very expensive one.

Okay so I need some quick help because I've encountered my nightmare scenario. Engine is back from Rotary Resurrection and rebuild is moving along. But, I've encountered two parts that I have no idea where they go and I'm struggling to describe them to get anything accurate in google. See image below. Anybody recognize these two parts and know where they go? Really appreciate the help.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...fcdf943e09.jpg

One on the right is the woodruff key, check the rear area on the eccentric shaft. The one on the left I'm not sure.

JB you are the man thank you! I had googled sunset metal piece instead of half-moon metal piece and nothing was coming up. Along with small arc metal piece, small house metal piece, etc. Apparently I just got my solar/lunar terms mixed up