I just bought my first rotary engine car and joined the site a few days ago. I'm excited about this car and even though I wont be doing any heavy modding initially, I may do a turbo system sometime in the future when I have a 2nd car for a daily. I got a 2007 RX-8 with the 6MT and only 21k miles. The car appears to be in great shape. I've driven 3 RX-8's in the last year because I had been considering this car for a while. Of all the cars I've driven, this one was the nicest. Seems to have been well maintained.

I owned an Evo 8 for the last 3 years and after having a long list of mechanical failures and other issues I decided to sell it for the 8. To be honest, I miss nothing about the Evo after having driven this car for several days. It is a much more refined beast with class that an Evo doesn't have (I hated the Evo interior). The Evo may have been good in the straight but the 8 is more fun in the curves. I also love how smooth the rotary engine is when acclerating, and there is nothing like reving to 9k rpm!

After reading extensively, I've decided to go with Royal Purple synthetic oil (5w-30 for winter, 10w-40 for summer) for my first oil change and I'll be premixing too. I'll probably only use 4-5 oz of premix per tank but I've been having a tough time deciding which premix to use.

I stopped by napa yesterday to check and see what they had and the only fully synthetic 2 cycle oil they had was Royal Purple, which is TWC III. I had seen some conflicting info that TWC III stuff has additives that can harm the engine and cause deposits so I was wary about purchasing it. From reading I gathered that most people prefer the stuff designed for motorcycles or the rotary specific Idemitsu.

Basically what I want to know is if the Royal Purple would be ok to start with or if there something better? It's the only thing I could find in the area. I was also considering using some Lucas UCL to blend with it.

What are your thoughts?

-Matt

 

Recently a member hit 200K miles on his 8 and he's been running Royal Purple for a while.

Congrats on the buy! Post pictures.

 

He didn't use RP premix though. He used Amsoil 2-cycle, but that was only after installing the SOHN adapter after like 150,000 miles. Didn't see anything about premixing before that.

I'm no expert myself. I'm using Red Line 2-cycle racing oil. I know idemitsu is made for the rotary, and so is protek-R (iirc), but they're hard to come by, so I went with what I could find, and after Red Line did wonders to my transmission, I think I trust their products. But that's just my two cents!

 

Thanks for the info.

Here's some pics from the dealers ad. I havent been able to take any proper pics of my own because I live in Illinois and we've been hit hard by some bad weather for the last few days. I cant wait till this weather clears up so I can take the 8 out and drive down my favorite twisty roads. So far it seems to do pretty good in snow and freezing rain, much better than I expected.

 

Congrats. Looks clean.

 

I too just joined the club and picked up a 10 this weekend.Looks like I have a lot of researching to do.Premix??

 

Welcome!

Seems like you've done your research, and posted pics. Enjoy the car. I'm an idemitsu man myself.

 

Welcome

 

nice brilliant black 8! i'm pretty partial to my BB 05. seems like you've already done some reasearch and are on the right path!

 

Thanks! Yeah I sort of dive into anything new with 110% effort. I think I've spent every waking moment reading all the stickys in each section since I bought the car last Saturday. I have been a 4G63 guy since 1999.

I had a 1G eclipse (still in the garage but not running) and more recently the Evo. I was so used to knowing everything about those cars and now with the RX-8 it's a whole different world. I'll continue to research until I feel that I know everything there is to know lol. Which will be indefinitely.

So my friends like to go to road race events in the midwest throughout the summer and I was planning on attending at least one event this summer.

Any recommendations on what I should make sure to have done prior to a day at the track?

I'm thinking new brake pads at the very least, new brake fluid, change of oil to something a better for racing. Would it be recommended that I get the oil pump or water pump upgrade before tracking the car, or should I just get some good gauges to monitor things? I'm hoping to upgrade my coils soon too so that would be done. I dont like how the stock coils are notorious for being weak. I had some coil issues with my evo and I dont every want anything like that again!

I may have the Access Port by the time I hit the track too.

 

There was a thread about Lucas UCL some time in the past few months. I don't think it was favorable. Try searching for that thread before using the stuff.

Ken

 

I actually found that thread last night while reading so I'm going to avoid it and go for a straight premix of 4-5 oz per tank. Since it is the easiest to find, I'm going to try the Royal Purple Synthetic premix along with the RP synthetic 5W-30 oil for now. I'd like to try the Idemistu at some point.

I'm really interested in the SOHN adapter mod too.