I’m new to cars in general and had the opportunity to rebuild an rx8 engine. After I had put the engine back together I was told that there is supposed to be rtv gasket on the housing. Am I doomed if I try to run it for a while? Thank you

 

Yeah... Big time. It'll **** coolant at a rate you've never seen before. I appreciate the moxy tackling an exotic engine rebuild (solo, I assume) as your first foray into cars in general, but probably a good idea to take a step back and find someone with some experience you can lean on. It's never fun to flush large wads of cash. As my dad always said, "Any dumbass can learn from their own mistakes, a wise man learns from the mistakes of others."

 

Do it right or do it twice. Were you following a manual or guide of dome sort?

 

If you are talking about the rtv on the legs of the housings, that is used to prevent oil from leaking out of the oil pan.

What seals did you use Apex, corner, side?
What tolerance did you gap your side seals to?
Did you lap your irons?
Did you resurface your housings?
Did you overtorque your tension bolts?
Did you fix your stat gear oil galleries?

 

Too many variables to account for lol.

RTV where on the housing?

 

You are correct I have an oil leak I think around the tension bolts and my thermostat housing. These are all new cause it had fluids before I took it apart and did not leak

 

I had seen a few YouTube videos. A lot of Rob Dahm and Radpotiential. To be fair they put rtv in those areas I did not. I had already planned on rebuilding it again after I had gotten back from a trip and just wanted to see if the apex seal replace would at least get it spinnin

 

I was talking the legs in the housing and thank you. The previous owner said it had detonated and the only the rear housing had low compression. I had to replace a broken apex seal and replaced the rear housing.I didnt thoroughly measure the side seals to be honest there was some movement but not much. I had not resurfaced the faces but I did get new orings for them. I did not know about those I am planning to rebuild it again so I will check those, but I was not able to get the eccentric shaft bolt out so I was only able to get to the rear housing.

 

on the legs off the housing and the tension bolts

 

Well each side seal has to be toleranced within a couple thou. They are not interchangeable, meaning you cant take one sideseal and throw it into another slot on the same rotor.

I would attribute most failed rx8 rebuilds to this mistake. I trim my own side seals, but others just buy the precut seals listed below. To trim your own seals or check the tolerance you need to use 4 feeler gauges as shown since the rx8 has tapered side seals. This rx8 specific process isn't captured well in most vids or explanations if you are following a guide for rebuilding rotaries.

 

I did not know this. This is awesome thank you I will be doing this when I get back.

 

You should really just spend a week watching every engine assembly video you can and make notes. The small tricks are what kills you like putting your oil control rings and springs in the right way. Or the sideseal spring orientation. Or aligning the gears in your lower intake after cleaning. Do the coolant seals you purchased have a direction?

Sadly it usually takes people multiple engine builds to figure these things out. Its one of those things where it is best to have someone who already did everything in the past teach you.