I finally bought my first RX-8. Definitely not new to Mazdas or rotaries, just always listened to the "don't buy an RX8 until you have lots of time" advice. I now have lots of time.

Mine isn't anything special. 05 white with no special options. It's got a pretty nice stainless exhaust, a real CAI, upgraded brakes and an aftermarket cooling system. I'll probably leave that stuff, dump the ebay spoiler and wheels. I'll add some pics soon. Stormy as hell here.

I'm planning to throw the tigerpaws on it in the trash and get some Indy 500s. Those are just my general cheap performance tire, mainly because I live in WA and they have good water evacuation.

Oh and it had hot starting issue, so of course I beat the guy up on the price on the assumption it was compression loss. Leaky fuel pump installed badly. Happy, lucky me.

 

Rain stopped for a bit. Was able to grab pictures and fiddle with it a bit more. It was dumping the other day when I bought it, so I just drove it for a couple hours to test the engine and parked it.

Here's a longer story of my purchase:
I've always wanted an RX-8, like any car person. The engine doesn't scare me off, because I've worked on a number of RX7s before for dirt track racing. I've just never gotten around to it until now. So being a cheap car person who would rather fix everything myself than pay for someone else's work, I was looking at $2500-5000 USD cars that all needed work.

I got it down to 3 cars, one of which had a grinding 4th gear, the guy acted like it wasn't a big deal and was still trying to get $5000. It was cosmetically beautiful and had no rust, but I kept telling him it needs a tranny rebuild which is probably more labor than the engine. Another one was a typical blown engine. No compression, would not start. Needed full rebuild. Car was mediocre condition in every other way, but he was at $2500 and would clearly take less. Finally the car I bought was listed at $5000 and had hot start issues, but was drivable. Has a mix of really good aftermarket work and really bad. Probably owned by someone who loved it, then a young person. Tiny bit of rust on the rear driver fender, but it doesn't appear to have spread inward very far. I ended up getting it for $4000. Beat up on them pretty hard because I told them it would need an engine rebuild, but I also agreed it was worth more than some others because some of the parts and work were really good.

The car:
2005 6MT, base options.
Pretty good exhaust, intake, clutch and brakes.
Imitation wheels and a tin wing from eBay.
Uniroyal Tigerpiss "tires"
140K, original engine.
Aftermarket cooling system I haven't seen before, but people here probably recognize.

When I first drove it, it ran like total crap and I could immediately tell from the smell that they had been premixing generic lawnmower oil. I honestly thought the engine was toast, but it was literally the "you have to drive it like a sports car" scene from Ford v Ferrari. I got it out on the road and did a hard rev matched shift into third and it seriously shat out like a whole jug worth of lawnmower oil additives. Made a cloud the size of a barn. Then it started PURRING though. And I was thinking "dang, I bet myself $500 this has a leaky fuel line or an unseated pump and it's fine." I also wanna say I'm sorry if the people I bought it from are members here and feel bad reading this. I'm trying to be nice but honest and I know they didn't do all the previous work. So I was honest but harsh, said worst case scenario it needs an engine rebuild. Parts are around $1000 and my time has value too. They agreed to $4000 and I was good with it, knowing it almost certainly didn't need an engine rebuild.

After getting it insured, I drove it around for a couple hours in heavy rain. Had to be a little careful, but I managed to drive it as hard as those tires would take. Not a sputter or any loss of power. I just popped up the back seat and looked underneath and saw signs of previous work and I was like "Oh boy, I think I'm gonna get lucky."

Today I got a better look at the fuel line. The molded piece from the pump must have cracked and was mended with a rubber elbow from some other car. It didn't leak, but it obviously wasn't making good flow. Then when I popped the fuel pump, I could see tool marks with small burrs that didn't appear to be making it leak on the top of the tank, but were probably lifting it just enough to make it not plunge all the way, or not detect right or something. I'm gonna order a new pump even though this one looks fine, original replacement line and file down the surface so the pump sits perfectly. I have high hopes.

I may have mentioned I don't like these tires. They are pretty bad. I actually found a dry patch of pavement and even there they would spin up to 3rd gear from a stop. Fortunately the car is the car and it just fishtails slowly and pathetically forward instead of into the guard rail.

Also wave at my dad who wouldn't get out of the picture. I put the car at his house until I can clear it shop space.

EDIT: No cat, looks like headers. I would bet the engine is not ported at all though, because it seems to get normal gas mileage ish.

 

Looks nice. I'm pretty sure that is the same wing that came on mine that I just purchased.

I'm currently resealing the oil pan on mine as the previous owner used about 1/16 of the proper rvt for the gasket when he reinstalled the motor apparently.

 

Yep, those spoilers are a classic sign of ignorance. I ain't no expert on them maths and physics, but a wing like that on a 3000lb RWD car with a 51/49 wb achieves nothing but adding enough weight to give it a 49/51 wb

Gotta love those people that save money on a $7 tube in a multi thousand dollar engine swap or rebuild.

 

Yeah, the spoiler is heavy as F.. 😂

Yeah not to mention he apparently stripped out the threads on two of the bolts... Fml ..

Well thats going to be a fun fix

 

Maybe we should trade. The deeper I get into mine, the more it looks like the car was almost done and someone just put a layer of stupid on top. The engine has to be tuned and at least given a once over internally, or I wouldn't be getting such good fuel economy on the highway. If all that is true, the car just needs the crappy spoiler off and a set of real alloy wheels and it's done, unless I decide it can take boost. From everything I can see, there's nothing that bad with the compression. Just normal RX8 starting, plus a battery that's been sitting and a jerry-rigged fuel line that isn't flowing enough.

The only codes I'm getting is CEL for evap because I have no cat and coolant level because it isn't accurately reading the aftermarket reservoir. Temps are fantastic.

 

I have more updates. So the wheels are DrifZ Vortexes, which I had no familiarity with. I just knew they were knockoffs because they look exactly like another wheel I've seen that is a recognizable brand. Can't remember what they were, but it appears all DrifZ makes are knockoff designs. They are real machined steel, but not as high grade so they're all about 2lbs heavier than the wheel they imitate. So I'm torn. They're about 20lbs which is like my ceiling for wheels, but people say they hold up just fine. You get the sturdiness without the better grade steel, while maybe fooling a few people into thinking you have a more expensive wheel. It's not the worst and they are 17x7.5 +42, which is about exactly the size I would pick for track tires. They should fit 235-45-17, which are the cheapest size in that range.

I picked the car up Friday, so it won't be until tomorrow that I can go to the closest shop with a rotary compression tester, Rod's Japanese Auto in Bellingham. From just my tire-kicking tests though, it can't be that bad. I'm gaining confidence that this engine won't need to be opened up any time soon. It was mostly just dirty as hell. After actually charging the battery, cleaning the plugs and cleaning the intake, I wouldn't even say it has much of a hot start issue besides being a Mazda RX8. It takes like 6 turns instead of 3 then fires right up. Maybe I just know bums, but every RX8 I've seen over 30K miles does that.

The spoiler, wheels and tires gave me the wrong impression about the car. It was wearing all its ugly up front. I didn't initially recognize a lot of this stuff until looking it all up here, but this car has a lot of the best parts. Bunch of Mazdaspeed stuff I can't even find easily anymore. It looks like the cooling upgrades were a kit from Bennetbuilt that costs about $850 for the reservoir, pump, fan, tubes and fittings. That's a pretty fancy upgrade for cooling. The exhaust system is headers, can't see branding. 3" midpipe, same and finally the TurboXS catback. I was ingorant about this exhaust and didn't know what it was, but damn, this is like $2K worth of exhaust. I swear I'm not making this up and pulling these pics from all over to play a prank. This is the car I just bought for $4000

 

Last update for tonight and I'm switching to video games. This car has to be ecm tuned, because the only CEL code I'm getting is 441. The purge solenoid has to be either dummied or the code is disabled because I'm not getting that. Maybe it's intermittent. I'm also not getting 101-103, so the ecm has to have been tuned for the intake. The only other dummy light I'm getting is intermittent coolant level, seems to be a glitch with the aftermarket reservoir. It's full, car is cool and the coolant is audibly gurgling around just fine.

I did a full cycle of clean the plugs, run high octane fuel through, then change the oil and clean the plugs again. It still hesitates a little to start when hot, but we're talking a couple seconds then it fires right up. The plugs and wires tested fine, I'm going to wait until compression testing to look any further into fuel and spark.

 

So the only code you have is p0441? The evap solenoid is easy to replace and yes, can cause idle instability. Evap has nothing to do with the cat and there shouldn't be any codes from that intake. The intake is supposed to have airflow straightener screens in front of the MAF, but not sure how the Mazdaspeed CAI handles that.

You still have the air pump, but it's dead weight if you don't have a cat. May need to block off the port on the header if you do remove it.

The cloud of smoke you got on your test drive sounds like blowby pushing oil up into the intake. See if there's oil at the throttle body. If it happens again at high rpm, it's a clue the side seals aren't what they used to be.

 

Thanks for the tips. The battery was totally dead from sitting when I picked it up last week, so the codes would all have been cleared. I drove it for a couple of hours and then have just started it a few times while still since then. That's all it's showing right now.

I think the air pump is there to try and fool inspectors from another state. It doesn't have an actual cat, but it has one of those "ultra high flow" ones that is just a fake bulb around an open tube. So someone definitely wanted to go to a cheap inspector and try to pass. No inspections where I live.

I'm quickly learning that the RX8 is more different than the RX7 than I thought, even though it all looks very similar on the surface. I need to dump a lot of stuff from my brain that isn't accurate for this car.

The smoke was a one time thing on the first hard shift. Throttle body wasn't clean by any means, but there was no fresh oil in there. The rest of the drive it handled high rpms and shifts just fine.

Discount Tire has a set of 235/45r17 Pilot 4Ss in stock. I can get them at $233 per tire with a coupon and the best I can find on Indy 500s is $165/tire so I'm doing it tomorrow.

 

Another update. Sorry for talking to myself here, just contributing my experience for others' information or entertainment. Rather than just leeching my info and leaving.

Can't get tires installed or pressure test done until Wednesday. I was hoping they could just squeeze me in unscheduled at both. I have the Pilot 4Ss paid for though and the appointment made.

Fuel pump and fuel line piece currently show arriving Friday.

Still haven't moved it under cover yet, so I haven't taken the spoiler off. Makes me mad every time I need to open the trunk.

I also realize I didn't even say why I bought this car or what I'm doing with it. This is my autocross practice car. I don't care about how it looks, even though I hate tin wings. I don't need it to go any faster, any gains from upgrades are just curiosity. The engine doesn't need to get me to the grocery store for the next 5 years, it just needs to take an absolute beating and still start eventually for the next year or so. I don't need bigger tires or wider tires in the rear. I don't care about the visual gap. I don't need additional downforce, I am likely to reach a maximum of about 110 practicing high speed shifts. The course isn't any longer than that and the RX8 can't accelerate faster than that. The whole interior will be stripped, so a base model that was only optioned with leather and no seat heaters doesn't matter to me. Anyone want seats?

 

Nice car 🤩

 

Thanks!

 

Fixed the tire problem. Yes I see the gap. Drives just fine. Also we can see that just like every project car I've ever bought, we've got loud exhaust, big *** wing and brakes that look like they've never been cleaned. People just love crashing.

I'm definitely in the love the RX8 group. I think I got about 5 smiles per gallon on the way back home, but I gotta break in those tires.

I feel like I'm getting to 60 faster than 8 seconds. Not saying the mods on this car are necessarily making power, just faster than I expected. Curious of others experience real world.

Tomorrow I'm hopefully getting the pressure test and a proper look at the exhaust. I'm going to see if the fake cat is the kind that just bolts on the outside of the pipe and comes off easy, or if it's welded on. If I can just remove it an leave a normal test pipe that doesn't vibrate, I'll do that, otherwise I'll order a test pipe. Still crawling under with a flashlight and it's always dark here, but I think it's Turbo XS front to back. In that case I may have to live with its noisiness, because even though it's not a real cat, it's basically a $350 test pipe that is really convincing lol.

EDIT: One trip to eBay later. Jesus the stainless 3" test pipe is $282, I'm gonna make the one I have rattle less or I'm going to the pick-n-pull.

 

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new RX-8!! I've always liked the Whitewater Pearl color. The leather seats look nice in the car. Its possible that the cloth seats got ruined or that the previous owner preferred the look and feel of leather. Now my question about the seats is do they work and adjust? Mazda is good for having the wiring in place for many trim levels, but leaving out a certain option or accessory. On the 1st Gen RX-7, I could upgrade a base S model to having the extra interior lighting and power mirrors that the GS had. I'm wondering if the RX-8 is the same. I don't think I've ever looked under the seat carpeting in my 04 Base 6spd to see if the connectors were there hidden away for a power seat. As for acceleration, your car should run from 0-60 in about 6 seconds. If you're hitting 8 seconds before reaching 60, something is off. For the exhaust, have you considered installing a catalytic converter in the exhaust instead of a test pipe? Or just replace the center section with an oem mid pipe? It will drastically cut down on noise and the exhaust note will be much improved.

What code are you getting for evap? Was it only the P0441 that has not returned? I was thinking if it returned and it were parked with other evap codes, it could be a simple purge valve, air pump or evap pack. The converter is not part of the evap system and it will display a different code for running without a converter. I agree that it might have been tuned out at one point if the converter is gone and there are no catalyst inefficiency codes. I also have a Bennett Built coolant expansion tank on one if my RX-8's and the sensor reads the coolant level perfectly. The benefit to this tank is that the coolant level sensor is replaceable. If you have a loow coolant light and your coolant level is at the proper level, you may want to look into replacing the sensor on the side of the tank.

Either way, you're doing great with the car and making a lot of improvements. Huge steps in the right direction!! Well done!

 

Thanks! I'm over the moon for it.

I'm totally confused on the seats. They're manual adjust, leather and not heated. I thought they were swapped at first, but I'm wondering if that was an option? They're really comfortable and nice. If this was a daily I would absolutely keep them. But I'm going to putting in seats with 5-point mounts and gutting the interior.

I don't mind the noise of the exhaust, just the current pipe is rattling, not just being loud. It looks like it is one of the most recommended ones though, so I'll look into remounting it better first.

Thanks for the tip on the coolant. I'll do the sensor immediately so it stops flashing and annoying me.

On the engine code I need to hook it up again at the shop. I'm a little dyslexic and I may have even said the wrong code. Looking it up 441 doesn't seem right.

6 seconds seems about right. I keep underestimating these cars. I'm used to 3rd gen rx7s that were popular for a while in dirt track races and we didn't exactly baby them and do a lot of research. We just beat on them and they all put about 100HP to the wheels. We would bore them out big and run them til they blew.

Hey I'm curious @mazdaverx7 , do you do endurance or stock or something with those Corvettes? I'm spending my midlife crisis trying to level up to big boy races, from redneck bs. This is my practice car.

 

Also, fixed it.

Seller also had a new RR taillight he found, I'm going to grab it.

 

Back from Rod's Japanese. It had been so long since they used them, they couldn't find their adaptors for the compression test. They were really embarrassed and did everything else they could for me to look it over. On a lark I called a nearby shop that specializes in WRXs and EVOs and the guy was like "Oh yeah, have those." And then asked me all the right questions about it and booked me tomorrow. They don't have a dyno, but nobody nearby does.

I finished flushing through the ultra high-octane gas and 3oz/gal premix. My goal was to clear out everything from the synthetic yard tool oil the previous owner had been premixing with. Since synthetics like to glaze your engine like a ham with their additives instead of burning, I was hopeful getting it really hot would clean it all out. Temps were fine and none of this was driving high speed. I'm now running a full tank of 93 octane and some regular JASO certified dino premix at 2oz/gal. Feels and smells a lot cleaner now and the engine runs better every mile. I've been breaking in the new tires all morning on a nearby mountain road, mostly staying at around 3.5k-5K rpms in 3rd and 4th, average of about 55mph. The car just loves it. It sings at that RPM range and screams when I take it up to the redline. God I love this thing.

I'm definitely looking at some electrical gremlins. I had my hazards and door dinger go off randomly a few times over bumps. I'll be starting with the battery cables, relays and fuse panel connections. Tips always welcome. Battery is new. Plugs and wires already pulled, tested and cleaned with QD cleaner. It's very intermittent, but it may be the root of my starting lag if my compression is good.

 

I think I'm starting to get an idea of what is going on with my engine. I think it's flooding, not too lean, or missing spark. Here's my process.

First of all, if this engine is stock I'll eat my hat. I'll know more tomorrow, but I think the intake ports are bored out. If I cruise along in 6th gear, doing like 3k, that's the only time it feels "normal" as others describe. It seems to get about 18-20mpg, needle doesn't visibly drop or anything. If I rev it hard, it sucks fuel at an INCREDIBLE rate, but I'm not smoking or shooting flames. It smells like combusted fuel. I'm burning all or most of it and the car is MOVING. I'm kind of known for being reckless and having too little fear, but I'm actually becoming afraid of 2nd gear. It's a lot.

Anyway, with the fuel. If I just take the car out of gear, coast into the space and shut it off, which I frequently do, car doesn't want to start again. If I give it gas, it's worse. If I don't, it will start in a few cranks. Now on the other hand, if I rev it up in neutral and then let it spit it all out before shutting it off, starts right up. Now I know some degree of this is normal with a renesis, but it's pretty pronounced. The engine doesn't show any other signs of low compression. Electrical also hasn't acted up again since I beat the dust out of the car.

 

With the seats, I believe after reading your post, that someone installed the manual rails on the power seats. It makes sense to do this, as the car likely does not have the connectors and wiring for the power seats. I would have to look under the carpet in my 04 Base 6spd to confirm this. But I know the Base does not have any wiring or connectors for the HID headlights or for the dynamic stability control, so it would make sense that it would not have any for the power seats.

I would think the 441 you mentioned is likely P0441. Its an evap dtc, nothing crazy. Years ago, I did race a Corvette, but it was mostly autocross. It was a blast, but with a growing family, was difficult to continue to race on a regular basis. I retired the car back to a weekend cruiser and I still have it. I have C4 Corvettes and they are absolutely incredible in the track and out on the open road. These are cars that are made to go fast and handle extremely well. Much less nimble than the RX-8. Think of them as a butter knife compared to the RX-8 being a scalpel. Still, they are absolutely amazing and I would definitely recommend one with a manual transmission. The automatic transmission cars are great, however they lack a lot of the driving excitement that the manual transmission cars provide. When I was racing Corvettes, there were a few RX-8's on the track and they did extremely well. They couldn't match the Corvettes on the straights, but would do amazing and make up time in the corners. The Miatas were dominating and the really modified ones would eat up a C6 on an autocross course. With the right driver, they would embarrass guys with 400hp and it was fun to watch them run the course.

 

Maybe I should have bought a Corvette. The RX-8 is eating my ego with the oil and gas.

Yesterday afternoon I went out and really pushed it. It was a blast, but my stomach has taken the past 8 hours to drop out of my chest. I may be too old for this.

It really drives amazing. I’ve hit shifts at such high rpms rev matched and the driveline doesn’t even shake. The wheels don’t spin, the rear end doesn’t bounce. It just snaps into gear and goes. I can’t find a limit that my body can take.

Gonna creep to shop in a few hours and try not to drink too much coffee.

 

Yes, accurate. It's a stretched Miata with a weird engine after all

 

Just a few hours and that weird engine gets a compression test. And I can finally get it up in the air for more than 5 minutes. Take the skid plates off and get a better look at the front of the exhaust. Take the wheels off and clean the brakes. Look all over at what had been done with the car.

Wish me luck.

 

Nobody be shocked, but I'm gonna make this update short because I'm exhausted and get to take a victory lap nap.

It took 3 rednecks, an hour and some fittings I don't even think were part of the kit, but I think we got good compression reading. Kept doing it until all 6 made sense and averaged. Looks like about 120 in the front and almost 130 in the rear. That's as good as she gets folks. Good oil pressure in both, no visible signs of damage from what we could see.

The front of the exhaust is terrible lol. Mr Magoo was in there with his drill and sawzall. It's the stock manifold, but it appears to have been bored out and a hollowed out stock cat pipe. That's why it feels wide open but sounds like dogsh*t in the front. It does flow though.

Code was p401, not 411. Airbags apparently. They're not connected. Got a couple more related ones.

That's good enough for me for now. Gonna sleep for days.

EDIT: Oh last thing. I tried just driving it like a normal car and pretending I was in a BMW 3 series or something. It's actually really well behaved cruising on the highway. That tipping point before the gas starts sucking is small, but it does fine if you stay above it with the throttle. I'm feeling way less like I'm wrangling a monster.

 

Nice numbers, definitely higher than most that come through here. Was there a lot of premix or other additional oil put through the engine before the test?
P0401 is EGR, which this car doesn't have, are you sure that was the code?