Mine seems to be going through an "Overheating Endurance Test".
Lets see how many times it'll overheat before it blows a housing seal.
Personaly I think it already has. And that's causing my overheating.

 

...or you could have a big old air bubble in your system. That could cause it to periodically overheat.

 

They've bled the system like three times and to no avail. That and one thought I had was the thermostat was stuck. But no. But it has a noticeable loss of power between 5500 and 6500 rpm. And it has stalled on me at times for no reason. And a flat spot in the throttle (from a stop) has been felt.
But who am I to argue with the great and powerful MAZDA.
They said "Put an engine in it".

 

Sorry to hear about your problems Eric. Glad they're taking care of it. That is one thing that really makes me nervous about my warranty running out. Instead of allowing techs to gain knowledge by dissecting things and analyzing the failures they are just replacing major components. I know I'm not buying a new motor every time I encounter a hiccup. Hopefully Mazda is passing the info back to their techs when they're done doing their thing.

 

That was my main concern as well. What happens when my warranty runs out? Then what?

 

I'm going to start the RCCAZ/AZMC Renesis Insurance Fund.
For a small, nominal fee, RX-8 owners can buy into a fully rebuilt Renesis that is kept on standby.
When a member's motor blows, they can get this motor installed by members of the club for a fraction of the cost a regular owner would pay Mazda to do the same.
Then, the money paid into the fund will buy and rebuild another motor for the fund and the cycle starts over again.

 

If that is a mutual, then one share is sold!

 

I think you're joking but if you're not you just sold your second share.

 

I'm not joking. Well, half joking.
Dave (chickenwafer) and I were talking about that last week.
I just have to figure out how to cover the start-up investment so that the "buy-in" isn't outrageous.

I figure that the stealership will charge $5k for the motor and another $3k for the installation.
Even with a steep discount, you won't get a dealer-supplied engine for less than $4k and the labor is 6 to 8 hours no matter how you cut it.
It is going to cost about $3k me to start the "fund" (get a good motor and prep it for installation) and I think it is reasonable that the "deductible" on "claim cost" would be about $3500 - a $2k to $4.5k discount over the stealership price. I figured the "premium" would be like $100, so the total out-of-pocket cost for an engine replacement would be $3600, instead of $6000 - $8000.
Any of you financial gurus might have a better suggestion/system?

 

Have you tried Paul over at Mazmart? He's always been cool to me in the past. I have to give him a call pretty soon so I can get my car back on the road. Maybe if you tell him your plan he can hook us up with a better price? It's worth a shot.

 

yeah me and Jeff talked about going halfies on a used motor, but then it turned into something more. Say we get 10 people who buy into this "insurance" Renesis, which will be professionally prepped and stored by Jeff and myself so it's completely safe and ready to use, whoever needs it first (provided a complete replacement of their enigne is REQUIRED) gets it, then we can use their core to get a new motor and the cycle starts over. I think it would be a great idea and save everyone time and money. Really, we can put in the new engine in a weekend- most dealerships takes longer as they wait for parts and stuff.

 

Whoa, I thought we were kidding!

Not that some way to get my ride up and running quickly, post warranty or warranty denial, is not a good idea.

I think if our financial expert makes this work, I am in.

 

Paul is great, but he can't beat $2500 for an an entire motor at my door.

 

I'm not kidding. I'm just not smart enough to know if it is a sound idea.
The idea isn't to make money, but to just cover the cost of the parts, fluids and club labor.

 

I know this is off topic but since you've done more shopping around for parts then I have do you know who I could go to for my front end parts ( mounting brackets for bumper ) and plastic wheel well liner? I just gave Paul a call but he doesn't have what I need If anyone else has any suggestions besides the dealership please chime in.

 

shoot, if Mazmart doesn't have the parts I'm not sure where to turn. Try onlinemazdaparts.com

 

Abbid just sent me there too. Thanks!

 

One small glitch in the Insurance plan that hasn't yet been covered.
AT TRANSMISSION

 

What, you don't want a 6-port conversion?
I guess we could figure out how many folks need which motor and are buying in and see if it is feasible to have both.
That said, I suppose you can fit a 6-port into a 4-port and just leave the aux ports disconnected with the 4-port intake.
That is the only difference, right?

 

Everyone,

Great ideas being discussed. The "Insurance Pool" or "Bank Engines" concept is one that we played with a couple of years ago in RCCAZ when quite a few of our Gen 3 guys were losing motors. Unfortunately it never got legs under it. Our plan was to have everyone contribute $100 annually towards "insurance" and when someone in the "bank" or "pool" needed a motor, they'd get what monies were in the pool and you'd start over. The program was to be strictly optional and open to anyone who wanted to participate. The hurdle that we never could get over was "how to ensure fairness with monies invested." For instance, say 10 "members" put $100 in annually, and each year the same member blows a motor due to whatever (harder driving than others, negligence with the install, etc. etc). Would that person pay MORE to be in the pool after their first incident? Whats to keep someone from dropping out of the pool as soon as they've collected the benefit? Details like that would need to be worked out so that everyone feels the program is "fair."

If you just held the money in a "pool" or account, then you could use the funds to purchase whatever motor was needed at the time of the incident. You may even get Gen 3 owners contributing to the fund. Buying motors in advance with the money paints you into a corner (IMO). Just some things to think about.

 

The premium would increase, I'd think, by 100% per claim.
However, the premium is relatively low to begin with because the person filing the "loss" is still going to pay for a "new" motor and installation. Its just at a highly "subsidized" cost because the labor is club-labor and the price of the motor is based on what they are valued at in the yards plus whatever is needed to bring it up to acceptable spec.
In the end, the premiums are culled to compensate the laborers more than paying for the motor itself.

Having a motor on hand means less down time and the chance to buy them when they are cheap. I think the price is going to spike when more cars are off warranty and the demand for motors is still high.

 

Great point Tim! What about something like one motor per year or 2 years and a $500 per motor charge? That would still be more then a deal to members and much much cheaper then going to the dealer. Sounds fair to me + the $500 per motor charge would hopefully help deture anyone from abusing the system set in place for all our benifit not just one member.

 

No, its going to be WAY more than $500.
It'll be something like a $100 buy-in and $3k - $4k if you actually need the motor.
The idea is to just make it more affordable than the $8k the dealer is going to charge you, not completely cover the cost of the motor.
We would need something like 60 or more subscribers to make it that cheap, Shaun!

 

In that case that is a huge deterrent! I thought it would be cheaper then that Still better then going to the dealer. What I would like to be able to do at some point is rebuild the motor myself so I wouldn't have to be so dependent on others for help. Before I ever considered attempting something like that I would need another DD.

Have you ever stripped down one of your blown motors Jeff? Is it just the side plate, seals and rotor that gets toasted, or is it the center too?

Edit: I know I could do it if tried the problem for me is remaining motivated for such a longterm project. I'm notorious for starting **** and not finishing it when it comes to my own stuff.

 

Rebuilding is easy, but expensive.
My motors both had trashed housings. They are $600 a piece.
A rebuild kit (seals and gaskets) is $1600.
So, totally rebuilding a blown motor is at least $2500.
I can get a working motor from a yard for about that. If its compression turns out a bit low, it is fairly cheap to "freshen it up".

Your alternative is - you blow a motor, get it towed to a dealer, wait two weeks with no rental reimbursement and then pay a bill for $7k to $9k.

With this idea, you chip in $100 a year and when you blow your motor, it goes to a member's house, the motor gets swapped out in a few days and the bill is only $2500 to $3k.