Broken RX8: I attempt to build an autocross car?

[zieg]

Well after passing up on one of these a couple times over the years, never having time for a project car, and never wanting to race my daily driver, I finally pulled the trigger. This first post doesn't actually contain anything interesting so it's safe to stop reading now and wait til I post again.

The goal: Find a cheap ass RX8 with a blown engine, spend the winter fixing it up and go racing in 2016. Rotaries are easy, what's the worst that could happen?

The car: It's a 2005 GT with 89K on the clock and the engine is so blown it won't even run. Check.



First steps.. Well, get it home. Check. And, LOOK HOW HAPPY IT IS!



Now let's tear into it.. The battery is toast, that's easy.. Now it at least cranks. Looks like the thing's been sitting a while.. Bet the fuel has gone bad. Better change it out.

Step one: no drain plug, locate fuel pump. Oh there it is, under the back seat. That's a heck of a lot easier to get to than on my last car where you had to dive in through the trunk. Thanks Mazda!



...Oh. You need a special tool to get the thing out. Thanks Mazda. ಠ_ಠ
The tool costs $25 online? And I have to wait? I don't have time for that! I'm gonna make my own. Now I've been called a lot of things in my years, but 'competent welder' isn't one of them. Oh well. Long as it passes the drop test, I only need it for a day. Stupid welder, setting one isn't hot enough for good penetration, setting 2 blows holes in the surprisingly thin walled tube.

Whatever, here it is. I held my breath while welding the nut.



So it turns out the fuel pump access is actually not at the highest point of the tank. What the fuck? Can't take this off unless you're under 1/2 tank, 1/4 to be safe. Great. Gotta actually use the pump to get a bunch of gas out. Connect hose to outlet, jumper some pins in the fuse box for this exact purpose, let it run. If you're wondering what the hell I jumpered it with, it's copper shavings from my lathe. Don't ask.




Okay, time to use my tool. If you noticed there's more weld on it than the last pic, fuck you I don't want to talk about it.



And there we go! I had to take the pump out on the driver side and some kind of secondary pickup out on the passenger side, then slid a hose in there and sucked it all out.

The one bit of good news is the assembly comes out much easier than other cars I've worked on. You don't have to twist and swear and force the assembly up through the hole.



It's just too bad they used that dumbass ring instead of a few bolts like the rest of the world.





Oh well. That's all for now.. Tank is now bone dry. Next step, yank the engine. I just wanted to start this thread early because I've never actually bothered to log my work before. Within the next couple weeks the engine comes out and the real fun begins.

[AutodreamMarvin]

V8??

[zieg]

Heeelllll no. Gotta start in the street class man! Plus I already have a torque monster, I want this one to be slow as balls but turn like a... rx8.

I'd really like to do at least a street port on it while it's apart, but I can't tell for sure if that knocks me into a different class? Gut is saying yes.. Sad face.

[Twin_Cam_Turbo]

Nice looking forward to seeing you next year. My codriver and I were out fine tuning our B Street S2000 today at the test and tune.

[Maxx Mazda]

Awesome! I have he a real hard-on for rebuilding a rotary as of late. This thread should be enjoyable!

[FunWheelDrive]

I have an RX8 LS1 Swap Kit, for sale, in Calgary. Let me know.

[ekguy]

I love the newfound popularity of rotaries. Doesn't make me feel bad that I've been looking for another one for a couple years now....

Miss my 7 so much.

Can't wait to see the direction of this project.

[sr20s14zenki]

If you wanna ditch the crappy renesis (dunno if its blown? ) there are mounts for putting an REW in there.

[zieg]

Originally posted by sr20s14zenki
If you wanna ditch the crappy renesis (dunno if its blown? ) there are mounts for putting an REW in there.

REW swap hnnnnng

...


...


...


Okay, anyway, I'm going for the STS class so all that stuff is unfortunately a no go. Plus I promised my wife this build would be cheap, so I'll be keeping it as stock as I can until I accidentally bump myself into STX or something.

Fixed the highbeams today, stupid DRL controller needed new relays (a thankfully easy fix).

Solder removed from all the pins..


And boom (blurry, sorry).


This is why I like having a project car again. Feeling restless? Go tear something apart. Something useful like working towards yanking the engine? Nah, I'll clean the interior at least to the point where I don't feel like changing clothes every time I sit in there. First victim is the center console, which run ALL THE WAY through the passenger compartment. Thankfully it breaks down into pieces that all fit in my wash tub. Better grab the glove box, steering column cover and anything else easily removed.

I didn't take pics during the cleaning because my hands were dirty. The car has an interesting setup where the cupholders are actually recessed into the transmission tunnel. There's a little pan that they sit in, along with some insulation. Well the insulation was completely caked in dried up soda. While I was watching all the colors go down the drain I couldn't help but think of this:
https://youtu.be/EQsk9dSuu9g?t=23s

Ahh, much better.


..Except the shift knob, fair bit of wear on there. Decided to have a little fun and machine a new one. Not done yet though, need some tooling I don't have at home and, amazingly, an M10x1.25 tap.


I'll shut up now, until I do something actually interesting.

[sr20s14zenki]

Yuck. Well hopefully some of it is cheaper than for the rew. Sounds like unless you are extremely lucky you'll need at least a rotor.. Rotor housing.. And maybe an iron. Unless you just get another engine. Wonder what Mazda charges for reman renesis engines.

[zieg]

Mazda charges $3K, I checked. It failed due to low compression, so hopefully the important bits are all still fine. Even with fresh gas (and nothing else done) it doesn't start, but it does crank super smooth.

I spoke with Adam at RX7 and decided on a stock rebuild plus upgraded seals. Not the ones that require premix though, because I fear that'd hurt resale value. I also ordered a Sohn OMP adapter the other day, so that ought to help the new engine a ton.


Tired of explaining how a rotary works to my coworkers, so I'm 3d printing one of these right now: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:184659

[sr20s14zenki]

Rotaries are fucking wicked. Ive always loved them, just never had the facilties or tooling to build one. Now i have a well equipped garage with micrometers, dial gauges, feelers of every thickness known to man, parts cleaner,compressor and multiple die grinders/tooling. etc.... So needless to say, im READY! lol

[Lex350]

Originally posted by AutodreamMarvin
V8??

v6 lighter

[toastgremlin]

$3K actually seems like a pretty alright deal, although then you can't spec something like a Goopy seal.

I think the last time I looked at it, it was something like $1600USD in parts to do the job semi-right. There are some temptingly cheap dead-engine RX8s on the local market but almost all of them are beat to shit to boot.

What are you doing for coils? There are a lot of Vortec Silverados in the Pick N Pull yard right now that can provide some very tasty LS2 coilpacks.

[zieg]

Ooooooohh! I had not thought of that. If that's a common mod I'm all over it! Thanks for the heads up, my plan was something like 'see if the current coils still fire and take it from there'...

[sr20s14zenki]

Stock coils suck.. A lot of guys use lq9 coils.

[toastgremlin]

Stock coils don't last very long and I wouldn't imagine they're doing your engine any favours while they're dying, either. Definitely worth doing an LS coil upgrade of some kind; you can make it happen on the cheap with junkyard parts.

http://www.normalexception.net/index...8-ls2-ignition

[zieg]

Holy shit. I somehow missed this in my research. Been reading about them since my last post, and I'm so doing this. Muchas gracias!

edit: Got em! Not bad for like $45, even grabbed the connectors to splice.



Was not planning to go today, but got back in town early so I decided to swing by. Was not fun to remove with nothing but a crescent wrench and a pocket knife.

[zieg]

Okay, engine is out. Went fairly smoothly. Only broke one bolt, and it wasn't even important! Bracket that braces the downpipe to the trans. Apologies in advance for the shitty pictures, I don't know what happened but after resetting my phone I can't take a good picture to save my life?

Pulling an engine in your backyard sucks though. I don't know why I decided to do it there instead of the garage. In order to move the car back and forth, I had to chain it to my other car, throw a rolled up camping mat between the bumpers and push/pull the thing as needed. That was interesting.

Got it out though. The tiedown strap was my improvised leveller because I stupidly decided I didn't need one when I picked up the hoist. Definitely getting one before the engine goes back. Also, I snagged the wire from the front O2 sensor on the way out. Not sure how much tension I put on it but.. is there any good way to check it? It's a 4-wire sensor. thinking just check resistance across heater wires and then figure out what reading I should be getting in open air?



Had to remove the upper intake manifold to snug it high enough to fit in the back, but it just barely squeezed in. Then I drove it around to the garage where I unloaded it and will be tearing it down there. "Look Ma, I've a rear engine just like a Porsche!"


Now, what does everyone suggest I do while the engine's out? So far I have:
-replace oil injector lines with teflon I got from Newline
-Clean SSV
-Send injectors for cleaning/flowtesting (Where? I know a good place in Vancouver, but is there anywhere local?)
-clutch
-throwout bearing
-pilot bearing?
-trans input shaft bearing/seal
-possibly the clutch slave cylinder? There's also a nice SS line available if it won't bump me out of the stock class..

I also have a Sohn OMP adapter to install (for the uninformed, that allows you to run an external tank of 2-stroke oil to be injected into the combustion chamber instead of using crankcase oil), need to find a place to mount the new tank. Don't want to remove windshield washer tank if possible.. Any other suggestions?

And of course the ignition coils. Found a seller on eBay that has the same type of plugs as the stock coils, so I can build a plug and play adapter. Got some plug wire, boots and a crimper to make my own wires. Looking forward to that, should be fun.

[EM2FTL]

Did you decide on what rebuild kit you're using? Or are you going mazda reman?

Not sure if anyone mentioned Atkins kits - they are very customizable depending on what you want to do/spend.

http://atkinsrotary.com/store/04-11-...68-Manual.html