Rotaty engines

[guntersmells]

Hey all

Once i'm off my p's I was thinking of getting myself an rx8. I test drove one the other week and fell in love, so beautiful. But now i've started hearing that they're really hard to maintain. One of my mate's reckon's that you need to know the engines really well and service very often. Another one reckons that i'll need complete engine rebuilds every few years with any rotary.

What are your opinions?

Cheers, Matt.

[marcs_sp20]

If you maintain them correctly, they'll last for years before they ever need a tear down, just like any piston powered car.. As long as the main seals are kept in good condition, they'll last ages, and the good thing i love about them, they make a heap of power on what feels like nothing!

[Frogman]

that would be correct, but don't get an rx8... get an FD RX7 mmmmm so very sexual :D

the rx8s have a silly ecu that stops them from going fast round corners and slows the car down... not fun

[guntersmells]

Really? I love the look of the rx8's though.

Oh well, a few hundred bucks will take care of the ecu :P

What sort of maintainance are you talking about?

[Smikey]

The RX's are great cars. My 'dream' car is a FD Spirit R! so nice... but I did a lot of research into them, and while i don't know everything, i worked out that there is a lot of money that can be put into these cars (like any car).

Considering that i just said that a fd spirit r is my dream car, i would still get an rx8 over it. The rx8 may be slower, but it can still be fun, has half a door more on either side and has a back seat which is roomier than the ones that a fd would have. The rx8 is also a normally aspirated engine, which means that it has less power, but also puts less strain on the tips or apex'es or the triangles of the rotors within the engine. When these fail or start to wear out, is when you will need to fork out the money to rebuild the engine which costs pretty big bucks (I heard claims that for a FD twin turbo 13B engine, you should be happy to get 80,000 k's out of a fresh rebuild - but not guaranteed of course, could be shorter, could be longer), not doing so will result in blowing the motor oil leakages etc.

Nowadays, i drive my ba around and enjoy decent fuel consumption of around 7 litres per hundred k's, how very responsible of me... but the point is that a rx8 with its freely revving engine averages 13 litres per 100 k's. Rotaries consume a lot of oil, and a lot of petrol. You'd want to keep it serviced often to make sure that it's taken care of. But rotary engines don't require things like timing belt changes and whatnot so while they save money on such things, they make up for it when they start to wear out.

Don't get me wrong! an rx8 is a beautiful and fun and fairly practical car, but it is a true sports car, and one that comes at a cost! enjoy it if you get one!

By the way, worked out that a FD would cost about 10,000 bucks a year in maintenance in a worst case scenario over 3-4 years ontop of the price of the car. Petrol, insurance, rebuilds, services and oil changes included in that!

[Mad Mat]

that would be correct, but don't get an rx8... get an FD RX7 mmmmm so very sexual :D

the rx8s have a silly ecu that stops them from going fast round corners and slows the car down... not fun

lol just get a new computer lol that fixes the problem right up

i'm currently working on a series 1 rx7 with a 13b engine and gob out of a series 5 rx7. but the engine as originally turboed. hmmmm didn't like that at all. so i've takin off the (****ed)turbos and put a nice big webber carby on her. she goes much better now hee hee

http://www.astinagt.com/forums/vbpicgallery.php?do=big&p=3127

[Smikey]

BRAAP BRAAAP BRAAAP!



i'm currently working on a series 1 rx7 with a 13b engine and gob out of a series 5 rx7. but the engine as originally turboed. hmmmm didn't like that at all. so i've takin off the (****ed)turbos and put a nice big webber carby on her. she goes much better now hee hee

http://www.astinagt.com/forums/vbpicgallery.php?do=big&p=3127

[zappy65]

Main things to worry about with RX8's...

Do you want pre or post FL?

1. DONT put full sin into the thing...ONLY MINERAL!!!
2. They dont like cold range spark plugs so dont put em in.
3. The radiators are prone to cracking
4. Dont continuously stop and start the engine while cold, they will flood!!!
5. You CAN make the RX8 go fast around corners (unless you like auto)...We have no problems with that at all.
6. Get a space saver instead of the can off tyre repair....

Thats about it really, they are good cars unless you dont service them...

I always hear people trying to tell me that Rotaries need to be rebuilt every 100K, this however is not the case. I still work on the pre face lift RX8's and some of them have over 150K with a good service history...

[bourbon]

3. The radiators are prone to cracking


and when it cracks the first time just replaceit with a full alloy rad...

[guntersmells]

When was the facelift? I was thinking of either going 04ish or depending on how big a loan I can get/salary sacrficing an 08/09 model.

It would be a project car that i'd be pouring a bit of money into. It's another 2 years or so away too btw. Gotta get out of wagga and oakey before I get it :P.

From what your saying zappy, it seems like it's pretty normal sort of maintanence that you have to do.

[Smikey]

This is the new
http://image.motortrend.com/f/9847577/112_0806_01z+2009_mazda_RX_8+front_three_quarter_v iew.jpg
This is the old
http://www.zeckhausen.com/images/Cars/Mazda/RX-8.JPG

The change happened this year i think? or late 08

[guntersmells]

yeah I love the look of the new one over the old one by far :D

[70NYD]

oh man those are much better photos.. 1st time i saw the new rx8 was half way thru last year on a billboard next to the airport. it looked like crap there. looks much better here :) so what did they change apart from bumper and front guards

[mussing]

I actually really prefer the old one, like, stacks. Is it just me?

[guntersmells]

Ummm I think that the side intake (if there's one?) just behind the front wheels is gone. and the indicators are moved behind to behind the wheel.
I don't think any significant engine change has taken place.

[hks_kansei]

from memory the newer model RX8 has slightly less power than the old one, however it has shorter gearing to compensate and is quicker to 100kph

not 100% on it, but I remember something along those lines being in Motor mag a few months back.

[Dogo]

I dont like the grill or the new or old. Its too "cutesy japanese"-style for me.

[Smikey]

Old mazda speed rx8
http://www.carview.co.jp/magazine/special/autosalon2003/vehicle/sub/img/rx8/1_l.jpg
New mazda speed rx8
http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/speedway/2300/mazdaspeedrx8.jpg

I like the old one better. I think maybe i chose a bad colour to show the old one in canary yellow, but i don't like the amount of black plastic on the new one.

[Cosmo Dude]

Once you've owned a rotary you'll compare every other car to it.
It sounds like your mates havn't seen a rotary since the Rx-5... A seris 1-2-3 should be good for 190,000km, series 4-5-6-7-8 should be good for 250,000km+ and they're turbos.
My problem with the FD and the Rx-8 is that my head hits the roof which takes the enjoyment out of driving them :(

[guntersmells]

bahahaha yeah my head wasn't far off it :P i'm 6 foot.

Well i'm still pretty hooked on getting an rx-8. The new models look amazing to me. But I could pretty easily just chuck an aftermarket turbo system on there without too much hassel yeah?

What sort of mods would be good on em?