You may or may not know that somewhere on my list is an automatic rx8 project for my daughter. It has zippo compression so I'm trying to find an engine to rebuild before disassembling the car. I've found a Manual renesis cheap enough to bring it home and rebuild if possible. Word on the street is that the engines are not the same and can't be swapped one for the other.
TLDR:, can a manual renesis be installed in an auto car Without swapping everything else also?
Series 1 had fundamentally different engines auto vs. manual. Manual transmission engines had 6 ports like '84-92 nonturbo 13Bs (and some '81-end 12As in the home market). Auto engines had 4 ports, and were basically 6 port engines without the auxiliary ports machined out.
You PROBABLY could use a 6 port engine and blank off the aux ports with freeze plugs or something.
It's been a while since I last checked, but eBay absolutely swarms with 4 port Renesis engines for cheap because nobody wants them. Someone was telling me that they created a subclass for IT7 or Spec 7 or something that allows you replace the impossible-to-find 12As with 4 port Renesisuses, which ends up being roughly 180ish horsepower in the spec. (or, about 30 more than you can easily get from a stock 12A/carb/manifold setup)
Series 2 cars had the same engine auto vs. manual, to the best of my knowledge.
Cheapest auto engine I could find was $800, and it had low compression. I think of a core being significantly cheaper than that if I'm going to drop 1-1.3k in parts to completely rebuild it?
If it has low compression, it's probably going to be more than that to rebuild it. From what I have been told, the issues are twofold. The apex seals wear unevenly from a lack of lube, and the side housings warp when hot because they run the exhaust port through them, and the side seals don't like that very much, so they wear unevenly too. Plus the side seals also starve of lube because running the rotor side over the exhaust port burns away the oil that normally sneaks past the oil control rings.
You might be able to get away with new rotor seals and slap it together, but without having the side housings resurfaced, it'd be a crapshoot.
(Note: Failure modes are anecdotal from speaking with analytical people who have rebuilt them. I've never got my hands dirty in one, just got more life from a couple with new plugs/wires/coils and the updated starter)
ZERO compression usually means No User Servicable Parts Inside, or it might just be flooded...
It runs and drives, just doesn't want to pull itself.
In reply to chandler :
How old are the plugs and coils?
If the coils are of an indeterminate age, replace them and then go out and beat on the car like your name is Luigi or something before doing anything more drastic. Oh, and use some Idemitsu premix - the auto RX8s are a bit notorious for carboning up.
Ok, will do that. The car sat a long time before I got it.
In reply to chandler :
Oh, and you might want to check that the cat isn't clogged.
Tim - I appreciate your help, there were 3 trailing plugs in it and one plug wire that was junk. New coils, wires and plugs and it starts runs and drives "pretty well". It's been off the road for an indeterminate amount of time in the years range though and has 163k miles so it's on the far side of used. Still has a map code and a lean bank code so I will deal with those.
As an aside it doesn't much like reverse, bogs down - is that a known thing?
Good to hear that it's running better now.
I've not owned an automatic RX8 (all my RX7s & 8s were manuals) so I don't know if they don't like reverse much, sorry. Any chance that maybe the brakes are dragging a bit and making the car harder to move backwards than forward?
Preface: I learned more about auto RX8s just reading this brief thread than I knew coming in
But. Having been around an avid RX8 guy for a few years now, BoxheadTim has it right with the premix and the italian tune up. My understanding is that if you drive those engines like the theoretical 'granny', they will not thank you for it. If you've seen any of those german GTI commercials, that's the way you that you need to granny those things to keep them happy.
Lastly, take all of this with a huge block of salt. Best of luck!
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