I have been thinking about this for a year or so, and maybe this has been discussed before. I was thinking it would be great to transplant the engine, transmission, driveshaft, and rear axle out of a RX-8 in to a first gen RX-7. Think about it you would have 235 hp normally aspirated, 6-speed manuel transmission inside a 2000-2300 pound vechicle. Plus have the RX-7 be non-power rack and pion wich would increase HP a little. Also I think the first gen might be more aeordynamic. So with less weight and better aeordynamics your fuel milage would be better than the RX-8 (I think it gets something like 17/25 mpg) or any RX-7 plus better acceleration than the stock RX-8 or the stock RX-7. And if you want to you can add additional mods to the Renesis engne on top of the original 235 HP.

I think some of the hardest things to be able to accomplish this would be finding a RX-8 cheap enough to pull the powertrain (I think a rolled RX-8 would be the best), Redoing the rearsuspension to accomidate the RX-8 rear axle, and the hardest would be doing all of the electriacal and computer stuff to make it work. The Renesis engine is just a very efficently desinged 13b, it's size is 80 cui ( I think), and any engine bigger than the 13b would through the weight distrubution and handleing out of wack.

Though if you were able to do this correctly you would have a vehicle that looks and almost sounds like a stock RX-7, but it would be able to haul *** with the best of them.

What I'm asking is has anyone attempted this yet, and/or why not have this not been done before?

Thanks for your input Rotor Nut

(P.S.- I plan on doing this later in life to my '4, but right now I'm just 19 trying to make it through school. Besdes I already have two RX-7's to take the little free time I have now any way.)

 

ahhhhh the dream of just scoring those kind of parts REALLY cheap ...

 

It sounds do-able I just surprised no on else has tried or mentioned it yet.

 

It's been done by MAKERS RACING in Japan.

 

Someone has done it. I don't remember who. It was someone in Japan I think. There are pics somewhere if you search the site. It was a VERY nice car. Soneone else here I believe started one, but due to a health problem and many complications quit the project and I think he may have tried to sell or part it out.

 

You figured it would be done more often since there is potential to get a lot more HP than a 12a can achieve

 

this has been talked about plenty.. the problems being cost and the electronics, as you already know. going turbo is a much more reasonable option, at least until more rx-8's crash and find their way to being parted or junk yards, hehe

 

The parts manager at my the dealership I work at is good friends with the parts manager at the local Mazda dealership.

I was thinking about asking him to get me a blown core and play around with it.

If i can get my hands on one is anyone interested in helping out?

Jay
1984 FB

 

Aren't all the cores still going back to Mazda for research?

 

Are people alredy blowing their engines? I haven't heard of any of that. Hopefully its just dumb *** owners and not some design flaw. I really doubt the rotary could handle the bad publicity. Everyone already says they're unreliable. If its a big problem, I could see it leading to the complete demise of the rotary engine as we know it.

 

Well they have been around for 30 + years so I doubt if it will kill them... Mazda holds all the cards here.. I bet if the RX8 does well in sales around the world we will still see them for a while.... I think emmisions regulations would kill the rotary before a bad rep does.. my 2cents

 

I talked to a mazda mechanic once and he said that the automatic transmission engines tend to blow an oil or Apex. He said that it was due to the fact that they don't rev as high as the manuels the seals are not uder enough pressure to seat well enough or something like that. Besides you would want the manuel transmission version since it has three injection ports while the auto has two so less HP.

 

cores are alwars "supposed" to go back to the factory but they do get lost

Core charges are 500-1000 so one could get bought as well

I will ask on monday

jay
1984 fb

 

6 have already blown here. 4 went back for testing and the other two were sold. Look up Abbots wrecker Service They have a rear end jit RX-8 for sale for pretty cheap and It would have the coloumn, cluster, ecu, harness, motor, and everything you would need. If they dont have it anymore look up Pull-a-part in virginia I think they have 4 cars down there(2 of which I deivered and I know were running) they would go for kinda cheap. Or check a local acution. A damn fine RX-8 went for $5000 last week.


Hope this helps.

 

why wouldn't mazda sell the engines to buyers if they want them? obviously there is a market for them they could rake in some serious money from them,

 

There is a guy in Aust. who has had a Renesis in his FB for a while now, soon it will be a common conversion.

 

They have been saleing parts and you can get enought to build an engine, but they have not been saleing engine. They keep them to meet demand for the cars and for replacements.

Getting a full drive train is not a problem. Mazdarecyclers in Atl will sale you one. In a couple of months I hope to be able to offer them for sale.

 

What about the three rotor you can supposedly buy through Mazda, or is that just rumor? I thought I read somewhere that you can buy a three rotor through Mazda to go into the Rx-8, would you be able to just buy it without it going into the Rx-8, or is it for race Rx-8's only?

I've seen somewhere someone put a Renesis into an FB. Definitely looks good. Well worth investigating if money is deep enough.