Get some old 12A pans, they supposedly match the front cover bolt holes.

Even though you are going EFI, very interested in your progress. Keep posting up. What tranny will you use? Have you decided yet?

 

When the RX-8 came out and there was so much hope for the Renesis (power, non-turbo simplicity, reliability, fuel economy) that there was a lot of excitement about these kinds of swaps. They didn't come as soon as I'd hoped, but it seems like this combo is finally catching on.

As someone who had a modest ~170 hp street-ported S4 13B EFI in an '84 GSL, I can say that this car should be plenty of fun with a 4-port motor.

I'll be watching this swap with great interest!

 

Purchased a new oil pickup tube. The 12a/13b oil pickup tube is close to directly fitting. But the holes on the RX8 iron is spaced 3mm or so further apart. So I stepped the size up and it works correctly now.

I decided to Lapp the pickup tube for a better sealed surface.

Installed.

 

The GSL-SE oil pan bolts all line up with the exception of all the front cover bolts. This at first seemed really promising but the oil pressure spring retaining nut is in the way.



So much in my way. But I think I have a plan. Wish me luck

 

Im doing this swap so I can build the original S3 13b and have it ready if I ever sell the car. Car has original 67k on it. I think the original owner stopped driving it because it had bad water seals.

I’m using the original distributor because it’s functional and it gives an old school feel to the engine instead of something that looks more aftermarket or replaced. The gains from updating the ignition don’t speak to me at this time.

yes mustang 5.0 Valve Body is so I don’t have to deal with the drive by wire mess.

ecu is going to be stock. :-)

 

I remember reading about that somewhere. I think thats why the 12A pan works better but not sure. You could use a hammer on the pan at that point to get it to clear the bolt maybe.

 

I’m not sure how the 12a pan would work because I only have a old 13b pan from a rpu or something and the original GSL-se pan. I feel like the 12a pan would be worse because of the 12a being even shorter than the 13b.

 

So I picked me up a drain plug from the auto-parts store. I cut it to fit all my needs and drilled a hole to allow oil to drain. I did my math and my part should keep the original Rx8 oil pressure. I’ll let you know once I get it running how close it is. But it’s exciting for me at least because oil pan and pickup tube have been fun.

If you follow my example tread lightly at your own risk!

Must drain to prevent hydro lock.

Time just time

Man that was fun! Math was easy and set to factory psi!

Finished! Well after I wash bolts then clean the pan and then this keeps going on and on

 

Oil pan was full of gunk, it was amazing the engine ran that well. I’m concerned about all the bearings and etc in the s3. But I will stress about that later.


Thick metal sludge everywhere


Oil pan on and I’m waiting for a 1/4 rivet tool to arrive so I can plug the old holes with pop rivets. I recommend wet install with sealant. But this is for me to test the engine and get everything done. Once I have time I can make a better pan solution. But in the meantime rivets are easy and reversible.

 

Most of the bolt holes have enough room to fit a 1/4 aluminum rivet with the exception of the far end of the pan on both sides. This is something maybe a smaller rivet might be better. I just filled the hole with gasket silicone. I would say it’s about 1/8th size hole. I made sure to push a small amount inside the hole to mushroom out inside the pan to seal like a plug. Had my mom mail my big socket to remove the flywheel nut. Once I got all the flywheel bolts torqued I put the new Mazdatrix aluminum flywheel on. I think Mazdatrix did an ok job on the metal surface. But I always hit my flywheel with some lapping film to break up the high spots and save myself some clutch life and short break in times. I also did this on the pressure plate. Also for something that is not supposed to have oil it the clutch pressure plate had a thick sticky film all over it. After lapped the surface was wiped clean with low lent white rag until it came up clean. Oil pan flywheel and clutch all done I’m thinking tomorrow I can notch the cross member and put the engine in.

 

Ok so today I put the RX8 engine in the car. Had to drill and slot the engine mount cross member approx 12mm forward. Just finished putting the starter in and the oil line from the front cover to the oil filter. This is bypassing the oil cooler. I’m going to do a cold 🥶 compression test. This will allow oil to flow during the compression test and prime all the oil system. Once I get compression numbers I’ll consider moving forward.

Doing this stuff alone is extra interesting sometimes.

 

Ok so good news I’m getting good compression ratios on the JDM engine on cold 🥶 test.

JDM rx8 rear rotor

 

that's pretty amazing numbers for a Renesis .

 

Cool item.

 

Yea I think so as well. I don’t have the intake or exhaust manifolds on that might have helped. But maybe after the running compression will change? Idk why they require hot compression test but there probably is a good reason.

 

Rx8 manifold is too far to the passenger side an too high. Think this might actually be the hard part.

 

Very impressed with how much progress you've made!!

I ended up using an RX8 header on my 1980 SA Renesis swap.

 

Thank you for the header picture can I ask what brand that one is?

 

I want to get the engine running soon so until I pick a header I put the RX8 one in a 10 ton press and hit it under heat with a ball ping hammer to get it to bend the way I want it to.

 

Those are really good cold compression numbers. Expect them to drop a little once the engine is at normal operating temperature. I recently got burned on a Renesis engine i put in my 04 Nordic Green 6spd RX-8. The compression numbers were acceptable when cold. The engine was a Mazda reman with 32k miles. I took a chance at it had the 6 pops when cranking it by hand and compression did feel strong. I ran a compression test on it at home before I resealed the engine with new gaskets and such and I wasn't terribly worried about the numbers. Low and behold, they plummeted when the engine was at normal operating temperature. Not saying that will happen in your case as your numbers are very even but just sharing what I went through.

Cold numbers:





Normal operating numbers:





I was bummed because I spend so much time making everything on the engine new. I even painted in the engine bay. I wanted it perfect and I was let down. Again, you're probably good to go, just sharing my horrible experience.

 

Yea this is what I was thinking of. I’m even more confident it was the right thing to bend the stock rx8 header. Now I want hot compression numbers.

 

I hope you plan on fitting some kind of heat shield above the header . The stock heat shielding is quite effective and it does make a difference . Particularly when engine is heat soaked.

 

Heat shielding should still work well.

Started making the injection adapter.





Just still mocking everything up. I know everything is not perfect lol 😆

 

not perfect??? you're great!

maybe i don't have a good concept of how long these things take, but to me, it seems you're moving at a fairly quick pace. you're solving problems in impressive (to me) ways. i dig it.

i'm sure i will have questions, but for now, i'm just enjoying the show.

 

Thanks for the kind words. I’m glad someone else is enjoying this and not just myself.