gibbym89

Hi everybody! I'm new here and looking for a way to find a salvage titled RX-8. I live in SE Pennsylvania. I own a 1982 RX-7 with 68k miles on the original engine. Have a great day!

LongDuck

Welcome aboard - sounds like a cool project, and you'll probably want to get to know the guys on the RX8club site, too. They'll have far more information about what it will take to swap over the ECU, harness, and everything you need to run a Renesis engine in your FB.

Can't wait to see the build thread on it, and tell us more about your car.

Sh00bs

iTrader: (8)

welcome,
what made you decide to do a renny engine over a TII or something more simple ?

you're about an hour or two away from me, best of luck to you.

is your 12a shot?

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

cool, i think the 13B-MSP into a 1st gen is a great idea.

diabolical1

iTrader: (3)

i love the thought of putting an MSP in an FB. it just seems like one of those things that should have occurred in nature.

good luck with it. there's a few scraps of information and photos all around the Internet, but last i checked (maybe 2 years ago), nothing very detailed.

erick31876

iTrader: (8)

Welcome to the forum, it's good to hear from more people from pa. Should be a great project

gibbym89

I'm a 25 year old aviation mechanic and automobile inspector. I'm currently in my senior year of college at Pennsylvania of Technology. I decided on the Renesis over a TII due to the reliability, factory NA power, the fuel usage of the Renny, and the ability to see what the sensors are saying with OBD2.
My 12A has 68k on it and runs great, I'll be preserving it when it is removed.

audiciter

How about Rhinehart Auto Parts? I believe they are based near you and specialize in RX7 and RX8 parts/vehicles

https://www.facebook.com/RhinehartsAutoParts

atheadwins

iTrader: (3)

Excited for this swap. Sounds like you have the experience to see it through to the end. Best of luck!

gibbym89

Thanks for the support! Rhinehart does have RX8 stuff but I'm looking for a whole car as a donor. I'll keep checking into Rhinehart though.

DreamInRotary

iTrader: (49)

It should be an interesting project for sure. It's been done on here before, I remember seeing the startup video. The digital dash in the FB was absolutely amazing!

The whole car to use in the swap is a great idea, that way you can have the harnesses you'll need as well as any peripherals that would come up. It's probably no more extensive than a TII swap except the wiring of the gauge cluster to work.

mhr650

There is an SCCA class now for cars using this exact swap IT7R. there are only a few cars running so far but one of them are friends and teammates on our ChumpCar team. It makes a really cool car and wicked fast. I don’t know all of the details about the swap but I know that they use a Megasquirt ECU, a conventional return style fuel system instead of ECU controlled fuel pressure, and a Mustang throttle body to replace the electronic throttle from the RX8.

wankel=awesome

Who are you working for as an aviation mech? We may have run into each other lol.

lastphaseofthis

iTrader: (8)

i want to put the rx8 front and rear suspention on the FB frame. then a EFR 7670 in front of the rx8 6 speed. i have the Fb looking for the donor rx8 at the moment as well.

gibbym89

That's awesome there is an SCCA class. I'll have to look into it for reference. I can't say who I work for as an aviation mechanic.

gibbym89

I'm eyeing up an rx8 currently for the donor. Idk about the engine but the rest of the car looks great.

wankel=awesome

Uhm. Okay... Even when I was in the air force working on some of their (stuff we dont talk about) I could tell people who I worked for lol.

But, whatever.

Lupinum

As a pilot who flies air force stuff we can't talk about, I also can't say who I work for.

Good luck with this swap! I've also liked into this, best advice I could find was to use an aftermarket ecu. Megasquirt han rx8 setup now.

Give us all a detailed writeup when you are done!

lastphaseofthis

iTrader: (8)

when it comes to the rx8, most engines are going to be blown, your best bet it to find one with that has an engine replaced already that has blown again. you're likely to wind up with lower milage rotor housings, and the rebuilt will be cheaper.

andernamen

iTrader: (2)

Why replace a good running motor in a nice low miles car? Just a thought, but why not preserve your FB with those low miles and pick up another FB with a shot motor? You'd be saving another FB in the process and keeping yours original.

gibbym89

Is the factory ecu not a good idea to use? I know it needs wheel speed sensors but that can be worked with. Aside from that WSS do you guys know of any other barriers? I want to preserve it. It is lookin like the rx8s I'm finding are either blown, our about to blow and rebuilds are out of my range.

lastphaseofthis

iTrader: (8)

to run the rx8 ecu, u will need immobilizer, key and key reader "ring" and then the cluster is a good idea( might as well). also make sure the car u get for your engine is a 6MT, the auto trans cars are mostly lower power, and u'll have the auto ecu in the way on top of things.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

there is a long list of stuff that needs to be there to make the ECU happy. a lot of it is on the engine harness which is nice, but you still need all the evaporative emissions, the immobilizer, among others. the gauges, heater controls, stereo, and some other things are on a canbus form the ecu, but they can be unplugged without a check engine light (it does set a body code though).

there isn't anything really complex, its just rather a lot of stuff, and there isn't a list anywhere, even the list of ecu codes isn't complete

gibbym89

Thanks everyone. I plan on not caring about the body codes as long as they don't limp mode the engine. I plan on getting an entire manual trans car since everything is there.
I looked into the IT7R discussions but they go straight aftermarket so that's not the route I want to take. Ill keep everyone updated.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

i had my Rx8 apart to add the auto climate control system, and out of curiosity i drove it around the block with no radio/nav/climate control units, and it was fine, no warning lights or anything

the Rx8 has a lot of warning lights, and its nice because the car tells you whats wrong with it, but there is a LOT of stuff with a light, so getting all the lights out can be kind of involved. some of the other markets the Rx8 was sold in don't have things like the tire pressure monitoring, or cruise, so getting rid of some of the warning lights isn't too bad.

i'm finding used Rx8 stuff is almost free its so cheap, unless its something like an engine, in which case its bad.