What do you guys think? Will Mazda eventually sell us the Renesis as a crate engine so that we can drop it into our FD's?? What's the word??

 

Legally no we won't be allowed to. I have a few honda friends and i guess the law works something like this. If the car maker offers a motor in one of thier cars another car can use it if the car it is to be installed is of the same year or newer...something like that.

For example a 95 civic can use a B18 out of a 95 or newer integra or a B16 out of a Del Sol VTEC. But legally a 90 CRX cannot have a B16 or B18 in it since honda did not have that motor in the states during the production time of the CRX. The motor has to have been in the states even if in another car from that manufacturer.

Pretty sure that it will be the same for the Rx-7...sucks huh.

 

why should legality be considered?? you dont need to tell the government you swapped engines.

 

Smog Joe, smog. Some people who don't have the hool ups for smog will get stuck.

 

You guys ought to read the interview with the President of Mazda that's on rotarynews.com. The company has no plans to sell Renesis crate engines. A few of them may leak out through back channels, but don't count on them being cheap or widely available.

 

My smog check-guy doesnt speak great english, but from what I was able to gather. You can put an engine in the car as long as it's of the same or greater year. I dont know about jumping companies, but even that is probably legal. But u seem to be pretty sure, so I'm probably wrong.

 

The real question is will it bolt up to the trans?

 

In California the engine does not have to be an option for the car to be legal, it only has to be the same year or newer and have all the emissions components that would have come with the engine to be installed. That is why the V8 swaps are legal. They just do not want you to downgrade the emissions. The RX8 is going to be OBDII so I am sure they would love us all to do transplants.
Now if it will fit and all that other crap... I don't know.

 

What would be the advantage of putting the Renesis in, over a fresh 13B-rew?

 

It's N/A and reliable as hell. (well thats yet to be truely proven)

 

That's what I'm talkin about! All we need is to be able to purchase an engine from mazda...then it's just a matter of fitting that sucker in our FD. Wishful thinking.....for now at least.

 

If I wanted reliable, I wouldn't have bought my FD :p

I bought it because I wanted something that would scare the crap out of me, as well as something to tool around with on Saturdays.

 

As I've said before, the RENESIS is supposedly very similar to the REW. I bet it bolts up different for the sole reason that Mazda wants people to buy full Rx-8's. However, a little work on a CNC machine should fix all that.

Also as I've said, The RENESIS is a ULEV. So put in a downpipe and a high flow and pass smog better than you would in stock.

The other issue is the electronics, but for an electric engineer this part is the most fun.

If I can get my hands on one, I'll try to do so. If I do the ECU and wiring mods, I'll make sure the information is available.

{edit}
By the way, a madza guy told me that the RENESIS could be made to hook up to the turbos you know and love, and that engineers have already done so. The turbo RENESIS is what I'm interested in.

 

It would be perfectly legal to drop an RX8 motor into FD.

1.) The law states it has to be the same or newer than your car's year.
2.) It has to be from the same type of platform. meaning they don't want you to put a haybusa motor or something not meant to go in cars to go in there. Why else do you think honda guys can put prelude, crvs, integra motors into a civic?

 

....a turbo Renesis....now that would be "da ****". Probably hafta rename it RX7 GTO as it would be the epitome of "the best of everything".