jts749

Figured I would start this thread as I am going to need a lot of advice, this is my first time dealing with a rotary engine.
Also there is fire damage to the wiring harness and parts on the upper intake manifold.
The car itself is in decent shape, heres a few pictures of it.




Obviously the engine needs rebuilt, that is if it's able to be rebuilt.

mazdaverx713b

iTrader: (91)

Very glad to see a build thread on this car!! This is a very restorable example and I look forward to seeing your progress on the car!! Not sure if I had asked already, but do you know any of the car's history and what caused the fire? Was it a bad pulsation dampner?

jts749

The fire was right under the upper intake manifold so could have been fuel leak or oil injection leak.
Thankfully the previous owner kept a fire extinguisher in the car so the damage was not extensive.

jts749

I will have to go over the fuel system components that I have and check for leaks, I'm totally missing one injector though. The oil injection tubes and most of the vacuum hoses in that area were a total loss

Molotovman

iTrader: (49)

At a minimum you'll need to:

• restore or replace the fuel tank and fuel sending unit
• replace injectors or have all of them cleaned and flow tested
• replace the fuel filter
• flush the fuel hardlines under the car
• inspect the fuel rails/soft fuel injection lines and replace if they are blocked up or bad inside
• replace the fuel pulsation dampener
• thoroughly inspect wiring

Leaving fuel in a fuel system and letting it sit is a terrible thing for it. You're probably better off getting all good used parts to replace what you have before even attempting to clean anything in regards to time. If you don't buy new injectors definitely get any used ones you decide to use cleaned and flow tested.

If you think replacing your setup with a JDM engine is an option it isn't a drop in solution, you should buy one for use as a rebuildable core only.

Good luck!

jts749

How different are the jdm motors from the usdm?
Are they something that can be made to work or is it not worth dealing with?

Molotovman

iTrader: (49)

They are the same besides wiring harness routing differences and some differences with emissions controls.

jts749

Rotor number one has been sitting in evaporust for almost a day now. Looking a bit better.

jts749

This is the most moss I've ever seen on a car that wasn't severly rusted.

JLS 89 T2

Ok, I will point out the elephant in the room... Its like they knew it was going to fade to pink when they got their personilized(sp?) plate!

Its actually more more uniform than mine was. Mine was about five shades of pink, luckily my daughter backed into it and as long as I was replacing a door and a mirror, I did the paint. Really scrambled my build list too!

I’m excited to see you bring this back from the dead!

Joel Tveters

Nice job! Going to be a lil testy at times but the car will be a lot of fun when finished!! Mine sat for 7 years and the connection on the positive terminal going to the harnesses it's the 8 gauge wire will need to be cleaned or replaced or the car won't receive power. It had a connection from the factory that I had to cut out..

jts749

Mine seems to be missing the positive cable all together.

Alot of the car was disassembled when I got it.

jts749

Question, if these rotors aren't usable can I use rx8 rotors?
I can get a pair for free basically.

So far rotor #1 has some significant pitting.

jts749

Oh and I'm no stranger to standalone ecu's or tuning...
This is a stock engine 93 Saturn.

jts749

So after some research it looks like rx8 rotors would be more trouble than it's worth. Cross my fingers all this motor needs is new rotors.
Still going ahead with cleaning up the old ones. Just because I already bought 8 gallons of evaporust.

jts749

So after cleaning up the center iron it has a probably fatal rust spot at the bottom.

So I'm going to be either looking out for an eBay motor or have an engine built.

If I were to source a newly built motor who should I buy from? Keep in mind I will not have a core aside from a good e-shaft and a few other parts. Probably not worth shipping the stuff.

jts749

Here's the damage on the center iron.

jts749

This black junk comes off pretty easy.

jts749

I think I got really lucky with the fuel tank, I pulled the drain plug (it looked like new) and drained 6-8 gallons of CLEAN gas out of the tank. This gas was smelly and obviously bad but looked clean as new gas.

Should I refill the tank with new gas? Diesel fuel?
Something else?

jts749

Got a used engine last weekend, 990 mile drive. Seems to be in great shape so far.

I'm assuming this broken area isn't a big deal because the engine I took out of the car was broken almost the same.

Molotovman

iTrader: (49)

Have Banzai racing rebuild it and replace that broken rear iron. There it normally a threaded hole for the transmission bolt to go into where that broken part is; I have never seen an engine broken there.

jts749

New set of wheels, need spacers for the front.

mazdaverx713b

iTrader: (91)

Not a huge fan of the RX-8 wheels personally, but its what you like, so go with it. The original wheels just look right on the car to me.

As far as the engine is concerned, I would certainly have it rebuilt before installing it in the car. Its a big risk, especially with a broken trans mounting ear. I've worked on a lot of these cars since the late 90's and have never broken that ear or never saw an ear broken off of a rotary engine. With that said, you can understand my concern and push for a rebuild.

Looking forward to more updates!!

jts749

I got a killer deal on the rx8 wheels, they will be on until I can get the OEM ones re-finished. The chrome is peeling off of them. Best part of it is the tires hold air and I can move it by hand now.

The broken mounting point on the engine looks like it was done by hitting it while being removed or installed in a car, the engine looks to be in pristine condition inside and very good compression when turned by hand.

Going to get a boroscope and check it out thoroughly as well as check the compression with a bell housing and starter. If it passes those checks I will pressure test the cooling system then fire it up.

I will be satisfied if this engine lasts one summer, and I probably won't have this thing running this year.
Sorry about the paragraphs.

Kind of an odd question, can I run an s5 turbo and manifold on my s4 ecu?

GA_Boy_Drew

iTrader: (7)

You sure can - that's what I'm running on mine. You will need to transfer some of - if not all the lines on the rotating assembly to fit the S4 engine. Here's the link I used when doing mine: https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generati...engine-891947/