Hi guys, great site. I am a newbie when it comes to rotary engines. I have read up on howstuffworks so I know the basics but was wondering if there is some sort of an FAQ regarding engine issues and why are rebuilds necessary or what causes them?
I really like the RX-8 and I'm thinking of picking one up soon.. Will the Renesis rotary be a lot better than the old ones? Any answers are appreciated. Thnx.

 

Rebuilds on a rotary are just like any other engine (almost). Sometimes the engine has so many miles on it that it is just plain worn out. Some turbo engines break seals from detonation but this is usually caused by poor tuning. The 3rd gen. RX-7s had water o-ring failures that caused them to need rebuilding. Maybe someone took their engine up to some crazy rpm and killed a bearing. There are other reasons but they generally apply to all engines not just rotaries. Yes the Renesis will be better than the 13B. If you look hard enough on this forum you will find people arguing about this very question. The fact is that many (not all) people arguing simply have no idea what they are talking about in regards to the Renesis since no one has even seen it yet. Using plain common sense it is easy to realize that the Renesis is better. Why would a company deliberately spend millions to release an inferior product. Then again it has been done before. The engine makes more power, has better gas mileage, and burns cleaner than the 13B. What could not be so good about that. There is someone here that keeps saying that peripheral ports=power and side ports=slow. Ignorance is bliss I guess. Check out some different sites on the rotary webring and come to your own conclusions. I think the new engine will perform wonderful and as long as Mazda has learned from their mistakes it should be reliable too.

 

Thank you. I also hope Mazda has learned from the past.. I really like the look and design of the RX-8. I won't be in the market for another year and a half but by then there should be enough user feedback so I can make up my mind.

 

Yeah, just do a search for "RENESIS" or "RX-8" and you should find some great info on the engine. It's supposed to be 33% better on fuel mileage, because it is made to run on a leaner mixture than previous rotaries. The rotors are lighter, and it doens't burn oil as much. Supposedly, it's going to have cured the problems with previous rotaries (oil burning, fuel consumption, etc).

 

we had a chance to talk to koby last year and making the renesis more reliable was a concious (sp?) effort on mazda's part. they also had to make the rotary more emissions friendly, and get better mileage. i hope it is a more reliable motor, i've seen tons of gsl-se's with 200k+ miles on them, the fd did a lot of damage to that reputation

mike